Posted on by RJ Kraft

Team Penske driver manages runner-up finish

RELATED: See frame-by-frame images of crew member incident

LONG POND, Pa. — In a race that had a little bit everything, perhaps no one illustrated the up-and-down nature of the Windows 10 400 at Pocono Raceway better than Brad Keselowski.

The driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford finished second to Matt Kenseth, but not without overcoming an obstacle or two of his own, including a scary incident in which his car hit two of his crewmen on pit road.

Pitting on Lap 57, Keselowski slid into his pit box, knocking jackman Braxton Brannon and front tire carrier Jeremy Ogles to the ground. Brannon went airborne and appeared to hit the ground hard, while Ogles hit and slid across the front of the car. Both crew members were OK after the incident, according to Team Penske and much to the relief of Keselowski.



"Yeah, it’s an ‘Oh (expletive) moment,’ but I’m glad from what I can tell, the guys are doing OK," Keselowski told NASCAR.com of the incident.


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However, because of the contact with the tire carrier, the tire that Ogles was carrying left the pit box and Keselowski had to serve a pass-through penalty for a pit box tire violation, which put Keselowski in 37th place. 



"It is another race where I kind of feel like it didn’t all come together for us and we had the problems on pit road and sliding through the box and that dug a hole, and we got a lap down with the penalty," Keselowski said.



However, the 2012 Sprint Cup Series champion’s luck changed quickly as he was the beneficiary of the free pass for the race’s sixth caution, putting him back on the lead lap. 
From there, Keselowski methodically worked his way up into the top 10 by Lap 110 and continued to pick up spots during the lengthy 63-lap green-flag run to end the race.

His 44 quality passes (the number of times passing a car running in the top 15 during a green flag period) were the second-most on the day. In a finish that played out as survival of the ones with fuel, Keselowski had just enough gas to get across the start/finish line with a runner-up result.

Yet, he felt for his teammate, Joey Logano, who led a race-high 97 laps but ran out of fuel with three laps to go on Lap 158.


"The fuel came into play at the end and we were able to take care of it to bring home second, which is a very respectable day," Keselowski said. "Certainly not where we were going to finish without the fuel, but that is sometimes how it works. I think my teammate and his team did a phenomenal job. I am heartbroken for them to not win the race."



Despite scoring his fifth top five of the season and second runner-up finish in three races (he finished second to another Joe Gibbs Racing driver, Kyle Busch, at Loudon), Keselowski was left to wonder what if that early pit road miscue hadn’t happened. 



"There is always going to be adversity and that is part of what makes success worthwhile," he said. "It is overcoming that adversity. If we could have, quite honestly, not had that issue earlier in the race, I feel like we probably would have won today. That one is on me. I feel guilty for my team on that. I am glad we were able to rally to second."

Posted on by Staff Report

Jeb Burton, Kasey Kahne both had hard hits over weekend

A separate pair of incidents at Pocono Raceway has led to plans to alter the facility’s pit road wall after two drivers wrecked into it over the weekend, NASCAR Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell told NASCAR.com on Monday.

Jeb Burton (final practice) and Kasey Kahne (Sunday’s race) both got loose off Turn 3 in separate incidents, lost control of their respective vehicles and wrecked into the inside wall on pit row. Kahne’s incident on Sunday knocked him out of the race, and it was almost identical to Burton’s wreck — the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet essentially followed the same tire marks that Burton had put down.

"First, it’s important to look at what happened in Pocono," O’Donnell said. "Certainly it was unique with Jeb Burton, and then you saw Kasey Kahne really unbelievably follow him with same tire tracks during the event. Tom Gideon, our safety expert, was already up at Pocono drawing up some plans to look at extending the pit wall.

"With that comes some challenges. We have to make sure the drivers coming out of Turn 3 during the race, that it’s a safe situation by extending the wall. We’ll work with the race track. We’ve got to explore the angles, look at all the data we have from the race cars as well and kind of combine all that. The initial plan is … we’ll plan to extend the wall at Pocono. And certainly from there, to take a look at each one of our venues."

President and CEO of Pocono Raceway, Brandon Igdalsky, also commented on the safety procedures that came into question during the Windows 10 400.

“Our commitment to driver safety is paramount,” said Igdalsky. "We have made multiple upgrades and updates to our facility, with more safety improvements rolling out before the 2016 NASCAR season. We work hand-in-hand with NASCAR throughout the year to execute and implement these changes.

"Once NASCAR collects the data, as it pertains to the unique incidents involving Jeb Burton and Kasey Kahne from this past weekend, we will communicate with one another and develop the safest solution.”

O’Donnell also tackled the question of whether or not the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series would race at Iowa Speedway. Saturday night’s NASCAR XFINITY Series event at the Rusty Wallace-designed .875-mile oval produced plenty of good racing, a thrilling conclusion … and some drama, as well.

"Well, I think when you look at our Cup schedule right now, there’s no secret that it’s full," O’Donnell said. "One of the things that’s unique about Iowa that we like is the ability for the XFINITY Series to go there and be the showcase event. I believe that’s why you’re talking about it today, seeing Ryan Blaney hold off a number of hungry competitors on a couple of green-white-checkered (finishes), really doing his job to win that event.

"We like the fact the XFINITY Series can be the showcase event. It deserves that. Iowa is a unique venue and it produces some great racing for us … and we like what we’re seeing there."

Posted on by Staff Report

See what’s coming this week to NASCAR.com

Here’s what you’ll see on NASCAR.com this week:

MONDAY: Brad Keselowski inadvertently hit his crewmen on pit road and found himself 37th. So how did he rally to finish second? RJ Kraft explains … Stu Hothem catches up with Jeff Gordon, who tied his best finish of the year on Sunday at Pocono by finishing third … The Rundown takes a look at how every driver in the field performed.

TUESDAY: This week’s Power Rankings presented by Outback is sure to get a shakeup now that Matt Kenseth has two wins on the season … It’s Jeff Gordon‘s birthday, and we’re looking back at his career through photos … Kathy Sheldon identifies Sprint Cup drivers at age 40 (or older), and what their careers look like.

WEDNESDAY: New paint schemes will be on display at Watkins Glen, and we’ll have them all in Paint Scheme Preview … The Glen provides the opportunity for an unknown to sneak out a win, and you can vote on who that might be in our winners poll … High 5 presents the best NASCAR content from around the web.

THURSDAY: Driver Reports highlights the 16 drivers currently on the Chase Grid, and how they fare at Watkins Glen … We’ll catch you back up on the nuances of road course qualifying … This week’s #TBT involves a man named Dale Earnhardt and a broken sternum.

FRIDAY: The Sprint Cup Series gets on track at 9 a.m. ET, and we’ll have full coverage from a busy day at the track … 8 Tweets You Might Have Missed highlights the best from social media over the past week.

Also coming this week: @nascarcasm has a busy week, including Matt Kenseth‘s post-race Facebook page, and texts Jack Roush might have received after Darrell Wallace Jr. and Chris Buescher had another incident … We’ll give you the highlights of the weekend in GIF form … Senior Writer Kenny Bruce heads to North Wilkesboro. Find out why.

Posted on by Staff Report

Meet Jayanna, Official NASCAR Fan Council member of the month

Name: Jayanna

Current City: Rockville, Indiana

Member since: 2011

Getting to know Jayanna

Q. Why did you join the Official NASCAR Fan Council?

"I liked the idea of being able to share my opinion on my favorite sport."

Q. What comes to mind when you think of NASCAR? What’s your favorite NASCAR memory?

"Fast cars. The sound of engines roaring past and the smell of fuel and rubber in the air. I love the atmosphere at the track. There is nothing like it. It is hard to pick one favorite memory. I have been lucky enough to be at the track and see my favorite driver, Jeff Gordon, win 4 times. I was in Darlington & Talladega when he won in 2007. I have been going to the Brickyard 400 since 2004, so I have been able to see him win there twice. If I had to pick one, I guess I would say being at Indy last year to see him win his 5th Brickyard and watch him kiss the bricks in person, with my mom, is my favorite memory so far.”

Q: Do you have a favorite in any of the following categories?

Driver: "Jeff Gordon"

Track: "Martinsville"

Memorabilia: "Jeff Gordon 1:24 die-casts including his Baby Ruth & Jurassic Park cars"

Q: If you could go to any NASCAR race/track, where would you go?

"Martinsville or the Daytona 500"

Q: What do you like to do in your free time?

"In my free time, I love to go to country concerts or catch up on some TV."

Q: Tell us about your family. Do you have children and/or pets?

"I live with my husband, Mike, and our 2 dogs, Bo & Hank."

Q: What’s your dream car?

"New Camaro or Mustang"

From all of us at NASCAR, we thank Jayanna for her continued support and look forward to hearing from her in 2015! Look for Susan on the Official NASCAR Fan Council page on NASCAR.COM.

Posted on by Fraser Nye

Pit strategy pays off for No. 24 team, puts Gordon 10th in points

RELATED: Updated Chase Grid standings | Complete results from Pocono

LONG POND, Pa.– Four-time premier series champion Jeff Gordon ended his Pocono Raceway career with a record-tying 20th top-five finish in his 46th start at the track.

After sitting 16th with 10 laps to go, no one was more shocked than Gordon when he crossed the start/finish line bearing his name in third place as several cars on differing pit strategies ran out of fuel before the end. 

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"Well, it would be a long, long list if we talked to a bunch of people in the grandstands and myself, and everybody on pit road and probably people watching at home to find out who was more surprised," Gordon said. "That was crazy."

As he attempted to extend his track record win total to seven while also earning a Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup berth, Gordon’s team stayed out under the Lap 17 competition caution and climbed to second following a 10th-place qualifying effort. But five more cautions in the first half of the race found the No. 24 car in 16th at the midway mark.

Gordon moved up to sixth place 10 laps later, but the seventh and final caution at Lap 93 dropped him outside of the top 15 again.

"I’m not exactly sure where I started on that first restart but it was like 15th, 16th and I can’t say I passed many cars," Gordon said. "We just kind of hovered around that area, wasn’t real pleased with how our car was in traffic, and when we were up front we were pretty good, felt like we were a top-five car," Gordon said, echoing the comments of Hendrick Motorsports teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr., who finished fourth.

"But we played the fuel‑mileage strategy pretty early on and that lost us track position and we weren’t able to climb our way up through there," Gordon continued. "And we continued to play that strategy and I’m proud of Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) for sticking with it. There at the end, we were one of the last ones to pit, which allowed us to run hard all the way to the finish, not having to conserve or save fuel."

During the race, though, the strategy didn’t inspire confidence in the driver, who never thought he would have earned a top-five finish or even his 32nd top-10 result, second-best to Mark Martin‘s 34.

"The script I had played out in my head was we were going to be 15th, so this one was way better than that," Gordon said. "For whatever reason, the last couple times we’ve been here, we’ve had decent race cars, not maybe the cars that we would have liked to have had, but cars far capable of better finishes than what we’ve had, have been getting, and just a lot of different circumstances not playing out. Some to our own credit and others just circumstances.

"Today finally one went our way for a change, which is really nice to bounce back after last week’s unfortunate incident where we lost so many points."

Following a 42nd-place finish at Indianapolis, Gordon dropped to 11th place in the points standings. He bounced back to 10th after Pocono, encouraging Gordon in his quest to make the playoffs — with five races until the start of the Chase — and his hopes to make his drive for five championships.

MORE: Gordon wrecks in final Indy appearance

"As a team, even though we’re not performing to the level we want to, we are performing well enough to make it into the Chase," Gordon said. "If you knew that you were going to finish between 10th and 15th every week here going forward, but just like what happened last week, you can’t afford to have many 42nd-place finishes. That could be disastrous. There are no guarantees, and so you’ve got to gain all the points you can when you have the opportunity. We had that opportunity today; we did it."

The series heads to Watkins Glen next Sunday for the Cheez-It 355 at The Glen (2 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM), and Gordon believes he has a shot at tying Tony Stewart‘s record of five wins on the road course after a stout effort in 2014 that found him racing road-course ace Marcos Ambrose for the lead until a mechanical failure dropped him to a 34th-place finish.

"The one thing that’s encouraging to me is last year I thought we were really strong there, and we had … some kind of battery connection issue and we lost power, so we never saw it play out. That happened ‑‑ I think we were running second to Ambrose at the time. I’m encouraged by that. I’m looking forward to going back there. I know our aero package is a little bit different, but you know, I don’t think it’s that much different from what we had last year, so hopefully we can have another strong finish and performance there. That would be awesome.

"We need them — right now every race is so critical for us. We can’t afford to have finishes like we had last week at Indy, and so we’re going to have to attack and be on — just marching forward to be aggressive to try to get those good points and finishes and hopefully a win."

Posted on by RJ Kraft

Logano, Kyle Busch and Truex Jr. fall victim to dry fuel cells

RELATED: Full race results | Updated series standings

LONG POND, Pa. — It was a tale of two races in Sunday’s Windows 10 400 at Pocono Raceway, and the only thing that could slow Kyle Busch down was an empty fuel tank.

Eight cautions in the first 97 laps didn’t allow drivers to get into much of a rhythm, but a 63-lap green-flag run to the finish set up a chaotic ending. The top drivers of the afternoon — Joey Logano, Busch and Martin Truex Jr. — all ran out of fuel late while running in the top three and plenty of others were close too. That misfortune allowed Matt Kenseth to lead the final lap and steal the victory.

Logano ran dry on Lap 158 with three laps to go, giving way to Busch for the lead. Except on the final lap, Busch ran out of gas. In between that, Truex Jr.’s fuel tank ran dry on Lap 159. All three stopped for service around Lap 124 during the lengthy green-flag run.

Pit road speeding penalties cost Logano and Truex better finishes than what the final results show. Those penalties were assessed after the finish, making them both the last cars on the lead lap.

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"I don’t know where we were on our strategy and all that stuff," Busch said on pit road after his 21st-place finish. "I got to debrief with Adam (Stevens, Busch’s crew chief) first. I don’t how close we were, if we were one lap short of making it, then I probably needed to save or do a better job of running those last 30 laps or so. He kept telling me to save my stuff, save my stuff. Just in case we had a yellow there and had to race.

"I didn’t know we were going to be short on fuel but once the 22 (Logano) ran out, to try and save fuel in those three laps just wasn’t going to happen. We were short. We ran out but we went down swinging and I can’t fault my guys for that. An awesome call. They called the race right and another … can of gas and we’d be winning another one."

Busch came into Pocono riding three straight victories and looking to be closing in a spot in the top 30 in the point standings. He will head to Watkins Glen 32nd in the standings, just 13 points out from getting into the top 30.

"We got greedy. I don’t know how greedy, but that’s the position we’re in," Busch said.

For Logano, the result was another close-but-no-cigar type finish for the No. 22 Team Penske Ford. The 2015 Daytona 500 winner had a strong car all day, leading a race-high 97 laps but had to settle for 20th-place. This comes on the heels of two runner-up finishes to Busch in the previous three races.

"I guess our numbers, from what Todd (Gordon, crew chief) said, was good enough to make it by a half a lap," Logano said. "I was saving fuel just to cushion it. I thought I was going to be good and then I started running out and knew we weren’t going to make it.

"We keep getting so close to these wins and they don’t happen and it is so frustrating. The truth is that is if we keep racing hard and racing to the front we will win races. We were so close. You are counting down the laps in your head thinking you are going to make it but just didn’t do it."

The pressure Busch was putting on Logano from second place didn’t allow the 25-year-old to save as much and ultimately both were on the wrong side of the fuel game.

"You can only save so much and the 18 (Busch) was doing the same thing. He had to push me and I had to start saving a certain amount. He would catch me and then I would pull away a little bit. We were playing cat and mouse out there. It is not the way you want to race. You want to go to the gas and race hard. These fuel mileage races are always exciting, usually more so when you are on the winning end, not the losing end." 

Truex, who won at Pocono in June, saw a silver lining when he led his first laps since that win. However, he came out 19th, marking his fifth finish outside the top 10 in the past six races. It’s a disappointing statistic when compared to the No. 78 team’s 14 top 10s in the first 15 races of the season.

"Once again on the wrong end of a fuel mileage race," Truex said, who finished fifth at Charlotte, when Carl Edwards rode to victory on a fuel mileage play. "We thought we were in good shape there. I saved the whole last run. The last 15, 20 laps I saved a lot. So not sure where we missed that."

But for Truex, who is currently sixth in the provisional Chase Grid, he was focused on the bigger picture from the weekend’s work.

"Yeah, it’s disappointing but what I am going to take away from this race is how our Furniture Row guys kept on making our Chevrolet better and better during the weekend," Truex said. "We were a contender today and in the big picture that’s the most important point for our team as we head into the Chase. We were rolling; we just needed a little more fuel to make it an even better weekend." 

Posted on by RJ Kraft

Driver hits hard coming out of Turn 3, exits race

RELATED: Full race results | Updated series standings

LONG POND, Pa. — Kasey Kahne lost control of his No. 5 Chevrolet on Lap 4 of Sunday’s Windows 10 400, hitting the inside pit wall and bringing an early end to his day in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Pocono Raceway.

"I just got really loose really late, so far off the corner," Kahne told reporters outside the infield care center. "Really late exit. Not sure why or what happened. I just jumped out and you are so far off the corner that it’s a slow slide so far down pit road. It was crazy. I’ve never ended up over there like that. I don’t know why that was."

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Kahne came off of Turn 3 and smacked the wall of pit road hard around pit stalls 39 and 40, which were the pit boxes of AJ Allmendinger and Travis Kvapil. The hit caused major damage to Kahne’s car and damage to the pit road wall.

A NASCAR spokesperson confirmed there were no injuries in the incident.

For his part, Kahne said "I’m fine" and added that "I wasn’t afraid I hit anyone because it threw me right back off the wall. I was hoping that everybody saw me coming because I was coming fairly fast."

Pocono Raceway President/CEO Brandon Igdalsky and track workers inspected the damage before workers welded the damaged wall as a red flag was displayed. That red flag lasted 14 minutes, 43 seconds.

The incident was similar to what happened to Jeb Burton and his No. 26 Toyota in Saturday’s final practice session. Burton came off of Turn 3 loose and went into the pit road wall. The damage from that hit forced the Sunoco Rookie of the Year candidate to a backup car for Sunday’s race.

The early exit and last-place finish for Kahne could not have come at a worse time for the Hendrick Motorsports driver. After an eighth-place finish at Sonoma Raceway in June, Kahne was eighth in the point standings. Since then, Kahne has not finished better than 19th, with a 32nd-place result at Daytona, 27th-place finish at Kentucky, 19th-place finish at Loudon and a 24th-place result at Indianapolis. 



"That’s really bad for points," Kahne said. "It’s bad for just our team to lose a car that quickly into this race. And the last month has been really bad, and that was worse. I don’t know what the deal is right there, how that happened. I just lost it, late exit and spun. Got loose, spun."



Entering Pocono, Kahne was 13th in the point standings and holding the second-to-last spot in the provisional Chase Grid. Sunday’s 43rd-place finish unofficially dropped him to 15th in the points standings, but he’s still in the Chase Grid in the No. 16 spot.

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Joe Gibbs Racing driver steals victory after leaders run out of fuel

RELATED: Full race results | Updated series standings | MORE: Shop Kenseth gear

LONG POND, Pa. — Matt Kenseth, the unexpected winner of Sunday’s Windows 10 400 at Pocono Raceway, had to do a double take.
 
So did second and third-place finishers Brad Keselowski and Jeff Gordon.
 
Kenseth got a gift on the final lap of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race when Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Kyle Busch ran out of fuel halfway through the final circuit at the 2.5-mile triangular track.
 
Seeking his fourth straight victory in the series, Busch didn’t save quite enough fuel on the last green-flag run to complete the 160-lap event, but he still gained 10 points toward his goal of reaching the top 30 in the series standings.
 
Busch, who finished 21st after getting a push toward the start/finish line from Reed Sorenson, is now 13 points behind 30th-place David Gilliland. Busch has five races to crack the top 30 to become eligible for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

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Because Busch was pushed by another car, he did not get credit for completing the final lap, but that did not affect his finishing position.
 
Collectively, the top three finishers led seven laps. Joey Logano, who handed the lead to Busch when the No. 22 Team Penske Ford ran out of fuel with fewer than three laps left, led 97.
 
But Kenseth wasn’t about to look a gift horse in the mouth, especially after the driver of the No. 20 JGR Toyota did what others failed to do — save enough gas to get to the finish. Kenseth’s second victory of the season locked him into the Chase.
 
"There’s nothing like wins," said Kenseth, who collected his first victory at Pocono and the 33rd of his career. "We had a lot of wins in 2013 and were pretty spoiled and last year we had a big dry spell, and this year we were able to win Bristol.
 
"We’ve been up front a lot, so just really, really thankful to be with these guys and to get the win. I never thought I’d ever win at Pocono, and I never ever thought I’d win a fuel mileage race, so we did both today."
 
Despite coming tantalizingly close to a fourth straight win, Busch was philosophical about the near miss.
 
"Man, that’s a bummer," said Busch, who ran out of fuel on the Long Pond straightaway approaching the Tunnel Turn, less than a mile-and-a-half from the start/finish line. "I wish I would’ve saved a little more there that last run.
 
"I wish I would’ve known that the 22 (Logano) was that far away from making it. He was way far away from making it. Man, that was just a shame that we weren’t able to get it done there."
 
Busch took a moment to reflect on what might have been. The empty fuel tank also cost him entry into the top 30.
 
"We would be celebrating a win and a Chase berth," he said ruefully. "We got greedy. I don’t know how greedy, but that’s the position we’re in. If it came down to other things that we haven’t had the success that we’ve had here lately, we would’ve had to have pitted and just made the opportunity of it and made the best finish that we could. But, we went for broke today and come up a little bit short, so can’t fault the team."
 
Keselowski, who ran out of fuel as he approached the line, recovered from an early penalty for sliding through his pit, knocking his jack man off his feet and knocking a tire out of his front carrier’s hands.
 
The No. 2 Ford lost a lap, regained it and came home second, 9.012 seconds behind Kenseth, as lack of fuel took its toll on the front-runners. The outcome left Keselowski with mixed feelings.
 
"Unfortunately, just another race where I kind of feel like it didn’t all come together for us, and this one certainly on my end with having problems on pit road and kind of sliding through the box," said the 2012 series champion. "That dug a hole, got us a lap down with the penalty and so forth.
 
"I think the last restart with, had to be somewhere around 60 or 70 to go (actually 63), we restarted 12th and we were able to drive up to sixth and looked like we were going to be able to get to fifth, and then the fuel play came in there at the end. We were able to take care of it to bring home second, which is a very respectable day. Certainly probably not where we were going to finish without the fuel, but I guess that’s sometimes how it works."
 
Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran fourth and Greg Biffle fifth, as none of the top five finishers were threats to finish that high before the varying fuel strategies scrambled the final order.
 
"There at the end we were one of the last ones to pit which allowed us to run hard all the way to the finish not having to conserve or save fuel," said Gordon, smiling at the stroke of good fortune. "I thought we were trying to get maybe 10th or 12th and all of a sudden they said you’re third, and I think I was probably the most shocked person out there on the race track when I found that out.
 
"I knew cars were peeling off, but I just didn’t realize that many were either running out or coming to pit road."

Note: Both Martin Truex Jr. and Logano, who along with Busch had the strongest cars all afternoon, were cited for speeding on pit road after running out of fuel and were dropped to 19th and 20th, respectively, in the finishing order, the last two cars on the lead lap.

Posted on by Staff Report

See what the driver of the No. 18 Toyota needs to make the Chase

RELATED: Updated series standings | Latest Chase Grid



With only five races left until the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, it’s time to check up on Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, as he tries to rebound from early-season injuries and make the Chase.

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WHAT JUST HAPPENED: Busch was in position for a runner-up finish to Joey Logano with three laps remaining in the Windows 10 400 at Pocono Raceway when Logano ran out of fuel — putting Busch in position to win his fourth consecutive race and fifth in his last six. Only problem? "Rowdy" was on the same fuel strategy as Logano, and ran out of fuel shortly later himself. Had he finished second or won the race, he’d have been inside the top 30 in points. Instead, his 21st-place finish only netted him 24 points.

WHAT HE NEEDS: With four wins this season, Busch still needs to finish in the top 30 in the standings and be able to start the remaining regular-season races to be eligible for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. With five races to go before Chicagoland, Busch is unofficially 13 points behind David Gilliland, who is in 30th place. Busch needs to average 18.4 points per race, which comes out to an average finish of 25th in the remainder.



WHAT’S NEXT: The Sprint Cup Series heads to Watkins Glen International for the Cheez-It 355 at 2 p.m. ET on Aug. 9 (NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM). Busch has two career wins at The Glen, but finished 40th in last year’s running of the event. It was just the second time in his career that he’s finished worse than ninth at the road course. His average finish of 11.3 there ranks fifth among all current tracks for Busch.

Posted on by Staff Report

See how the postseason picture looks after 21 races

Note: Kyle Busch has four wins and is the only driver with a win outside the top 30. Kyle Busch must finish in the top 30 in points after the regular-season finale at Richmond International Raceway to make the Chase field.