Posted on by Reid Spencer

No practice made perfect Saturday at Pocono Raceway.

Without the benefit of a mock qualifying run in practice, Kevin Harvick nevertheless made a decisive run to the pole for Sunday’s Gander RV 400 at the “Tricky Triangle” (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

UPDATE: Harvick pole confirmed; multiple cars fail inspection

Qualifying near the end of the session, Harvick navigated the 2.5-mile distance in 51.707 seconds (174.058 mph), beating out second-place qualifier Joey Logano (173.377 mph) by a whopping .203 seconds to secure his first Busch Pole Award at Pocono, his fourth of the season and the 29th of his career.

“We didn’t do a qualifying run because we were just scrambling a little bit in race trim and trying to get our car right in race trim,” said Harvick, who claimed his first victory of the season last Sunday at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. “Our (Stewart-Haas Racing) teammates did some qualifying runs, and we tried to match some of the things they did and adapt and adjust from there.

“In the end, sometimes it’s better to just wing it, and these guys do a good job when you’re scrambling and just winging it. So it was a good day today, and hopefully we can keep it rolling tomorrow.”

RELATED: Unofficial qualifying results | Full weekend schedule

Harvick’s teammate, Aric Almirola, qualified third at 173.164 mph, as Ford drivers took the top the spots on the grid. Fourth-place qualifier Erik Jones (173.110 mph) had the fastest Toyota, and fifth-place Austin Dillon (172.659 mph) led the Chevrolet contingent.

Coming off consecutive third-place finishes in his last two races, Jones thought his lap might stand up for the pole — before the three Fords eclipsed his speed.

“I thought with that lap we would have it,” Jones said. “That’s kind of frustrating. We have a fast car, and I thought we had a shot at the pole. It’s kind of frustrating, but we are starting up front either way, so we’ll make a good day of it.

“We were good in race trim and I was pretty happy with it. That’s always a good feeling.”

Jones is 14th in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series standings, a tenuous 28 points inside the cut line for the playoffs with five races left in the regular season.

RELATED: Jones aggressive in playoff push

Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch (winner of the last two Pocono races), William Byron, Kurt Busch and Daniel Suarez qualified sixth through 10th, respectively.

Johnson and Suarez are currently tied for 17th in the Cup standings, 17 points behind 16th-place Clint Bowyer, who holds the last playoff-eligible position and who qualified 16th Saturday.

Posted on by RJ Kraft

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 results

Friesen, 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.

Posted on by RJ Kraft

LONG POND, Pa. — Erik Jones’ second straight third-place finish and his fifth of the season seemed to get lost amid his mid-race contact with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. last weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

That was, in part, due to Stenhouse firing off in a post-incident interview, saying: “The 20 just ran over us there. He’s gotten me a couple times now. He’ll have one coming at some point when he’s trying to make the playoffs.”

Those words were certainly pointed, but Jones indicated that there’s no lingering animosity between the Roush Fenway Racing driver and him following a mid-week chat with the Mississippi native.

“I saw Ricky this week and talked to him,” Jones told NASCAR.com on Saturday at Pocono Raceway, site of this weekend’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race, the Gander RV 400 (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“I feel like we’re OK. I understand why he was frustrated. I think he understands why I was frustrated at that point in the race, as well, once you go back and look at it. I think we had a good talk. Ricky and I have had a couple of run-ins at the track over the last couple of years. Unfortunately, I didn’t want to end the guy’s day, but it was kind of a racing deal and I think we both understand where we stand on that issue.”

Now the page turns to Pocono where Jones led final practice. Jones comes into this race with seven top 10s in his last 10 races and sits 28 points above the cutline in a quest to make the playoffs for the second consecutive season in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. He’s climbed four spots in the standings in the past two races.

RELATED: Playoff Watch | Bubble Watch: Poco-NO or Poco-YES for drivers not locked in

The 2.5-mile Pennsylvania track is as a great opportunity for the 23-year-old to further improve his playoff standing. Among drivers in Sunday’s field, Jones holds the best average finish (9.6) and has three top fives and four top 10s in five Cup starts at the “Tricky Triangle.”

“It’s definitely a place we come to that I feel confident about and a place where we can win and contend,” Jones said. “We had a shot here the last time we were here on the last restart — just couldn’t quite get the push we needed and the run we needed to clear Kyle (Busch). I always feel good coming here. We always contend and it’s been rare that we don’t have speed and the strategy that we run usually puts us up front with an opportunity. Always exciting and definitely had it circled to come back and contend.”

In his third-place finish in June and his fifth-place result in this race last year, Jones and crew chief Chris Gayle eschewed stage points to set themselves up better to contend for the win. Their final stop in June saw Gayle get bold in taking no tires, and Jones has noticed his crew chief raising the aggressive thinking even further with the playoff push in full swing.

“New Hampshire was a great show of that for us — just taking the two tires (in Stage 1), taking no tires at the end,” Jones said. “Chris has done a good job of being confident in himself and being confident in me and the car that we can maintain on two or no tires. Pocono’s going to be another big one for that. I think you’ll see probably more aggressive calls throughout the field but I’ve definitely seen Chris step up the aggression.”

In the past two races at Kentucky and New Hampshire, Jones has scored 18 total stage points en route to back-to-back third-place finishes. Coming into those races, he had just 43 stage points on the season.

But with six races left before the 16-driver playoff field is finalized, does the calculus at Pocono – a track that tends to play out like a road course when it comes to strategy — change a bit with Jones above the provisional cutline?

“It’s a tough call,” Jones said. “If you feel like you can win the race, you’re going to have to kind of go for it — but we also need stage points. We didn’t do a good job this year really of getting stage points and these last few weeks we have.

“We’ve gotten ourselves to a more comfortable spot in the playoff picture. We still have to build that cushion and we have a chance strategy-wise to get more stage points. If we have an opportunity to finish in the top three of a stage, then I think we’d probably take that and hope that it’s going to work out and lead us back into contention in the race. If we have a shot (at the win), if we have a dominant car, we feel like then we’ll probably go for the win.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

Ross Chastain made it look easy Saturday at Pocono Raceway, but the battle for playoff spots intensified dramatically in the Gander RV 150 at the 2.5-mile triangular track.

Pitting early near the end of Stage 2 in the 60-lap NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series race, Chastain regained the lead on Lap 33 and held it the rest of the way, beating surging 18-year-old Tyler Ankrum to the finish line by 1.007 seconds.

RELATED: Pocono results | Updated standings

Stage 2 winner Harrison Burton charged from 10th to third during the closing 26-lap green-flag run and made a statement where the playoffs are concerned.

Burton, 18, posted his fourth top five in a span of five races and closed significant ground on Canadian Stewart Friesen, who self-destructed on the first lap. Burton trails Friesen by 13 points for the final playoff position with two races left in the regular season.

But no one was a match for Chastain, who won the first stage with ease on the way to his third victory of the season and reaffirmed his status as one of the clear favorites for the series title. Chastain dedicated his first Pocono win to Kaulig Racing crew chief Nick Harrison, who passed away at age 37 after last Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race.

“I know we were a little mad because we lost Nick Harrison,” Chastain said. “We realize that everybody goes when it’s their time, but, man, we miss that big boy. These boys (on the Niece Motorsports team), a lot of them worked with him.

“I got to work with him at Kaulig Racing this year. Man, we miss him.”

Ankrum punished his No. 17 Toyota in a futile effort to catch Chastain during the closing run.

“Me and Ross were able to run away from the field,” Ankrum said. “I thought I had a good enough truck to chase him down, but I couldn’t get close enough to him to catch the draft. I was just fighting ‘tight,’ and I burned my tires up trying to catch him.”

Short of a victory that would have locked him into a playoff spot, Burton turned in an optimal performance from the standpoint of the points he gained.

“I wanted to win really bad,” Burton said. “We had a truck that was capable of winning. I think everyone kind of knew that. … We were charging at the end, which was a lot of fun. I didn’t expect to be able to do that that well. I thought we were in trouble there on that last restart, but we made a lot of ground up and were really aggressive.

“As far as points, we gained a ton today, which is really, really good.”

The playoff aspirations of Friesen suffered a major blow before the field cleared the first corner. Moments after the start, Friesen took a low line into Turn 1 and his No. 52 Chevrolet broke loose in the corner, collecting the Toyota of Anthony Alfredo and slamming into the outside wall.

Friesen finished 32nd after failing to complete a lap.

“Got spun around, made contact with the wall,” Friesen said succinctly after leaving the infield care center. “Just a bummer. Got on the apron there and away we went.

“I had a lot of friends and family here today, and I’m really, really disappointed. I wish I could have done more to last a little longer out there, obviously. We’ll be back — it just sucks right now.”

If there’s a silver lining for Friesen, it’s the location of the next race — the half-mile dirt track at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio. Friesen has more than 900 career starts on dirt in a variety of series and has finished second and third in his last two Eldora races. Burton finished 15th in his only Eldora start two years ago.

Posted on by RJ Kraft

LONG POND, Pa. – It was the tattoo talk that had the Twitter world abuzz this week and Bubba Wallace says he’ll make good on his promise to fans.

RELATED: Wallace to get Petty signature tattoo?

“I knew that we wouldn’t reach 43,000 retweets in one day, which I was right,” Wallace said on Saturday at Pocono Raceway, site of Sunday’s Gander RV 400 (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). “It was 38,000 I believe. But I didn’t put a timeline on it. I did up here and I said it didn’t happen, but then everyone said I was backing out.

“I’m not getting it on my arm like it was, I’m not that stupid,” Wallace said amid laughs. “It’s a beautiful signature in all, but I’m not that heavily invested in having it take up my whole forearm. We’ll get it somewhere small; I don’t know where I’m going to get it.”

To catch you up, Wallace posted a pair of photos detailing an up-close interaction with his team owner and “The King,” Richard Petty. With a handful of bright-colored sharpies, Petty signed his name in big, bold, silver letters and Wallace indicated that if the tweet got 43,000 retweets he’d get it tattooed. The social media world delivered on that number — though it took longer than the 24 hours Wallace thought was implied in his original offer.

While the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Chevrolet sat out final practice for an engine change, Wallace had some fun suggesting that the pending tattoo was really the reason he was unable to practice.

 

Posted on by Reid Spencer

Next year’s Pocono Raceway schedule will feature a longer weekend, shorter Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series races but considerably more racing action at the 2.5-mile triangular track.

For the first time, NASCAR will run two points-paying Cup races on the same weekend, culminating in a 350-miler on Sunday, June 28. The day before, Cup drivers will run their first race of the weekend, with a length still to be determined.

MORE: 2020 NASCAR schedule

Practice and single-car qualifying for the first Cup race will take place Friday, June 26, and cars will be impounded thereafter. Drivers will use the same cars for both races, with the starting order for the second race determined by an inversion of the cars remaining on the lead lap at the end of Race 1, reporters learned Saturday during the announcement at Pocono.

“There’s a little flux here,” Pocono Raceway CEO Nick Igdalsky said of the first Cup race. “The race length is tentative at this point. We’re shooting for a 350-miler on that one, but that one may flex a little bit.”

Accordingly, the Cup cars may have to run as many as 700 miles under race conditions in the same weekend.

“After (Race 1), we will give the competitors back their cars, and they can do all their maintenance,” said Scott Miller, NASCAR senior vice president of competition. “They can’t really run the 700 miles without having their cars back for general service and all that.

“So we’ll give them their cars back. They will likely change valve springs and work on any slight damage from the race and all the maintenance to prepare for 350-mile Race 2.”

Teams will keep the pit stalls they earn during Friday’s qualifying for both races.

Both Cup races will be part of doubleheaders, with the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series running a 200-mile event before Saturday’s Race 1 and the NASCAR Xfinity Series competing over 225 miles before Sunday’s Race 2.

The ARCA Menards Series will feature a 200-mile race Thursday afternoon.

Other scheduling features announced Saturday in advance of the 2020 Pocono weekend:

  • Each series will have one 80-minute practice session.
  • Practice for the Monster Energy Series and Gander Trucks is scheduled Friday. Xfinity Series practice is scheduled to be held Saturday.
  • Gander Trucks qualifying is set for Friday. Xfinity qualifying is set for Sunday.

With the race still a year away, officials cautioned the schedule should be considered tentative.

NASCAR.com staff contributed to this report.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

Roughly 10 minutes into opening Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Pocono Raceway, Kyle Larson’s No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet broke loose in the Tunnel Turn.

As the rear of the car stepped out to the right, Larson tried to correct it but couldn’t prevent his Camaro from slamming the outside wall. The contact sent the car hurtling down the track into the inside wall, completing the destruction of Larson’s primary vehicle.

Forced to go to a backup car, Larson will start from the rear in Sunday’s Gander RV 400 (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). His early troubles mirror those from last weekend at New Hampshire, where Larson wrecked his primary car in practice, started from the rear in a backup, crashed twice during Sunday’s race and finished 33rd.

“I’m just disappointed in myself,” said Larson, who enters Pocono race 13th in the standings but only 31 points inside the current Playoff cut line. That’s two weeks in a row now. I hate that I did that. I just got really loose, over-corrected some, spun to the inside and hit the wall. I just hate that I did that. We only have today for practice and I didn’t have much time in that practice session…

MORE: Larson explains wreck

“I’ve just got to stop being stupid.”

Larson wasn’t the only driver kicking himself after an incident in practice. Later in the session, Chase Elliott also lost control in Turn 1, bounced off the outside wall and damaged his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet beyond repair.

Elliott will join Larson at the rear of the field in a backup car for the start of Sunday’s race, the 21st in the Cup series this year.

RELATED: Suarez tops opening practice at Pocono

“I put myself in a pretty poor situation there for practice,” Elliott said. “I apologize to my guys here and the people back at the shop… You shouldn’t make decisions like that to put yourself in a bad spot.

“It’s completely my fault. We’ll try to get this other car going as soon as we can and try not to crash again.”

Posted on by Staff Report

After posting the seventh-fastest time in opening practice, Erik Jones topped the charts in Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series final practice on Saturday morning at Pocono Raceway.

Jones paced the 2.5-mile triangular speedway with a lap of 172.117 miles per hour in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry. Jones comes into the race weekend with three career top-five finishes at Pocono, including a third-place result back in June.

RELATED: Best 10-lap averages | Final practice results

Kurt Busch finished up the 50-minute practice session in second at 172.051 mph in the No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet Camaro ZL1. The remainder of the top five included Matt DiBenedetto (171.373 mph), William Byron (171.246 mph) and Kyle Busch (171.226 mph).

After crashes in opening practice earlier Saturday morning, both Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson were able to shake down their respective backup cars in the final session.

Next up on track for the Monster Energy Series will be Busch Pole Qualifying at 4:05 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

PRACTICE 1

Daniel Suarez led the way in Saturday morning’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series opening practice for Sunday’s Gander RV 400 at Pocono Raceway (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Best 10-lap averages | Practice results

Suarez rocketed to the top of the leaderboard with a lap at 172.516 miles per hour in the No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang. William Byron finished the session in second with a lap at 172.404 mph in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro ZL1.

Aric Almirola landed in third with a lap of 172.401 mph in the No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang, while Martin Truex Jr. clicked off a time of 172.387 mph to finish fourth. Clint Bowyer finished fifth and became the third SHR entry in the top five with a lap at 172.351 mph.

Two big incidents occurred during the 50-minute session as Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson both found trouble in separate crashes. Larson lost control of the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet Camaro coming out of Turn 2, hitting the outside retaining barrier which sent him hard into the inside wall. Elliott smacked the wall at the exit of Turn 1, receiving heavy damage on the right side of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Camaro. Both drivers have gone to backup vehicles as a result.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

The math isn’t adding up for Todd Gilliland, but a victory in one of the next three races could transform the equation dramatically.

The driver of the No. 4 Kyle Busch Motorsports Toyota is eighth in the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series standings, but five other competitors, including two behind him (Tyler Ankrum and Ross Chastain) already have locked up playoff spots with victories.

Given that Gilliland is 150 points out of first place and 100 behind Matt Crafton (currently in the last playoff-eligible position on points), his only realistic path to the postseason lies in winning a race.

RELATED: Truck Series standings | Pocono schedule

To do that, Gilliland will have to translate early speed into a checkered flag. He has three chances — in Saturday’s Gander RV 150 at Pocono Raceway (1 p.m. ET on FOX, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), or in subsequent races at Eldora and Michigan.

Last year, Gilliland qualified second in consecutive races at those three tracks, but his best finish among the three was fifth at Michigan. But that doesn’t mean he doesn’t think he can win before the end of the regular season — even, perhaps, on dirt at Eldora.

“Someone’s got to win there, so it can be me,” said Gilliland, who was second fastest behind KBM teammate Harrison Burton opening practice and quickest in Happy Hour. “We were fast at Michigan. We’ve got a fast truck this weekend. It just doesn’t drive real good.

“We’ve been working really hard, and, honestly, this weekend coming here … Kyle Busch Motorsports, I think I saw on Instagram, has won the last four races here. So we’ve got a pretty good track record. We’re still trying to be that guy who brings it home this weekend.

“But with a bunch of young teammates, it makes it hard, because you don’t really know what to go off of. We trust each other as much as we can. At the same time, we’ve got to have our own feel for it and go forward with confidence.”

Teammates Burton and Christian Eckes are both 18 years old. Gilliland turned 19 in May.