Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography
By Aaron Bearden
After each NASCAR race weekend, Motorsports Beat will share a piece breaking down the stories and takeaways from the weekend. This is a report on the 2021 doubleheader weekend at Pocono Raceway.
NASCAR Cup Series
Races: Pocono Organics CBD 325, Explore the Pocono Mountains 350
Who Won?
Alex Bowman and Kyle Busch, both in bizarre fashion. Bowman prevailed after Kyle Larson blew a tire in the final corner on Saturday, while Busch stretched fuel to win on Sunday despite his car being stuck in fourth gear.
Who Won the Stages?
Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Martin Truex Jr. and William Byron.
Top Stories
Saturday shocker
For the second time in the past two months, Alex Bowman put himself in position to capitalize if dominant teammate Kyle Larson and the No. 5 team fell afoul of any late trouble.
Once again, Bowman benefitted from it with a win. But this one came in much more dramatic fashion.
Much like in May’s Cup race at Dover International Speedway, Larson was the class of the field in Saturday’s first leg of the doubleheader weekend at Pocono. He emerged from an eventful race in position to score his fourth-consecutive Cup race.
Bowman had given Larson a challenge, with Hendrick Motorsports overall flexing speed again despite chatter that the team’s noses were under close scrutiny from NASCAR. Any hopes of Hendrick slowing down were quickly nullified, and any prayer of keeping Larson from the lead was abandoned in the closing laps as he found a way by Bowman’s No. 88 Chevrolet on Lap 127 of 130.
Fans, media and the teams were coming to terms with Larson securing yet another victory when his No. 5 Chevrolet suddenly shot up the track on the final turn of the final lap. In an unbelievable twist, he’d blown a tire just a mile from the checkered flag.
Bowman dove under Larson’s slowed car and drove off of Turn 3 to secure a shocking first win at the Tricky Triangle.
“I hate to win one that way, but hell, yeah, I’ll take it,” Bowman said afterward.
The No. 88 team erupted in jubilant, unexpected celebration. Meanwhile Larson was left to deal with the disbelief of a wild ending to his historic win streak, all while his team scrambled to prepare a backup car for Sunday’s second race.
“I guess disbelief still,” Larson said when asked what he was feeling after leaving the infield care center. “I don’t know, a little bit laughable, just because I can’t believe it.
“Hate that we didn’t get another win. Would have been cool to win five in a row. Just wasn’t meant to be I guess today. I felt something like right in the middle of the Tunnel (Turn). Wasn’t quite sure what it was yet. It finally kind of shredded halfway through the short chute there. Couldn’t turn.”
When drivers and teams are rolling to what seem to be inevitable wins, they’re quick to remind anyone celebrating prematurely that “it isn’t over until it’s over.”
Larson’s Saturday at Pocono will be the point of reference they look to when that conversation arises for the foreseeable future.
Meanwhile Bowman continues to make the most of his limited opportunities. While the Arizonian hasn’t had the same outright pace and consistent results as his Hendrick teammates, he’s capitalized for wins in three of his five top-fives. Those victories and playoff points could be the difference come this fall.
Two have now come at Larson’s expense, first after a two-tire stop at Dover and then with Saturday’s flat tire in Pocono.
A good Sunday for guys named Kyle
Kyle Busch has 59-career Cup Series wins, good for ninth on the tour’s all-time wins list.
It’s possible that none were more bizarre than Sunday’s triumph at Pocono.
Driving a No. 18 Toyota that was stuck in fourth gear from the early stages of the race, Busch’s Joe Gibbs Racing team found a unique path to victory lane. He came to pit road a lap later than his contemporaries on Lap 95 and stretched fuel from there, saving gas to make it to the checkered flag on Lap 140 without another stop.
That extra lap of fuel proved to make all the difference. Busch’s closest rivals were all forced to pit or slow down significantly, allowing the Nevadan to take the lead in the final two laps and drive off to his second Cup victory of 2021 by a comfortable 8.654 seconds.
“Stuck in fourth gear. About out of gas,” Busch said with a laugh. “Just saving, just riding, playing the strategy the best, we could with what was given to us. Just can’t say enough about everybody on my team, everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota, TRD, all the work they’re putting in.
“Sometimes these races aren’t always won by the fastest car, but I felt we had the fastest car, even though we were in the back and behind and having to come through and persevere through being stuck in fourth gear, no clutch, all that stuff. It’s all burned out. Nothing left in this M&M’s Minis Camry.”
The win was a big one for Busch and the team, finally snapping a six-race winning streak for Hendrick Motorsports that also included a triumph in the All-Star Race.
In fitting fashion, the driver that slotted behind Busch was the other Kyle – Larson. Driving a back up car that suffered nose damage early on, Larson wasn’t the same constant threat in the second Pocono race that he’d been for the past two months.
After everything that had happened on the weekend, Larson was just happy to emerge from the weekend with a good result.
“(Crew chief) Cliff (Daniels) and everybody did a really, really good job managing the race, coached me through saving fuel there at the end,” Larson said. “Was hoping that the 18 (Busch) was going to run out. I saw the 11 (Hamlin) running out. I was, ‘OK, they’re teammates, they got to be close to running out.’
“The 18 did pit a lap after us under caution. That actually probably won them the race. But, yeah, second-place finish … I thought we would be outside of the top 20 (at) a lot of points throughout the race today. We’ll take it. Happy about the effort, for sure, all weekend.”
Coming up empty
It was worth a shot, right?
Late in Sunday’s second Pocono Raceway, seeing no other likely route to victory lane, Homestead-Miami Speedway winner William Byron and points leader Denny Hamlin each attempted to stretch their fuel mileage to the finish to cap off the doubleheader weekend with a win.
But unlike the eventual winner Busch, who had pitted a lap later than the pair, both Byron and Hamlin came up short.
For Byron it was a case off too little, too late. He wasn’t given the call to “max save” his fuel until he was inside of the race’s final 20 laps. After leader Brad Keselowski pitted on Lap 133 of 140, Byron took over the top spot and held it into the final five laps. But with four to go he reported low fuel pressure, forcing the Hendrick Motorsports stat to pit one lap later.
“We definitely had the fastest car. The caution didn’t fit us perfectly,” Byron said. “We had control of the race there and were right on our number to make it or not, but it just didn’t work out. We had a really fast car.
“The Axalta Chevrolet was awesome. It sucks to lose like that, but I feel like we had everything we needed in the car. We just couldn’t save enough fuel as far back as we were.”
Hamlin was left frustrated after seeing another potential win slip away. He continued to lead the point standings with the regular season winding down, but has yet to find a way to victory lane.
“Just do what I’m told. Don’t run when I’m not supposed to run, run when I’m supposed to run. The result is we pitted on the last lap for three weeks in a row,” Hamlin said of his recent urns. “That’s tough. I mean, I hate seeing the white coming to pit road.
“It’s just so frustrating. Fuel mileage has got us the last two weeks. Lug nuts the week before. We’re running fast. We’re getting a little better. I think overall we had a little bit more speed this weekend than what we’ve had the past few weeks. Yeah, can’t see the checkered right now.”
The bubble evaporates
It wasn’t long ago that Chris Buescher found himself more than 50 points above the playoff cutline, seemingly cruising en route to his second Cup Series playoff appearance. But a recent downward slide for the Texan came to a crescendo at Pocono — the site of his lone Cup win in 2016 — where Buescher finally fell below the cutline after a strong weekend from Kurt Busch.
Looking to make the postseason for the ninth-consecutive season, Busch has found his form of late with Chip Ganassi Racing. After scoring just two top-10s in the opening 15 races, the 2004 Cup champion notched three in a row at Sonoma, Nashville and Pocono, leaping up from 19th to 14th in the standings to jump ahead of Buescher by three points.
Busch wasn’t the only one to throw his name into potential playoff consideration at Pocono, either. Daniel Suarez and Bubba Wallace both had solid weekends for their new teams to close to within 48 (Suarez) and 54 (Wallace) points of the cutline with seven races remaining in the regular season. Sunday’s result was a big one for Wallace, who scored 23XI Racing’s first top-five with Michael Jordan in attendance.
Wallace, Suarez and others including Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (-54), Matt DiBenedetto (-60) and Ross Chastain (-72) still have an outside chance to close ground and make the postseason field. That made Sunday’s run a critical one for Wallace, but he knows there’s still much more work to be done if he hopes to make good on his organization’s potential.
“We wanted the playoffs when we started the season. We’ve got a lot of work to do,” he said. “We know that we are in a hole, but it’s finishes like that, that we have to capitalize on the speed in our cars. Today shows what we can do. We’ve got to keep up the momentum.”
A successful test for the Tricky Triangle
When I was a little kid I could never understand why it seemed like the two Pocono race weekends were essentially piled on top of each other. The massive facility hosted two 500-mile races with less than two months of separation for years, to the delight or chagrin of everyone watching.
That format worked for a long time, but Pocono and NASCAR officials understood the need for change and have adapted with the times over the past few years. The individual races were shortened first, and a doubleheader format was proposed for 2020 to allow Pocono an opportunity keep both races.
The first year of the format was a wash, ran without fans due to the COVID-10 pandemic. But the 2021 edition seemed like a success from most basic signs. The stands and campgrounds were filled with race fans for both days, and all five races (ARCA competed on Friday) over the weekend’s three days delivered entertaining shows in their own way.
This was a big weekend for Pocono, filled with unknowns and likely a bit of uncertainty. That the general feeling leaving the weekend feels positive is a good sign for one of NASCAR’s most unique venues.
Of course, there is one concern. SportsBusiness Journal reported Adam Stern shared on Tuesday that both races were down in the ratings from 2020. So perhaps all isn’t entirely well just yet.
🔺@PoconoRaceway ratings on NBCSN:
◼ Race No. 1️⃣ on Saturday: 0.90 rating and 1.448 million viewers (Last year: 1.63 rating and 2.570 million on @FoxTV).
◻ Race No. 2️⃣ on Sunday: 1.49 rating and 2.446 million viewers (Last year: 1.62 rating and 2.660 million on @FS1). pic.twitter.com/HONVi1no9u
— Adam Stern (@A_S12) June 29, 2021
Notes
- Justin Allgaier made a rare Cup start on Sunday for unfortunate reasons. The Illinoisan filled a seat for Spire Motorsports in the second Pocono race after planned driver Justin Haley was involved in a vicious crash during the day’s earlier Xfinity Series race. Allgaier lived up to expectation, finishing two spots higher than Haley had the day before in 25th.
- There was a time when Kyle Busch seemingly couldn’t win at Pocono, being denied by drivers like Brad Keselowski (2011) and Ryan Blaney (2017) when he was in contention. But he’s since gone on to win four of the track’s last nine races. Not too shabby, eh?
- If you throw in the All-Star Race for good measure, Kyle Larson is now up to nine top-two finishes this year. Even in a fluky fuel mileage race, the Californian remains a threat.
- You could forgive Brad Keselowski for being happy despite coming up winless in Pocono. The 2012 Cup champion scored his first two top-10s since Kansas Speedway on May 2, finishing 10th and third in the two events.
- If you want to know why Tyler Reddick is a playoff contender, look to his top-10s this year. Reddick scored his Ninth top-10 of the year at Pocono, matching his full-season total from 2020 in 17 fewer races.
- Where did that run come from? Ryan Preece had legitimate pace and played the fuel games right to finish eighth on Sunday at Pocono. The result was his eighth top-10 and only the third to come at a track that isn’t a road course or drafting-focused.
Race Results
Pocono Organics CBD 325
- Alex Bowman
- Kyle Busch
- William Byron
- Denny Hamlin
- Ryan Blaney
- Kurt Busch
- Joey Logano
- Kevin Harvick
- Kyle Larson
- Brad Keselowski
- Tyler Reddick
- Chase Elliott
- Daniel Suarez
- Bubba Wallace
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Aric Almirola
- Christopher Bell
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Michael McDowell
- Chris Buescher
- Austin Dillon
- Erik Jones
- Ryan Preece
- Chase Briscoe
- Cody Ware
- Anthony Alfredo
- Justin Haley
- James Davison
- Garrett Smithley
- B.J. McLeod
- Quin Houff
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Ross Chastain
- Josh Bilicki
- Timmy Hill
- Corey LaJoie
- Ryan Newman
- Cole Custer
Stage 1
- Kyle Busch
- William Byron
- Kyle Larson
- Joey Logano
- Kevin Harvick
- Denny Hamlin
- Kurt Busch
- Daniel Suarez
- Austin Dillon
- Tyler Reddick
Stage 2
- Kurt Busch
- Kyle Larson
- Joey Logano
- William Byron
- Ryan Blaney
- Denny Hamlin
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Alex Bowman
- Kyle Busch
- Brad Keselowski
Explore the Pocono Mountains 350
- Kyle Busch
- Kyle larson
- Brad Keselowski
- Kevin Harvick
- Bubba Wallace
- Ryan Blaney
- Alex Bowman
- Ryan Preece
- Tyler Reddick
- Joey Logano
- Martin Truex Jr.
- William Byron
- Austin Dillon
- Denny Hamlin
- Daniel Suarez
- Aric Almirola
- Michael McDowell
- Matt DiBenedetto
- Chris Buescher
- Kurt Busch
- Chase Briscoe
- Ryan Newman
- Corey LaJoie
- Cole Custer
- Justin Allgaier
- Ross CHastain
- Chase Elliott
- Cody Ware
- B.J. McLeod
- James Davison
- Erik Jones
- Christopher Bell
- Quin Houff
- Anthony Alfredo
- Josh Bilicki
- Garrett Smithley
- Timmy Hill
- Ricky Stenhouse JR.
Stage 1
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Aric Almirola
- Brad Keselowski
- Ryan Blaney
- Bubba Wallace
- Michael McDowell
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Tyler Reddick
- Daniel Suarez
- Joey Logano
Stage 2
- William Byron
- Denny Hamlin
- Brad Keselowski
- Christopher Bell
- Chase Elliott
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Kyle Busch
- Kyle Larson
- Aric Almirola
- Ross Chastain
Next up: The Cup Series field is preparing for another new venue, with a trip to Road America for an Independence Day road course race lying ahead.
NASCAR Xfinity Series
Race: Pocono Green 225
Who Won?
Austin Cindric. He survived after late lapped traffic struggles and held off Ty Gibbs to score his fourth win of the 2021 season.
Who Won the Stages?
Harrison Burton and Ty Gibbs.
Top Stories
A non-championship rivalry
Defending champion Austin Cindric is steadily establishing himself as the favorite to claim another Xfinity Series title at season’s end.
His biggest consistent threat on-track isn’t eligible to race him for the title.
Cindric found himself engaging in another race for the win with rising Joe Gibbs Racing star Ty Gibbs on Sunday at Pocono Raceway. The Team Penske ace emerged from the last round of pit stops more than three seconds ahead of Gibbs’ No. 54 Toyota, but was forced to withstand a late charge from the 18-year-old in the run to the checkered flag.
Gibbs got within a half-second of Cindric on the final lap, but ultimately ran out of time to make a move at race’s end. Cindric held on to score his fourth victory of the 2021 season and 12th overall, notching a win at a track he had circled heading into the season.
“I went from a three-second lead to a half-a-second-lead,” Cindric said of the run. “We gave (Gibbs) a chance, didn’t we? We had to make it exciting, I guess. I didn’t want it, but I guess everybody else did. We’ll take it, and we’ll take the trophy for sure.
“This track was on our ‘kill’ list since last year. There’s a few more of those, so we’ll keep putting our heads down. We’ve got to keep getting better. We’ve got strong competition and a lot of racing left.”
For Gibbs, the run was another successful outing in what’s proven to be a meteoric rise to prominence. The young star has seven top-fives in eight starts, with two wins and four top-two finishes. His success has made the No. 54 entry a constant threat, pairing well with Kyle Busch’s dominance when he competes with the team.
For a time Gibbs hoped to bring home the win at Pocono, leading heading into the final stage. He lost ground after getting loose from the lead and dropping to third, but mounted a spirited late charge in a last-ditch effort to topple Cindric.
“The lapped cars definitely helped me to my advantage,” Gibbs said. “They were just in the way. Cindric got stacked up behind them.”
Cindric may not be done dealing with Gibbs in battles for victories this year. Luckily for him, Gibbs isn’t a threat to his title ambitions.
A tough debut and safety test
It was a difficult debut for Sam Mayer at Pocono.
Arriving with JR Motorsports to compete in the first race since he took over for popular Martinsville Speedway winner Josh Berry, Mayer knew he was set for a tough task in replacing the late model standout. The performance of his No. 8 Chevrolet had been high, which meant expectations were right up there, too.
Mayer quickly showed pace at Pocono Raceway, but the main highlight of his debut will be a negative one. The Chevrolet prospect was looking to the outside of Justin Haley shortly after a restart on Lap 25 when the pair collided, sending Haley into the outside wall before he careened across the track and viciously collided with the inside barrier before sliding back up the track and being t-boned by Ryan Vargas’ No. 6 Chevrolet.
Stage 2 of the #PoconoGreen225 is underway and quickly back to yellow with a hard hit involving @Justin_Haley_ and @RyanVargas_23.
Both drivers were able to exit their vehicles under their own power. pic.twitter.com/ANT28z5ScD
— NASCAR Xfinity (@NASCAR_Xfinity) June 27, 2021
Out of breath, Haley quickly climbed out of his battered car and laid down on the pavement beside the driver’s door. Safety personnel arrived a few seconds later and Haley ultimately got back to his feet before making a trip to the infield care center.
“I’m really thankful NASCAR builds such safe race cars,” Haley said. “Obviously, that was one of the hardest hits I’ve ever taken.”
Haley ended up skipping the ensuing Cup race, with Justin Allgaier replacing him in Spire Motorsports’ No. 77 Chevrolet. Mayer continued on, but came home a quiet 18th at race’s end.
Notes
- Harrison Burton had a car capable of contending up front at Pocono, but he got loose while battling Allgaier and spun up the track, slamming the outside wall. “I’ve got to quit making mistakes, and we’ll put our car in Victory Lane before long,” Burton said afterward.
- Are things ever going to make a turn for Riley Herbst and the No. 98 Stewart-Haas Racing team? Herbst suffered his fourth DNF at once after a crash early in Stage 3, dropping 66 points below the playoff cutline with 10 races to close the gap.
- Ty Gibbs is now up to eight starts in his young Xfinity Series career. Seven of them have ended in the top-five, with four of those resulting in a win or runner-up result. Gibbs has more top-fives than teammates Daniel Hemric (6) and Harrison Burton (4), and as many as Brandon Jones (7).
- Jones has been on a run of his own of late, tying his personal best mark with five top-10 finishes in a row. With 10 tota top-10s to date, Jones is on path to reach or surpass his career-best season mark of 19 from 2020.
- Santino Ferrucci made his Xfinity Series return in the midst of a current slate in the NTT IndyCar Series for Rahal Letterman Lanigan Racing. Running with Sam Hunt Racing, Ferrucci came one spot short of his best finish to date in 14th.
- Making another start for Jordan Anderson Racing after the end of his 2021 tenure with JR Motorsports, Josh Berry notched the young team’s fourth top-10 and his eighth in 14 starts.
- After a brutal start to the year, Justin Allgaier has found his form of late. Allgaier has six top-three runs in the past eight races, including a Darlington Raceway win and a pair of runner-up results at Texas and Nashville.
Race Results
- Austin Cindric
- Ty Gibbs
- Justin Allgaier
- Noah Gragson
- AJ Allmendinger
- Daniel Hemric
- Brandon Jones
- Jeb Burton
- Josh Berry
- Myatt Snider
- Brett Moffitt
- Michael Annett
- Jeremy Clements
- Santino Ferrucci
- Brandon Brown
- Alex Labbe
- Ryan Sieg
- Sam Mayer
- Jade Buford
- Tommy Joe Martins
- Landon Cassill
- Jeffrey Earnhardt
- Matt Mills
- Colby Howard
- Austin Hill
- Kyle Weatherman
- Loris Hezemans
- Carson Ware
- Jesse Little
- Mason Massey
- Jesse Iwuji
- Joe Graf Jr.
- David Starr
- Blaine Perkins
- Riley Herbst
- Joey Gase
- Harrison Burton
- Justin Haley
- Ryan Vargas
- Josh Williams
Stage 1
- Harrison Burton
- Daniel Hemric
- Justin Allgaier
- Austin Cindric
- AJ Allmendinger
- Ty Gibbs
- Noah Gragson
- Jeb Burton
- Justin Haley
- Josh Berry
Stage 2
- Ty Gibbs
- Noah Gragson
- Brandon Jones
- Myatt Snider
- Riley Herbst
- Austin Cindric
- Jeb Burton
- AJ Allmendinger
- Josh Berry
- Justin Allgaier
Next up: The Xfinity Series returns to a familiar site in Road America, but will this time play the support series role on Saturday, July 3.
NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
Race: CRC Brakleen 150
Who Won?
John Hunter Nemechek. Again. He toppled the boss Kyle Busch to score his fifth win of 2021.
Who Won the Stages?
Zane Smith and John Hunter Nemechek.
Top Stories
Nemechek just keeps winning
What more can be said about the success that John Hunter Nemechek has enjoyed in 2021?
Looking to bet on himself and show his capability as a race car driver, Nemechek has proven impossible to stop in his first Truck Series season for Kyle Busch Motorsports. Even his boss, Kyle Busch himself, has a losing record against the third-generation star, with Nemechek beating Busch in three of his five races this season.
The latest defeat came on Saturday, as Nemechek got by the two-time Cup champ on a restart with six to go courtesy of an assist from Todd Gilliland — Nemechek admitted that the former KBM driver “gave me a big push” — and drove off to a win at Pocono. Busch was left to battle Sheldon Creed for second, holding on to the spot but falling short of victory lane.
Nemechek celebrated with a nod to Busch, taking a bow on the front stretch before driving off to victory lane.
“These guys just work so hard,” Nemechek said. “We never gave up. We weren’t very good the first stage. Without this opportunity—without Kyle and Toyota, I wouldn’t have had it. Five wins this year and beat Kyle—three for five against Kyle is pretty good odds.”
Had there not been a caution in the final 10 laps, Busch likely would have emerged victorious. He held a comfortable lead over Nemechek when Stewart Friesen crashed on Lap 51 to bring out the day’s final yellow. But in the end late restart games kept the Nevadan from victory lane.
“We got… not a great restart, but a decent restart,” he said. “We were all even getting into (Turn) 1, and John Hunter just slid me and got the lead. I was trying to figure out what I could do to fight back and get the lead back, and I got drilled in the left rear. That basically handed the win to the 4 truck.”
With two races remaining in the Truck Series regular season, only two drivers have won multiple races. Ben Rhodes has two wins amid what’s been an impressive year for his ThorSport Racing team, but that pales in comparison to Nemechek’s five. Rhodes is also a full 86 points behind the North Carolinian in the regular season standings, meaning an additional 15 playoff points are all-but assured to fall Nemechek’s way.
After a dirt race at Iowa’s Knoxville Raceway and a road course challenge at Watkins Glen International in New York, the Truck Series playoffs will begin. Right now it’s difficult not to proclaim Nemechek a clear championship favorite.
Playoff swings and a sliver of hope
Speaking of playoffs, the odds of 2016 Truck Series champion Johnny Sauter making them took a significant hit at Pocono.
Sauter was an innocent victim in the opening lap of Saturday’s 150-mile event, getting caught up in an accident with Jack Wood and Chandler Smith that left him out of contention before he could even get up to speed. He wound up finishing five laps down in 35th, leaving him 31 points behind Smith with just a pair of races to close up the gap.
On the opposite side of the momentum swing was Tyler Ankrum, who surprised with a fourth-place finish to crawl within 33 points of the playoff cutline. Ankrum endured a dreadful start to the year, finishing to better than 18th in the opening five races of the year. He’s since gone on to score three top-fives and finish 16th or better in seven of the proceeding eight events, but the Californian was mired so deep in the standings that it’s taken him all summer to rise into some semblance of playoff contention.
The good news for both Sauter and Ankrum is that the final two races of the regular season are true wild cards, with a dirt race and road course wrapping things up before the playoffs begin. That provides hope that either could make some magic happen and, with a bit of luck, sneak by Smith or someone else for a postseason spot.
But there’s also a risk that another surprise could pop up, win and deny them much opportunity to make the playoffs at all. Carson Hocevar is another 21 points above Smith should a winner shorten the list of playoff contenders on points.
Suffice to say, it’s going to be a tense next month for drivers flirting with the playoff bubble.
Notes
- Fresh off his latest stage win, Zane Smith held on to an eighth-place finish to score his fifth-consecutive top-10. That’s a personal best mark.
- The Truck Series isn’t even to the playoffs yet, but Nemechek has already tied or toppled his career-best marks in wins (five) and top-10s (11).
- Kyle Busch isn’t one for stats that aren’t victories, but his runner-up result to Nemechek on Saturday was his 18th top-two run in his past 19 series starts.
- Two drivers in the top-20 picked up their career best results: Chase Purdy (15th) and Lawless Alan (20th).
- Keen observers might have noticed that the Truck Series field was missing a familiar entry. Roper Racing pulled out of the Pocono race weekend due to a lack of sponsorship. It’ll be back at Knoxville Raceway, though, with Chase Briscoe behind the wheel.
Race Results
- John Hunter Nemechek
- Kyle Busch
- Sheldon Creed
- Tyler Ankrum
- Austin Hill
- Matt Crafton
- Todd Gilliland
- Zane Smith
- Ryan Preece
- Derek Kraus
- Josh Berry
- Christian Eckes
- Carson Hocevar
- Ty Majeski
- Chase Purdy
- Tanner Gray
- Ben Rhodes
- Ryan Truex
- Austin Wayne Self
- Lawless Alan
- Tate Fogleman
- How DiSavino III
- Ray Ciccarelli
- Tyler Hill
- Chandler Smith
- Hailie Deegan
- Spencer Boyd
- Josh Reaume
- Todd Peck
- Kris Wright
- Jennifer Jo Cobb
- Norm Benning
- Stewart Friesen
- Bryan Dauzat
- Johnny Sauter
- Grant Enfinger
- Bayley Currey
- Danny Bohn
- Jack Wood
Stage 1
- Zane Smith
- Kyle Busch
- Sheldon Creed
- Todd Gilliland
- Chandler Smith
- Ben Rhodes
- Stewart Friesen
- Austin Hill
- Christian Eckes
- Matt Crafton
Stage 2
- John Hunter Nemechek
- Ben Rhodes
- Stewart Friesen
- Austin Hill
- Matt Crafton
- Josh Berry
- Ty Majeski
- Chase Purdy
- Grant Enfinger
- Kris Wright
Next up: The Truck Series field heads to a late regular season wild card race, racing on the dirt at Knoxville Raceway for the first time on July 9.
