Kyle Busch broke his longest win-lees streak in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and scored his 1st win the division at Pocono Raceway in the Overton’s 400 Sunday (7/30).
Kyle has had a good 2017 season to date starting from the pole position in races and leading thousands of laps. However, he has been unable to close the deal at the end of the race and capture a win. In fact, heading to the track called the “Tricky Triangle” it had been 36 races since Kyle had earned a trip to Victory Lane in the NASCAR Cup Series heading to Pocono.
Kyle qualified to start on the pole as he has multiple times this season. He also shot out to the lead on the initial start of the race, again as he has multiple times this season. It looked as though this could be a wild race when the first caution was issued before the first lap could be completed with an accident involving eight cars. However, that was not the case as there would be only four more caution periods including the two that came at the end of the first two stages of the race.
Kyle won stage one of the race, yep, you guessed it, as he has done multiple times this season. Following that stage one win other cars made adjustments and the #18 Toyota began getting mired back in some traffic as eight other drivers found a way to get out front and stay there. It began to look like although Kyle Busch was again the fastest car on the track, the #18 Toyota might not have the chance to close the deal as has also happened many times this season. Clint Bowyer was able to get the stage two win in the race.
However, this time some pit strategy worked in favor of Kyle Busch. On lap 143 the #18 Toyota made the move to the top spot on the track and remained there for the final 17 laps of the race to capture the first win of the 2017 NASCAR Cup Series season for Kyle Busch.
Kevin Harvick claimed the runner-up finish with Martin Truex Jr. capturing third place. Denny Hamlin and Brad Keselowski finished in fourth and fifth places respectively. See the complete race results for the Overton’s 400 here.
Following the race at Pocono Raceway the top four spots in the point standings remain the same with Martin Truex Jr. in first, Kyle Larson in second, Kevin Harvick in third and Kyle Busch in fourth. Denny Hamlin slipped back a spot out of the top five allowing Brad Keselowski to move up to fifth place. See the complete Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series point standings here.
Kyle Busch’s win at Pocono puts 13 drivers with wins on the Chase Grid that has only 16 spots available. There are five races remaining before the NASCAR playoffs start and currently three spots being filled by points without a win. There is a strong possibility that for the first time since the Chase Grid format began being used that all spots in the playoffs could be filled by drivers with a least one win in the regular season. There is even a chance that a driver or two with a win might not make the playoffs if there are more than three new winners for the 2017 season over the last handful of races in the regular season.
The drivers and teams will take to the road course of Watkins Glen International this Sunday, August 6th for the I LOVE NEW YORK 355 at The Glen. That race has a high possibility of producing a first time 2017 season winner.
By: Buck Stevens
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