Drivers went to the front and then disappeared amid garbled communication. But just as he took the white flag he ran out of gas himself to be passed by Kenseth down the stretch.
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Busch, who had the other victories, failed in his bid to become the ninth driver since 1972 and the first since Jimmie Johnson in 2007 to win four straight Cup races. Logano and Busch each claimed radio communication with their pits led them astray.
Touring the 2.5-mile triangular track in 50.444 seconds (178.416 mph), Busch won his first Coors Light Pole Award of the season, his second at Pocono (the first coming in 2010) and the 17th of his career. I try and look at things with an open mind, and a professional sense too. “I have been through some down times, that’s for sure”.
Brad Keselowski, who accidentally rammed two of his pit crew members plus a tire and suffered a penalty that put him a lap down at the halfway mark, miraculously finished second behind Kenseth.
Pocono Raceway CEO Brandon Igdalsky presented Gordon with a $24,000 check, to match his auto number, for the Jeff Gordon Children’s Foundation.
Fuel mileage gambits may be ordinary for Pocono, but this one was, well, different.
Busch was in place to win what would have been a fourth consecutive race. Heck, even Tony Stewart, not known for being easy on the throttle, finished in the Top 10 as a result of following a fundamental fuel rule.
It was an incident that caused one of the eight cautions that produced 32 slowdown laps.
With two laps to go, Joey Logano had a slim lead over Ky.
Busch has never won at Pocono, but he’s on one incredible roll. “Then I saw the people and was like ‘Man, you guys better take off running.’ I’ve never been in anything like that before”.
The weirdness began early. Meaning, that they aren’t putting everything into these pre-Chase races, hoping that they leave a lot left, and don’t show all their cards. NASCAR called for a red flag, stopping the race for almost 15 minutes so repairs could be made to reinforce that damaged area of wall.
Trevor Bayne demonstrated the flip side of Roush Fenway’s lost season when his engine was ruined after an errant tail pipe went through the radiator.
Logano gave up the lead to pit for what his team expected to be the last time on lap 123. He celebrated with a burnout, indicating plenty of fuel was still on board.
With two favorites eliminated, that opened the way for Busch and Harvick to race for the win. “We went for broke today and came up a little short, but I can’t fault the team”. He had his driver saving fuel from the beginning of the final stint.
Keselowski barely had enough fuel, running out just as he approached the start/finish line for the last time. But, as somebody who is an equity owner in the organization, I recognize the challenges that would come along with that and what it would do to our four teams competing for the wins and championships.
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Nobody was more surprised at the finish than Kenseth. It’s not the way you want to race. “But when he’s the only one in front of you and they said Kyle was out of gas off of Turn 2, it was so hard just not to floor it. Because I just wanted to stand on the gas and get as much speed as I could so if I ran out I could coast back. I don’t have anything else in life that interests me as much as driving a race auto”. We restarted wealth and we were able it to drive up to six to look like we’re going to be able it to get to fifth and then the fuel light came there at the end and down.
