Matt Kenseth’s No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota spun on the opening lap as he was following closely to Jimmie Johnson’s No. 48 Chevrolet, causing an eight-car wreck Sunday at Pocono Raceway.
Aric Almirola’s No. 43 Ford took major damage after cars slowed and Michael McDowell’s No. 95 Chevrolet was sent into the grass infield. The hood of Almirola’s car was smashed in as it came to rest on the 2.5-mile triangular-shaped track.
Other cars involved in the wreck included the No. 3 Chevrolet of Austin Dillon, the No. 10 Ford of Danica Patrick, the No. 27 Chevrolet of Paul Menard, the No. 32 Ford of Matt DiBenedetto and the No. 37 Chevrolet of Chris Buescher.
“My feelings are hurt. My back is fine, though,” Almirola told NBCSN. Almirola missed seven races after an accident at Kansas in which he suffered a compression fracture in his back.
The No. 43 was done for the day, though, as Richard Petty Motorsports indicated on social media:
A quick look at three drivers to watch for your Fantasy Live consideration following Sunday’s qualifying results for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Overton’s 400 (3 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Chase Elliott ($26.75): Elliott will line up 13th and has two top-eight finishes in three starts at the “Tricky Triangle.” Interesting factoid: Elliott started 13th in the June 2016 race here and led 51 laps. The driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet finished fifth in final practice on Saturday as well.
Ryan Blaney ($18.00): The most recent Pocono winner is an economical price point. He qualified fifth for today’s race. In the Pocono race Blaney won last month he qualified fourth. The driver of the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford has never finished lower than 11th in three starts at the 2.5-mile track and finished in the top eight in both practices.
AJ Allmendinger ($12.25): Allmendinger will start 28th and has three top-16 finishes in his last four Pocono starts with a +7.3 average place differential in that stretch. The hidden value here is locking in ‘Dinger at this price point ahead of next weekend’s race at Watkins Glen, where he won in 2014 and holds an average finish of 9.4 at the road course (best among all active drivers).
Kyle Busch earned the Coors Light Pole Qualifying Award with the fastest lap in the final round of group qualifying ahead of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Overton’s 400 (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Busch turned a lap of 179.372 mph in the third and final round of qualifying for his fifth pole of the season. Pocono Raceway is one of two tracks the driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota has yet to win at in the Monster Energy Series.
“Feel pretty good about this M&M’s Caramel Camry though, it’s really fast and shows good speed,” Busch said following the 24th pole of his Monster Energy Series career. “We were fast here the last time out so certainly hoping it’s a good omen for us and we’re able to be where we need to when it matters — and that’s the last lap.”
Martin Truex Jr. will start alongside Busch on the front row. Truex Jr. turned a lap of 178.866 mph in the final round of qualifying in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota.
In Busch’s five poles this season, Truex Jr. has started next to him in four of those races. That’s even bigger this weekend — the two drivers wrecked while battling for the lead last weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The aftermath of that contact was a confrontation between No. 78 pit crewmembers and No. 18 crew chief Adam Stevens, which led to two No. 78 crewmembers being suspended by Joe Gibbs Racing (which Furniture Row Racing shares a technical alliance with) for the next three races.
Row 2 will be made up of Jamie McMurray (No. 1 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet) and Denny Hamlin (No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota). Row 3 is comprised of the most recent Pocono winner, Ryan Blaney (No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford), and Kevin Harvick (No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford).
Two-time Pocono winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet) will line up 23rd in his final start at the 2.5-mile track. Defending race winner Chris Buescher (No. 37 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet) will start 24th.
Qualifying was held on the same day as Sunday’s race for the first time all year. It’ll be the same schedule next Sunday at Watkins Glen and in October at Martinsville. In addition to setting the race lineup, the Pocono qualifying results will be used for pit stall selections at Watkins Glen next weekend.
NEWTON, Iowa — Now that Ryan Preece has won his first NASCAR XFINITY Series race, in only his second start for Joe Gibbs Racing, what’s next for the 26-year-old?
A 12-hour driver back to his hometown of Berlin, Connecticut.
“Monday morning, 8 a.m. back to work, I can tell you that,” Saturday’s winner of the U.S. Cellular 250 at Iowa Speedway, said. “I’ve got a lot of work to do; we have a Whelen Modified Tour race on Friday. … The work doesn’t end here, it keeps going. I don’t want to be forgotten. I want people to see me winning races … and not stop believing.”
Preece has only two scheduled starts in the No. 20 Toyota this season for Joe Gibbs Racing. He finished second to Kyle Busch in his debut with the team earlier this season; and he was dominating Saturday en route to his first career victory.
Team owner Joe Gibbs called shortly after the race. Unfortunately, it wasn’t to let Preece know his XFINITY Series schedule had suddenly grown.
It was to offer congratulations on the win, and to congratulate teammate Kyle Benjamin on his runnerup finish and Matt Tifft on a strong effort that went awry in the late going.
“Joe and I were talking and he goes ‘What do we do now?'” Steve deSouza, executive vice president and general manager of XFINITY Series development for JGR, said afterward.
“It’s something that the Gibbs (organization) and Joe in particular have been very fond of and that’s what they have wanted to do — try and help.
“To be honest, we don’t know the answers going forward, we just said ‘Let’s go with them’ … and see what happens. If something opens up, that’s great. … These are the opportunities I think we all dream of when we try to do this and then we see what comes out of them.”
Toss in Brian Scott’s third-place run and the top three in Saturday’s race have made only a combined six starts this season.
“Anybody that knows this sport, especially as drivers, what that tells you is how much talent is really out there,” winning crew chief Chris Gabehart said. “Unfortunately, our sport is not in a spot right now where it can support all that talent and they can’t all make it to the top, but when they do, this is the result.”
Gabehart’s a former racer-turned-crew chief (“I drove as long as I could until the funding wouldn’t take me any further”) and admitted he hopes that one day the sport “can allow all these guys to shine.”
“And each and every Saturday and Sunday you have the 40 best because they’re out there,” he said. “The Kyle Busches of the world with (Kyle Busch Motorsports) and his Super Late Model program and all those guys, they see it; they know. It’s just up to guys like Steve and Joe to figure out how to get them here.”
NEWTON, Iowa — Ryan Preece’s short-lived, but ambitious 2017 NASCAR XFINITY Series schedule began three weeks ago at his de facto home track, New Hampshire Motor Speedway.
It ended Saturday in the U.S. Cellular 250 at Iowa Speedway — as confetti swirled and soared to highlight his first career series triumph in Victory Lane.
Preece, held off a hard-charging Kyle Benjamin in a green-white checkered finish that came after the third restart in the race’s final 17 pulse-quickening laps.
“I thought this race would never end, that’s for sure,” an emotional Preece told the NBCSN after finally slowing his fast Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 car to a stop. “But man, nothing’s going to beat today.”
No one could beat Preece, who ran full-time in 2016, but chose to funnel his 2017 XFINITY Series resources into this two-race stint with JGR.
That high-stakes gamble clearly paid off — as Preece beamed and raised his arms, his season over, but his future visibly brighter.
“I don’t even know what to say,” said Preece, who owns 17 career NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour wins, including two this season. “I’ve got to thank everybody.”
So he did.
Benjamin settled for second, which also is his best career finish. Veteran Brian Scott took third in his first start of the season.
“I was very nervous,” said Benjamin, who also runs part-time for JGR. “I wanted to make it happen right there.”
Preece did just that, from start to finish, with a slight hiccup in between.
He earned his first career Coors Light Pole Award earlier Saturday, powering to a lap of 24.072 seconds at a top speed of 130.857 mph. That dominance carried over into the first stage, which Preece led in its entirety.
He dropped to sixth off pit road, however, which allowed Justin Allgaier to surge to the front. Allgaier would narrowly hold off Preece to win the second stage and gain a coveted playoff point, but a later gamble would reap misfortune instead of reward.
Drivers faced a dilemma when Spencer Gallagher hit the wall, drawing the caution flag with 80 laps to go. Every top contender eventually dove onto pit road. Everyone except Allgaier, that is, whose team hoped another caution would help the decision pay off.
That didn’t happen, as Allgaier swiftly dropped from first to seventh, then to 15th — and finally, to a green flag pit stop that came with 25 laps to go. That longed-for caution finally flew shortly after Allgaier returned to the track when Sam Hornish Jr.’s No. 22 Ford hit the wall.
Allgaier’s second bad break in as many weeks preceded that nerve-fraying — and caution-filled — finish.
Points leader Elliott Sadler raced near the front most of the day, but ended up 12th. He maintains a 54-point lead over William Byron, who finished ninth.
Preece clearly wasn’t racing for points. Only a win.
And he edged Benjamin by a mere .054 seconds — a fitting margin to conclude a sprint-sized season that ended in happy incredulity.
“I’m so at a loss of words right now,” Preece said. “I don’t know what to say. This is what emotion is, I can tell you that.”
Editor’s Note: The pit stall selections for Sunday’s Overton’s 400 (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) were selected based off of last week’s qualifying results at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Sunday’s qualifying session (11:30 a.m., NBCSN) will determine the order for picking pit stalls at Watkins Glen International next weekend.
See where your favorite driver will pit at Pocono Raceway in the photo above.
LONG POND, Pa. – After news that two Furniture Row Racing No. 78 crew members were suspended by Joe Gibbs Racing for a trio of races for an altercation with JGR crew chief Adam Stevens, the No. 18 crew chief has offered his comments on his role in the incident.
“I waited four or five minutes before I even left the box and was 100 percent focused on getting back to our trailer — I had no intention of stopping anywhere along the way,” Stevens told ESPN. “I was approached with some inappropriate comments and communication from a Joe Gibbs Racing employee and it rubbed me the wrong way.
“I took an opportunity to tell him what I thought about it.”
The No. 78 of Martin Truex Jr. and No. 18 of Kyle Busch crashed on Lap 112 of the Brickyard 400 while racing for the lead entering Turn 1, ending the day for both teams. Video from pit road captured an incident between the two crews, one in which Busch’s crew chief Stevens was involved.
Furniture Row gets its pit crew from JGR as part of their alliance, thus the suspension from the parent organization.
As the video shows, Truex’s tire changer Lee Cunningham clapped at Stevens and said, “Tell Kyle way to go,” prompting Stevens to enter the box.
In an earlier statement from Furniture Row Racing team owner Barney Visser, he said, “Our No. 78 pit crew is hired, trained and managed by Joe Gibbs Racing. They are one of the best pit crews on the circuit and have kept us up front all season. We admire the talent and dedication of our pit crew and support all of the decisions and actions taken by Joe Gibbs Racing.”
LONG POND, Pa. — Kyle Busch, with a dominant truck beneath him, appeared to be sailing smoothly to his 49th career NASCAR Camping World Truck Series win at Pocono Raceway on Saturday afternoon.
Justin Haley had other ideas.
After having swept each of the first two stages, Busch’s No. 51 Toyota and Haley’s No. 24 Chevrolet got into it in Turn 2 on Lap 36, sending the Kyle Busch Motorsports driver into the outside wall, ending his day.
Busch had led 32 laps to that point, and was saddled with a 25th-place finish.
“Thought we were only three-wide, then just got door-slammed three or four times … got loose and backed it into the fence,” Busch said after being evaluated and released from the infield care center. “I don’t know why he’s mad at me, but I felt like I got crashed. You know, it’s pretty bad to see that happen and to see that happen getting into the corner like that. It’s frustrating. That was a brand-new truck and pretty sure it’s hurt.”
Busch, who moonlights for his own team in the Truck Series, said he’ll move on, but won’t forget the incident in the future.
“Oh, I’m keeping it (in the back of my mind), for sure. I don’t know what excuse he would have, but I’ll move on. Tomorrow’s tomorrow and we’ll play with the big boys tomorrow.”
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver will go for his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win of the season in Sunday’s Overton’s 400 (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.)
LONG POND, Pa. – With his boss out of the race, Christopher Bell filled the void, pulling away to win the Overton’s 150 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race on Saturday at Pocono Raceway.
Bell overtook John Hunter Nemechek on Lap 54 of 60 at the 2.5-mile triangular track and finished 1.964 seconds ahead of runner-up Ben Rhodes, who passed Nemechek for the second position on Lap 56.
One circuit later Ryan Truex took the third spot from Nemechek, who held on to fourth at the finish.
The victory was Bell’s first at Pocono, his fourth of the season and the sixth of his career – and it gave him the series points lead.
Kyle Busch, Bell’s team owner at Kyle Busch Motorsports, won the first two 15-lap stages, but moments after the restart that began the green-flag portion of the final stage on Lap 36, Busch’s No. 51 Toyota was wiped out by contact from Justin Haley’s Chevrolet.
After one more caution and the final restart on Lap 45, it took Bell nine laps to race from fifth to the lead. After battling side-by-side with Nemechek for two laps, Bell gained momentum through the Tunnel Turn and made the winning pass in Turn 3, after struggling to clear the No. 8 Chevrolet down the long frontstretch on the previous circuit.
“The only real passes that I made down the front straightaway were whenever they gave it to me,” Bell said. “It was pretty tough, because I wasn’t good enough with the side-draft to stall the guy beside me and clear him by the time I got to Turn 1. I looked up in my mirror, and whenever I got side-by-side (with Nemechek) we were just bringing all those guys behind us with us.
“I was just trying to figure out where we were going to beat him at, and, thankfully, I showed enough nose to where he couldn’t get to the bottom of the Tunnel Turn, and it screwed up his exit out of (Turn) 2.”
Ultimately, it was clean air that made the difference for Bell.
“It was definitely who could get in front on the restarts,” said Rhodes, who spent the last three laps breaking the draft with the pursuing Truex, taking Truex’s line and blocking the No. 16 Tundra.
“I was doing everything in my wheelhouse to keep him behind me,” Rhodes said.
Truex was keenly aware of the second-place finisher’s tactics but said he would have done the same thing if the positions had been reversed.
“Track position was extremely big,” said Truex, who posted the second-best finish of his Truck Series career, one spot short of the runner-up result he posted in last year’s season opener at Daytona. “Once we got single file, it was really hard to pass. There was a lot of blocking.
“It’s frustrating that we’re this good and this close, but it’s great that we’re continuing to have good runs like this.”
Bell leaves Pocono with an 18-point lead in the standings over defending champion Johnny Sauter, who started from the rear of the field because of unapproved adjustments to his No. 21 Chevrolet and finished fifth.
“That’s really special – I’m just so thankful to be able to drive this thing,” Bell said of assuming the series lead. “It’s a dream come true to be able to compete in the NASCAR series and to be able to drive for Toyota and Kyle Busch Motorsports. It’s just a dream come true.”
Note: The No. 52 truck of Stewart Friesen, which finished 12th in the race, was found in post-race inspection to be missing one lug nut. Any potential penalties will be announced next week.
LONG POND, Pa. – For the past decade-and-a-half-plus, the majority of Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s weekends have been rote.
He’d fly into a race track, hop in a race car, sign some autographs and head home a few days later. There’d be a brief stop in Victory Lane on occasion – 26 times, to be exact – but for the most part, the final dish didn’t stray too far from the tried-and-true recipe.
That’s all about to change.
The Hendrick Motorsports driver is set to hang up the fire suit at the end of the season – from full-time Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series competition, at least – and strap into, well, a suit. He’s signed a broadcasting deal to call races for NBC Sports in 2018 and beyond, a venture mostly unfamiliar to him and certainly out of his realm of comfort.
“It’s been real easy to drive a race car and hang out in the garage,” Earnhardt Jr. said Saturday at Pocono Raceway, site of Sunday’s Overton’s 400 (3 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). “I know all these people and I’m comfortable there. I’m going to get out of that area and go places I’ve never been before, do things with folks I’ve never met before and try to broaden my horizons a little bit. I’m a little nervous to try something new. Hopefully it all goes pretty smooth and I don’t stumble out of the gate a little bit.”
It’s not completely uncharted territory for the 14-time Most Popular Driver, however. He has a few races under his belt from the booth already, calling an XFINITY Series event for FOX last year and sitting in for portions of a pair of Monster Energy Series races while sitting out with concussion-related symptoms at the tail-end of 2016.
The brief stints offered a taste of Analyst Dale, and the limited sample size points to that version being refreshingly similar to the genuine quality Driver Dale provides (along with Bossman Dale and Water Cooler Dale, thankfully.)
It’s something that Earnhardt aims to continue once that gig becomes full-time.
“I hope that I’m able to be comfortable being honest. You can cross the line and I’ve done it before, you just have to know when you’ve crossed it and admit it,” he said. “I think that people, my peers included, are OK (with criticism) as long as you own it. I hope that I’m being brought into the booth because of who I am and how I am and how I act and my honesty and candid conversation.
“I want to be that same person I am in the booth. I don’t want to change or be molded into something different or polished up. I mean, I definitely want to get better and I want to be great at it. I want to work at it and do what I need to do, but I also want that freedom to be honest and be candid. But if you’re going to do that, you’re obviously going to step on a toe or two, and you’re also going to be wrong sometimes. And when you’re wrong, it’s best — and I’ve always felt like I did a good job of this — is owning it and moving on.”
NBC snagged Earnhardt for that authenticity, for sure, and it’s largely why fans flock to the genial driver – even more so than his famous last name.
There’s little chance the unfiltered — but fair — Earnhardt suddenly becomes a buttoned-up, corporate mouthpiece once he picks up the microphone. It’s not why he was hired.
“I think that Sam (Flood, NBC Sports Executive Producer) has told me that he hired me to be me. I’m hoping that the ‘me’ he is talking about is the guy that you guys (the media) know and the person I am on social media and Twitter, because that’s what I enjoy and that’s what I want when I get into the booth; to be that candid and be that honest,” Earnhardt said. “I’m not going to attack anybody. I didn’t like getting attacked when I was a race car driver and I certainly wouldn’t want to do that to any of my peers. I’ve got a lot of respect for those guys.”
Following Sunday’s race — likely one of his best remaining shots at win No. 27 and the playoff berth that would come along with it — a mere 15 races will remain in one of the sport’s prolific, even if not the most decorated, careers of all time. But it could be the dawn of another great one. It’s too soon to tell.
There’s a little uneasiness that comes along with that, naturally, not just for the throngs of Junior Nation, but for Junior, himself.
But it’s dissipating as the weeks tick by.
“As I get closer to the end of the season and what comes next, it starts to get clearer, what I’m going to be doing. And I’m more comfortable and I’m starting to learn that I’m not going to be put in any compromising situations. I don’t have to do anything that I don’t feel comfortable with,” he said. “As we accept and decline opportunities, we’re going to have ultimate control over what we get ourselves into. The anxiety is coming down a little bit and the excitement level is rising a little bit as it gets a little more clear as to what I’m going to be doing.
“When you make such a big change in your life, there’s a lot of unknowns and you’re a little nervous and scared at first.
“But all that stuff is starting to kind of clear up.”
