Sunday Pocono Raceway Notebook:
Break Out The Broom At Pocono Raceway:
You didn’t need to see a checkered flag on Sunday afternoon at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway to know that Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the GoBowling.com 400. All you needed to hear was the roar from his fans along the 3,740 feet frontstretch to know that NASCAR’s most popular driver bookended a season sweep at the 2.5-mile triangle and collected his third NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win of the season.
Earnhardt Jr. started ninth and led only once, the final 14 laps, but it was enough to give him the most wins in a single season since 2004, where he triumphed six times. Furthermore, Jr. also scored the same amount of wins this year than he did from 2006 – 2013 combined.
And, it’s not only Dale Earnhardt Jr. that’s feeling the Pocono Raceway dominance, Hendrick Motorsports earned their fifth consecutive victory in Long Pond dating back to Jeff Gordon in August 2012. Jimmie Johnson and Kasey Kahne collected wins in 2013, before Earnhardt Jr. grabbed the reins in 2014.
“Just proud of the whole team,” said Jr. “As good as Steve (Letarte) is and as great of a crew chief as he is the whole team is that deep. Everybody has got a great personality, everybody is an expert at what they are doing and everybody does a great job at it. I’m real lucky to be a part of it. I can’t thank these guys enough. They have really brought my career around and it is fun to be a part of this.”
Although the 39-year old Earnhardt Jr. locked himself into the Chase with a 10th place finish at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, the sheer confidence that he has in his Hendrick Motorsports team under the leadership of Steve Letarte could spell troubles during the Chase for not only his Hendrick Motorsports teammates Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson, but the rest of the contenders too.
Safe And Secure: Kevin Harvick Assured Chase Spot:
It wasn’t pretty, but it was enough. Kevin Harvick overcame a penalty and being involved in the 13-car pileup on Sunday at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway to assure himself and his Stewart-Haas Racing team a spot in The Chase with five races remaining before Chicagoland Speedway.
Harvick, as usual had a sporty No. 4 Mobile 1 Chevrolet SS, but a Lap 96 speeding penalty exiting pit road looked to hamper the team’s day. However, with their relentless attitude, “Happy
Harvick” found himself climbing out of the hole.
But, then came Pocono’s version of the “big one.”
On Lap 117, a 13-car melee erupted after Denny Hamlin broke loose underneath Clint Bowyer. From there, chaos ensued with Harvick taking the low-line to avoid the carnage, but his maneuver almost proved to be fatal as his Stewart-Haas Racing automobile went through and jumped out of drain, which hung his No. 4 Chevrolet into the wall. Luckily, the team informed the Bakersfield, California native that the damage wasn’t severe allowing them for a comeback to lock themselves into The Chase in their first season together with their fourth runner-up of 2014.
“I saw a whole bunch of cars wrecking and we had just got our penalty, so we were in the back of it,” Harvick explained. “I saw, I just hung a left and I just wasn’t expecting a two foot by two foot drain to be a foot down into the ground as I went down through the asphalt. As I went through the drain and jumped up out of it, it hung a left to the wall. But I think we had the wreck clear, just timed the drain wrong,
“They were able to beat it out and in the end, top it off before we went green there and were able to save a bunch of gas with a bunch of cars that were doing the same thing there at the beginning of that run and in the end saved plenty of gas to be able it a race hard at the end. So it was fun. Car wasn’t obviously quite as good after we wrecked it, but still they did a great job fixing it.”
Solid Runs Galore:
Whether it was the 13-car wreck at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway on Sunday or just that their cars were better than normal, several teams and drivers who needed good runs in the GoBowling.com 400 earned them.
You could even call it a strike if you want, but it might be the performance they need to build on for the rest of the season.
After back-to-back finishes in the 30s at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Casey Mears attracted his seventh top-15 finish of the season with a 12th. The performance was Germain Racing’s third best on-track effort of the year including a 10th and fourth at both Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway races this season. Because of his run, Mears jumped from 26th to 24th in the series standings.
Justin Allgaier for HScott Motorsports matched his career-best finish in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway with a 16th-place run in the No. 51 AccuDoc Solutions Chevrolet SS. Allgaier also finished 16th at Michigan International Speedway in June. Before that, a 17th-place outing at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, the site of his first career NASCAR win was a personal best.
Front Row Motorsports had two solid efforts with drivers David Gilliland and David Ragan Sunday. Both drivers started deep in the field at “The Tricky Triangle”, but were able to climb to
finish 17th and 19th respectively, one lap off the pace. Gilliland’s best finish of the season prior was at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway in April, where he nabbed 20th.
Teammate David Ragan in the No. 34 A&W Root Beer Float / CSX Ford Fusion notched his second top-20 of the season. He also finished 18th in the spring Pocono race after starting 32nd.
After a dreadful season mixed with accidents, bad luck and mechanical failures, the dots finally connected and Ryan Truex finally put together a solid finish on Sunday, earning 20th, a career-best finish. Before Pocono, Truex, a development driver for Richard Petty Motorsports had only been able to manage a 30th place finish in the No. 83 for BK Racing at Martinsville (Va.) Speedway in March.
Other honorable mentions: Josh Wise (24th), Travis Kvapil (25th) and Alex Kennedy (28th).
Kyle Larson Fails To Capitalize On Pole::
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series rookie Kyle Larson won his first career-pole Friday at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, but that was probably the highlight of the weekend for the 22-year old racing sensation.
Larson also entered in Saturday’s Pocono Mountains 150, where he also notched the pole and had the dominating truck to beat. However, engine gremlins in his No. 32 Cartwheel by Target Chevrolet Silverado kept him from contending and eventually resulted in an 18th place finish.
Sunday was a little better, but not what he or the Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates had hoped for.
The driver of the No. 42 Target Chevrolet SS couldn’t hold off Joey Logano on the first lap, losing the lead and eventually slipping out of the scope during the 160-lap race. Still, the leading Rookie of the Year candidate did manage an 11th place run, maintaining his security inside The Chase, locked in 12th, without a win.
Follow Chris Knight on Twitter @Knighter01.
