Long Pond, PA – June 29, 2020 – Kevin Harvick won the Pocono Organics 325 on Saturday, earning his third race win of the season and first career win at Pocono Raceway. Stewart-Haas Racing recorded their 22nd Cup win since rejoining Ford Motor Co. while Harvick leads the organization with 17 Ford wins. Stewart-Haas teammate Chase Briscoe also scored a victory, winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series Pocono Green 225 race Sunday afternoon.
“Pocono is a special place for Roush Yates Engines,” said Doug Yates, President and CEO of Roush Yates Engines. “It’s the track we had our first win with the Ford FR9 engine, back in 2010 with Greg Biffle and now Kevin, Rodney and the No. 4 team have delivered its 208th overall win. Congratulations to Tony, Gene and the Stewart-Haas teams on a great weekend, winning two races with Kevin and Chase is a testament to all the teams’ determination and focus.”
The NASCAR Cup race came down to a gutsy pit strategy call on lap 94 by Rodney Childers. Harvick followed Stewart-Haas teammate Aric Almirola down pit road as Childers made the call for two tires verses the four that Almirola needed with a splash of fuel. This allowed Harvick to exit the pits in front of Almirola. After all the pit stops cycled through, Harvick became the race leader. Harvick was then faced with holding off a hard charging Denny Hamlin to take the checkered flag .761 ahead of the No. 11 Hamlin.
“I knew when we came out of the pits and they told me how big of a lead we had. I saw the 11 come out of the pits and he was in second,” commented Harvick. “I knew that the tire gap was going to be a little less. He caught us a little in traffic, but I knew I could be pretty patient with the gap we had. Just a great call by Rodney Childers and all the guys on the pit box for having the right strategy and getting us to victory lane.”
It was a day dominated by the Ford blue oval with six Ford Mustangs finishing in the top-10 and leading a combined 106-laps out of the 130-lap race.
The Stage two winner, Almirola drove a great race leading a race high 62 laps and finishing P3, Stewart-Haas Racing teammate, Clint Bowyer finished P7, Front Row Motorsports’, Michael McDowell finished P8 while Team Penske’s, Brad Keselowski finished P9 and Roush Fenway Racing’s, Chris Buescher rounded out the top-10 in P10.
In day two of the first ever NASCAR Cup doubleheader at Pocono Raceway, Harvick came up just short of pulling off back-to-back wins, coming in second to Hamlin. Four Ford Mustangs finished in the top-10 and led 49 of 140-lap race. Harvick P2 followed by Almirola P5, Matt DiBenedetto P6 and Bowyer P8.
Ford leads all manufacturers with a total of eight wins out of 15 races. Three Ford drivers are on top of the driver points leader board. Harvick leads the way with Team Penske teammates, Ryan Blaney in second and Keselowski in third.
Chase Briscoe followed in Harvick’s footsteps, putting the second Stewart-Haas Racing Ford Mustang in victory lane, winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series Pocono Green 225 with crew chief Greg Zipadelli. Briscoe scored his fourth win of the season and now leads the driver points standings with a three-point lead over Noah Gragson.
Briscoe was leading the race when his left rear tire went down. With an incredible recovery, he saved it and took the No. 98 back to the pits for four fresh tires. Briscoe drove to the front to take the lead on lap 83 only to have the 9th caution of the day come out. Briscoe would line up on the outside of Ross Chastain in a two-lap overtime finish. Chastain got the jump on the restart, but Briscoe would not be denied and drove to the left rear of Chastain in Turn 2 to make his move and pass Chastain on the inside to take the lead. The No. 98 Ford Mustang checked out and had a 1.015 gap to Chastain at the finish.
“We were really not that good at the beginning,” commented Briscoe. “We kind of struggled and didn’t have the speed I really anticipated us to have here, and then Zippy and the guys just kept working on it and kept getting it better and better. We had the lead there after I sped on pit road and I was a little worried, but, fortunately, a lot of the good cars got tore up, so that made it a little bit easier to get back through the field. And then me and Ross, it was pretty fun. He’s always one of the hardest guys to race against and pass, and just really cool to get HighPoint.com here in Victory Lane. This is their home track. We’re halfway to eight, so hopefully we can keep going.”
Stage 1 winner, Austin Cindric also drove a great race until an accident in Stage 3 took him out of the race, finishing P29 overall.
NASCAR heads to Indianapolis Motor Speedway to celebrate the Fourth of July weekend. The Xfinity series will start everything off on July 4th with the first-ever NASCAR road course event at Indy and then the Cup series will cap things off with the 27th running of the Brickyard 400 on July 5th. For a complete race schedule head to roushyates.com.
27 CHAMPIONSHIPS – 391 WINS – 357 POLES!
*Photos courtesy of NASCAR Media & Getty Images
About Roush Yates Engines
Roush Yates Engines is a leading-edge engine development company based in Mooresville, NC consisting of two state-of-the-art facilities – Roush Yates Engines and Roush Yates Manufacturing Solutions, a world class ISO 9001 / AS9100 certified CNC manufacturing facility. The company’s core business includes designing, building and testing purpose-built race engines.
Ford Performance in partnership with Roush Yates Engines is the exclusive engine builder of the NASCAR FR9 Ford V8 engine and Ford Mustang 5.2L V8 engine, used in the IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge series.
With an unparalleled culture of winning and steeped in rich racing history, Roush Yates Engines continues to follow the company’s vision to lead performance engine innovation and staying true to the company’s mission, provide race winning engines through demonstrated power and performance.
3 Series – 22 Teams – 81 Races
