Pocono Raceway results from the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race on June 11, 2017
Today, the MENCS throws the green flag at Pocono Raceway. The 2.5 mile triangle racetrack is hidden within the woods of the Long Pond, Pennsylvania.
Stage 1 is 50 laps, stage 2 is another 50. The final stage is 60 laps, completing the 160 lap event. It’s the Pocono 400 in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. 400 miles around the tricky triangle.
Related: How green is Pocono Raceway?
Dale Earnhardt Jr will start at the tail. He had an engine change. He grenaded it in practice. Shifting from 3rd to 4th, driver error, he misses 4th and hits 2nd. Ka-boom.
Green flag. Kyle Busch leads the field into turn 1. Ryan Blaney and Brad Keselowski run 2nd 3rd. Single file into turn 1, they fan out behind them.
6 laps in, Joey Logano is on pit road. Flat tire. 4 tire stop, under green.
36 to go, Brad Keselowski is on pit road. Dale Earnhardt Jr is the biggest mover in the race. He runs 22nd, +16 positions.
33 to go, leader Kyle Busch is in the pits. He passes the lead to Kyle Larson. Larson is in, passing the lead to Erik Jones. Ryan Newman is hit with a penalty, too fast on pit road.
Dale Earnhardt Jr is “running out of brakes.” This is maybe the last track you want to run out of brakes. Long straight away’s and sharp corners, brake failure can be scary.
Darrell Wallace Jr is making his NASCAR Cup Series debut. He just made his first MENCS pitstop. He was caught speeding, in multiple sections. It gets worse, he serves his drive through penalty and speeds through that trip to pit road as well. He’ll have to come back in, again. 3 trips to pit road in 5 laps, two penalties.
Related: Roush Fenway Xfinity Team Set to Close Full-Time Operations – Wallace 4th in Xfinity Points
23 to go, Erik Jones continues to lead. He’s taking a gamble. If a caution comes out, the field will reset. Erik needs a caution. He leads by 11 seconds over Kyle Busch.
15 to go, Erik Jones now leads by 6 seconds. Jones hits pit road. That was a 34 lap run on those tires. Kyle Busch is back to the lead. He leads Kevin Harvick by 5 seconds.
Chase Elliott is also complaining of a soft brake pedal. 185 mph in turn 3, 201 mph into turn 1. That would make any driver nervous. Two Hendrick Motorsports drivers having similar brake issues.
5 to go, Martin Truex Jr is now the biggest mover. He’s +22 positions from his starting spot, he runs 14th.
It’s only the 2nd time this year that stage 1 has gone caution free. Kyle Busch is going to win stage 1!
Stage 1 Results: 1. Kyle Busch; 2. Kevin Harvick; 3. Brad Keselowski; 4. Kyle Larson; 5. Jimmie Johnson; 6. Chase Elliott; 7. Kurt Busch; 8. Matt Kenseth; 9. Jamie McMurray, 10. Austin Dillon;
Jeff Gordon speaks to the Pocono Raceway stage 1 winner. Is he having any issues? Kyle Busch responds, “It’s definitely way hotter today than we’ve seen the last couple days. So, we’re seeing a bigger spike in fall off. I’m not sure our guys expected that.”
Ricky Stenhouse Jr stayed out on the race track. Erik Jones took two tires. Kyle Busch starts 3rd.
Green flag on stage 2, Erik Jones leads the field to the turn 1. Ricky Stenhouse Jr drives hard into turn 1, he drives to the outside of Jones. He has to back out of the throttle. Jones takes the lead back.
More trouble for Dale Earnhardt Jr. He just did it again. He shifted from 3rd to 2nd at the flag stand. 4th was the intended gear. Ka-boom again. Something has changed on his machine. Dale Earnhardt Jr has been doing this too long for that to just suddenly happen twice in the same weekend.
In all his years at Pocono, Dale Earhardt Jr only had 1 DNF. He just picked up his 2nd DNF today. Dale Earnhardt Jr speaks on the transmission, “Everything’s the same. It’s something with my motion. I wish I could blame it on something else because this is awful. It’s just my fault.”
Meanwhile, Clint Bowyer is in the wall, tire smoke, rubbing fenders. Still green.
34 to go in stage 2, Brad Keselowski, Kurt Busch and Joey Logano are all on pit road. They will begin the cycle. Kevin Harvick hits the pits a lap after those guys.
Ryan Blaney is tapping the roof, indicating he’s loose. Alternatively, he’d tap the door if he was tight. Old school pit crew communications. The #21 Wood Brothers Racing driver is having radio issues. The crew cant hear the driver.
14 to go, Kyle Busch continues to lead. He’s yet to pit. Erik Jones is 2nd, 11.49 seconds behind. Denny Hamlin, in 3rd is 20 seconds behind the leader.
10 to go, Kyle Busch is on pit road. New leader, Denny Hamlin. Hamlin now leads Daniel Suarez by 6 seconds. Hamlin hasn’t pitted yet either.
9 to go, Denny Hamlin is on pit road. Passing the lead to his teammate, Saurez. An on track pass for the lead, Kyle Larson drives around Daniel Saurez. New leader. Suarez hits pit road.
Woah! Big crash! Red Flag. (Watch the video below)
Jamie McMurray and Jimmie Johnson are in the wall hard. Johnson radio moments after pounding the wall, “Brakes failed.” Knaus asks Johnson if he’s sure he’s alright. Johnson responds, “Yup, Yeah. I’m pretty sure. I got away with one there.” Jimmie Johnson climbs from the #48. Using the wall as a backstop, he sits down next to his torn racecar to catch his breath.
Meanwhile, Jamie McMurray has come to a stop, his car is on fire. He lost brakes too. At the exact same time and in the exact same corner as Jimmie Johnson. McMurray lost brakes a bit earlier than Johnson did. He was able to ride the outside wall, he didn’t travel all that far before he pounded the the track limit barried.
Jimmie Johnson hit much harder. He was the first to loose his brakes. Drivers are at 200 mph into turn 1. Johnson tried to make the corner, with no brakes. He slide through the infield grass, sideways. Then slid up the banking, backwards and pounded the wall with the rear end.
Jimmie Johnson talked about the crash, “When I went to the brakes, they just traveled straight to the floor. I didn’t even have a peddle to push on. At that point, I threw it in 3rd gear. I was heading through the grass and I was wondering why I didn’t turn right and get to the wall sooner. I’ll go change my underwear and get ready to go home.”
Jimmie Johnson says he could have reduced the impact, “I told myself, if this ever happened again I’d turn immediately into the outside wall. But my instincts, you see all that real estate to the inside. Once I was in the grass, I thought man, I’ve been here before. I should have just turned dead right in the wall and got the wall right away. But you got a split second decision to make there.
Meanwhile, pace laps, Kyle Larson wiggles the marbles off his tires. He doesn’t know Clint Bowyer is rolling around the outside, free pass. Larson the leader, slams into Clint Bowyer under yellow as he was driving around the outside of the field. Light damage to Larson. Bowyer his Larson and then the wall. Bowyer is back to the pits and on the 5-min crash clock.
We’re going green-checkered in the stage 2. Kyle Larson leads Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick. They fan out about 6-7 wide for 5th. Kyle Larson holds off Kyle Busch, they run single file to complete to one lap shootout. Martin Truex Jr drives around Kevin Harvick in the final corner? Kyle Larson wins stage 2!
Kevin Harvick went from 3rd gear to 2nd, but 4th was the intended gear shift. That’s how Martin Truex Jr got around him like that. Same exact thing that Dale Earnhardt Jr did earlier. Veterans having issues.
Stage 2 Results: 1. Kyle Larson; 2. Kyle Busch; 3. Martin Truex Jr; 4. Kevin Harvick; 5. Chase Elliott; 6. Erik Jones; 7. Brad Keselowski; 8. Kurt Busch; 9. Kasey Kahne; 10. Matt Kenseth;
Kyle Larson radio, “We’ve been pretty good so far. The crew made a lot of adjustments over night. At least they tell me they made adjustments, I don’t know if they actually did.”
Green flag on stage 2. Kyle Busch resumes as the leader. Larson restarts near 10th.
52 to go, Danica Patrick has just moved around Paul Menard, she’s inside the top 5. After 6 years in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series, Danica Patrick has never finished inside the top 5.
Related: Danica Patrick Confronts Booing Fans at Pocono Raceway
40 to go, Kyle Busch still leads. 4 seconds ahead of Ryan Blaney.
37 to go, Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez are on pit road. Ryan Blaney hits the pits, the next lap. These are all the cars that didn’t stop at the end of the stage. Final stop for them.
36 to go, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch and Chase Elliott are in the pits. Martin Truex Jr inherits the lead, temporarily.
31 to go, Martin Truex Jr is on pit road. 4 drivers remain on the lead lap. Brad Keselowski still hasn’t come to pit road, he leads by 13 seconds over Ty Dillon.
24 to go, Martin Truex Jr is the fastest car on the track. He runs 5th. Brad Keselowski leads Kyle Busch, by 10 seconds. He still hasn’t pitted. Martin Truex Jr up to 4th.
He’s all over Ryan Blaney for 3rd. Truex Jr drives it hard into the corner, right to the rear bumper to try and make Blaney loose, it backfires, he made himself loose, Truex dances up the track. A lap later he completes the pass.
21 to go, Brad Keselowski is on pit road. 4 tire stop. New leader, Kyle Busch.
Caution! Kasey Kahne is in the wall. Kasey Kahne radio, “I can’t stop.” Kasey Kahne knew early he had no brakes, instead of trying to make the corner he just hugged the wall, rode it until the car stopped. No heavy impact. That’s 3 of 4 Hendrick cars out with mechanical issues. Two with brake failures. Chase Elliott is the only one left on track, he complained of brake failure early.
Pit stops. Kyle Busch stays out on track. Two tires for Erik Jones.
Green, 13 to go. Kyle Busch gets a great restart, Brad Keselowski didn’t go at all. NASCAR reviews the restart, no penalty issued. Bubba Wallace was told he needed to get by the 32 to be in a position for the free pass, the next corner, Wallace puts a bumper to the 32.
11 to go, Ryan Blaney is chasing down Kyle Busch. Kyle Busch nearly hits the wall on exit of turn 3. He’s got a run! The block of a lifetime! Kyle Busch blocks him to the pit wall on the front straight.
10 to go, Blaney has another run! This time he’s alongside down the back straight. Kyle Busch, again, runs him all the way to the inside wall. Kyle Busch holds the lead! Not for long, Blaney is around Kyle Busch, he barely completes the pass, slides in front on corner exit.
Kyle Busch is dropping like a rock. The team missed the call on the pitstop. Harvick and Erik Jones are around Kyle Busch.
5 to go, Blaney continues to lead. He still doesn’t have a radio. Old school tuning communication appears to be working just fine for Blaney. Kevin Harvick is there.
3 to go, Blaney leads. Harvick is all over his bumper. Kevin Harvick is trying to make it work out of turn 2. He hangs back on the entry, comes flying off the exit. Easy in, downshift, hard off.
1 to go, can he get it done? turn 1 is done. Big run out of 2! Harvick ran out of room on the exit, he had to check up to stay out of the wall. Harvick makes it all back up in turn 3. He’s there again. It’s not enough. Blaney wins at Pocono!
Yesterday, Ryan Blaney was the one to interview the Xfinity winner (Keselowski). Today, it’s the un-planed reverse. Keselowski puts on the headset, walks to victory lane to interview the race winner. Ryan Blaney, “It’s hard for me to process. First we had to pass Kyle. That was tough, he was on older tires. He was struggling off of 1, we were able to get under him there. I had to hold Kevin off. I just didn’t want to make a mistake. He raced me really clean.”
He continued, “This is the Wood Brothers 99th win! This is just a lot of fun man.” Brad Keselowski wants to know what the parties going to be like. Ryan Blaney, “Ha. Well, I don’t know but you’re invited.”
Anyone want to go interview Kyle Busch?
Related: Kyle Busch Isn’t Surprised by Anything – Mic Drop Video
Author: Shane Walters
Pocono Raceway Video Highlights
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
June 11, 2017
Pocono Raceway Results
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
June 11, 2017
1. Ryan Blaney
2. Kevin Harvick
3. Erik Jones
4. Kurt Busch
5. Brad Keselowski
6. Martin Truex Jr
7. Kyle Larson
8. Chase Elliott
9. Kyle Busch
10. Matt Kenseth
11. Ricky Stenhouse Jr
12. Denny Hamlin
13. Austin Dillon
14. Ryan Newman
15. Daniel Suarez
16. Danica Patrick
17. Clint Bowyer
18. Ty Dillon
19. Chris Buescher
20. Paul Menard
21. Trevor Bayne
22. AJ Allmendinger
23. Joey Logano
24. Michael McDowell
25. David Ragan
26. Darrell Wallace Jr
27. Landon Cassill
28. Corey LaJoie
29. Gray Gaulding
30. Cole Whitt
31. Reed Sorenson
32. Matt DiBenedetto
33. Derrike Cope
34. Jeffrey Earnhardt
35. Kasey Kahne
36. Jimmie Johnson
37. Jamie McMurray
38. Dale Earnhardt Jr
39. Cody Ware
Links
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