Darrell Wallace Jr., behind the wheel of the No. 54 ToyotaCare Toyota Tundra for Kyle Busch Motorsports, is ready to make the difficult transition from one of the sport’s highest highs, a coveted Truck win at Eldora Speedway, to the trickiness of Pocono Raceway where he will race the Pocono Mountains 150 in NASCAR’s Camping World Truck Series.
While the penalty to Denny Hamlin’s No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota team, resulting in the suspension of crew chief Darian Grubb, continued to reverberate throughout the garage and media center at Pocono Raceway, there were varying reactions from the drivers as to just how impactful that situation really was to a race team.
In search of his third straight win, Johnson finished sixth at Pocono despite an accident on pit road with Marcos Ambrose that left the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet with right-side damage. Johnson now sits fourth in the points standings, 23 behind Jeff Gordon.
Under surprisingly blue skies with no rain in sight, here is what else was surprising and not surprising from the 33rd annual Pocono 400 at Pocono Raceway in the mountains of Pennsylvania.
“They're the 48 and we're the 88 and I don't want to be the new 48. I want to be the new 88. We'll definitely try to continue to work hard and try to win some more races and try to leave our own mark and not a mark similar to anyone else.”
Dale Earnhardt Jr. may not have dominated the Pocono 400 race, but he was the one who took his No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet to Victory Lane after Brad Keselowski succumbed to trash on his grille and overheating issues.
Larson brought home the win in only his third start in the series. He became the 34th different driver to win at Pocono and the 17th different driver to win in the last 17 races. He is also the 5th different winner in the ARCA series this season.
Kasey Kahne, after being beaten and pounded with questions surrounding the lack of success that he’s had this season, vented some annoyance and anger during a media center appearance at Pocono Raceway this weekend.
Denny Hamlin, four-time winner at the ‘Tricky Triangle’, scored the pole for the 33rd annual Pocono 400 with a fast lap of 181. 415 mph and a time of 49.610 seconds. Hamlin broke Jimmie Johnson’s previous track record of 180.654 mph and 49.819 seconds set in August 2013.
