Take a look at key story lines and more for Monday’s race from Pocono
WATCH: Jones honors his father at Michigan race
NEWTON, Iowa — Erik Jones’ hard-fought victory at Iowa Speedway on Saturday night was meaningful in several ways.
It marked the 20-year-old’s third win of the season and first trip to Victory Lane since May. But it also went a little deeper than that: It was the first race Jones had won since his father Dave passed away from cancer on June 7.
“It’s pretty special,” Jones said after the race. “It’s the first NASCAR win I’ve gotten that he’s not here for. In a way, it’s special for me to get back to Victory Lane without him. I know he’s riding along with us and it’s hard not to think that this one was for him.”
WATCH: Jones celebrates in Victory Lane at Iowa
Jones posted a tweet confirming his father’s passing just before the XFINITY race at his home track of Michigan International Speedway. He concluded the tweet, which also included an extended tribute to his father, with the following:
“I’m going to miss you at the racetrack every weekend, always with a pre-race pep talk. I’m going to miss seeing you every time I come home, I’m going to miss sharing jokes with you, but most all of I’m going to miss my best friend. I love you dad, and I can’t wait to see you again.”
While his father wasn’t there to witness his son take the checkered flag at Iowa, Jones knew he was watching.
“Definitely wish he could have been there to celebrate with us, but I know he’s definitely smiling down on us tonight,” Jones said.
RELATED: Results | Chase Grid | Standings
NEWTON, Iowa — Ty Dillon’s face shone with sweat and slight disappointment as he climbed out of his No. 3 Chevrolet and exchanged a quick word with crew chief Nick Harrison on pit road following a runner-up finish to winner Erik Jones in Saturday night’s U.S. Cellular 250 at Iowa Speedway.
His Richard Childress Racing ride was dominant, leading 83 of the 250 laps — but it wasn’t enough for the checkered flag, leaving Dillon a bridesmaid for the second time this season in the Hawkeye State.
And for a driver who hasn’t won since Indianapolis in 2014, that certainly stings.
“It’s heartbreaking, I really wanted to win ever since two years ago at Indy,” Dillon said on pit road. “We’ve had so many ups and downs and so many second-place finishes.
“To lead a lot of laps here is encouraging, but man, it just hurts.”
His No. 3 was aggressive all night, moving through the field with purpose since the drop of the green flag. By the time the first caution flag was waved at Lap 29, Dillon had already moved into the top 10 after starting 15th. As the race continued, the 24-year-old driver looked poised for Victory Lane when a strong pit stop won Dillon the race off pit road at Lap 152. He held onto the lead for 83 laps, but Jones’ powerful No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota eventually overtook Dillon’s No. 3 Chevy.
“I was pushing so hard, I just started to get a little bit loose and a little bit looser and his car was just a little bit better at that point,” Dillon said. “I could make it work for a couple laps there, but every once in a while I’d just get a little too free and he’d make a gain on me. There were other cars in front of me and I don’t know if it just kind of took a little air off us or what, but I could not get to them, could not get past them and let Erik get a good run on us.
“I knew he was going to try the top and he was just better than me, so he could run whatever line I wasn’t. I tried to block him and he made a good move and got by me.”
The Joe Gibbs Racing fleet has flexed its muscle this season across all series, winning 13 of the 19 XFINITY Series events alone. Daniel Suarez won the Coors Light Pole for the organization and remained near the front of the field for the much of the race’s first half until a run-in with Josh Berry’s No. 88 left the No. 19 with too much damage to continue.
“You’ve just got to be so perfect to outrun them and when you get the lead, you can’t give them any inch cause they’re there,” Dillon said of the Gibbs cars. “I try to be perfect all night and just came up 10 laps short.”
Joe Gibbs Racing’s continued success begs the question: What is everyone else missing?
According to No. 3 crew chief Nick Harrison, not as much as it appears.
“I don’t think Gibbs has got anything else that we don’t have — I just think that they’re a little bit better in a couple areas right now,” Harrison said in the garage post-race. “It’s not that we don’t notice — we’ve got everything they’ve got and we’re making gains. I feel like come time to shine, we’ll be right there for the sun to get on us.”
While the runner-up finish stings, the team’s dominance and aggressiveness throughout the night also sings praises — and provides encouragement as the Chase draws nearer.
“We were in second tonight and showed we could compete with those guys,” Dillon said. “We know we’ve got to get better, we know we can get better. If we execute like that we’ll have a great shot going in the Chase.”
And Harrison can see his driver’s motivation — and appetite for victory — growing.
“These second-place finishes, they’ve not all been so bad because they probably make Ty that much more hungry, make my guys that much more hungry,” Harrison said. “… And come time for it, we’re going to be there to get our meal.”
MORE: Photos from the day
RELATED: Live radar, weather updates
Intermittent fits of rain postponed the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ Pennsylvania 400 at Pocono Raceway to an 11 a.m. ET Monday start.
Wet weather moved into the area Saturday evening, and it was raining hard Sunday morning as teams went through pre-race inspection. A fleet of Air Titan 2.0 trucks were on hand to get the track ready as the clouds broke near the scheduled 1:30 p.m. ET start time, but rain began to fall again at approximately 2:30 p.m. ET to halt the track-drying process.
The rescheduled 400-mile event will be broadcast on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM.
Martin Truex Jr. is the polesitter for the 21st of 36 points-paying races of the Sprint Cup season. Truex, who prevailed in Friday’s Coors Light Pole Qualifying, is one of five drivers who can clinch a spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup with a victory at Pocono.
MORE: Full starting lineup
The series’ first stop at the 2.5-mile triangular track was delayed until Monday due to rain, and Kurt Busch went on to find Victory Lane. This is the first time in a single year that both Pocono races have been postponed to the next day.
Rain also affected on-track activities early Saturday, canceling qualifying for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. William Byron went on to win the Pocono Mountains 150 later Saturday.
RELATED: Results | Standings | Chase Grid
NEWTON, Iowa — For 83 laps, it looked like Ty Dillon’s winless drought would finally end. That was until Erik Jones flashed the brilliance that has many predicting big things for the Joe Gibbs Racing prodigy.
Jones led a race-high 154 laps in the No. 20 DeWalt Toyota en route to Victory Lane on Saturday night in the U.S. Cellular 250 at Iowa Speedway. Jones passed Dillon with 15 laps remaining to retake the lead for the final time of the night and beat Dillon’s No. 3 Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet to the checkered flag by 3.533 seconds.
The NASCAR XFINITY Series victory was the third of the season for Jones and the fifth of his career in his 45th start. Having one of the most impressive Sunoco Rookie of the Year campaigns in recent memory, Jones has 11 top-five and 12 top-10 results in 19 starts this season.
“It’s a great day. We had a great car. One that definitely deserved to win the race,” Jones said in victory lane. “The fastest car I feel like won tonight, which is always a good feeling. It was an awesome day for us.
“I feel like we deserved to win when we came here earlier this year, we had a really fast car. It was nice to get some redemption for that one.”
Jones qualified second but passed his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Daniel Suarez on the first lap. While several teams flew in Sprint Cup pit crews from Pocono, the Joe Gibbs Racing teams did not. Despite dropping spots after pitting, Jones would quickly regain them when the field returned to green.
When the caution flew at Lap 150 as Brandon McReynolds made hard contact with the Turn 1 wall, teams hit pit road for fresh tires and fuel. Dillon’s pit crew had the quickest stop to give Dillon the lead for the first time of the night at Lap 152.
When the field returned to green, Dillon was able to put some distance between his No. 3 Chevrolet and Jones. Dillon would lead the next 83 laps before Jones drove to the bottom and made the final pass on Dillon at Lap 235.
“I want the win so bad,” said Dillon, whose drought extended to 66 races. “That was all I had. They (Joe Gibbs Racing) are good right now. That was all I had.
“I’m proud of my guys. They gave us a great opportunity tonight. My heart’s been broken every race since Indy (site of Dillon’s last win in 2014). I want to get in victory lane again. We’re close; we just have to get a little better.”
Brad Keselowski, the only Sprint Cup regular to make the trip from Pocono Raceway, site of this Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series race (1:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN), finished eighth in the No. 22 Discount Tire Ford.
Daniel Suarez won the Coors Light Pole Award on Saturday afternoon and ran second to his teammate Jones for the first-half of the race. On the restart for McReynolds’ accident, Suarez was running seventh and when Josh Berry’s No. 88 didn’t go, Suarez’s No. 19 ARRIS Toyota plowed into it, suffering heavy front-end damage. Suarez would remain on track for several laps before hitting pit road. Unable to continue, Suarez finished 30th and lost the lead in the championship standings to Elliott Sadler.
By virtue of his third-place finish in the No. 1 OneMain Chevrolet, Sadler leads Suarez by 14 points.
The NASCAR XFINITY Series returns to action next Saturday at Watkins Glen International for the running of the Zippo 200 at The Glen.
RELATED: Full starting lineup | See every car in the field
LONG POND, Pa. — Is it or isn’t it? Martin Truex Jr. couldn’t, or wouldn’t, say for certain on Friday.
The Furniture Row Racing driver won the Coors Light Pole Award for Monday’s Pennsylvania 400 (11 a.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race with a dominant performance through all three rounds of qualifying.
But was it the same No. 78 Toyota that Truex used to crush the competition earlier this year in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway?
“Somebody mentioned that it was after qualifying so I think it is,” Truex said during his post-qualifying press conference. “I don’t think we’ve run it anywhere else.”
Truex led a race-record 392 of 400 laps at Charlotte to earn his first win of the season and the fourth of his career in the series — and, in fact, a representative for Furniture Row confirmed the car this weekend was the same machine from the Coca-Cola 600.
“These cars these days, I don’t think it really matters honestly,” Truex Jr. said. “They’re built identical to each other. I can get in five different race cars in five weeks and not tell you which one was which. So yeah it is and maybe it has a little magic in it. We’ll find out come Sunday* I suppose, if we can lead almost every lap. We’ll see what happens.”
RELATED: Sweet name for special car?
Truex was second in Friday’s opening round of qualifying, first in the second round and then first again in the final round. His final-round lap of 179.244 mph put him solidly atop the scoring pylon.
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Carl Edwards will start second, thanks to a final-round lap of 178.873 mph.
“My lap was awesome; Martin’s lap was spectacular,” Edwards said. “Congrats to them. … That must have felt really good because mine was great.
“The last two weeks, Indy and here, I was pretty proud of my lap. They just got us.”
*The race was originally scheduled for Sunday (July 31) but was postponed due to weather and will be held Monday.
Editor’s note: This story originally ran July 12, prior to Byron’s fifth series win of 2016 at Pocono Raceway.
William Byron had one request for his father when he attended his first-ever NASCAR race at Martinsville Speedway on April 2, 2006.
To see the ever-popular burnout.
“My first race I went to, actually, Tony Stewart won and he climbed the fence at Martinsville,” Byron told NASCAR.com at the Kyle Busch Motorsports shop in Mooresville, North Carolina earlier this month. “I told my dad when I went to my first race that we had to stay for the burnout, and now I get to do the burnouts, I get to do the cool celebrations, so that’s a neat part for me.”
Now with four 2016 wins in just 11 career starts and an official lock in the Chase, the Camping World Truck Series Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender has left his own marks on the start/finish lines of Kansas Speedway, Texas Motor Speedway, Iowa Speedway and, most recently, Kentucky Speedway on July 7. For Byron — who confessed he didn’t even know how to do a burnout after his first win in Victory Lane — the initial wave of success has taken the 18-year-old on a strong current that has left the NASCAR community wondering: where did this kid come from?
Most recently, the hallways of Charlotte Country Day School in Charlotte, North Carolina.
• • •
It wasn’t long ago that young Byron was living the life of an ordinary high school student in his hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina. Balancing classes, homework and the everyday tasks of high schoolers, he earned his first Camping World Truck Series win at Kansas Speedway just three weeks before donning a cap and gown for high school graduation.
Diploma now in hand and atop the Camping World Truck Series point standings, he hasn’t let off the gas since.
“The first win was nerve-wracking and kind of got that out of the way so we could focus on the Chase,” Byron said. “But then we kind of realized we had to get a second win to make sure we were locked into the Chase. When we got that second one at Texas, everything just started to roll after that.”
His success in a short period of time has surprised and impressed many. His mother, who was also at the race shop on Monday afternoon following a team win luncheon, showed off a picture of one of her son’s early wins in racing, much like any proud mother would of her star high school football player, talented musician or stellar student.
Several years ago, she wouldn’t have anticipated William would be racing like he is today.
Neither did William.
“When I was a fan, I was a big fan of Jimmie Johnson ,” Byron recalled. “… I just watched the races just like any young kid out there and aspired to be in racing. Not necessarily a driver, but now I’ve been able to drive and it’s a dream come true.”
Byron kick-started his career later than most budding racers, purchasing his first Legends car at the age of 14, just four years ago.
“When I was 12 or 13 … I started to understand racing and how I could drive a race car,” Byron said. “I started to do iRacing and I was pretty good at it, so then I said, well if I can do that, maybe I can get into a Legend car or a real car and succeed in that.
“Every step was kind of a new check off the list to see if I could do it.”
• • •
As the 2016 season rolls on, Byron continues to check boxes off his list. His win at Kentucky marked the 51st win for Kyle Busch Motorsports, the most for any Camping World Truck Series team in series history. He matched Kurt Busch‘s 2000 record in the Truck Series for the most wins in one season by a rookie with four trips to Victory Lane. Only difference between a young Busch and Byron? Busch recorded his final 2000 Truck Series win at the end of the season, while Byron has 13 more races to surpass that record and pencil his own name into the history books.
“That’s another incentive going down the road to try and get another win to break that record,” Byron said of the potential milestone. “That’s a personal incentive, but I like the team incentive that we set, just like getting the 51st win was really important to my guys and just really good for our team.”
With a humble and friendly demeanor, Byron gives credit to his team, both his own No. 9 crew as well as teammate and Gateway winner Christopher Bell, who he’ll lean on for dirt experience in the upcoming race at Eldora Speedway. Bell won the race at the dirt track last year.
And of course, there’s team owner Kyle Busch, who has served as a mentor for several young drivers, including reigning Camping World Truck Series champion Erik Jones . Busch often refers to his young pupils jokingly as students in the “Kyle Busch School of Charm” — but that charm dissipates slightly on the race track, as “Rowdy” transitions into often his students’ fiercest competitor.
“Kyle’s competitive, obviously; he wants to win every week,” Byron said of the boss man. “But at the same time, he doesn’t compromise the race team and helping us grow as young drivers to make sure we know what we need to do on the race track. So, he’s a coach, a mentor and also a competitor. But when we get out there on the race track, he’s definitely trying to win and that’s the cool part about it.”
Byron may be passing the School of Charm with flying colors but he’ll become a student in a different facet in the fall, when he attends Liberty University as a business major. He’s begun taking a couple courses now, but will start attending classes on campus when the new semester commences.
Tack on the start of the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Chase in September, and the 18-year-old is looking at quite a hectic autumn.
“The number one focus is the race team and that’s what we’re making sure to do, is that we stay focused on what I need to do around the shop or how I need to manage that,” Byron said. “But Liberty does a great job of managing my school around my racing. They know my schedule is busy, they see the races on T.V. and and they make sure that they’re following me, so they’re going to know in the fall that there’s a lot going on but I think they really support it and they’ll be able to work around it.”
As for the Chase? Byron & Co. have already started their homework.
“The Chase races are races that we’re, as a race team, are really good at,” Byron said. “The mile-and-a-half races, we’ve won three of those of the four this year, and a couple short tracks we’ve done well on too. I think we’re going to be really strong in Martinsville in the Chase and I’ve got a win at New Hampshire in the K&N car, so hopefully we can get a win there and solidify our spot in the next round and get to Martinsville to get to Homestead.
“It’s a tough challenge, but I’m just hoping that we have solid finishes and get a couple wins.”
Win by win, the column of checked boxes on Byron’s list seems to get longer and longer. While he focuses his target on the Camping World Truck Series championship for now, he aims higher later down the road.
“Hopefully I can get to the (Sprint) Cup Series in the next four, five years,” Byron said. “That’s ultimately the goal to race at the top level of NASCAR.
“I’m just trying to build those opportunities as they come and hopefully that’s what lies ahead.”
RELATED: Race results
William Byron continued his record-setting ways Saturday afternoon at Pocono Raceway, but teammate Christopher Bell made his own bit of NASCAR Camping World Truck Series history with an unconventional comeback.
A deluge of caution periods helped the 21-year-old Bell storm from five laps down after early misfortune to post an unlikely 10th-place finish in Saturday’s Pocono Mountains 150. Bell was the beneficiary in each of the final five yellow flags to snag a lead-lap finish and set a series record for free passes.
“I’ll take a record any way I can get ’em,” said Bell, who rallied for his fifth consecutive top-10 finish.
Bell was scheduled to start fifth but faced an early deficit before the drop of the green flag, pitting his Kyle Busch Motorsports No. 4 Toyota during the pace laps with what a team spokesperson called a low-voltage issue. He was forced to start at the rear of the 32-truck field after the unapproved pre-race adjustment.
He lost more ground with his involvement in the race’s third caution, crashing in Turn 2 with John Wes Townley on the 16th of 60 laps, setting off an unfortunate chain of events and repairs before his mammoth comeback.
“I had no idea. I was just kind of going through the motions and doing what I was told on the radio and just kind of along for the ride,” Bell said of his methodical rally. “The next thing you know, we get the truck back out there and the fenders aren’t clearanced right, then we cut a right-rear tire. That was under the green flag so then we just sat there on pit road and (crew chief) Jerry (Baxter) made the call to just sit there and make it right. By the time we got going, we were five laps down, just out there trying to log laps.”
The seemingly insurmountable gap was closed with the help of five caution periods in the final 31 laps. With each unfurling of the yellow flag, Bell was directed by race control to pass the field under caution to make up a lap.
“The next thing you know, there’s a yellow: ‘Hey we’re the lucky dog, come on around,’ ” Bell said. “Then hey, there’s another yellow, come on around. By the end of the day, the last yellow put us on the lead lap and we were able to capitalize on it. To come out of here with a top 10 was remarkable for us.”
RELATED: Final practice results | Sunday’s lineup
Martin Truex Jr. rose to the top of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series leaderboard in the final practice Saturday at Pocono Raceway.
Truex, who will start first in Monday’s Pennsylvania 400 (11 a.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM) after his chart-topping performance in Friday’s Coors Light Pole Qualifying, registered a lap of 176.377 mph in the Furniture Row Racing No. 78 Toyota.
Brad Keselowski hustled the Team Penske No. 2 Ford to the second-fastest lap at 176.136 mph on the 2.5-mile triangular track. Keselowski, scheduled for double-duty in the NASCAR XFINITY Series at Iowa Speedway on Saturday night, will start seventh in Sunday’s 400-miler.
Kevin Harvick, racing this weekend without suspended crew chief Rodney Childers, was third-fastest with a lap of 176.012 mph in the Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Chevrolet. Kurt Busch and rookie Chase Elliott completed the top five in the 80-minute session.
Truex Jr. also logged the fastest 10-lap average at 174.625 mph, with Austin Dillon (174.442 mph) second and Harvick (174.384 mph) third.
Four-time series champion Jeff Gordon was 24th-fastest in final prep for his second Sprint Cup start of the season as a replacement for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet. Earnhardt is sitting out for the third straight weekend with concussion-like symptoms.
Defending race winner Matt Kenseth notched the 18th-fastest lap in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota. Kyle Busch, the defending Sprint Cup champ and last weekend’s winner at Indianapolis, was sixth-fastest in another Gibbs entry, the No. 18 Toyota.
