MENCS: Kyle Busch King of the Tricky Triangle at Pocono Raceway

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In: NASCAR Cup Series News

Kyle Busch parked his No. 18 M&M’s Caramel Toyota into victory lane on Sunday at Pocono Raceway. Busch, from Las Vegas, Nevada, led 74 of the 160 circuits to capture his 39th career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series win. The win marks his 176th trip to victory lane across the Camping World Truck, XFINITY, and Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

“For today, that was the word. It’s been a frustrating year and this certainly relieves a little bit of that – I wouldn’t say all of it,” said Busch after the race. “Adam (Stevens, crew chief) and these guys did an awesome job today. I can’t say enough about this M&M’s Caramel Camry – Toyota, this is their 100th Monster Energy Cup Series win. All these guys, the pit crew – they do a great job each and every week. We had to rely on them on that final stop so we didn’t lose too much time to those guys because we had so much distance that we were letting them have it on us with those fresher tires that they had. It’s been a frustrating year, but an awesome day today.”

With 17 laps to go, Busch passed Kevin Harvick for the lead in turn three by giving a little bump. He was then able to hold off Harvick to win the Overton’s 400 by 6.178 seconds over Harvick.

“Well, the only chance the I had (to keep the 18 behind me) was to get into the corner correctly,” said Harvick after the race. “I got in there and was loose all the way through the corner on entry and just kept holding the brake down, holding the brake down, holding the brake down and finally, I’m sure he thought I was going to go and I didn’t accelerate. I was trying to stay on the bottom to park the thing to get going and he had a good run.”

Harvick started sixth and sat upfront battling for the top spot in the closing laps. Despite not hanging onto the top spot, Harvick will leave Pocono Raceway with the runner-up position.

The California native will hold eight top five and 14 top 10 finishes through 21 events in 2017 as the series goes road course racing next weekend at Watkins Glen International.

Martin Truex Jr. will round out the top three finishers on Sunday at Pocono. Truex started second and stayed upfront for majority of the day. The native from New Jersey sat second in stage one and used strategy in stage two by pitting and finishing 13th on the leaderboard.

Denny Hamlin showed the way for 18 circuits in his No. 11 FedEx Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing. Hamlin started fourth and will leave Pocono with his seventh top 10 finish of the season.

Three key drivers found themselves into trouble throughout the 400-mile event.

The first of which were teammates Kasey Kahne and Jimmie Johnson in turn three. Kahne, last weekend’s race winner at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, continued on to finish 11th. However Johnson wasn’t so fortunate. The No. 48 Chevrolet  finished 35th with a DNF.

“It’s just hard racing. We were going into Turn 3 and the guys were lifting and he just missed his marks a little bit and luckily we didn’t crash,” Johnson said after the incident outside of the care center. “And then I was in the outside lane and losing some spots. I think the No. 5 washed-up into me and king of finished me off over there in Turn 3. It’s definitely not the day we wanted to have but I don’t think either one of those situations were intentional by any stretch. It’s just a bummer day for this whole Lowe’s team and we’ll get our Chevy ready for next week and go do it again.”

Kyle Larson later developed an issue with his No. 42 Target Chevrolet on lap 71. Larson and the No. 42 team went to the garage area to repair the drive shaft and returned 12 laps later. The young driver from California will leave Pocono with a 33rd-place finish.

POS

CAR

DRIVER
 

1

18

Kyle Busch

S1, S3

2

4

Kevin Harvick
 

3

78

Martin Truex Jr.
 

4

11

Denny Hamlin
 

5

2

Brad Keselowski
 

6

14

Clint Bowyer

S2

7

19

Daniel Suarez #
 

8

77

Erik Jones #
 

9

20

Matt Kenseth
 

10

24

Chase Elliott
 

Daniel Suarez was the highest finishing rookie with a seventh-place finish at Pocono Raceway. The driver from Mexico started eighth on the leaderboard and finished stage one sitting 18th. At the end of stage two, Suarez sat 23rd. Suarez will leave with his third straight top 10 finish.

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series will head to Watkins Glen International for the I Love New York 355. Live coverage will begin at 3:00 p.m. ET. on NBCSN. The Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM Channel 90 will have the live radio broadcast.

Brett Winningham
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