Kyle Busch Battles Transmission Issues for Pocono Victory

The Explore the Pocono Mountains 350 at Pocono Raceway was the second race of the weekend for the NASCAR Cup Series. After an unexpected and dramtic end to Saturday’s event, the same type of excitement was anticipated for Sunday as well, and the race certainly did not dissapoint. With 3 lead changes in the final 3 laps and an intense fuel-milage battle, fans were kept on the edge of their seat from the green to the checkered. 

LAP 1: The starting lineup for Sunday’s race was determined by inverting the Top 20 cars from Saturday’s finishing results. This put the #17 of Chris Buescher in pole position, and Saturday’s winner – Alex Bowman – in P20 to start the race.  Once the green flag flew, Buescher pulled ahead of 2nd-place starter, Michael McDowell, to secure the top spot. 

CAUTION – LAP 3: The yellow flag came out early for the #38 of Anthony Alfredo, who blew the right-front tire and hit the wall in Turn 2. When the race restarted, Buscher overshot Turn 1 and slid up the track which caused him to fall out of the Top 10 while McDowell inherited the lead.

LAP 16: After several laps and many attempts, the #19 of Marin Truex Jr got past McDowell to take the lead. Christopher Bell, Aric Almirola, and Brad Keselowski also passed McDowell. 

STAGE 1 END – LAP 30: Truex Jr easily held on to win the stage and pick up the playoff point. Behind him, Aric Almirola, Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney, and Bubba Wallace completed the Top 5. During the stage break, Truex and a handful of other cars pitted, which put Brad Keselowski in the lead for the restart. 

LAP 46: Keselowski surrendered the lead to make a green-flag pitstop for 4 tires and fuel, which put the #18 of Kyle Busch in the top spot. 

LAP 73: Kyle Busch radioed to his team to report a major problem with his transmission when the gear shift got stuck in 4th gear. After a lengthy pit stop to try to fix this issue, Busch left the pits still struggling as he lost several positions trying to get back up to speed with the still-malfunctioning transmission. When all cars cycled through their green-flag stops, it was the #24 of William Byron who took over the lead. 

STAGE 2 END – LAP 85: William Byron won the stage and secured the playoff point. Other drivers in the Top 5 included Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski, Christopher Bell, and Chase Elliott respectively. Byron lost the lead on pit road to his teammate, Alex Bowman. 

CAUTION – LAP 92: The yellow came out for debris on the race track after the #20 of Christopher Bell got into the wall in Turn 3. 

LAP 114: The race turned into a massive game of fuel-milage strategy as all teams tried to put themselves in position to make it to the checkered flag. Alex Bowman surrendered the lead to pit for fuel, giving the top spot to Brad Keselowski. 

LAP 132: Brad Keselowski’s #2 team called him into the pits to top-up on fuel to make it to the end, this put Byron back in P1. 

137: With only 3 laps remaining, Byron ran out of gas and had to pit for a ‘splash-and-go’. With Byron out of the way, the lead went to the #11 of Denny Hamlin. 

139: Coming to the white flag, Hamlin had to make the sharp left turn onto pit road as he too ran out of fuel. His Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Kyle Busch, inherited the lead on the last lap. 

CHECKERED FLAG – LAP 140: As Busch exited Turn 3, he radioed to his team that he was out of fuel. With a 8-second lead over Kyle Larson, Busch coasted across the finish line to win his second race of the season. This victory snapped Hendrick Motorsports’ 6-race winning streak. 

RESULTS:

1. Kyle Busch
2. Kyle Larson
3. Brad Keselowski
4. Kevin Harvick
5. Bubba Wallace 
6. Ryan Blaney
7. Alex Bowman
8. Ryan Preece
9. Tyler Reddick
10. Joey Logano
11. Martin Truex Jr
12. William Byron
13. Austin Dillon 
14. Denny Hamlin
15. Daniel Suarez
16. Aric Almirola
17. Michael McDowell
18. Matt DiBenedetto
19. Chris Buescher
20. Kurt Busch
21. Chase Briscoe
22. Ryan Newman
23. Corey Lajoie
24. Cole Custer
25. Justin Allgaier
26. Ross Chastain
27. Chase Elliott
28. Cody Ware
29. BJ McLeod
30. James Davison
31. Erik Jones
32. Christopher Bell
33. Quin Houff
34. Anthony Alfredo
35. Josh Bilicki
36. Garrett Smithley
37. Timmy Hill
38. Ricky Stenhouse Jr