LONG POND, Pa. -- Coming into the Gander Outdoors Truck Series Gander RV 150 at Pocono Raceway, Stewart Friesen looked to be in a comfortable spot to point his way into the eight-driver playoff. On the other end, Harrison Burton appeared in need of a win or some help to close the gap on the cutline.
Fast forward roughly two hours -- with a third-place finish, Stage 2 win and a 52-point day for Burton combined with a Lap 1 exit for Friesen -- and the gap has shrunk considerably (down to 13 points) with two races left in the regular season. RELATED: Chastain scores Pocono win | Full race resultsFriesen, who entered the race second in the point standings and 60 points ahead of Burton, spun and wrecked on the opening lap, collecting Anthony Alfredo in the process. The damage was too much and he finished last -- 32nd on the day.
"It sucks. I don't even know how to put it in words. It's that frustrating," Friesen said. The result left Friesen as the last driver in the provisional eight-driver playoff field with Eldora and Michigan remaining before the field is set. "We'll just go race as hard as we can," Friesen said. "Whatever happens, happens. We'll try as hard as we can to win a race and it is what it is." As frustrating as Friesen's day was, Burton's was inversely fruitful. His third-place run continued a stretch where the 18-year-old has come into his own in the series with four top-five finishes in the past five races and a rise to fifth in the point standings. Because of wins by drivers behind him in the standings, that leaves him as the first driver on the wrong side of the cutline. RELATED: Updated series standings The early exit of Friesen also helped shape the strategy of Burton’s No. 18 Kyle Busch Motorsports team. After finishing third in Stage 1, crew chief Mike Hillman Jr. elected to have the young driver stay out to score his first stage win of the season and bag an additional 10 points on the day. "That definitely affected the decision making," Burton said on pit road after the race. "I think we probably would have pitted under green there coming from second and not gotten the stage win and set ourselves up for the win at the end. We almost won anyway. We were coming hard -- needed a couple more laps at the end." Now, with two races to go in the regular season, Burton finds himself in a spot where he might not have to win to get in -- although the recent results suggest that victory may not be far off. For the son of 21-time Cup winner and NBC broadcaster Jeff Burton, the mission is simple. "I'm gunning for a spot in the playoffs and once we get there, I think everyone should look out," Burton said.