Kyle Busch is simply on a role. He has now won the last four races that he has competed in at any level in NASCAR. He’s won the Cup Series race at New Hampshire, he swept the weekend at Indianapolis last weekend and this week he won the Truck Series race at Pocono.
Not many others can say that they’ve ever done what Busch is currently doing. The driver hopped into a truck for the first time this season and led 53 of the 69 laps on the afternoon. The race was scheduled to go just 60 laps, but with three late cautions it caused for three green-white-checkered finishes. Busch held the competition off on each of the three restarts though having some tough competition and stretching his fuel on 37 laps.
“It was really fun,” Busch said. “Pocono has always been one of those places that haven’t been the best for us. I really hope that we can win the big race tomorrow.”
The race’s turning point came during the first green-white-checkered finish.
Erik Jones ran in the top two positions for most of the race on Saturday afternoon but after making contact with Austin Dillon it sent Jones spinning down the backstretch. After the race the two discussed the incident with one another.
“We were probably going to win the race,” said a disappointed Jones. “We just got spun out and there’s nothing that you can do about that. It was a pretty good point’s day since the No. 88 wrecked and hopefully me made up some good points, we could have made up some more if we finished first and second. We’ll take it. It feels good to run well here, we haven’t ran well in the past and we’ll move onto next week.”
Dillon felt like there was nothing that he could do,
“I haven’t seen a replay but my spotter said the No. 05 was in my left-rear corner panel driving me forward,” Dillon said. “If I lift I get wrecked so there was nothing that I could do. I hate it for him, he’s running for points but he blocked me down into (Turn) 3 and I turned down in there and everyone went up from that point but I know somebody was on my tail. It just happened so quickly, but I feel like the No. 05 started it.”
There was another incident on Lap 6 that shook up the point standings. Matt Crafton came into Pocono as the race leader but he and 2012 Cup Series champion Brad Keselowski made contact and both of them went into the wall.
“I guess that’s the way that he wants the No. 19 to win the championship,” Crafton said of the incident. “If that’s the case he has another thing coming.”
After being accused of intentionally wrecking the No. 88, Keselowski felt that he did nothing wrong and made it clear that he did not crash Crafton on purpose.
“The last thing that I want to do is crash the point leader or any of the truck regulars,” Keselowski said. “It looks like he just drove straight and the No. 00 made it three wide. I have no interest in running the Truck Series and wrecking someone intentionally.”
Crafton finished 28th on the afternoon and surrendered his points lead to Tyler Reddick who finished third, Reddick drives for Keselowski in the series. Reddick currently holds an 11-point lead on Crafton and is 16 points up on Jones.
Cameron Haley came home in the fourth position on Saturday which is a career best for him.
Townley got involved in another incident after the one with Jones and Dillon. After the second green-white-checkered restart he and Mason Mingus got together bringing out the final caution just before Busch took the while flag.
As the Truck Series heads to Michigan in two weeks it has brought the top three in points that much closer together. With just one mistake on track it could cost one driver a championship.
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