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 Pocono 400 (2 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Enjoy!
LONG POND, Pa. — The race-winning No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing NASCAR Xfinity Series Toyota failed post-race inspection height measurements following the Pocono Green 250 Recycled by J.P. Mascaro & Sons.
Kyle Busch drove the No. 18 car to his first Xfinity Series win of the season, leading 64 laps on the day en route to the victory. The win was the second for the No. 18 car in the Xfinity Series with Ryan Preece earning a win at Bristol in April.
The car was too high in the left front, according to a NASCAR spokesperson. Last week, the No. 20 JGR team of Christopher Bell was assessed a L1-level penalty for failing post-race height measurements that resulted in a one-race suspension for crew chief Jason Ratcliff, a $10,000 fine and a loss of 10 driver and owner points.
RELATED: Race results | Race recap
Any potential penalties will be announced next week by the sanctioning body.
LONG POND, Pa. – In the NASCAR Xfinity Series, Cole Custer is quietly and unassumingly emerging as a championship contender. He may not have a race win yet in 2018, but the Stewart-Haas Racing driver is coming on strong following a fifth-place finish in the Pocono Green 250 Recycled by J.P. Mascaro & Sons.
Custer started the day on the right note by earning his third pole position of the season and led the first two laps before Kyle Busch took over the lead on Lap 3. Busch would go on to win the race.
RELATED: Complete race results | Xfinity standings | Schedule
The No. 00 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford team made a strategy play at the end of Stage 1 that paid off in a big way. Custer pitted from fourth-place on Lap 22 to be up front at the start of Stage 2.
“We pitted early just trying to get some track position there,” crew chief Jeff Meendering told NASCAR.com after the race. “We knew we could make it to the end of the second stage really easy and then the last stage, we had to pit at that one so we could make it to the end of the race on fuel.”
The move put Custer out front for 21 more laps and he was nearly able to grab his first stage win of 2018. However, Paul Menard got past him with two laps to go to deny Custer the playoff point. From there, Custer spent a good portion of the final stage running as high as second before ending the day in fifth.
“We just didn’t have really good long-run speed,” Custer said on pit road after the race. “That was our biggest problem. We just got too tight at the end of a run. It was interesting to run the package and try to learn it throughout the day. I just think we needed a little more there.”
The race saw the Xfinity Series use the same aero package that was used at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last season. The package featured a bigger splitter and spoiler, specially-designed aero ducts and restrictor plates. The package will be used again next weekend at Michigan International Speedway and in September at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
“We are getting better and better and we are starting to hit our stride now,” Custer said. “We’ve always had fast cars and now we are starting to get the finishes. We need just a little bit more and just the fine details, but I think we’re pretty close right now.”
RELATED: Race recap of Pocono Green 250 | Custer’s career stats
Custer and his team have found their rhythm with back-to-back top-five finishes. He also has nine top 10s in the past 10 races in 2018. Dating back to last August at Bristol, the California native has 19 top 10s in his last 24 races and a dominating victory in last season’s finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He now holds a one-point edge on second place in the standings over Daniel Hemric, with Tyler Reddick two points back of Custer in fourth place.
“We are set up pretty good to make the playoffs,” Meendering said of his driver and team. “But to win the championship, we need to keep stepping it up. Keep getting better every week and we’re heading in that direction.”
LONG POND, Pa. — A new high-downforce, restrictor-plate competition package at Pocono Raceway brought a familiar result on Saturday — at least where the NASCAR Xfinity Series is concerned.
Overcoming a pit road speeding penalty that sent him to the back of the field for the start of the second 25-lap stage in the Pocono Green 250, Kyle Busch clawed his way through the field to win the 92nd race of his career.
RELATED: No. 18 car fails post-race inspection | Complete race results
What wasn’t familiar was Busch’s victory at Pocono. It was his first, in his second start at the 2.5-mile triangular track. And it was Busch’s first Xfinity victory of the season in his fourth start of the year.
Busch’s No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was the clear class of the field. Only the penalty put the outcome in doubt. Busch grabbed the lead from pole winner Cole Custer on Lap 3 of 100 and held it through the end of Stage 1, winning that leg by 7.171 seconds over teammate Christopher Bell.
But both Busch and Bell were too fast on pit road during stops and Lap 28, and the teammates restarted 21st and 22nd on Lap 31. By the end of Stage 2, won by Paul Menard, Busch had climbed to sixth, and from there it was a matter of time before he returned to the top spot.
That happened when he stayed out under caution after Bell and Justin Allgaier, two of the top contenders, wrecked on the Long Pond straightaway on Lap 60 and exited the race. Busch held the lead from the restart on Lap 66 to the finish and crossed the stripe 2.521 seconds ahead of runner-up Chase Elliott, who was subbing for suspended Spencer Gallagher.
“The car was on rails this week,” Busch said. “It was last week, too (in an eighth-place finish at Charlotte), but we were just able to over the deficit we had this weekend (from the penalty) and bring it back to the front.”
WATCH: Allgaier, Lupton trigger wreck
Busch’s only worry was getting through heavy race traffic in his charge from the back to the front after the start of the second stage.
“You’re always worried about something crazy or an unpredictable situation happening,” Busch said. “We just kind of had to bide our time and be patient a little bit, kind of make moves when we could make moves…
“All in all, though, we knew we had speed in our race car, and it was really fast out front, once we got to those top five, top six cars.”
Daniel Hemric ran third, followed by Austin Cindric, Custer and series leader Elliott Sadler.
Busch got 48 laps out of his last tank of fuel. Elliott, who passed Hemric for second with one lap left, was hoping Busch’s Camry would sputter before he reached the finish line.
“We came in to top off (on Lap 58),” Elliott said. “We wanted to be on the good side of fuel, and I was hoping these guys would push it a little too close. … But it was a lot of fun, and I’m looking forward to the next one.”
Bell and Allgaier were victims of the Lap 60 crash that started with Sadler pushing Allgaier up the straightaway between Turns 1 and 2 in close quarters with the No. 28 Ford of Dylan Lupton. Contact between the cars of Lupton and Allgaier turned Allgaier’s Chevrolet toward the wall, where he collected Bell’s Toyota in the process. Both cars were damaged too severely to continue.
“I just made a mistake there whenever I followed Kyle (Busch) to Pit Road at the end of the first stage, Bell said. “He was going really fast, and I thought I could, too. And I just ended up speeding.
“There was nothing I could have done there with Justin, for that matter. We were just victims of Pocono restarts. It just got really hairy. It was exciting. That’s why sometimes we love it and sometimes we hate it.”
Sadler retained the series lead by 62 points over Custer in second and 63 over Hemric in third.
LONG POND, Pa. — Ryan Blaney won the Busch Pole Qualifying Award and will start in the top position in Sunday’s Pocono 400 (2 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Pocono Raceway. After two practice sessions and qualifying, we’ve dissected the numbers and 10-lap averages to offer a suggested lineup worthy of your Fantasy Live consideration as you go to make roster decisions for the 14th 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: Ryan Blaney
2: Clint Bowyer
3: Kyle Larson
4: Chase Elliott
5: Alex Bowman
Garage: Brad Keselowski
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: As much as I’d love to have Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. in my lineup, I am electing to save the uses for a little later. I think given the projected fuel window of around 33 laps and stage lengths of 50, 50 and 60, there is a strong likelihood we will see varying strategies on pit road, making stage points a little tricky to forecast. I am down to five uses for each of that threesome and I simply like how some other tracks set up a little better for them. It could elicit some short term pain for a long term gain with this plan, I am at peace with that. Planning to stack my bonus picks with Harvick since he looks to be the strongest of the three this weekend.
By and large, I’m sticking with my original lineup except for one change. Blaney scored the Busch Pole for Sunday’s race. Bowyer posted the third-best 10-lap average in final practice and second-best 15-lap time (h/t @mikejoy500 for sharing on Twitter). Larson was second on the 10-lap board in final practice and best 15-lap average. Elliott has a solid history at Pocono with three top 10s, has been solid this weekend and I have plenty of uses with him. He’s also Steve Letarte’s pick for the weekend, so he has that going for him as well.
Keselowski has been further down on the speed chart than I expected, but I like him as a garage pick for two reasons. One is his strong Pocono history (eight top fives with five in a row at the 2.5-mile track) and the second is this track often turns into one that pays big dividends for strategy. There is no better duo on the box at race strategy than Keselowski and crew chief Paul Wolfe. My last active starting spot came down to a decision between Kurt Busch and Alex Bowman. The young Hendrick driver has been fast in practice and this seems to be a good spot to plug him. While Busch has been solid here of late as well, he was 17th on the 10-lap board and the No. 88 was 10th, while also being a full 1.4 mph faster in the 10-lap averages. I like being able to save the 2004 champion for another race.
LONG POND, Pa. — Given the strong buzz about the higher-downforce, restrictor-plate competition package used for the Monster Energy NASCAR All-Star Race in May, it was almost a foregone conclusion that the configuration would get additional test time — sooner rather than later.
That happened Tuesday and Wednesday at Michigan International Speedway in a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series manufacturers’ wheel-force test at the 2-mile track. David Ragan drove a Ford, Justin Allgaier a Chevrolet and Drew Herring a Toyota.
RELATED: NASCAR taking ‘deep dive’ with learnings from All-Star rules package
“They’ve got a new tire for Michigan, so the manufacturers elected to use one of our wheel-force tests to go up, and we ran some laps with the current aero package, and we ran some laps with the new All-Star package,” Ragan said. “I felt like, with just three cars there, it’s really hard to get a really good read on what kind of draft you would have, what kind of ability you would have to pass cars.
“But I felt like it was similar to Charlotte. They cars drove really good. You could stay in the throttle. You felt like you were definitely going slower, but it did create a little bit of a draft, and it bunched everybody up. We only had three cars there, but we did run some together, and it was pretty easy to stay caught up with the person in front of you, and you could feel a pretty good draft going down the straightaway, and you could make up three or four car-lengths pretty easy.”
Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer, said in an interview on FS1 Saturday morning that the package could be used in as many as three Cup points races this year to evaluate its possible viability for certain tracks in 2019.
“For us, it’s making sure everybody has had enough time to look at it, has enough time to evaluate it,” O’Donnell said. “If you look back at it, we really only ran it last year at Indy (Xfinity) and the All-Star Race, and this weekend is the first-time in Xfinity at Pocono.
“Taking all that data and evaluating if this is right direction to go is the first step.”
Ragan believes certain minor changes to the All-Star package could facilitate the ability to pass.
“I feel like they’ve got to tweak the package to allow a car that does get a run the ability to get out of line and continue with that run,” Ragan said. “Sometimes, at the All-Star race, a car in front of us would lift, and we would get a run, and you would pull out to pass, and you would still get stalled out.
“I think there are probably some different variations of spoiler height, maybe the front ducts or maybe a gear to tweak. The thought process behind the package would be ideal at some race tracks, but I don’t think it would work at every race track—at some race tracks, we don’t need anything different from what we have now.”
LONG POND, Pa. — In 13 years with Richard Childress racing, Kevin Harvick won six poles.
When he moved to Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014, Harvick won eight poles in his first season with the team.
With SHR, Harvick is a threat to win the top starting spot wherever he races. He has five front-row starts this year, including two poles, and has qualified in the top 10 in all but two of 14 races. In those two events, Harvick never made a qualifying run — at Bristol after a wreck in practice forced him to a backup car, and at Charlotte when his No. 4 Ford failed to clear pre-qualifying inspection.
RELATED: Pocono starting lineup
To Harvick, the dramatic shift in results from time trials is primarily about priorities, both on his part and on the part of his organization.
“It is really just preparation,” Harvick said Friday after qualifying second for Sunday’s Pocono 400 (2 p.m. ET Sunday on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). “For me, in my previous life, it was about not worrying about qualifying and just get what you can get and go from there. The emphasis was different when I came to SHR, and the difference was that there was a lot of preparation and time spent in the differences of the setups and things you needed to do.
“The expectations were much different. When the expectations are different, it makes you think about things differently. There are two different processes. For me, I feel like I can do what I need to do on the race track for the race, but I prepare more for qualifying on a weekend more than I do a race, if that tells you the emphasis they put on it.”
Kyle Busch led Saturday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series final practice leading up to Sunday’s Pocono 400 (2 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR radio).
Busch, the series points leader, pushed his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to a top speed of 174.588 mph at the 2.5-mile Pocono Raceway. He also led the opening Pocono practice session Friday. Coming off a victory in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, Busch will start fifth on Sunday.
RELATED: Practice results | Starting lineup
Pole-sitter and defending race winner Ryan Blaney posted the seventh-fastest time in Saturday’s session, reaching 173.360 mph in the No. 12 Team Penske Ford at the “Tricky Triangle.”
Kevin Harvick, who shares the front row with Blaney in the Pocono 400, was second-fastest Saturday at 174.115 mph in the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford.
Martin Truex Jr. was third on the practice leaderboard at 173.953 mph, followed by Alex Bowman (173.658 mph) and Aric Almirola (173.568 mph).
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. spun his No. 17 Ford about 17 minutes into the practice session but avoided the wall.
See where your favorite driver will pit in Sunday’s Pocono 400 at Pocono Raceway (2 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
LONG POND, Pa. – Just as he had done in winning his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race last June, Ryan Blaney kept Kevin Harvick behind him at Pocono Raceway when it mattered most.
Blaney sped around the 2.5-mile triangular track in 50.877 seconds (176.897 mph) in Friday’s knockout qualifying session to earn the top starting spot for Sunday’s Pocono 400 (2 p.m. ET Sunday on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
RELATED: Qualifying results | Full Pocono schedule
In winning his first Busch Pole Award at the Tricky Triangle, his second of the season and the fourth of his career, Blaney beat Harvick (176.807 mph) by .026 seconds. Harvick, a five-time winner in the series this year, had the top speed in each of the previous two rounds.
But Pocono is becoming a special track for Blaney, who got his first taste of competition in a quarter midget on the dirt track outside Turn 3.
“I’ve always enjoyed this place,” Blaney said. “I enjoyed coming here to watch my dad (Dave Blaney) race. I made my first-ever start in a race car at the dirt track out there. So it’s been special to me.
“Me and Jeb Burton and Brandon McReynolds grew up racing scooters. There used to be a small Pocono with MRO (Motor Racing Outreach) in the infield over there. We used to race scooters around that. I have a lot of memories about this place.”
Blaney and his No. 12 team also have developed a knack for negotiating the track with three distinctly different turns.
“I feel like we have a pretty good line of communication with where we need to be from practice to qualifying to the race. I feel very comfortable, and the team feels very confident, and that’s always a good combination.”
Harvick had a pole-winning lap going until he slipped in Turn 3.
“I thought we did a really good job of trying to pick a pace and trying not to be a hero on every lap, and we were able to pick up a 10th (of a second) in each round,” Harvick said. “We got a little loose there in (Turn) 3, and I didn’t want to tug on the wheel any more just because of the fact I didn’t want it to get any looser.
“So I just let it slide to the center and had to wait and gave up a good solid 10th there. It was still a great lap for our Busch Beer Ford, and starting up front is a big deal here.”
Jamie McMurray qualified third in the No. 1 Chevrolet, followed by Toyota driver Martin Truex Jr. Kyle Busch, who picked up his fourth victory of the season in last Sunday’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, will roll off fifth beside brother Kurt Busch, who qualified sixth.
Joey Logano, Ryan Newman, Clint Bowyer, Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott and Daytona 500 winner Austin Dillon completed the top 12.
