While racing at Pocono isn’t always exciting, it sure did produce a couple of unexpected winners this weekend.
In the race called Pocono 1, Kyle Larson looked to have his 4th race in a row well in hand when his right front tire blew in Turn 4 sending him into the wall and Alex Bowman to Victory Lane. That gives Bowman three wins tying him with Martin Truex, Jr. and one behind teammate Kyle Larson.
The second race, eerily called Pocono 2, was a little longer race and saw fuel mileage determine the race winner. I know, I know, a lot of you out there hate fuel mileage races but it has always been a part of the sport. At the end of the race, Brad Keselowski was leading but wasn’t able to save enough fuel and had to pit. Then William Byron and Denny Hamlin, both in save mode, ran out of gas. That put Kyle Busch, also in save mode, in the lead and eventually in Victory Lane. Busch was an unlikely winner after suffering a transmission issue that had him stuck in 4th gear. But in servicing that issue, he pitted later and had just enough fuel to make it to the checkers. Had there been a couple of restarts, Busch would most likely never have made it to the front and the win might have gone to second place Kyle Larson.
Kyle Busch Watch
As noted, he won Pocono 2 and ran 2nd in Pocono 1. I mean, he actually had a teammate crawl into the car on Sunday to bang away at the shifter knob to get the car out of 4th gear. It didn’t work and the team was darn lucky there were no cautions on the closing laps. That late pit stop gave them the edge they needed to win. With two wins now, no one is talking about when will Kyle Busch get the monkey off his back. Plus, he broke the string of wins by Team Hendrick. Toyota loved that.
Good on ya mate
William Byron (P3 and P12) led 35 laps and had a Stage win in the double header. Not a bad weekend for Hendrick overall this weekend.
Denny Hamlin (P6 and P14) had a decent weekend but just not lucky enough to pull out the win on Sunday. And he still leads the series points over Kyle Larson by 2.
Ryan Blaney (P5 and P5) showed speed but led no laps, but good points days for the team. They needed that.
Bubba Wallace (P14 and P5) led three laps in Pocono 2 and nailed their first Top 5 finish.
Tyler Reddick (P11 and P9) keeps improving.
Daniel Suarez (P15 and P13) showed consistency and that is awesome for this young team.
Kevin Harvick (P8 and P4) keeps plugging away while looking for his first win of the year. But he is two full races behind in points and ranked 13th. A win by Kurt Busch, Tyler Reddick, Austin Dillon or anyone else lower in points right now doesn’t help him.
So you had a bad day
Michael McDowell (P19 and P17) has kind of disappeared. We’ll see if Road America is more to his liking.
Martin Truex, Jr. (P18 and P11) didn’t quite have the races they wanted. He will be looking to improve his lot at Road America as well.
Matt DiBenedetto (P32 and P18) has also lost some of the shine on his star. He needs to step it up here in the closing races.
Christopher Bell (P17 and P32) didn’t have a great race either day.
Road America
I’ll say it first before all the talking heads do – will Chase Elliott return to his winning ways on road courses?
Well, he might and certainly has to be considered a favorite. Not since Tim Flock won the 1956 race has the Cup series run at this course.
You also have to consider Martin Truex, Jr., Michael McDowell, Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano, Kyle and Kurt Busch, or Kyle Larson as well as just about any of the younger drivers like Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell, Chris Buescher, Ross Chastain – need I go on? Many of these younger drivers have a lot of time on road courses.
There will be practice once again so we should have an idea of just who has what it takes in the return to this historic track.
Drive fact, turn left (and right) and keep the shiny side up.