Truex said his No. 78 Toyota was strong enough to contend for a victory.
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On Lap 126, Larson headed into the pits from the lead.
“A lug nut spun off, hit the ground, bounced behind the wheel somehow and knocked the inner valve stem off”, he said. Each time he has finished outside the top 20, he has bounced back the following week with at least a top-15 showing.
That was evident in June at Pocono.
The race never ran more than eight laps without a caution. With ostensibly greater resources, Trevor Bayne, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., and Greg Biffle now are winless and outside the top 16 in points. Of those, Joe Gibbs Racing won nine – four for Busch, two apiece for Carl Edwards and Matt Kenseth and a Daytona 500 win by Denny Hamlin. Logano led until Lap 50 when he was passed by Harvick.
Austin Dillon was 12th. Larson finished sixth and Dillon 13th. “I was pretty shocked how everything worked out”, Buescher said. “We battled hard down the front stretch one time and then he got back to my inside into Turn 3”. I would have been able to get around him straight up.
“I don’t know if…”
When Elliott and Joey Logano were involved in an accident in Turn 2 on lap 106, Buescher was the “lucky dog” and got his lap back. “Unfortunately we had a lightning warning come in, and once the track had to evacuate the grandstands and we could get all the cars confiscated, we made the decision then to unplug it and announce that Chris had been declared the victor of the race”. “That’s just part of it and either way I’m really kind of pumped up for Chris”. The same is true for rookie Chase Elliott, who has had the best points season of any rookie. It was completely my fault. “I thought we headed in the wrong direction when I cut a rear tire down trying to avoid a wreck and we ended up in a good spot at the end”.
The limited resource Front Row Motorsports organization, which enjoyed victory once before when David Ragan won at Talladega, now finds itself in position to have their driver in the Chase.
And for Brad Keselowski, a reminder of how he transitioned from Xfinity champion to reliable Cup performer and a titlist in 2012.
Jeff Gordon’s track record for wins remains at six. The race was called official by NASCAR officials because of fog, rain and severe weather with 22 laps remaining of the 160-lap scheduled distance.
“So many weird things have happened to us this year – it’s unbelievable and ridiculous”, Truex said. It was something we took the initiative to do…
Weather conditions, specifically rain, began playing into pit strategy just before the halfway point of the race. Martin Truex Jr.is on the pole and Kurt Busch tries to sweep Pocono in the track’s second Monday race of the season. He had multiple issues once he returned to the track and finished 38th.
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“It’s nice to be in position to have completed all the laps”, Busch said. It’s not just one person. A GoFundMe account has been set up to help defray medical expenses for Jon House. Taking over after pit stops was Larson. His wife Caroline shared on social media Monday that House was being discharged from the hospital.
