Ever wonder what goes on in a driver meeting? We’re here to help.
This year, we’ll publish the actual rules video your favorite Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers will watch before climbing into their stock cars. Above is the video for the Gander Outdoors 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Pocono Raceway.
Enjoy!
See where your favorite driver will pit for the second race at Pocono Raceway in 2018, the Gander Outdoors 400 (2:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MSN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Daniel Suarez nabbed his first career Busch Pole Qualifying Award before Sunday’s Gander Outdoors 400 (2:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Pocono Raceway, but the young driver will not be in my lineup. After two practice sessions and qualifying, we’ve dissected the numbers to offer a suggested lineup worthy of your Fantasy Live consideration as you make roster decisions for the 21st Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race of 2018. Remember that the garage locks at the end of Stage 2.
RJ Kraft’s revised Fantasy Live lineup following practices and the lineup being set:
1: Martin Truex Jr.
2: Brad Keselowski
3: Denny Hamlin
4: Chase Elliott
5: Kyle Larson
Garage: Kyle Busch
PLAY NOW: Set your Fantasy Live lineup | How the new Fantasy Live works
MORE: Fantasy analysis for Pocono | Driver stats | Full lineup | 10-lap averages
Analysis: Inspection woes for several top drivers and strong choices for Pocono made setting this lineup quite an adventure. Before that, Kevin Harvick was going to force his way into my lineup, but I’d prefer not to burn one of my two uses left when he’s starting 29th in the field. However, with three uses left for Kyle Busch, I’m going to roll the dice with him as my garage play. Some of that is influenced by seeing how he drove up from the back at Richmond (started 32nd) to the win earlier this year — a race I ultimately removed him from my lineup — and some of it is influenced by the remaining schedule.
The garage spot was a tough call as I debated plenty of names. I toyed with putting Harvick there for a bit (the two uses left combined with how much I like saving him for Michigan and Darlington, with Bristol as a fallback option swayed me from it). I also considered keeping Ryan Blaney in my lineup or taking another driver toward the back like Clint Bowyer but ultimately felt if I was going to roll with another driver (see below for the other driver) at the back of the field it had to be the 2015 champion. I also entertained throwing Suarez in there for some stage points, but his nine straight finishes outside the top 10 scared me away. Erik Jones was another driver I gave serious consideration to as well.
Busch was in my original lineup and is one of five drivers I’m keeping in — along with Truex, Keselowski, Elliott and Larson. MTJ is the most recent winner here and has three straight top-six finishes at the “Tricky Triangle.” I have three uses remaining with him so he’s in. Keselowski has six straight top fives here, while Elliott has just one finish outside the top 10 at Pocono. Larson has to come from the back, but he had good speed in practice, has the second-best average finish (10.6) among drivers in Sunday’s field and I’m sitting at four more uses. I’m banking on at least one of Busch and Larson getting to the front. If Busch is toward the back of the top 10 at the end of Stage 2, it will be a tough call on whether to put him in.
The lone change for me sees Ryan Blaney go out in favor of Denny Hamlin. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver will start second and I expect him to lead the JGR brigade that is up front. Sitting at four uses with him also puts me in a good spot for the play. For my bonus picks, taking Keselowski to win Stage 1, Hamlin for Stage 2 and going with Harvick for the win since the car was so strong in practice on Saturday and I don’t want to burn the usage, but still would like to try and get points out of him.
NASCAR announced before the season that it will standardize at-track team rosters across all three national series in 2018, providing a structure for the number of personnel working on each vehicle during the course of a race weekend.
Official team rosters for Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Pocono (2:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN/NBC Sports App, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) have been released. Click the print icon above, or the link below.
ROSTERS: Pocono
RELATED: Overview of 2018 rules updates
NEWTON, Iowa — How long had it been since a non-Monster Energy Cup regular triumphed in three straight Xfinity Series races?
Even NASCAR star-turned-NBC Sports Network commentator Dale Earnhardt, Jr., didn’t seem to know the answer when asked on-air — and he was the most recent driver to accomplish the feat in 1999.
Until Saturday at Iowa Speedway.
RELATED: Race results | Series standings
Christopher Bell somehow steered clear of a spate of potential disasters within the final 15 laps of the mostly-green U.S. Cellular 250, wheeling his No. 20 Ruud Toyota to Victory Lane for the third consecutive time.
“When it’s your day, it’s your day,” a smiling Bell said as he celebrated by his car. “I’ll take them any way I can get them.”
“Our Ruud Camry was really, really good,” Bell said. “I’m just thankful we were able to get Ruud in Victory Lane. This is their first win. All these Camry’s are made in Georgetown, Kentucky here in the United States, so it’s special to win for these guys.”
RELATED: Allgaier: ‘It’s disappointing to get run over’
Bell somehow kept his car intact after Chase Briscoe spun in front of him with 14 to go. The 23-year-old Joe Gibbs racing rookie’s car sustained some damage, but he managed to maintain the lead after the restart — until Garrett Smithley spun out to draw another caution flag. Then the inexplicable occurred. On the following restart, Justin Allgaier — who won the June race at Iowa — boldly drove the high groove to the lead. Bell was shuffled back to fourth during a four-wide restart that completed one lap before contact between Matt Tifft and Max Tullman caused the red flag to wave.
Bell was momentarily stunned. How’d it happen?
“I don’t know,” he told NBC Sports during the red flag. “I really don’t know.”
But it would be Allgaier shaking his head after Bell found a way to reverse his fortunes on the final restart. He also said he felt Bell didn’t race him as clean as he’s accustomed to at the end.
“It’s just disappointing to get run over,” said Allgaier, who settled for second. “I know that Christopher definitely had the best car. … It’s a good day at Iowa. 1-2 in the two races here. I know social media’s going to blow up. They’re going to hate me for being mad at Christopher, but it is what it is.”
Bell said his last-gasp restart maneuver past Allgaier had been executed according to plan.
“I mean, I haven’t seen it so I don’t know, but the spotter was yelling clear and if I’m clear then it was clean,” Bell said.
MORE: Bell offers his take on the overtime events
Bell’s third win in as many weeks shuffled up spots atop the point standings.
He now leads Elliott Sadler by 16 points, 702 to 686. Cole Custer — who led 104 laps before car troubles hit later in the race — is third with 684 points and Daniel Hemric ranks fourth, a mere five points behind Custer, who finished ninth in Saturday’s race.
Kyle Benjamin, Ross Chastain and John Hunter Nemechek completed Saturday’s top-five.
Sadler, Saturday’s pole-sitter, led most of the first stage and finished sixth.
Bell led 94 laps and shrugged off disappointment over a second-place June finish at Iowa.
Now the former dirt open-wheel racer’s accomplished something no series regular has done in this millennium.
“It’s pretty cool, man,” Bell said. “I’m just kind of speechless. These races are really hard to win.”
Post-qualifying tech dealt a Saturday shake-up to the starting lineup for Sunday’s Gander Outdoors 400 after the cars driven by the five of the top six qualifiers — including the initial front row of Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch — failed inspection at Pocono Raceway.
Harvick was fastest in the first and final round of Busch Pole Qualifying, but his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford did not pass the body scan portion post-qualifying inspection. The same fate occurred with the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota of second-fastest qualifier Kyle Busch, but his car failed at the chassis station of the inspection process.
The ruling elevated Daniel Suarez, third on the original unofficial speed chart, to a first-time pole winner in the Monster Energy Series. His speed of 176.988 mph in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 19 Toyota stands as the pole-winning lap of record.
RELATED: Starting lineup | First pole for Suarez
A total of 13 cars failed the inspection process the first time through. Scott Miller, NASCAR Senior Vice President of Competition, explained the process in a media gathering as inspection was nearing its conclusion.
“It’s pretty obvious what’s happened here. There was 13 cars that didn’t pass the post-qualifying inspection,” Miller said. “Most of the problems were centered around the body scan, but not all. Some were mechanical measurements with the rear toe. But quite heavy on the body scans, 13 cars. We’re disappointed in this, but we’re certainly confident in our process and the teams didn’t do a real good job here today.”
In addition to Harvick and Busch, the qualifying speeds for Kyle Larson (initially the fourth-fastest qualifier), Joey Logano (fifth) and rookie William Byron (sixth) were disallowed. Others further back in the field with qualifying speeds thrown out: Clint Bowyer’s No. 14 Ford, Ryan Blaney’s No. 12 Ford, Aric Almirola’s No. 10 Ford, Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet, Paul Menard’s No. 21 Ford, Austin Dillon’s No. 3 Chevrolet, Bubba Wallace’s No. 43 Chevrolet, Kasey Kahne’s No. 95 Chevrolet.
RELATED: See every car in Sunday’s field
All 13 will start from the rear of the 40-car field in Sunday’s 400-miler (2:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM), ranked in order of their rank in the Monster Energy Series standings.
Both Harvick and Kahne’s car failed three times and the penalty for that is the loss of their car chiefs — Robert Smith (No. 4 team) and Ben Leslie (No. 95 team) — and a 10-point penalty in the driver and owner championship standings. Logano and Menard’s cars failed twice and both of their respective car chiefs — Raymond Fox (No. 22 team) and William Curwood (No. 21 team) were ejected as well.
It’s the first season for the new inspection process and NASCAR’s Optical Scanning Station, which maps and checks vehicle bodies for conformance to the rules. It’s also the second time this season that the Monster Energy Series has been subject to inspection immediately after qualifying under the enhanced weekend schedule. The other occurrence was at Chicagoland Speedway, where only four cars lost their starting spots.
“This is only the second time we’ve done this and I don’t think the teams want to be sitting here in this situation, either,” Miller said when asked if the severity of the penalties might change after Saturday’s issues. “But I think they tested the waters and it didn’t work out too good for them today. So, hopefully the next time we have one of these inspections, they’ll be able to get closer to right and we won’t have this.”
Contributing: Jessica Ruffin from Pocono
LONG POND, Pa. – Thanks to a double disqualification of two of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series’ so-called “Big Three,” Daniel Suarez earned the first Busch Pole Award of his career.
In the final round of Saturday’s knockout qualifying at Pocono Raceway, Suarez navigated the 2.5-mile track in 50.851 seconds (176.988 mph) to claim the top starting position when the cars of Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch failed post-qualifying inspection.
Both Harvick and Busch had posted faster laps than Suarez, but Harvick’s No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford failed the Optical Scanning Station, and Busch’s No. 18 Toyota was outside tolerances at the chassis station.
RELATED: Starting lineup | See every car | Weekend schedule
That put Suarez on the pole, surpassing his previous best starting spot of third last June at Dover International Speedway. The driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota put his car on the pole without making a mock qualifying run in practice.
“I think this is one of the races of the year where we did not make a qualifying run in practice,” said Suarez, the first Mexican driver to win a pole in NASCAR’s premier series. “We just talked about race trim, and that was the plan.
“We didn’t do a “Q” run in practice, and that’s why we didn’t look very good on the (speed) chart. But we were a top-10, top-eight car for sure in practice. We made some adjustments for qualifying, and actually the car felt better and more connected, so I’m happy for that.”
Suarez was at his motor home, analyzing data and studying where he had lost time to Harvick and Busch when he was told to report to the media center as the pole winner.
“Next time I hope I can get the pole by being the fastest guy, not by a couple of guys being disqualified,” Suarez said. “But it’s fine — we’ll take it.”
Harvick ran the fastest lap of the day at 177.750 mph, but both his run and that of Busch were disallowed because of inspection failures. Both drivers will start from the rear of the field in Sunday’s race.
MORE: Inspection issues snare top qualifiers
Since finishing third at Dover in May, Suarez has gone nine straight races without a top-10 finish, but he sensed the performance at Pocono was a turning point.
“The guys have been working very hard for the last couple months to put things the right way,” Suarez said. “Obviously, we know we can run well, and we can run in the front.
“All my guys are really talented, and I know that I can do it, and the results haven’t been there. So this is a good thing for us.”
LONG POND, Pa. — It’s poetic injustice that Jimmie Johnson is making his 600th start in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series in the throes of the worst slump of his career.
MORE: Full schedule for Pocono | Playoff picture entering ‘Tricky Triangle’
The seven-time champion hasn’t been to Victory Lane since June 4 of last year, when he took a checkered flag for the record 11th time at Dover. Since then, the drought has stretched to a career-long 43 races entering Sunday’s Gander Outdoors 400 at Pocono Raceway (2:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Johnson’s performance issues aren’t isolated. Hendrick Motorsports, his parent organization, hasn’t won a race with any of its four cars since Kasey Kahne’s swan-song victory at Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 23, 2017.
But Johnson will take the green flag for the 600th time in NASCAR’s top series with his positive outlook intact.
“I think a top five is probably in the realistic standpoint, stage points, but you never know,” Johnson said on Saturday morning before opening Cup practice at the Tricky Triangle. “That’s that optimism that I refuse to lose. I still know I can win these races—that hasn’t changed. That hasn’t gone anywhere. We just need to get the whole package together.”
To do so, Johnson and his entire team will have to rediscover the critical mass that has propelled the driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet to 83 victories and the record-tying seven titles.
RELATED: See all of Johnson’s victories
“This whole journey I’ve been on just shows me how important timing is for any team, driver, crew chief, owner, whatever it might be,” said Johnson, who turned the fifth fastest lap in final practice at 174.744 mph. “I was very fortunate to have timing for a large stretch of time—manufacturer, team, crew chief, driver all hitting at 10 tenths.
“We individualize the sport very often, and it’s way more than just one person that makes this whole thing go. I’m patiently waiting and hoping that we get the timing back and get all the pieces pushed in the right direction, and we can get back to our form that we once had.”
LONG POND, Pa. – In his last start of the season, Kyle Busch got the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory he coveted most.
Holding off a charge from Kyle Busch Motorsports teammate Erik Jones—who started the race in place of ailing Noah Gragson—Busch, the pole winner, powered his No. 51 Toyota across the finish line 1.469 seconds ahead of Jones’ No. 18 to win the Gander Outdoors 150 at Pocono Raceway.
RELATED: Race results | Series standings | Weekend schedule
The number “51” had added significance on Saturday. In winning for the second time in five starts this season and the second time at the 2.5-mile “Tricky Triangle,” Busch collected the 51st NCWTS victory of his career, tying him for the all-time series lead with NASCAR Hall of Famer Ron Hornaday Jr.
Busch’s milestone triumph, however, was in doubt until the closing laps. On Lap 52 of 60, Jones caught Busch in heavy race traffic and pulled ahead as the trucks rounded Turn 1 and headed down the Long Pond straightaway.
But Busch regained the lead through the Tunnel Turn, powering to the outside of Jones, whose Tundra was slowed by a lapped truck. From that point, Busch pulled away for the victory.
“They (Jones) had a better truck,” Busch acknowledged. “I tried and tried to work on this thing to make it better and probably made it slower with all the things I changed on it, rather than making it faster.
“I knew Erik was going to be fast in that truck—I knew Noah was going to be fast in that truck. They were the ones that we had to beat. I wish we were a tick faster, but obviously, being a bit slower, we put on a better show. Erik was able to run me down, and I did everything I could to hold him off.”
When Busch did his celebratory burnout on the front stretch, two patches of rubber deposited on the racing surface caught fire.
“I sat in one spot for too long on the asphalt,” Busch said. “My bad.”
RELATED: See every 2018 Camping World Truck Series race winner
Busch grabbed the lead from eventual third-place finisher Dalton Sargeant on Lap 37, with Jones running third at the time. It took Jones four more laps to get past Sargeant, as Busch opened a lead of more than two seconds.
But Jones, who won the 2015 series championship in a KBM truck, ate into the gap steadily and had his one shot at the win on Lap 52.
“I saw the lapped trucks, and they gave me the opportunity to get there,” said Jones, who started from the rear of the field and “I was like, ‘This is going to be my shot, probably my only shot to get the lead, and if we can get the lead, I think we can hold him off.’
“We came within about six inches of doing it, and I had to kind of checkup. There were four lapped trucks. We passed three of them on the straightaway, and there was one more in the Tunnel Turn, and I had to check up on the bottom or run him over, which I wasn’t going to do.
“Kyle was still at my quarter, and I had to give him space. It was a close moment. That was our one shot. I used up a lot of the truck just to make that one move.”
Stewart Friesen finished fourth, followed by Justin Haley. Grant Enfinger, Todd Gilliland, Johnny Sauter, Matt Crafton and Joe Nemechek completed the top 10.
Gragson was suffering from a stomach virus and wasn’t cleared medically to compete after a visit to the infield care center. But Gragson will receive a medical waiver from NASCAR that keeps him eligible to compete for the series championship.
With one victory to his credit this season, Gragson held on to second in the standings, 65 points behind Sauter.
Erik Jones rolled to an unexpected runner-up finish in Saturday’s NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race, stepping in as an 11th-hour replacement for an ailing Noah Gragson at Pocono Raceway.
Jones, a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series regular, started the Kyle Busch Motorsports No. 18 Toyota in the next-to-last starting spot in the 32-truck field after Gragson was unable to post a qualifying speed Saturday morning. He zoomed up to finish fourth in Stage 1 at Lap 15 and briefly took the lead on Lap 27. He challenged for the lead again in the late going but eventually settled for second place, just behind team owner Kyle Busch, who won for the 51st time in his Truck Series career.
RELATED: Busch wins at Pocono | Race results
Jones said his first appearance in a Truck Series race since June 2016 was “definitely a surprise.” Busch said post-race that Jones was his first choice for a fill-in driver, but that former KBM driver William Byron — now a Monster Energy Series rookie with Hendrick Motorsports — was also considered. Jones, the former series champ, said he found out after first Monster Energy Series practice that he might be called upon as a last-ditch substitute.
“You’re definitely changing your mindset getting into a truck race,” said Jones, who will now have an unplanned double-duty weekend with Sunday’s Gander Outdoors 400 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM). “I was planning on probably going back, taking a nap and catching the end of the truck race. So I had to really kind of reset and try to think back — I don’t really have any notes with me here, obviously, in truck racing. … Just tried to refresh my memory and get in the mode of what we had to do.
“I knew it was going to be a little challenging coming from the back and obviously not being in the truck all day, I didn’t know how it drove. I don’t know how Noah drives his trucks, so there’s a lot of things that go through your head, but we had a great truck.”
Gragson, 20, fought through what the team described as a stomach virus to be fastest in Friday’s practice for the Gander Outdoors 150 (1 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM). But he was not medically cleared to compete after a pre-race visit to the infield care center.
A NASCAR spokesperson confirmed that Gragson will receive a waiver for postseason eligibility. Even with the late scratch from the lineup, Gragson still ranks second in the Truck Series standings behind points leader Johnny Sauter, having scored one win (Kansas Speedway) and a series-leading four pole positions.
