RELATED: No. 18 team hit with penalty
LONG POND, Pa. — Kyle Busch collected his second consecutive pole position of the season Friday at Pocono Raceway. And he said although his Joe Gibbs Racing team will miss having his full-time crew chief Adam Stevens at track for the next four weeks (Stevens is serving NASCAR suspension), he still has high expectations for his No. 18 M&Ms Toyota.
Race engineer Ben Beshore will serve as crew chief during Stevens’ absence, and he certainly delivered an encouraging start.
“Ben’s done a great job,” Busch said, noting the team has already worked without Stevens before because of a one-race suspension last year.
“We kinda rehearsed this last year at the Dover race and it’s nearly 365 days later. We’re strong and we’re a good group and we focus on what we need to.”
It’s the first time Busch has ever earned pole positions in back-to-back Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races and he certainly seemed optimistic about also earning his first career win at the unique Pocono 2.5-miler on Sunday.
“I think it just shows the way Adam Stevens is able to prepare his team, prepare his cars and the work that goes on back at the shop with all the guys and the way this whole team is lined up,” Busch said.
So far, so good.
“It’s hard to say that our guys focus any more when our leader’s not here, but I think they already have enough attention to detail. I wouldn’t say we could miss Adam every weekend and be right where we need to be, he puts in a good game plan. We learned that from coach and how to go about a weekend without him.
Busch said if it were up to him, he would have appealed his team’s personnel suspensions — which, in addition to Stevens, also include tire changer Jacob Seminara and tire carrier Kenneth Barber, all serving a four-race suspension from NASCAR after a tire came off the No. 18 Toyota last week in the AAA 400 Drive for Autism at Dover International Speedway.
But, the 2015 Cup champion allowed, it all works out fine because none of the upcoming tracks — Pocono, Michigan, Sonoma or Daytona — appear again during NASCAR’s 10-race season-ending playoffs.
“Four weeks will be hard but the biggest thing is we looked at these four races and none of them are (playoffs) races,” Busch said. “I would have appealed it, because I think there was a reason to, but there was also a reason not to as well. We’ll live without them and do what we need to do.”