Kyle Busch collects win #4 at the Pocono 400, Leads NASCAR (6-2-19)

By: Becca Cottingham

Headline Photo from: Onlinegambling.com

After winning his second back to back pole, William Byron took the green flag and took off. After heavy rains over night they have a competition caution at lap twenty. But we already had multiple cars ready and needing adjustments since this was an impound race. Kurt Busch being one just waiting fearing a slow leak in the right rear. Kyle Larson took two tires and made up some major ground during the competition caution to take the lead. Austin Dillon then took a hard hit in turn three after the competition caution. Several cars got together with Austin making a move to gain position. We then had several cars play pit strategy right before the end of stage one. They pitted with just a couple of laps left in stage one. Kyle Larson won stage one.

With that going into stage two multiple cars stayed out with that strategy to lead us into stage two. The pass for the lead in stage two was a great move by Kyle Busch. The two cars using pit strategy were side drafting and tried putting a block on Kyle Busch. However, Kyle just had a great run and took it three wide to pass both cars at one time. Sadly, Matt DiBenedetto ended up spinning out bringing out a caution. Both Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr. came down for a full pit stop, but this early caution caused a wrench to be thrown into their plan. Matt Tifft got down on the apron a little to much and it caused him to loose traction and sent him spinning. We then watched Martin Truex Jr. running into the back of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. It is possible that he was trying to knock some tape off the front of his car of just did not feel he could get a big enough run. But when he came in for another stop in stage two he said he thought he was blowing up and ended up leaving the race. We had another driver who had a tire go down but was able to keep the tire from blowing completely and allowed us to stay green until the end of stage two. Kyle Larson used his pit strategy and took the second stage win.

Most cars will need to at least make one more stop in stage three as long as the weather stays away from the track. We are seeing some teams go with lower tire pressure and that is causing cars to be loose and scraping or hitting the wall. We will see green flag pitstops and it is key that mistakes not be made on pit road. They will be costly. Joey Logano had a long stop with a wedge adjustment that caused him to go a lap down. Then Kevin Harvick was having a good run and then had a bad pitstop with a tire getting away from his pit crew. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. then blew up on the track. Which gaves us just under ten laps to go in stage three. Kyle Larson was making huge moves and ended up coming up right in front of Clint Bowyer and smacked the wall hard. He was able to not cause a caution and it allowed Kyle Busch to take off and win the race.

Next Race:

Sunday, June 9 at 2 pm “FireKeepers Casino 400” (Michigan)