Surprising and Not Surprising: Pocono 400 Presented by #NASCAR
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[/media-credit]With a shortened race, a repaved track, a snazzy new Twitter partnership, and Doc Mattioli looking down from heaven, here is what was surprising and not surprising from the Pocono 400 presented by #NASCAR.
Surprising: As the checkered flag flew at Pocono Raceway, it was surprising the history that was made by race winner and driver of the No. 20 Home Depot Chevrolet. Joey Logano became the youngest Pocono winner ever at 22 years and 17 days, breaking the record set by Jeff Gordon, who won at 24 years of age.
Logano also was the first pole winner in 31 races to go on to Victory Lane. The young driver led 49 laps, a career high, and will now race in the 2013 All-Star race.
“Yeah, the moment is pretty surreal,” Logano said. “Not just crossing the line, obviously that’s an amazing moment, and I didn’t stop screaming until I got to about – well, victory lane, I guess.”
“You work so hard to do this,” Logano continued. “To get a victory, it meant so much.”
“Pulling the Home Depot car into victory lane at a Sprint Cup race and winning it the right way was just an amazing, amazing feeling that you can’t replicate and you can’t explain what it means.”
Not Surprising: It was not surprising that the second place finisher was gracious as always, even in defeat. Veteran driver Mark Martin, behind the wheel of the No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota, came out on the wrong end of a bump and run to the young driver that he has been touting for many years.
“I’m just so thankful to have the opportunity that Michael Waltrip, first of all, and Aaron’s and Toyota have given me to drive competitive race cars,” Martin said. “It is so incredible to be in something that is strong enough that I can contend.”
Surprising: It was surprising how focused and disciplined Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and crew chief Steve Letarte were at Pocono, pitting to take fuel and still finishing with a top-10.
“Well, we just didn’t want to run out of gas,” Dale Junior said. “I didn’t know the caution flags were going to be so long. And they were long enough to help them guys make it on fuel.”
“We’re not taking those kinds of chances – just yet.”
Not Surprising: On a newly-paved race track, it was not surprising that passing was challenging and restarts were even more insane. Both drivers of the Stewart Haas team could most certainly attest to that.
“The restarts were insane,” Tony Stewart, driver of the No. 14 Modbil1/Office Depot Chevrolet and third place finisher, said. “But you had to take full advantage of them.”
“That was the biggest opportunity to make gains and definitely big gains,” Smoke continued. “You could get three or four at a time if somebody got bottled up a little bit.”
“You had to be on your toes for the restarts for sure.”
Teammate Ryan Newman, behind the wheel of the No. 39 Haas Automation Chevrolet, also had a tough time on restarts. With just 40 to go, Newman fell from sixth to 11th place due to a crazy restart, finishing the race in 12th.
“I told the guys that I just got too aggressive on that restart,” Newman said. “It ended up costing us some spots there.”
“At the end of the race, we just didn’t have the track position that we needed and we didn’t get the top-10 finish that we felt we deserved.”
Surprising: Team Dodge had a surprisingly tough day at the race track. Brad Keselowski wheeled his No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge to an 18th place finish, while AJ Allmendinger took one of the most brutal hits of his racing career in his No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge.
“My team did a great job through all the adversity today,” Keselowski said. “We got caught twice on the timing lines and then we had some problems with the ignition.”
“And at the very end, we lost brakes,” Keselowski continued. “It was just one fight after another.”
“I’m not sure what happened,” Allmendinger said of his crash.”That was pretty hard, that might be one of the hardest hits I’ve had.”
Not Surprising: With over 22 speeding penalties meted out by NASCAR during the race, it will not be surprising to see crew chiefs galore on pit road at Michigan for the upcoming race weekend. One of the multiple speeding offenders was none other than five-time champ Jimmie Johnson.
“Things were just repaved, everything has been redone and we need to physically walk down and mark it off ourselves to understand what happened there,” Johnson said. “We got nailed with a lot of other guys.”
Surprising: After a fitful start to the season, Jamie McMurray had a surprisingly good finish at Long Pond. The driver of the No. 1 Banana Boat Chevrolet finally pulled off a top-10 finish.
“We had a really good Banana Boat Chevy today,” McMurray said. “I am proud of the effort from everyone one this team and feel good about the way we performed.”
“It’s nice to walk out of here with a top-10 finish.”
Not Surprising: The monkey remained on the back of the driver of the No. 24 Dupont Chevrolet. In spite of running as well as top-five, Jeff Gordon and his team made the decision to pit for fuel with just 23 laps to go.
That decision bit Gordon yet again, relegating him to a 19th place finish. The four-time champ has just 4 top-10 finishes in the last 17 races.
And with the finish at Pocono, Gordon fell to 22nd in the point standings, with only wild card wins as his hope to get into the 2012 Chase.
Surprising: Kyle Busch and team No. 18 for Joe Gibbs Racing surprisingly suffered the second engine failure in a row at Pocono, finishing 30th.
“It’s very frustrating,” Busch said. “We got knocked back on the first lap in traffic by a stupid move and we’re fighting our way back through and then we have another engine issue.”
“We’re putting ourselves in a hell of a hole and it’s not going to be easy to come out of it.”
Not Surprising: With Greg Biffle’s valve train failure and 24th place finish, it was not surprising that a new points leader emerged after the checkered flag was waved at Pocono.
Teammate Matt Kenseth, with his solid seventh place finish, took over the lead, ten points ahead of Dale Earnhardt. Jr., with Biffle falling to 16 points behind to third in the standings.
“It’s unfortunate we fell back that far, but the points are so tight we knew that if we had an issue we were going to drop a lot,” Biffle said. “You’re vulnerable when you’re only one point or ten points ahead, but that’s racing.”
“It’s better than being second,” Kenseth said of his points lead, “But I’m just kind of disappointed right now because I thought we had a shot to win.”
“I couldn’t go on restarts,” Kenseth said. “We’ll keep working on it, but I’m happy we got a decent finish and took over the point lead.”
NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Pocono
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[/media-credit]Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.
1. Jimmie Johnson: Johnson finished fourth at Pocono, posting his 10th top-10 result of the year. He remained fifth in the Spring Cup point standings, 30 out of first.
“Pit road speeding penalties were the story at Pocono,” Johnson said. “I got nabbed twice myself. There are so many speed traps on pit road, I apparently wasn’t the only ‘5-timer’ at Pocono.
“I got ‘busted twice.’ And I’m so good, they’ll be saying that again at my Hall of Fame induction ceremony.”
2. Matt Kenseth: Kenseth finished seventh in the Pocono 400, and, with the struggles of Roush Fenway teammate Greg Biffle, is the new points leader. Kenseth holds a ten-point lead over Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
“It’s one thing to lead the point standings now,” Kenseth said. “It’s another to lead at season’s end. And, as The Fixx once eloquently stated, let’s hope ‘One Thing Leads To Another.’”
3. Dale Earnhardt, Jr.: Earnhardt led 36 laps at Pocono, second only to Joey Logano’s 49, but settled for an eighth-place finish, his third-straight top 10 and seventh in the last eight races. Earnhardt improved one place in the Sprint Cup point standings and trails Matt Kenseth by 10.
“We had the car to win the race,” Earnhardt said, “but, as a 143-race winless streak would seem to suggest, not the driver.
“We had to play it safe and pit for fuel late in the race. I know Junior Nation wanted me to go for the win, but if they could just picture alcohol in the place of fuel, I think they’d understand.”
4. Greg Biffle: Biffle led 19 early laps in the Pocono 400 before mechanical issues dropped him to a finish of 24th, his worst result of the season. After leading the point standings for 11 consecutive weeks, Biffle fell to third, and now trails Matt Kenseth by 10.
“Up until Pocono,” Biffle said, “our engines have been pretty reliable. Usually, when there’s talk of ‘mechanical issues’ around here, it’s a comment on Kenseth’s personality.”
5. Denny Hamlin: Perennial Pocono favorite Hamlin started and finished fifth in the Pocono 400, as Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Joey Logano took the victory. Hamlin is fourth in the Sprint Cup point standings, 19 out of first.
“Logano ran a heck of a race,” Hamlin said. “He was awesome. So awesome, in fact, that Joey was the only driver his father confronted after the race.”
6. Kevin Harvick: Karvick finished 14th at Pocono, one of several drivers slowed by a record 22 pit road speeding penalties administered by NASCAR during Sunday’s race. Harvick moved up one place in the point standings to sixth, 53 out of first.
“I was one of several drivers penalized for speeding on pit lane,” Harvick said. “I have to question NASCAR’s methods. Normally, when you say ‘speed trap’ in NASCAR circles, everyone assumes you’re talking about a member of the Mayfield clan getting busted for buying meth from an undercover cop. Not anymore.
“Obviously, the timing mechanisms at Pocono need reviewing. That would make everyone happy. In other words, it’s time to ‘calibrate, good times.’”
7. Tony Stewart: Stewart broke a streak of two consecutive 25th-place finishes with a strong third in the Pocono 400, his fifth top 5 of the year. He remained eighth in the point standings, where he trails leader Matt Kenseth by 75.
“As you know,” Stewart said, “Kyle Busch won my charity Prelude To A Dream race at Eldora Speedway. So, Kyle’s name is ‘dirt’ while his brother Kurt’s name is ‘mud.’”
8. Kyle Busch: Busch finished 30th after a blown engine ended his day on lap 76. He fell three places to 12th in the Sprint Cup point standings, 21 ahead of Paul Menard in 13th.
“Off all people,” Busch said, “I was one who didn’t get a speeding penalty.
“It’s old news that my brother Kurt was sent home for the weekend. Funny thing is, ‘home’ doesn’t want him around either.”
9. Carl Edwards: Edwards was caught up in a lap 1 incident at Pocono that left him at the back of the field. But the No. 99 Kellogg’s/Cheez It team battled back, and Edwards bagged a solid 11th, and improved one spot to 11th in the point standings.
“I bringing up the rear in the point standings among Roush Fenway drivers,” Edwards said. “My teammates, Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle, are still quite supportive. They greatly appreciate the distance I’ve put between us.”
10. Joey Logano: Logano started on pole and led a race-high 49 laps at Pocono, but needed a late pass of Mark Martin to capture his first win since 2009. In a contract year, Logano made a strong case for Joe Gibbs Racing to resign NASCAR’s youngest Sprint Cup driver.
“How about that bump I gave Martin before I slipped past him?” Logano said. “I kicked the old guard old school. If Mark’s upset, I’m sure I could get a note from my father excusing me.
“My win should go a long way in getting a new deal with JGR. I’m expecting to get paid. Soon, there will be more ‘bread’ in ‘Sliced Bread.’”
