Posted on by Pat DeCola

Similar to how Jeff Gordon and seven-time Cup Series champion Richard Petty became forever intertwined as the former began his premier series career in the latter’s final race in 1992 at Atlanta Motor Speedway, Chase Elliott and Gordon will be linked in perpetuity.

Gordon, the four-time champ, hung up the fire suit after “going to Homestead” to complete a Hall of Fame career (minus a brief stint filling in for an injured Dale Earnhardt Jr. the next year). He then handed off the proverbial keys to a fresh-faced 20-year-old Xfinity Series champion with a famous last name, allowing Elliott to become the first full-time driver of the 24 car since Gordon grabbed the wheel in ’92  — three years prior to Elliot’s birth. 

Arguably the most famous driver in arguably the most famous car for the majority of his career, Gordon guided Elliott through the transition phase while shifting gears to pick up a microphone in the NASCAR on FOX booth.

MORE: Elliott’s career in photos

Though Elliott was winless his rookie and sophomore years, now with three Most Popular Driver awards and a Cup championship in the trophy case, it’s safe to say Gordon mentored his young ward successfully.

“I feel like Jeff’s kind of always had that about him and he’s always just been helpful to me,” Elliott said. “I feel like the most engagement and the largest interactions that I’ve had with him have been just car-related, especially when I first came in. Obviously, he was stepping away and I was stepping in. There was a transition period he really helped me through. I was going to work with a team that he had a lot of experience with and working with, around. Guys he wanted and helped kind of assemble. 

“I feel like that transition, when I look at how he helped me through that, it was very professional.”

Things are about to get even more professional, as Gordon will shift from the broadcast booth to his upcoming 2022 role as vice chairman at Hendrick Motorsports. 

MORE: Gordon named vice chairman at Hendrick | Gordon through the years

For a team that’s already setting the world on fire with a series-best nine race victories in the season’s first 19 races on top of housing the defending champ and current 2021 title favorite, what could having the 2019 Hall of Famer in-house possibly add to the dynamic?

Quite a bit, actually.

“He has a good feel and a good mindset for all the things that it takes to make racing and make a race team work,” said Elliott, favorite to win Sunday’s Cup return to Road America (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC). “He has fought the battles on the driver’s side, on and off the race track, and he has a good understanding of the business aspect of it, the NASCAR aspect of it and just how all these puzzle pieces that come together to make it work.”

Above all else, however, is one thing. Gordon is already a big part of what keeps the Hendrick machine humming. And happy.

“I would say one of his biggest strengths is understanding all the different areas of how it works and how to make everybody as happy as they can (be),” Elliott said. “I feel like he has a really good understanding of how to do that.”

Posted on by Staff Report

NASCAR officials penalized four Cup Series teams and two Xfinity Series teams Tuesday for lug-nut violations during last weekend’s events at Pocono Raceway.

RELATED: Cup Series standings

On the Cup Series side, each infraction occurred in Saturday’s Pocono Organics CBD 325, the opening race in a weekend doubleheader for the tour. Sunday’s Explore the Pocono Mountains 350 was all clear in post-race inspection.

Each of the four Cup Series teams was found with one unsecured lug nut in Saturday’s post-race check, resulting in a $10,000 fine for each of the following teams/crew chiefs:

• No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford (crew chief Rodney Childers; driver Kevin Harvick)
• No. 12 Team Penske Ford (crew chief Todd Gordon; driver Ryan Blaney)
• No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (crew chief Ben Beshore; driver Kyle Busch)
• No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota (crew chief Mike Wheeler; driver Bubba Wallace)

In the Xfinity Series, two teams were also found with a single unsecured lug nut after Sunday’s Pocono Green 225, resulting in $5,000 fines for each crew chief. The offending teams were the race-winning No. 22 Team Penske Ford (crew chief Brian Wilson; driver Austin Cindric) and the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota (crew chief Dave Rogers; driver Daniel Hemric).

Additionally, JGR crew member Micah Horton was indefinitely suspended by NASCAR for violating Rule Book Sections 12.1, 12.8.a and 12.8.g — all of which relate to member conduct. Horton was listed on NASCAR team rosters as a mechanic for the No. 18 team for the Xfinity Series’ last three events; he was listed as the No. 18 team’s car chief for the first 11 races of the Xfinity Series season.

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

The NASCAR Camping World Truck Series is set to take on one of its most storied settings yet.

For the first time in series history, the trucks will race at Knoxville Raceway, the Sprint Car Capital of the World. The Corn Belt 150 will be held at the historic Iowa half-mile July 9 with live TV coverage on FS1.

Knoxville’s status in the world of dirt racing is nothing short of legendary, starting as a horse track built in 1878 that found its purpose as an auto-racing facility not long after the turn of the 20th century.

RELATED: Camping World Truck Series schedule | Buy tickets

After a years-long racing hiatus during World War II, stock cars became the vehicle of choice to work around the dark Iowa clay. That choice evolved to super modifieds and eventually sprint cars in a short amount of time.

But to have stock-car racing back in the heart of Iowa’s home for dirt racing? That’s as full circle as it gets.

“It’s going to be quite significant,” said Bob Wilson, the track historian at Knoxville. “It’s going to be the first time (the trucks visit) and it’s going to be a different sort of race than our regular people are used to seeing. However, I think the stands will be filled with NASCAR people who are really interested in this.”

Wilson is right — this will be a new endeavor for all parties involved.

Chris Dunkin has been Knoxville’s lead track prep director since 1995, but this role dates back far longer than that. He began helping his father prep the track as far back as 1977, and his father began working on the racing surface shortly after returning from serving the country in WWII.

Yet for all the experience Dunkin has, he knows this will be new territory for both him and the competitors.

On a typical dry summer week, Dunkin said the track will go through 100,000 to 150,000 gallons of water to prepare for a regular sprint-car show. Because those vehicles are less than half the weight of a Truck Series vehicle, there will be significantly less water involved.

“What I want to see when the trucks hit the race track is a surface that has some moisture in it,” Dunkin said, “but not to the point to where it’s definitely not standing water but almost to the point where it’s just starting to discolor.”

The hype around Knoxville is growing with each passing day. In the backyard of the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame and Museum, Knoxville legend Donny Schatz will make his series debut in one of NASCAR’s national touring series.

Schatz is a 10-time winner of the Knoxville Nationals, one of the highest honors in sprint-car racing around the world.

“Donny Schatz is one of the premier drivers to ever race on Knoxville dirt,” Wilson said. “He has just been a phenomenal sprint car driver. And so for him to take the time to go to the Truck Series and try it out (says a lot).”

MORE: Schatz set for Trucks debut

Also joining Schatz around the half-mile in a series debut will be hometown hero Brian Brown. Brown has been finding every way possible to ready himself for his stock-car racing debut, including participating in the inaugural Superstar Racing Experience event held at Knoxville on June 19.

“He is one of Knoxville’s favorites,” Wilson said. “This is his home track for winged sprint-car racing. He’s from Missouri. He comes here basically weekly, and he’s a multi-time track champion. Just set a brand-new track record for one lap last year, 14.3 seconds on the half-mile.”

Wilson and Dunkin have both spent their lives around the facility. And while the track’s reputation has exploded over the past several decades, both acknowledged the significance of this event.

The importance goes both ways. In one aspect, heading to Knoxville legitimizes the Truck Series’ venture to dirt. While the series circuited Eldora Speedway for seven consecutive years from 2013-19 and put on great displays of racing, Eldora was the only dirt venue at which the series competed. To go to such a storied location this year after a successful trip to Bristol Motor Speedway’s dirt-covered banks only bolsters the series’ reputation.

Likewise, a nationally-televised live broadcast of a NASCAR-sanctioned national series event further cements Knoxville’s status in the world of racing, proving its facilities are built to host an event of this magnitude.

“Understanding that the trucks were going to come to Knoxville, you get that sense of excitement,” said Dunkin, who also noted he was in “disbelief” when he learned this event was happening. “It’s a privilege to have an organization like NASCAR come to a local track in Iowa.”

Wilson admitted he was a bit jealous of Eldora when he went for the 2019 iteration of the Eldora Dirt Derby, wishing Knoxville would one day have its chance. That opportunity is finally here.

“I was a 9-year-old kid sitting in the grandstand in the ’50s, and to think that these races are going to be nationally live is just crazy,” Wilson said. “I never would have guessed it. Never. And I think Knoxville Raceway was already on the sprint-car map. And I think with these new races that more and more people are going to know about Knoxville.”

Posted on by Official NASCAR Release

CHARLOTTE, N.C. — NASCAR and iRacing.com today announced a new partnership agreement that will grant the Massachusetts-based developer of PC-based racing simulations the title of “official simulation partner of NASCAR.”

The deal will serve to elevate a decade-plus licensing relationship to official partner status, as the two organizations work closer than ever before to promote the various eNASCAR series which live on the iRacing platform, while also collaborating around a number of innovation initiatives which have far-reaching implications on the future of NASCAR — including the design of new and proposed NASCAR race tracks, collaboration and technical support on the NASCAR NextGen race car project, the creation of sim racing-oriented content for NASCAR Digital Media channels, and the use of iRacing as a training tool for NASCAR’s Drive for Diversity class.

iRacing has been a NASCAR licensee since 2010, and since that time has been a key driver behind the sport’s fast-growing efforts in the esports space. iRacing has provided the platform for NASCAR’s first-ever officially sanctioned professional virtual racing series — what is now known as the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series — since 2010, and also played a central role in the formation of the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series in 2020, which bridged the gap between events for real-world stars during the early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic. The seven-race series set records for the most viewed esports events in United States television history, earned both Sports Emmy Outstanding Esports Coverage and Sports Business Awards Breakthrough of the Year nominations, and was renewed for 2021.

Beyond esports, iRacing has also grown to be a key technical partner to the sport, as the company is currently assisting the sanctioning body around multiple race track and facility development projects. iRacing first collaborated with NASCAR on the reconfiguration of Auto Club Speedway into a half-mile short track in 2020, and later scanned the streets of Chicago in the fall to create a proposed street circuit that debuted during an eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series event that aired live on FS1 this June. In addition to track development, iRacing assisted NASCAR in developing the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series NextGen car, which was revealed to the public earlier this year and made its racing debut during the Pro Invitational events.

“NASCAR fans know and love iRacing for their accomplishments in the development of virtual racing series, but what many may not realize is that the company is so much more than just an esports partner,” said Tim Clark, senior vice president and chief digital officer, NASCAR. “iRacing is a full-on technology partner in every sense of the word, and their best-in-class simulation and engineering capabilities are helping us innovate across multiple layers of our business — whether that be in designing new race tracks, developing new race cars, creating compelling digital content, or providing a virtual training ground for the next generation of NASCAR stars.”

“NASCAR has been immensely supportive of iRacing over the past decade, and a huge contributing factor in our growth as an organization,” said iRacing president Tony Gardner. “From their world-class support of the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series for more than a decade, to the explosion of new initiatives like Pro Invitational events and track development projects, NASCAR’s assistance has helped iRacing remain at the forefront of the esports industry while also taking our organization to exciting new places. We’re incredibly excited to extend our partnership, and look forward to continuing to evolve these efforts for years to come.”

To learn more about how iRacing is leveraging its engineering expertise to create compelling simulated auto racing experiences for both NASCAR and other motorsports properties, visit www.iRacing.com. For more information on NASCAR’s esports initiatives, visit eNASCAR.com.

Posted on by Cara Cooper

Chaz Briggs didn’t have any family in racing, and didn’t grow up around the track. He got into the sport 10 years ago when he was in his late 20s for mostly just one reason — he wanted to drive fast.

“I’ve always loved cars and stuff, and I found it was a place I could go where I could drive cars as fast as I could and not get in trouble,” Briggs said.

Within about the first hour of driving, though, he realized there’s a lot more to racing than just driving the car as fast as you can. At the time, he had bought a used race truck and began racing in the Thursday night amateur division at Beech Ridge Motor Speedway — a 1/3-mile NASCAR-sanctioned asphalt oval track in Scarborough, Maine — the same track where he still races today.

When it came to the mechanical side, Briggs said of him and his mom, who helped him at the time, “Between the two of us we barely knew which end of the screwdriver to hold on to.”

“When I showed up there with it and I felt the tires on the old air compressor they said, ‘What do you want for tire pressure?’ and I said, ‘They’re all hard. Fill them up.’ And they were like, ‘It doesn’t work like that. What’s your pressures?’ And I was like, ‘I don’t know,’ ” Briggs said. “That’s how far off I was from knowing anything about it.”

RELATED: Latest NASCAR Roots news

The driving part, though, came pretty quickly. Briggs won just the fourth race he competed in. And because of his success, he started getting attention from other crew members at the track. Even though they didn’t have time to help him on his truck, Briggs started shadowing them on Saturday mornings before races to get a better understanding of the sport.

“They sent me on checking their tire temperatures, which as anybody in racing knows that’s like the lowest on the totem pole of priorities, but it is something that can help, so I stuck with that every Saturday until finally the guys were like, ‘Bring that truck over,’ ” he said. “So I took the truck over and they started helping me get it tuned up right and I started winning a lot of races and a championship.

“That’s when we decided we’ve got this figured out and I decided to move up to a more challenging division.”

After four years, Briggs moved up from the amateur division to racing on Saturday nights at Beech Ridge. The jump to weekend racing was very difficult, and it took him “quite a while” to get settled into the track’s Wildcat division, but he’s now amassed 17 wins overall, and has become a fan favorite at the New England track.

“As far as the mechanic side of it, at this point I do know how to check tire pressure, but beyond that I’m not very good,” Briggs said with a laugh.

Briggs came into the 2021 season with the goal of winning a Beech Ridge championship. He’s come close in the past, with consistent top-five finishes. Briggs’ No. 82 car is currently tied for third in points.

“I don’t typically win a lot of races. For a lack of a better term, I kind of bore them to death with consistency,” Briggs said. “I’m typically a contender for a championship, but it’s not because I rattle off a lot of wins. It’s because I rattle off eight second places and a bunch of third places and some fourth places and no DNFs. No bad finishes, just consistency.”

Briggs did pick up his first win of the season earlier this month, a celebration he was able to share with his co-workers who he’s brought along into the world of racing.

Briggs owns a demolition company, and the guys who work for him during the week serve on his pit crew on the weekends. His company has also brought on two young employees from New York City as part of a program meant to get inner city kids back on track. They, too, have taken to short-track racing through Briggs.

“I gave these kids a chance and I fell in love with the kids. They’re energetic. They’re positive, upbeat, eager to learn, loyal guys,” Briggs said. “I started taking them to the race track and they’ve never seen anything like that before. And I could tell they really appreciated stuff like that, so now they keep coming back and they’re all excited. They send pictures back to friends back home in New York that have never seen anything like this before.

“So it’s really cool to see their faces light up, and this week to be able to bring back a big trophy for them. They’re all, ‘Oh, wow!’ I think it was exciting.”

Briggs’s demolition company has also gained him the nickname of “The Demo King” by the public-address announcers at Beech Ridge, another likely factor in his becoming a fan favorite.

“It’s actually really, really cool,” Briggs said of having young fans in the stands. “If you’ve ever been a fan of somebody, what team you started cheering for, whether you liked the name or the logo. I don’t know if they liked the color of my car one year or they liked how I race, but you know, I’ll take it.  A fan is a fan.”

Racing has given Briggs several bucket list moments he never knew he had before getting behind the wheel 10 years ago. Earlier this year he got the chance to race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, something he called “probably in the top five best experiences of my whole life.”

Another bucket list item, for him, would be the “honor to be able to say I won a Saturday night track championship,” at Beech Ridge, he said.

Brigg’s racing career has come a long way from 10 years ago when he just wanted to be able to drive fast. He’s learned a lot, but he’s still that same adrenaline junkie.

“I don’t know anything else you can get adrenaline from like that that’s legal,” he said. “You certainly can’t drive like that on the road.”

Posted on by Zack Albert

Bubba Wallace helped the upstart 23XI Racing team convert its first top-five finish Sunday in the NASCAR Cup Series. Having team co-founder and NBA legend Michael Jordan on hand for at least part of the Pocono Raceway weekend festivities? Perhaps some of his renowned competitive drive rubbed off.

Wallace opened the second half of the Cup Series season with the organization’s best result to date, coaxing enough fuel out of his No. 23 Toyota for a fifth-place finish in the Explore the Pocono Mountains 350. His previous best this season was an 11th-place result at Dover International Speedway back in May.

RELATED: Official Pocono-2 results | At-track photos

The effort provided a much-needed confidence boost for Wallace, who — instead of directly lauding his impeccable gas mileage — gave credit to the crew that Jordan and co-owner Denny Hamlin assembled for 23XI in its debut season. “Having the right people on top of the (pit) box,” Wallace said, tipping his cap to crew chief Mike Wheeler, engineer J.R. Houston and spotter Freddie Kraft by name. He went the final 47 laps without stopping, one more lap than eventual race-winner Kyle Busch.

“They were just telling me 80% (throttle) here, match lap times with the other guys,” Wallace said, citing help with fuel-saving efforts. “I knew we were in a worse position than the 18 (Busch), so we were just racing our race and I was doing as best as I could. But all in all, really solid weekend. Great race for DraftKings in their first race on our Camry is the first top five for our team. That’s a little pen-to-the-paper action to get them to re-sign, but all in all, just happy with how the weekend went.

“Smooth sailing for the most part today. It was a little bit tricky. Perseverance. We got through it, and I’m proud of everybody.”

Wallace led three laps Sunday during a green-flag pit cycle, putting his No. 23 atop the leaderboard for the first time in nine races. He also broke an odd trend of scoring 14th-place finishes in three of the last four Cup Series events.

If Jordan’s influence as a fierce competitor is starting to take hold at 23XI, so might be the ties to Joe Gibbs Racing through its technical alliance. Though Hendrick Motorsports remains the front-running organization with six consecutive wins before Busch’s streak-snapper, Sunday showed there are gains to be had from the Toyota camp — Wallace included.

“It’s just a matter of getting closer and having — you can’t always have a perfect race car, but getting closer to that 10 out of 10 type race car that you can have at the race track,” Busch said of Wallace and 23XI. “That’s what is going to give you success, put you in those positions. Yes, he’s in our (team) meetings, he’s in there all the time. When we talk and stuff, especially earlier in the season when they didn’t have much communication yet started, he would say, ‘Look, I had a four out of 10 car today. I had a six out of 10 car, seven,’ whatever it might have been. I bet you we get in the meeting (Monday) and he’s going to talk highly on his car. That’s going to be a step in the right direction for that bunch, for sure.”

The boost in morale is intangible, but Sunday’s finish also gave Wallace & Co. something more measurable numbers-wise. The 27-year-old driver also savored a rise in the Cup Series standings, helping him jump three spots into a share of 19th place with Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

MORE: Cup Series points standings

Seven races remain in the regular season, and Wallace sits a still-daunting 54 points back of the 16th and final berth in the provisional playoff picture — a spot currently held by former series champion Kurt Busch. More results like Sunday’s will be needed to achieve one of 23XI’s preseason goals, which could determine if the top-five run at Pocono stands out as a building block or a blip.

“We wanted the playoffs when we started the season. We’ve got a lot of work to do,” Wallace said. “We know that we are in a hole, but it’s finishes like that, that we have to capitalize on the speed in our cars. Today shows what we can do. We’ve got to keep up the momentum.”

Posted on by Chase Wilhelm

Championship-winning crew chief Todd Gordon is set to retire after the conclusion of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Gordon announced his retirement Monday morning on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Gordon has served as crew chief for the No. 12 Team Penske group of Ryan Blaney since the beginning of the 2020 season.

RELATED: Cup Series standings

“It’s just one of those things that you look at any life and there’s several chapters in it,” Gordon told SiriusXM. “It’s been an awesome run here at Team Penske, and really, really happy and fortunate to have the opportunities that I’ve had here, but when you look at it going forward, this is my 23rd year down here in NASCAR and 10 years in Cup Series and just made a family decision that this’ll be my last year sitting on the pit box.”

The veteran crew chief owns 23 race victories in the Cup Series, which include two with current driver Blaney and 21 with No. 22 Team Penske driver Joey Logano. Gordon won the championship with Logano in 2018 after a three-win year that produced 13 top fives and 26 top 10s.

Gordon, who joined Team Penske in December 2010, also served as crew chief for AJ Allmendinger and Sam Hornish Jr. during the 2012 Cup Series season.

Along with his 10-year tenure at NASCAR’s highest level, Gordon spent seven years as a crew chief in the Xfinity Series, beginning in 2005 with drivers Michel Jourdain Jr. and Brent Sherman for team owner Greg Pollex. Other drivers he worked with during that span included Todd Kluever, Kenny Wallace, Jason Keller, Kyle Krisiloff, Marc Mitchell, Scott Lagasse Jr., Brad Keselowski, Parker Kligerman and Jacques Villeneuve.

Gordon’s first of seven Xfinity Series victories came during the 2011 season with Kurt Busch in the No. 22 Team Penske car at Watkins Glen International. He earned six total race wins that year, the other five coming with Keselowski. Gordon’s final Xfinity Series triumph was in 2015 with Logano at Watkins Glen.

Before his days as a crew chief, Gordon began his NASCAR tenure in 1998 for Phil Parson’s No. 10 Xfinity Series team. He later worked as a fabricator for Joe Gibbs Racing before finding homes with other teams as a crew chief in the Xfinity Series ranks. In 2010, Gordon joined Michael Waltrip Racing as an engineer for the No. 99 Toyota team in the Xfinity Series for drivers Trevor Bayne, Martin Truex Jr. and Ryan Truex.

After a storied run in the sport, Gordon is looking forward the next adventure, which he said was still an unknown.

“I’m going to make the transition to something else and a new chapter of life,” Gordon said. “Not sure what that’s going to be, but looking to have a little more family time.”

Posted on by Zack Albert

Sunday’s back end of Pocono Raceway’s Cup Series weekend doubleheader was 10 laps — 25 miles — longer than Saturday’s opener. William Byron and Denny Hamlin were among Sunday’s fuel-starved contenders probably wishing for a repeat of Saturday’s shorter distance.

RELATED: Official results | At-track photos

In the closing laps, those two slipped out of the top five and hit pit road for a last splash of fuel in Sunday’s Explore the Pocono Mountains 350. Hamlin was the last of those to drop off the pace, bringing his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to pit road on Lap 138, handing over the lead to teammate and eventual winner Kyle Busch on the next-to-last lap.

Hamlin kept his shrinking Cup Series standings lead by just two points over Sunday runner-up Kyle Larson, but he’s still yet to visit Victory Lane in 2021.

“Just do what I’m told. Don’t run when I’m not supposed to run, run when I’m supposed to run. The result is we pitted on the last lap for three weeks in a row,” said Hamlin, who led only Lap 138. “That’s tough. I mean, I hate seeing the white coming to pit road. It’s just so frustrating. Fuel mileage has got us the last two weeks. Lug nuts the week before. We’re running fast. We’re getting a little better. I think overall we had a little bit more speed this weekend than what we’ve had the past few weeks. Yeah, can’t see the checkered right now.”

The last leader before Hamlin was Byron, who appeared to be in prime position before his stop on Lap 137. Byron led 22 laps, opening up a slight margin before crew chief Rudy Fugle told him over the radio to put his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet into “max save” mode on fuel.

Byron’s fuel-conservation gamble wound up just short.

“I kind of thought we were closer on fuel than we were,” said Byron, who was seeking his second Cup Series win of the year. “I thought we could get up as far as we could, and a couple of guys would have to pit and we’d save and win. So that was kind of how it was looking to work out there with the No. 2 (Brad Keselowski) and then we had to go into max save. I thought for sure we’d make it because usually you’ve got a little bit of fudge factor there, but we ran out with three (laps) to go, so not even close.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

With remarkable perseverance behind the wheel of a car stuck in fourth gear, Kyle Busch saved enough fuel to win Sunday’s Explore the Pocono Mountains 350, the second leg of a weekend NASCAR Cup Series doubleheader at Pocono Raceway.

RELATED: Busch reacts to winning on fumes | Official Pocono 2 results

After William Byron and Denny Hamlin ran out of gas ahead of him, Busch cruised to an 8.654-second victory over Kyle Larson, who started from the rear of the field in a backup car after crashing while leading in the final corner of Saturday’s race.

Busch brought his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to pit road for the last time on Lap 95, one circuit after Hamlin and Byron — and that one lap of extra fuel made all the difference.

“Yeah, stuck in fourth gear, about out of gas, just saving, just riding, playing the strategy the best we could with what was given to us,” said Busch, who won for the second time this season, the fourth time at Pocono and 59th time in his career — most among active drivers and ninth all-time.

“Just can’t say enough about everybody on my team, everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota, TRD, all the work they’re putting in.

“Sometimes these races aren’t always won by the fastest car, but I felt we had the fastest car, even though we were in the back and behind and having to come through and persevere through being stuck in fourth gear, no clutch, all that stuff. It’s all burned out. Nothing left in this M&M’s Minis Camry.

“Really great to pull off another win here at Pocono. Feels good.”

With the victory, Busch also snapped Hendrick Motorsports’ six-race Cup Series winning streak.

RELATED: 2021 Cup Series schedule 

Larson, also on a fuel-saving strategy in the closing laps, rallied for a runner-up finish after early contact with Hamlin’s car dented the nose of his No. 5 Chevrolet. On a pit stop under caution, Larson’s crew raised the hood of the car, pounded out the damage and secured it with tape.

“It’s a surprising finish for us,” Larson said. “Our HendrickCars.com Chevy was really loose for a majority of the race. Then we got a lot of nose damage there on one of the restarts. Was off on speed, I felt like after that.

“(Crew chief) Cliff (Daniels) and everybody did a really, really good job managing the race, coached me through saving fuel there at the end. Was hoping that the 18 (Busch) was going to run out. I saw the 11 (Hamlin) running out. I was, ‘OK, they’re teammates, they got to be close to running out.’

“The 18 did pit a lap after us under caution. That actually probably won them the race. But, yeah, second-place finish … I thought we would be outside of the top 20 (at) a lot of points throughout the race today. We’ll take it. Happy about the effort, for sure, all weekend.”

Brad Keselowski led a race-high 31 laps but had to pit for fuel on Lap 132 of 140. As drivers ran out of fuel over the final three laps, Keselowski held third at the finish, one spot ahead of fellow Ford driver Kevin Harvick.

“We ran a really good race but just didn’t have enough fuel to make it to the end like those other guys did,” Keselowski said. “They beat us on power and fuel mileage. We have a lot of work to do to keep up with those guys.

“I’m really proud of (crew chief) Jeremy Bullins and the team. They had the setup really well, and it put us in position and we ran a great race today and maximized our day.”

Bubba Wallace ran fifth, the first top five for the 23XI team that debuted this year under the co-ownership of Hamlin and NBA superstar Michael Jordan.

Ryan Blaney, Saturday’s winner Alex Bowman, Ryan Preece, Tyler Reddick and Joey Logano completed the top 10.

Despite finishing 14th after running out of fuel, Hamlin retained the series lead by four points over Larson. Sunday was another hard-luck story for the driver of the No. 11 Toyota.

“I mean, you’re trying to win or you’re trying to get the best finish that you can,” Hamlin said. “But ultimately, we just didn’t save enough. The 18 I think came in and got topped off because he had transmission issues. That was essentially the race.”

Note: Post-race inspection in the NASCAR Cup Series garage was all clear, validating Busch’s race win. Also, there were no lug-nut issues.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

With remarkable perseverance behind the wheel of a car stuck in fourth gear, Kyle Busch saved enough fuel to win Sunday’s Explore the Pocono Mountains 350, the second leg of a weekend NASCAR Cup Series doubleheader at Pocono Raceway.

RELATED: Busch reacts to winning on fumes | Official Pocono 2 results

After William Byron and Denny Hamlin ran out of gas ahead of him, Busch cruised to an 8.654-second victory over Kyle Larson, who started from the rear of the field in a backup car after crashing while leading in the final corner of Saturday’s race.

Busch brought his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to pit road for the last time on Lap 95, one circuit after Hamlin and Byron — and that one lap of extra fuel made all the difference.

“Yeah, stuck in fourth gear, about out of gas, just saving, just riding, playing the strategy the best we could with what was given to us,” said Busch, who won for the second time this season, the fourth time at Pocono and 59th time in his career — most among active drivers and ninth all-time.

“Just can’t say enough about everybody on my team, everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota, TRD, all the work they’re putting in.

“Sometimes these races aren’t always won by the fastest car, but I felt we had the fastest car, even though we were in the back and behind and having to come through and persevere through being stuck in fourth gear, no clutch, all that stuff. It’s all burned out. Nothing left in this M&M’s Minis Camry.

“Really great to pull off another win here at Pocono. Feels good.”

With the victory, Busch also snapped Hendrick Motorsports’ six-race Cup Series winning streak.

RELATED: 2021 Cup Series schedule 

Larson, also on a fuel-saving strategy in the closing laps, rallied for a runner-up finish after early contact with Hamlin’s car dented the nose of his No. 5 Chevrolet. On a pit stop under caution, Larson’s crew raised the hood of the car, pounded out the damage and secured it with tape.

“It’s a surprising finish for us,” Larson said. “Our HendrickCars.com Chevy was really loose for a majority of the race. Then we got a lot of nose damage there on one of the restarts. Was off on speed, I felt like after that.

“(Crew chief) Cliff (Daniels) and everybody did a really, really good job managing the race, coached me through saving fuel there at the end. Was hoping that the 18 (Busch) was going to run out. I saw the 11 (Hamlin) running out. I was, ‘OK, they’re teammates, they got to be close to running out.’

“The 18 did pit a lap after us under caution. That actually probably won them the race. But, yeah, second-place finish … I thought we would be outside of the top 20 (at) a lot of points throughout the race today. We’ll take it. Happy about the effort, for sure, all weekend.”

Brad Keselowski led a race-high 31 laps but had to pit for fuel on Lap 132 of 140. As drivers ran out of fuel over the final three laps, Keselowski held third at the finish, one spot ahead of fellow Ford driver Kevin Harvick.

“We ran a really good race but just didn’t have enough fuel to make it to the end like those other guys did,” Keselowski said. “They beat us on power and fuel mileage. We have a lot of work to do to keep up with those guys.

“I’m really proud of (crew chief) Jeremy Bullins and the team. They had the setup really well, and it put us in position and we ran a great race today and maximized our day.”

Bubba Wallace ran fifth, the first top five for the 23XI team that debuted this year under the co-ownership of Hamlin and NBA superstar Michael Jordan.

Ryan Blaney, Saturday’s winner Alex Bowman, Ryan Preece, Tyler Reddick and Joey Logano completed the top 10.

Despite finishing 14th after running out of fuel, Hamlin retained the series lead by four points over Larson. Sunday was another hard-luck story for the driver of the No. 11 Toyota.

“I mean, you’re trying to win or you’re trying to get the best finish that you can,” Hamlin said. “But ultimately, we just didn’t save enough. The 18 I think came in and got topped off because he had transmission issues. That was essentially the race.”

The Cup Series’ next event is Sunday’s Jockey Made in America 250 (2:30 p.m. ET, NBC, MRN, SiriusXM), the circuit’s first race at Road America since 1956.

Notes: Post-race inspection in the Cup Series garage was completed without major issue or any lug-nut infractions, confirming Busch as the winner. … Xfinity Series regular Justin Allgaier was a late-hour substitute in the Spire Motorsports No. 77 Chevrolet for Justin Haley, who was shaken up after heavy contact in Sunday’s Xfinity event. Allgaier finished 25th in his first Cup Series start since last July.

Contributing: Staff reports