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Dale Jr., Letarte and Majors work together for the Pocono sweep

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. earned his third win of the season with a sweep of Pocono Raceway on Sunday. It was a team effort for the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports driver and crew, and RaceView Audio subscribers heard all of their communications.

See how the day played out for the new leader in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Grid, find out what crew chief Steve Letarte’s parting gift will be for Dale Jr. at Lap 127, read how spotter T.J. Majors helped his driver stay ahead on the final restart and subscribe to RaceView Audio to listen to every team in every national series race. Click here for more information.

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PRE-RACE
Steve Letarte: Alright bud, 160 laps. Nice and efficient down there; we’ll be efficient up here. Should be a fun day.

LAP 30
Letarte: Keep saving. I think we’re going to pit, but keep saving. Just helping my options here.

LAP 32
Letarte: You know the deal, man. All these strategies will come out in the wash about 100 laps from now.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Yeah. You do your thing. I can’t count. I ain’t got the math in here.
Letarte: 10-4, I’ve got you.

LAP 53
Letarte: We’re gonna restart. We’re gonna run 10 or 11. Then we’ll see you on pit road.

LAP 93
Letarte: Come on down here bud, we’re going to put four tires on it.

LAP 107
Letarte: I need you to just start thinking about fuel. Start saving every lap. We’ll need a few yellows so start saving. The 22 (Joey Logano), 24 (Jeff Gordon) and us are in the same boat. We’re only racing the 11 (Denny Hamlin) on a different strategy.

LAP 117
Letarte: Watch for debris, and we’re really going to make our strategy work.

LAP 120
Letarte: I’ve got a plan. Just trying to figure out with all this math what’s the best plan! T.J., I need to know how many are pitting. Guys it’s either going to be two or four tires, I’ll let you know.

LAP 122
Letarte: I didn’t know if you had a fifth or sixth speed there — something you were hiding on me.
Earnhardt Jr.: I’ll just try to do my best.
Letarte: That’s what we’re all doing, buddy!

LAP 124
Letarte: Every lap we run just brings us closer to what we’re looking for. The 41 (Kurt Busch) is my concern, he needs a little less gas. Just do what you always do and we’ll race her out!

LAP 127
Letarte: Alright, you’ve been right all these years. I’m going to move those switches because my right arm looks tired just watching you. That’s going to be my midsummer present before the Chase.
Earnhardt Jr.: Your parting gift.
Letarte: Haha, my parting gift will be that.

LAP 139
Earnhardt Jr.: It’s not as easy to pass them as it is to be faster than them.
Letarte: You’re driving a great race, man. It’s working. Strategy is working either way.

LAP 140
Earnhardt Jr.: It’s not as easy to pass them as you might think.  
Letarte: 10-4, we got a good strategy too.

LAP 142
Letarte: I hope these races are fun to drive because man, they’re fun to call! There’s an opportunity to do a lot of things here.
T.J. Majors: Getcha a good restart, I’ll let you know where you’re at. Go get ’em, man!

LAP 145
Majors: Clear, clear, clear, clear, clear! (As Earnhardt Jr. takes the lead)

LAP 152
Majors: Looking good, bud.

LAP 155
Letarte: Watching the law of averages, I’d pick the top line. But I’m not the one driving. I understand if you disagree.

LAP 157
Letarte: When you get the green, it’ll be three to go!

LAP 158
Majors: 4 (Kevin Harvick) gained on you there, roll the middle a little bit better. You’re actually puling him a bit, one back.

POST-RACE
Majors: Well bud, let’s put a sticker on the door. Checkered flag.
Letarte: That’s what you call a Pocono sweep!
Earnhardt Jr.: Y’all did awesome! Celebrate! Y’all earned this one. Not lucky this time. Good job!
Earnhardt Jr.: Man, they were pretty quick back there behind me.
Majors: Yeah, they were there!

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‘Six-Time’ had chugged back through field before second incident

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Jimmie Johnson recovered mightily from an early-race blown tire in Sunday’s GoBowling.com 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, working his way back through the field after picking the lost lap back up on a caution only to see his day end early when his No. 48 smacked the Turn 2 wall at Pocono Raceway.

The right side of the reigning champion’s Chevrolet took major damage that was too substantial to fix, and Johnson will have to wait until next week to try to break his string of four finishes outside the top 10.

After the wreck, Johnson radioed that there was "no sign of anything, no explosion or tire coming apart. Just went straight (into the wall)."

Talking to ESPN in the garage after he exited his car, Johnson still had no answers as to what happened.

"The first one I got tight off Turn 1 off the fence and (lost a tire)," he said. "Then that (second) one, I’m clueless. It didn’t act like a tire went down. It just went straight. Hopefully we can get a reason why."

He finished 39th in the race.

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‘Rowdy’ had finished runner-up in three of past four races

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LONG POND, Pa. — Kyle Busch, the runner-up finisher in three of the past four NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races, will have to wait another week to continue his search for his second victory of the year after his No. 18 Toyota Camry went down with an engine issue less than 30 laps into Sunday’s GoBowling.com 400 at Pocono Raceway.

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"It’s the piston," Busch said over his team radio. "I know what it is. You guys know what it is. … Done." 

He was officially ruled out minutes later.

On Lap 23, Busch started losing speed and his car quickly filled with smoke. After a quick check of the engine on pit road, No. 18 crew chief Dave Rogers decided that their day was done, giving Busch a 42nd-place finish.

"…we were biding our time here early," Busch said of the team’s strategy to pit under the first caution at Lap 10 when leader Joey Logano and second-place Kyle Larson stayed out. "We pitted early to get off sequence a little bit to see if we couldn’t do something different than the leaders, and it just obviously bit us here.

"Something between the frame rails doesn’t want to operate correctly right now and so it’s unfortunate because I thought we had a good car this weekend. The car in practice was strong and it felt good…."

Busch looks forward to Watkins Glen International next week and the Cheez-It 355 at The Glen (Sunday, 1 p.m. ET, ESPN) where he won last August. A second victory — to go with his win at Auto Club Speedway in March — would clinch a spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

"This whole M&M’s Camry team deserves better days, and I guess today is not one of them," Busch said.

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Fan favorite has three wins this season after sweeping Pocono

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Dale Earnhardt Jr.‘s third win of the 2014 Sprint Cup Series season put him atop the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings.

Earnhardt Jr. became the third Sprint Cup Series driver to win three races this season, joining Jimmie Johnson and Brad Keselowski, by holding off Kevin Harvick on Sunday at Pocono Raceway.

Harvick became the seventh driver to assure himself a spot in the 16-driver playoff field, assuming he attempts to qualify for the next five races.

In addition to Harvick, Earnhardt Jr., Keselowski, Jeff Gordon, Carl Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, and Joey Logano have clinched their playoff spots as long as they attempt to qualify for every race.

Eleven drivers have combined to win the first 21 points-paying races of the season, and five races remain before the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup field is set. After the 21st points race of NASCAR’s regular season, here is how the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup standings look:

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Drivers not determined for NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship prep session 

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A Goodyear Tire test at Homestead-Miami Speedway, set for Aug. 26, has been rescheduled to Sept. 9, three days after the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup field will be set at Richmond International Raceway.

No drivers or teams have been announced for the session. A NASCAR spokesman said a decision had not been made on the list of drivers who would participate.

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Goodyear Eagle Racing Radials for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship race, the Ford EcoBoost 400 (Sunday, Nov. 16, 3 p.m. ET, ESPN) will come from the company’s Group 2 venue grouping. Other tracks in that grouping include fellow Chase tracks, including the first race in the Chase, Chicagoland Speedway (Sept. 14, 2 p.m. ET, ESPN); Kansas Speedway (Oct. 5, 2 p.m. ET, ESPN); Charlotte Motor Speedway (Oct. 11, 7:30 p.m. ET, ABC) and Texas Motor Speedway (Nov. 2, 3 p.m. ET, ESPN).

The Chicagoland test, scheduled for June 10-11, battled rain. It was attended by Jimmie Johnson in the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and Joey Logano in the No. 22 Team Penske Ford, both of whom have clinched Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup spots. Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, a provisional Chase Grid driver, took part, too, as well as Paul Menard in the No. 27 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

Other tracks in the Group 2 venue grouping include Darlington Raceway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Michigan International Speedway.

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Veteran says ‘other people’s opinions don’t really mean much’

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LONG POND, Pa. — Carl Edwards, twice a winner this season and wrapping up his stay at Roush Fenway Racing, doesn’t care to be seen as the underdog going into this year’s Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

The veteran, who is expected to land at Joe Gibbs Racing for 2015, enters today’s GoBowling.com 400 eighth in points, but with only one top-10 finish in his last eight starts.

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Damage to his No. 99 Ford during qualifying didn’t help matters, and Edwards rolls off 26th for today’s race.

"Other people’s opinions don’t really mean much in this sport as far as performance is concerned," Edwards said Saturday at Pocono Raceway. "Right now, we’re not competitive enough to win the championship, so talking about whether we are (a dark horse) or not really doesn’t matter.

"It’s simple to see every weekend from the results, so we have to do better and we know that."

Edwards’ victories came at Bristol and Sonoma this season. Teammates Greg Biffle (16th in points) and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (27th) are winless through the season’s first 20 races.

"We’re still lacking a little bit of speed," Edwards said, "but we are more competitive. We talked about Indy (15th) being frustrating, but we’re making small gains.

"We moved up a little bit at Indy and I think we’re faster here … we just have to keep moving forward. That’s the name of the game and that’s the only thing that’s going to get us where we want to be."

Edwards is a former Pocono winner (2008). He finished 41st here in June.

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Points leader eclipses 24,000 laps led, becomes first to lead 1,000 at Pocono

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LONG POND, Pa. — In spite of yet another strong car, and on a day that saw him exceed the 24,000 laps led mark for his career, Jeff Gordon couldn’t overcome the short-pitting strategy of his rivals.
 
Instead of career win No. 91, Gordon finished sixth in Sunday’s GoBowling.com 400 at Pocono Raceway. Teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. scored the win, emerging on top after a tense battle with Kevin Harvick following the final restart of the 160-lap race.
 
Pit strategy helped keep Gordon out front for a race-leading 63 laps. But others chose differently in the closing segment of the race, leaving the Hendrick Motorsports driver playing catchup.

Career laps led in NASCAR premier series competition:
Richard Petty: 51,380
Cale Yarborough: 31,556
Bobby Allison: 27,551
Dale Earnhardt: 25,684
David Pearson: 25,294
Jeff Gordon: 24,012

"Those guys knew that they had to do the exact opposite strategy of us, but Alan (Gustafson, crew chief) and the team just did an amazing job today," Gordon said. "We had the dominant car, but you had to have track position and … there at the end we didn’t have it. I think if we had started outside lanes there at the end we would have had it."
 
Gordon gave up the lead for the final time at Lap 131 to pit for tires and fuel. He was seventh on a Lap 144 restart but only fifth when the caution flew for an incident involving Kurt Busch.
 
Earnhardt Jr., using a different strategy, needed only the briefest of stops for a splash of fuel, putting him out front of the No. 24 and within eyesight of leader Greg Biffle (Roush Fenway Racing). He moved into the lead on Lap 147.
 
"I think if we had started outside … there at the end we would have had it," Gordon said. "My restarts weren’t terrible today, they weren’t bad when we were on the outside and we could make up some spots. Unfortunately on those last couple … we were on the inside.
 
"But with Dale getting out in front of us there through that pit sequence, there was nothing we could do. … Whoever got out front, him or me, was going to win the race."
 
The finish was Gordon’s 15th top-10 and kept him atop the points standings. He leads Earnhardt Jr. by 17 after 21 of this season’s 36 points races.
 
Contending for wins on a regular basis has a familiar feel.
 
"It’s incredible. I was actually leading (the) race going ‘yeah, I remember what this feels like,’" he said. "It’s been a long time but the way the cars are performing, the way the team is performing it’s very reminiscent of old school 24. It’s a lot of fun.
 
"… We’re going through the motions in practice and qualifying and we don’t always look like we’re the fastest car but when they drop the green … It was just a dominant day, just unfortunate it didn’t finish the way we wanted it to."
 
Gordon has now led 24,012 laps for his career. He also became the first driver to lead 1,000 laps at Pocono Raceway.

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Thirteen vehicles involved in incident

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LONG POND, Pa. — None of those collected seemed to know exactly what happened. But most agreed there was no place to go when Denny Hamlin spun, setting off a 13-car accident in Sunday’s GoBowling.com 400 at Pocono Raceway.

"All I know is the 11 (of Hamlin) got loose out the outside nearly two rows in front of me, and the next thing I know, the 55 (of Brian Vickers) got turned in front of me," said Richard Childress Racing’s Paul Menard after exiting the infield care center.

"And then there was nowhere to go."

Aric Almirola was likewise unsure of what set off the multicar crash, saying he "watched the replay to see."

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"I saw smoke and I saw one car make a hard right into the fence and I knew they were wrecking," the Richard Petty Motorsports driver said. "I just tried to aim for the middle and hoped for the best."

The car of three-time Sprint Cup champion Tony Stewart eventually stopped while perched on top of Menard’s No. 27 Chevrolet.

"It started far enough ahead of us that we couldn’t see it," Stewart said. We were just coming off of (Turn) 2 there and somebody got sideways and started wrecking … and we got caught up in it.

"I ended up on top of Paul Menard’s hood so it wasn’t where we wanted to end up by any means."

The race, stop No. 21 for the series this season, had already had its share of unexpected twists — Kyle Busch had retired early with engine issues while six-time champion Jimmie Johnson was in the garage after smacking the wall hard with his No. 48 Chevrolet.

The green flag had just reappeared following the caution for Johnson’s troubles when Jamie McMurray sped past Hamlin on the low side in Turn 1. As Clint Bowyer moved past on the outside, Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota spun.

Vickers went to the high side to avoid contact, but collected Hamlin’s teammate, Matt Kenseth. The cars of Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick, Michael Annett, AJ Allmendinger, Martin Truex Jr. and Carl Edwards also were caught up in the incident.

Hamlin said it was an instance of getting caught in the middle of the three-wide racing.

"Just … guys getting runs and guys that can accelerate much faster than what we can, and so that put me three-wide in the middle," he said.

"The 15 (Bowyer) was right on my door and is sucked me around and I was just hanging on at that point. I think it was mayhem from everyone checking up from behind. … I just got sucked around."

Hamlin escaped with little to no damage done, eventually finishing ninth. Few others were as fortunate although no drivers were injured.

"We’re all just fighting for positions on restarts because we can’t pass after you get three laps on your tires," he said. "These cars put such a big wake in the air you just can’t overcome it."

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Posted on by Fraser Nye

Roush Fenway Racing improving, but still looking for speed as Chase looms

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LONG POND, Pa. — On Friday, Greg Biffle said he had the best car that he had driven in a year, but his optimism waned, as did his speed, in Sunday’s GoBowling.com 400 at Pocono Raceway. It cost him a shot at a win and a spot in his sixth Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup in seven years.

A fuel-strategy gamble by crew chief Matt Puccia gave the #3MThrowback Ford Fusion the lead from Kevin Harvick with 25 laps to go. Carrying his sponsor’s 1942 logo on board, Biffle ran out front, and it looked like another throwback to August of 2010 when he won at the Tricky Triangle. 

When AJ Allmendinger had an accident at Lap 140, Biffle was only able to hold off a charging Dale Earnhardt Jr. for three laps after the ensuing restart. He lost the lead to the eventual winner with 14 laps left.

"We had a 20th-place car and got track position and drove our butt off. We did everything we could. We had a good strategy there and we might have been able to sneak one out.

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"That’s all you can do (is gamble). We had the balls to do it, and we did it and it didn’t work."

It was his third top-five finish of the season and first since May at Talladega, and the leader of Roush Fenway Racing going forward with the departure of Carl Edwards in 2015 was best in class for his organization.

But winning is all that matters to Biffle, and speed, along with a positive attitude, is what he needs to get to Victory Lane.

"We just keep working at it," Biffle said. "I’m not going to give up. That’s not the way to win races. We’ll keep working hard and try and find some speed for next week."

Next week, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Watkins Glen, and Biffle expects to gamble again at a road course where he has his worst average finish (23.1) of any track. Then the team heads to Michigan International Speedway, where Jack Roush has more wins than any other team (13), but the team struggled in June with Biffle finishing 20th.

Before the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis, Biffle and his RFR teammates tested at Michigan, and the team found some of the speed that has been missing for much of the season. So far, that test knowledge hasn’t translated to the track, but Biffle is glad that the team got some time under its belt at the facility. 

"The speed (from the Michigan test) hasn’t panned out yet for here and other tracks, but we feel good that we did do the test at that track," Biffle said.

Biffle can take some solace in having the biggest jump of any driver in the points standings, up three spots to 13th and a provisional spot in the Chase Grid. He would be seeded 16th, one point ahead of fellow winless driver Kasey Kahne.

Biffle was also surprised and pleased that he outran Jeff Gordon, who led the most laps (63) before finishing sixth.

"We beat the 24 car, which I’m not sure how we did that. They were definitely the fastest car, but we feel good about it. We’ve got to keep working on our car and trying to find the rest of that speed."

 

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Catch up quickly before Sunday’s running of the GoBowling.com 400

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What: GoBowling.com 400

Where: Pocono Raceway

When: Sunday, Aug. 3
Time: 1 p.m. ET

TV/Radio: ESPN (Coverage begins at noon ET), MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90)

Distance: 160 laps, 400 miles

Pit road speed: 55 mph

Caution speed: 70 mph

Fuel window: 32-35 laps
Avg. time of race: 3 hours, 22 minutes

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On the front row (See the full lineup here)
1. Kyle Larson, Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates (183.438 mph*)

2. Joey Logano, Team Penske (183.408 mph)
*15th track record of the season in Coors Light Pole Qualifying

Failed to qualify:

None

Defending race champion:
Kasey Kahne, Hendrick Motorsports, No. 5 Chevrolet

Driver rating (based on data from the past nine years):
Denny Hamlin, 109.0
Jimmie Johnson, 108.7

Fastest in practice:

First practice: Kurt Busch, Stewart-Haas Racing No. 41 Chevrolet (180.353 mph)


Second practice: Busch (178.859 mph)

Third practice: Brad Keselowski, Team Penske No. 2 Ford (178.547 mph)

Hendrick stronghold:
Four different Hendrick Motorsports drivers have won the last four races at the Tricky Triangle, padding Rick Hendrick’s all-time wins lead at the track with 16. The next closest owners are Joe Gibbs and Roger Penske with nine victories apiece. With three of its four team drivers locked into the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, defending race winner Kahne is on the outside looking in after losing a late-race lead to teammate Jeff Gordon last week at Indianapolis.

Lookin’ for a broom:
Pocono 400 race winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. hit the ground running on Friday, tweeting he was "lookin’ for a broom" to complete the season sweep in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. Dale Jr. would become the sixth driver to complete the feat, joining NASCAR Hall of Famer Bobby Allison (1982), former premier series champions Bill Elliott (1985), Bobby Labonte (1999) and Jimmie Johnson (2004) as well as Tim Richmond (1986) and Denny Hamlin (2006).

Sticking with it:
Before the June race, Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender Larson’s Chip Ganassi Racing team gave him Camaro to learn how to drive a stick and shift, a skill necessary for success at Pocono. Larson won the ARCA race that weekend and finished fifth in the Pocono 400 Sprint Cup race. Two months later, Larson appears to have mastered it, becoming the first NASCAR Drive for Diversity driver to win a Coors Light Pole in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

Chase-clinching scenarios:
Six drivers with multiple wins and who cannot fall out of the top 30 in points have clinched spots in the season-ending playoffs: Dale Earnhardt Jr., Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano. On Sunday four more drivers have a chance to clinch: Kevin Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Kyle Busch and Aric Almirola. Harvick’s two wins mean he needs only to clinch a top-30 spot. Busch has clinched a top-30 spot, but needs another win to clinch. Hamlin has yet to clinch a top-30 spot. He would clinch with a win and some help. Almirola would need to win this weekend to clinch and get some help to also lock up a top-30 spot.

Who’s the next winner?:

With only six races to go until the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, there are only six more chances for drivers to win their way into the playoffs. Based on best average finish of drivers with more than five starts at the track, Tony Stewart (11.0), Ryan Newman (11.5), Clint Bowyer (14.8), Martin Truex Jr. (14.9) and Matt Kenseth (15.3) are the top five to watch. Among drivers without wins, Stewart has the best average driver rating (98.9). In his quest for a third Pocono win in June, Stewart led 24 laps but a speeding penalty on pit road at Lap 119 cost him a chance at a breakthrough victory.

Filling in on the No. 11:
Following a penalty at Indianapolis, NASCAR suspended No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing crew chief Darian Grubb and car chief Wesley Sherrill. Race engineer Mike Wheeler will call the shots for Denny Hamlin, and former car chief Chris "Spider" Gillin, who came off the road at the end of 2013, is back with the team at Pocono. 

Doing the double:
Brad Keselowski defended his U.S. Cellular 250 presented by New Holland NASCAR Nationwide Series title on Saturday night at Iowa Speedway. Landon Cassill joined Keselowski on the Iowa-Pocono plan and scored a 13th-place finish.

Former Pocono winners in the field:

Jeff Gordon (6); Denny Hamlin (4); Jimmie Johnson (3); Kasey Kahne (2); Carl Edwards (2); Tony Stewart (2); Kurt Busch (2); Brad Keselowski (1); Ryan Newman (1); Greg Biffle (1); Joey Logano (1); Dale Earnhardt Jr. (1)

Fantasy sleeper, presented by Rotowire
:
Jamie McMurray. Things appear to be lining up for a very successful weekend at Pocono for Chip Ganassi Racing. Not only does the No. 42 team have a good look heading to the three-turn oval, but the No. 1 team of McMurray could be a steady performer as well. McMurray owns finishes of 10th-, 17th-, 13th-, 16th- and 10th-place in his last five trips to Long Pond, Pennsylvania. His 10th-place finish here in June was no fluke. It was his fifth-career Top-10 finish at the 2.5-mile tri-oval. There seems to be a lot of indicators pointing toward a top-15 finish for the CGR veteran at Pocono.

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