Kasey Kahne, driver of the No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet, came from the eighteenth starting spot to finish first in the GoBowling.com 400 at Pocono Raceway.
And in the midst of his celebration in Victory Lane, he took a moment to pause and pay tribute to his friend Jason Leffler, with whom he had ridden home with before and after the last Pocono race prior to Leffler’s fatal sprint car accident.
“This summer has been tough on some racers,” Kahne said. “I thought about it on my way up here because Jason flew up and back with me.”
“It was tough and there are so many people that were good friends with Jason so I wanted to mention him.”
This was Kahne’s 16th victory in 345 NASCAR Sprint Cup races, his second victory in 2013, and his second victory at Pocono. He advanced one position in the point standings to the eighth spot.
“I felt like our Farmers Insurance Chevrolet was the best car,” Kahne said. “Once I cleared Jeff (Gordon), that was pretty much the race.”
“To come here and dominate the race and get the win was really cool,” Kenny Francis, crew chief said. “We were all about to jump off the box when Kasey made that pass.”
Jeff Gordon, who suffered that fateful pass by teammate Kasey Kahne, celebrated his birthday by finishing runner up in his No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet.
This was Gordon’s 29th top-10 finish in 42 races at Pocono and his ninth top-10 finish of the season.
“He was super-fast all day,” Gordon said of Kahne. “Those guys deserved and earned that win today.”
“We had them though,” Gordon continued. “We had the position and got a good restart and I’m pretty disappointed that I allowed him to get to the outside of me in Turn One.”
“That’s the advantage you have of being second, just like the restart before that where I had a little bit of an advantage being in second and got position on him,” Gordon said. “I thought that last restart I did everything I needed to do and I looked in my mirror and I really thought that the inside lane got a good run. I thought all I needed to do was get the bottom but man, he caught me by surprise and blasted by me.”
“And in that scenario, it just kills your momentum.”
While Gordon was disappointed, he was definitely counting his blessings, especially as it pertains to the point standings and getting into Chase contention.
“I feel fortunate to come in second,” Gordon said. “I feel like we had a great day all in all and I’m very proud of that.”
“That’s something we can build a lot of momentum on,” Gordon continued. “Yeah, I’m frustrated right now because we had a shot at it and I know how important wins are, but second is a great points day for us as well.”
Gordon moved up one spot in the point standings up to the ninth position.
Fellow birthday boy Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevrolet, finished third. And for him it felt like a victory, having conquered some of the demons that had plagued the team.
“It was definitely a run that we were able to close the chapter on having little problems here and there,” Busch said. “What I mean by that is that we executed really well today.”
“It was pit strategy, pit stops, two tires, four tires and all to be in position at the end,” Busch continued. “When the 48 had their trouble, we were even able to get into the pits before they closed them.”
“It just seems like the team is flowing really well and I’m excited for this portion of the season because we now get to go back to all these tracks a second time and we have fresh notes,” Busch said. “So, working together, what I’m happy about is that we’re small but we can shoot from the hip a lot and make up a lot of ground by being aggressive.”
“Even though we didn’t win, I feel good about this third place finish because this was a championship effort.”
This was Busch’s 14th top-10 finish in 25 races at Pocono and he moved up one position to 13th in the point standings.
Ryan Newman, coming off the race win at the Brickyard, continued riding the momentum wave with a fourth place finish in his No. 39 Haas Automation 30th Anniversary Chevrolet.
“Well it was a good run no doubt,” Newman said, in spite of some pit road challenges. “Big for Quicken Loans and their ‘Bring it Home’ sweepstakes.”
And of course Newman reminded all that Bloomin’ Onions would be available for all at Outback on Monday.
Rounding out the top-five was Dale Earnhardt, Jr. in the No. 88 National Guard Youth Foundation Chevrolet.
“We had a good car but not as good as it needed to be,” Junior said. “We just didn’t have the edge that we needed.”
“I want to thank my guys who did a good job on strategy and pit stops.”
While Chevrolet dominated the top five, team Penske flew the Ford team colors, with Brad Keselowski finishing sixth and Joey Logano finishing seventh.
“We were close to the 5 and 24 but they were probably a tad faster,” the reigning champ and driver of the No. 2 Redd’s Apple Ale Ford said. “Damn, we were just a little bit short.”
“We were a lot better than we finished,” the driver of the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford said. “Seventh isn’t bad but I thought we were a top-three car today.”
“We just have to keep our heads in the game and keep trying to make up points.”
Both Logano and Keselowski each moved up one position in the point standings, with Logano now in 17th and Keselowski now in wild card contention in 12th.
Kyle Busch was the highest finishing Toyota. He brought the No. 18 M&M’s Peanut Butter Toyota to the checkered flag in the eighth spot.
“We were just a little bit off today,” Busch said after starting from the outside pole. “It seemed like we could get going good on restarts and it would drive well for a few laps, then we couldn’t keep up as well on the long run.”
“That’s about all we had.”
Points leader Jimmie Johnson had a very eventful day in his No. 48 Lowe’s Planes Chevrolet, but battled back to a 13th place finish after blowing a tire and hitting the wall. In spite of all that, Johnson actually increased his points lead over Clint Bowyer to 77 points.
“Yeah, my day kept needing to be calibrated as the day went on,” Johnson said. “I really felt like we had a shot to win, unfortunately blew a tire off of Turn One and ended those hopes there.”
“We worked on the car and got it better,” Johnson said. “Then I hit the wall so hard that it knocked a spark plug wire off the spark plug.”
“They were able to get everything hooked back up and the engine took off,” Johnson continued. “Off we went and salvaged a very nice finish.”
