The 250-miler is the first second-tier race on a track which has hosted NASCAR-sanctioned events since 1974.
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“It’s not that I don’t like Jeff Gordon in the booth”, Keselowski said. One a middling driver for two other teams, Truex has watched his career blossom at single-car operation Furniture Row.I feel like Im a better driver than Ive ever been, he said. “My mistake was that @keselowski didn’t get a penalty for the “body modifications” during @LVMotorSpeedway race”.
Engineer Johnny Klausmeier filled in for Gibson, delivered a solid setup throughout the day and informed Busch he was two laps short to make it to the finish at Pocono when he restarted 10th with 38 laps remaining on the 2.5-mile triangular track.
“I kept finding ways to think I was saving fuel”, he said. Busch might have even channeled Alexander Rossi, last week’s victor of the Indy 500, who went four laps farther than his nearest competitor to triumph on fuel mileage. That, coupled with the weather radar showing rain approaching the track, caused teams to try different pit sequences. There was no pain at the pump: Busch not only had enough fuel left to win but enough for victory burnouts and a celebratory lap around the track. “We just get used to it”. “These are really long straightaways at Pocono and you have to manage saving fuel as well as maintaining lap time”.
Busch will get his crew chief back next week.
They sure did – a victory that Busch was building toward all season. In seven of the last nine times he has won the pole, he finished fourth or better, including two wins.
Most importantly, the win secures a berth for Busch in the Chase for the Sprint Cup over the season’s final 10 races.
He restarted with the lead with less than 40 laps to go, but Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott immediately challenged him, and eventual victor Kurt Busch overtook both of them. I look at their side and they’ve done a tremendous side the last few years of winning races.
Kyle Busch and Kurt Busch posted the fastest lap times in the one complete practice session, held Saturday.
“We just kept him informed on everything that was going on, and he took it and ran with it”, Klausmeier said.
“Everybody pulls harder. Everybody digs in a little bit deeper, and not having Tony Gibson here today, I know everybody gave that much more”. The race was shortened due to weather reasons, and Larson was followed by Erik Jones and Ty Dillon for the second and third place, respectively.
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“You’d probably be surprised at how involved the crew chief is in the race weekend even though he’s suspended”, runner-up Dale Earnhardt Jr. said. That’s the mind-set we have coming into each race weekend, regardless of where it is.
