Ryan Blaney scored his first ever Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win while putting Wood Brothers Racing in Victory Lane for the first time in six years in the Pocono 400.
The AXALTA presents the Pocono 400 on the track known as the “Tricky Triangle” was actually somewhat tame this time as far as accidents go. There were some issues at Pocono Raceway like Dale Earnhardt Jr. blowing up his engine and some other on track issues that did not require the caution flag to waive.
There was a total of four yellow flags issued. Two were at the end of the first two stages of the race that Kyle Busch (stage one) and Kyle Larson (stage two) won. The other two caution periods were for accidents on the track including Jimmie Johnson who hit the wall when he lost the breaks on his car. That caution period also required a red flag period that lasted just over 23 minutes for the clean-up of the track. Jimmie is fine following the hard crash.
Late in the race Kasey Kahne (Hendrick Teammate to Dale Jr. and Jimmie) also had a break failure that put him into the wall and out of the race just like two of his three teammates.
Kyle Busch spent most of the day serving notice that he was the car to beat. He led a race high 100 of 160 laps in the race at Pocono Raceway. Seven other drivers led the race at some point up to lap 140 when Kyle again moved to the point of the field.
On lap 150 Ryan Blaney pulled alongside of Kyle to challenge for the lead. After an intense battle between the two cars, Ryan officially was scored as the race leader on lap 151.
Kyle had not stopped for new tires on the last caution period of the race while most everybody else did. That allowed other cars to also get around him including Kevin Harvick. Kevin was able to race up to the back bumper of Ryan leading the race. Over the last few laps Kevin was hoping for a mistake by the driver of the #21 Ford so that he would be able to pass for the lead and win. That mistake never came.
Ryan Blaney held the lead for the final 10 laps of the race to capture his first win in NASCAR’s top division. That put the legendary Wood Brothers Racing back in Victory Lane for the first time since the Daytona 500 in 2011.
Kevin Harvick held on for the runner-up finish with rookie Eric Jones finishing behind him in third place. Kurt Busch crossed the finish line in fourth place with Brad Keselowski rounding out the top five. See the complete race results for the AXALTA presents the Pocono 400 here.
The top four positions in the point standings remain the same for a second week with Martin Truex Jr. leading followed by Kyle Larson (2nd), Kevin Harvick (3rd) and Kyle Busch (4th). Jamie McMurray moves up to the fifth place in the standings following the Pocono 400. See the complete Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series point standings here.
The NASCAR Cup Series teams head to Michigan International Speedway this week for the FireKeepers Casino 400.
By: Buck Stevens
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