Hamlin survives Pocono for win #3 (7-29-19)

By: Becca Cottingham

Headline Photo From: NASCAR.com

We are back at Pocono and started fanning out to six wide right after the green flag dropped. Most all of the action is from third on back. Kevin Harvick took the lead and so far has not looked backwards. It looks like Brad Keselowski got into the wall with the right rear and has a major tire rub. He then suffered in the pits when his car fell off the jack. He just did get out in front of the leader of the race. Drivers are mainly taking two tires and fuel to get to the end of the race for strategy. Pit strategy is ranging for drivers from taking two tires, four tires, and or no tires and gas only. Hamlin and teammate Truex Jr battled it out. It truly is a battle who has the better tires and who has their car set up the best. Kyle Busch was able to take over the stage wins.

Drivers were warned no games at restarts after everything that has been saw and things drivers have complained about the last couple of weeks. So we had a very clean restart to stage two. Kevin Harvick was able to make a great restart and had a decent lead. However, Kyle Busch made some huge moves and slowly made the lead that Kevin Harvick had non-existence. Ryan Blaney also was not going down without a fight as Kevin Harvick was trying to get around him. This let Kyle Busch make his final big move and get around Harvick. Kyle Busch showed how that the four tire stop was a great call. Kyle Larson being in a backup car has climbed from the back and close to the end of stage one he is running in the top five. Chase Elliot blew a right front tire and hit the wall and has heavy damage. That brought out the first major caution of the day. Kyle Busch and his team decided to stay out when everyone else pretty much hit pit road. After the caution we had three and four wide racing all around the track. We have rain on the track with eight to go in stage two. The rain was light so the drivers kept the track warm and did not have to come down pit road.

The beginning of stage three we have another view of Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick. While everyone behind them battles three and four wide. Denny Hamlin was able to complete the pass and took over the lead. Ryan Preece got loose in the corner and and made hard contact with the turn one. Then everyone came to pit road and a lot of gambling happening for drivers and teams. Then we had multiple drivers come down pit road right before we go green. We had another driver in David Ragan who had right rear issues. With eight laps to go we had caution for a car out of gas. Kurt Busch and Michael McDowell both ended up spinning out. Daniel Suarez got penalized for restart violations. Gas is a huge issue for multiple drivers. Denny Hamlin’s team was able to save as much as possible and will pull into victory lane.

Next Race:

Sunday, August 4 at Watkins Glen at 3pm