After overnight rain, race day is bright and sunny. Denny Hamlin got into Carl Edwards left rear on turn one at the start of the race leading to a tire rub for Carl.
Wreck on lap one – Landon Cassill got loose and hit Martin Truex Jr. Others got into Landon as he spun including AJ Allmendinger.
Lucky break for Carl that the caution came out and he could get that tire rub repaired.
NASCAR is holding the 56 on pit road until they get the energy absorbent foam inside the door.
Juan Pablo Montoya tagged the wall early and is coming in for an early pit stop.
There’s a competition caution coming up at lap 20.
Carl received a penalty on pit road, and a penalty on the restart.
Joey Logano has led all 9 laps of the race.
Petty Kyle is surprised the drivers are racing early instead of “settling in”. I guess they’re starting to take the boring race claims seriously and maybe spending less time “settling in”, or maybe Wally is right – they don’t know when they will be able to pass so they’re trying to get all they can early.
Caution is out on lap 13 (maybe) for JJ Yeley, Reed Sorenson, and Tony Raines all hitting the wall off turn 3. TNT doesn’t seem to think it necessary to tell us which lap we’re running.
Landon Cassill is blaming himself for the wrecks of the past two weeks. He said he was trying to take it easy and just lost it and hit the wall.
AJ Allmendinger got the free pass on this caution.
The current caution will server as the competition caution scheduled for lap 20. Joey Logano almost hit one of his crewman. A bug lit onto one of the cameras – a big winged thing – it took the director a moment to notice apparently.
Clint Bowyer was penalized for too fast exiting and will start at the back of the pack.
Ah, TNT finally put up a display of laps 21 of 160 on the restart.
Another season and Wally still can’t say Brad Keselowski’s last name. Of course, Larry Mc can’t say it properly either. At least Wally was smart enough to just say Brad when he began tripping over the world Keselowski. I don’t think Larry Mc has noticed his inability to properly pronounced Bradley K’s name.
28 of 160 laps completed as we return from commercial. Denny has taken the lead from Logano. Jamie Mc is now in second and getting closer to Denny. Bradley K is catching Jamie Mc. Logano is hounding Bradley K. Dale Jr is catching Joey Logano.
Jimmie is now in the top ten. He says the car is really really good right now.
On lap 33 of 160 Denny has come in for his first green flag pit stop.
Bradley K got a too fast exiting penalty as he left. There have already been six speeding penalties on pit road so far. Apparently the drivers don’t know where the timing stripes are after the re-pave.
Dale Jr is leading as we head to commercial break.
Lap 40 of 160 Jimmie has moved into fifth. Dale Jr is fast and running away from the field. Kyle Busch taps the wall. The top 5 is Hendrick right now. Dale Jr, Jeff Gordon, and Jimmie all in the top five.
More green flag pit stops on lap 42 of 160.
Jeff Gordon has a too fast entering penalty. Kyle Petty says there’s something wrong with the scoring to have that many people getting speeding penalties.
The crew chiefs are warning the drivers now about speeding coming in because of the number of penalties that have been
Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch all got pegged for speeding.
Jimmie Johnson was caught speeding while doing his pass thru penalty.
Now Wally is agreeing that something is wrong. Jimmie is coming through again.
Pit road speed is 55 mph and they have an additional 5 mph grace.
Reutimann got a stop and go for too fast exiting.
The drivers are questioning the speeding penalties.
Jimmie did his stop and go.
They believe it is section 10 of pit road where everyone is getting busted.
On lap 48 Denny Hamlin is leading after David Ragan heads in for his green flag pit stop.
David Ragan was the 11th driver to get popped for speeding. Jimmie is the first car one lap down now. All of the drivers who have been caught speeding said their lights are all green when they’ve gotten caught speeding on exit.
Denny & Jamie are up front, but they’re on different schedules from everyone else.
Dale Jr has taken the lead from Denny.
13 pit road penalties so far today at lap 62 of 160.
Jimmie drove from 24th to 5th. He’s now in 27th still the first car one lap down.
Denny had to go
AJ just hit the wall on lap 66 of 160. Denny was coming off the pit road. He may have been out of gas. There’s a question as to whether he cut a tire, lost his brakes, or maybe hit the dirt and it send him into the wall. AJ seems to be hurting. He sat in the car for a bit, then slowly got out of the car, then went to the wall and knelt down. AJ hit the wall coming out of the turnnel turn. Petty Kyle said its a hard place to hit. He says his father broke his neck there. Blaney is now shown as the first car one lap down so he’s gets the free pass instead of Jimmie.
Kasey Kahne wins the race off pit road. He took two tires. Biffle comes out second, also taking two tires. Dale Jr is the first person who took four off pit road, behind all the folks who took 2.
Jamie Mc leads because he didn’t pit this time. Another driver, Jeff Burton, has been caught speeding. That ties the record of the most speeding penalties in a race ever. Kansas 2006 was the record holder.
Jimmie is taking a wave around to get back onto the lead lap. Dale Jr is starting fifth on the restart.
AJ says that might be one of the hardest hits he’s ever had. He thinks maybe they blew a right front. He got some toe-in damage on the first wreck. Burton apparently got popped again for speeding or something. Burton got popped for not lining up at the proper spot actually.
Jimmie is coming in for a green flag pit stop. Burton is serving his penalty. David Ragan has a flat left read and is slowly coming in to get that repaired. He’s between one and two so there may be a caution for him. The NASCAR trailer is going pit-to-pit with new maps to show where the scoring lines are. Caution is out on lap 74 for Ragan’s tired issue. This caution is good for Jimmie. Jamie Mc and Kasey both came in for pit stops. Bradley K, Denny, Jimmie all coming in for pit stops also.
KyBu’s engine is having trouble under caution, so he’s headed to the garage. Second week in a row he’s had engine issues. After Jamie and Kasey and others make pit stops under caution Biffle is now the leader heading into commercial break as we await the restart.
Burton said he was probably 100 RPM under what pit road speed and still got busted. They’ve added an additional timing loop and they moved the timing lines from last year which is probably what’s causing the problems. We’ve just passed the halfway point. Apparently quite a few teams ran back into the garage to get maps when the problems with speeding began. Apparently most of the teams didn’t closely look at the new maps, assuming they were the same as last year. Burton is questioning wehter the time is correct between segments.
Biffle restarts in the lead on lap 83. Mark Martin in second. Dale Jr in third. Carl has made it up to the sixth position.
KyBu is still in the garage. The engine was blowing out oil and they’re trying to figure out why.
Carl is in fourteenth after restarting in sixth partially because he’s stuck on the outside.
Jeff Gordon tapped Regan Smith and bent the grille. He’s been having oil and water problems since then.
Kenseth takes the lead from Biffle on the track and in the points championship around lap 93 of 160.
Jamie Mc is questioning their pit call. He apparently doesn’t understand why they pitted. Wally was going to call a ride-along with Smoke, but couldn’t figure out where they were on the track. Finally Petty Kyle told him where Smoke was.
Jeff Gordon is now in the top ten. Bradley K came down pit road reporting smoke inside his race car.
Dale Jr has passed Biffle for second. Jimmie has made it up to 15th behind Kasey.
Green flag pit stops are underway on lap 103 of 160.
JPM is leading now until he pits. Gilliland is leading now. Gilliland and Blaney are the only two who have not made pit stops on this cycle.
Dale Jr is up to second as Blaney makes his pit stop on lap 108. Dale Jr is the only driver to complete every lap this season and the only driver to have ten top 10 finishes in the first 13 races of this season. With 49 laps to go coming back from commercial Dale Jr is now leading as Gilliland gave up the lead for a pit stop.
While it has been a relief getting relief from Michael Waltrip and Chris Meyers, Petty Kyle and too much Larry Mac plus Adam “I’m always too loud for my mic” Alexander keeps me with my finger on the mute button listening to MRN. I tried Race Buddy which used to be my saving grace during the TNT segment of the season, but its filled with commercials and rather hinky now. No joy there.
Kenseth is stalking Jr for the lead.
Biffle is having engine issues and is losing positions on the track on lap 123. With 36 laps to go a debris caution is out. Aric Almirola got into the wall.
Joey Logano wins the race off pit road. Mark Martin second, Jr & Kenseth next.
Biffle says he thinks he’s lost a valve spring. Jack Roush says his goal is to get his cars as good as Rick Hendrick where all cars are contenders.
Crew chiefs are asking the drivers to save fuel. Some teams are making pit stops to top off on this caution.
Dale Jr says they’re about 4 and a half laps short. Letart told Jr to save fuel. Jr said he won’t forget him if he lets him run out.
Restarting with 32 to go. Newman just went to the outside to get third, but then Jr washed up, Newman avoided him and lost momentum and sports. Kasey slammed it inside denny and got thru but got bumped a little bit. Kasey has a tire rub. Keselowski got popped for too fast exiting. There have been 18 speeding penalties according to Adam Alexander. Jimmie is in 19th after having trouble on the restart.
Jamie Mc has been playing strategy and is in 20th right now at lap 133 of 160.
Jeff Gordon passed Kasey for fifth.
Smoke is trying to go around him now and Kenseth is following Smoke.
They didn’t make the pass on that attempt. We go to commercial with 27 laps remaining.
Caution is out at lap 136 (or so – as usual the laps aren’t shown) for Kasey getting into the wall on turn 3. He probably lost a tire like AJ. He hit the tunnel turn wall hard. Then he started beating on the steering wheel.
Jr and Jeff Gordon are coming in for a pit stop. They were in the top five when they came in. Letarte said he just doesn’t believe Jr could save four laps.
Dale Jr said he’s glad he doesn’t have to worry about fuel so he can run as hard as he wants now.
The graphics displaying tweets are extraordinarily aggravating – they take up too much real estate and I’m could care less what anybody is tweeting. If I cared, I’d probably be obsessively watching my phone or something to keep an eye on that.
Ratcliff is such a RAT!!! I wonder why I dislike him, then he starts talking on a microphone and I know. He’s loving the caution laps because they were four short and the extra caution lap they just gave them puts him within one lap.
Joey, Mark, Denny, Smoke lead the field on the restart.
Mark Martin take the lead with 17 to go, then Joey took it back and Smoke is dogging Mark Martin. Jimmie is now 9th. Dale Jr is now in ninth with 15 laps remaining.
Kenseth is working on Bowyer with 13 to go trying to get the fifth position. Jimmie is right behind Kenseth.
Caution is out 149 of 160 for debris.
Logano, Mark Martin, Smoke, Hamlin, Bowyer, Kenseth, Jimmie, and Dale Jr will lead the field to the restart
Caution lights are out with 9 to go.
8 to go when we restart. Logano got a great start. Martin passed him on the outside. Petty Kyle just called Adam Alexander a P.A. announcer for saying Old Double Nickle trying to get him some. Wally and Petty Kyle were verbally rolling their eyes. Joey asked if he should go for the win with the gas mileage situation. Rat told him to go for it.
Joey is hanging with Mark Martin, but Mark is pulling away slightly. Mark hit the curb a little.
Adam Alexander said its hard enough to spend six weeks with your guys. He fells the same way I do apparently. Joey took the race lead with four laps to go. Joey got up to his bumper and made him loose.
Joey is now pulling away from Mark Martin with two to go. White flag is out!
Jimmie is dogging Smoke.
Joey Wins!!!!
This was a surprisingly good race. Pocono is usually long and boring, but not today!
Joey says his brake package was amazing and allowed him to out-brake some guys out there today. Joey said he’s be on suicide watch if he had lost it with his move on Mark. Joey is holding back the tears.
Mark Martin said, “We were racing hard, man” when asked about the contact with Joey. He focused on how much he wanted to win instead of what Joey did.
OH NO!!! Ralph asked Jr a question & he couldn’t answer it & asked if they could start over. Ralph said yes, & they did, Ralphs asked the question again and Dale Jr. answered, but it all aired!
Jimmie said he didn’t understand the timing situation and explained how they work where its measured and the change he made between the first and second penalties. Jimmie said Chad called a great race. He had a big slide on turn 1 on the second to last restart. He said if any of the three things didn’t happen he thinks they would’ve been in victory lane today.
They asked Kenseth if he had any problems with the timing lines, he said no he pitted late and they told him about all the penalties and he just made sure he went really slow down pit lane.
In the end 18 speeding penalties on pit road, maybe. Dillner said 18, John Roberts said 22.
Dillner is talking to Robin Pemberton about the speeding penalties. Robin looks like he has on a wig. He says he doesn’t know why there were so many penalties. He says the track is really a new track with the repave and everything and maybe that’s what caused the problem.
Dillner says only half of the teams went into the hauler in picked up the sheet that showed the timing lines. Fennig went in, no one from the 48 went in and picked up the sheet. The sheet was not given out to the teams unless they came in and got one.
Denny says their team had a sloppy day and still ended up in the top five which shows how fast the car was.