Today is Jimmie Johnson’s 600th career start. The sun is currently shining in Long Pond Pennsylvania. Jimmie (48) qualified 15th and is one of several drivers that will start from the back of the field after failing post-qualifying inspection including pole winner Kevin Harvick (4), outside pole Kyle Busch (18) and Kyle Larson (42). 13 cars failed inspection including Joey Logano (22), Clint Bowyer (14), Ryan Blaney (12), Aric Almirola (10), Paul Menard (21), Austin Dillon (3), William Byron (24), Darrell Wallace Jr. (43) and Kasey Kahne (95). Starting positions for the cars failing inspection were determined by car owner points. With the tight two-day schedule, NASCAR decided to only do a post-qualifying/pre-race inspection after Saturday’s qualifying session instead of the typical pre-qualifying inspection that allows for multiple attempts to pass inspection. Due to the inspection failures Daniel Suarez (19) will start in the pole position and has his first official
pole.
It’s 74 degrees at Pocono according to MRN. The stages for the race are 50-50-60.
Green flag pit stops are underway on lap 20 of 160.
Jamie McMurray (1) got a speeding penalty. Joey Logano (22) also.
Chase Elliott (9) takes over the lead from Denny Hamlin on lap 40 of 160.
Martin Truex Jr (78) hits pit road before stage end.
Chase Elliott wins the first stage.
Restarting on lap 57 of 160 with Erik ‘Da Brat’ Jones (20) in the lead with Martin Truex Jr beside him.
Kevin ‘Happy’ Harvick takes over the lead on lap 64 of 160 from Erik ‘Da Brat’ Jones.
Caution on lap 83 of 160 for a spin by Corey LaJoie (72).
Restarting on lap 86 of 160 with KHarv and Chase Elliott on the front row. There were 25 cars on the lead lap before ten took the wave-around.
Harvick wins stage two.
Kasey Kahne (95) wins the race off pit road, jumping 13 positions.
Restarting on lap 105 of 160. William Byron (24) and Kyle Busch (18) will lead the field to green.
Kurt Busch brushes the wall on lap 111 of 160. He might have lost a right rear tire from the looks of the incident. He gets to pit road without bringing out the caution.
Caution on lap 121 of 160 of Brad ‘It Keselowski (2) losing a right rear and going for a spin.
‘KyBu’ (18) beats Daniel Suarez (19) to win the race off pit road.
Clint ‘Drunk Daddy’ Bowyer (14) was speeding on pit road.
KHarv had contact with Aric ‘Afterburner’ Almirola (10) on the pit stop and is in the pits getting work on his left rear. Afterburner is also on pit road getting work on his front right.
Restarting on lap 125 of 160 with KyBu and Daniel Suarez in the lead.
Caution is out immediately due to fluid on the race track. The 00 of Landon Cassil comes in to his pit. He went up in smoke on the restart.
The tv babblers are saying it’s a big break for KHarv since he hadn’t caught up to the field yet when the field restarted.
‘It’ has taken his car to the garage.
Restarting on lap 132 of 160. All of the SHR cars are running together 27-30 at the tail-end of the lead lap. They’re all in the pits now.
The top four heading to the restart – KyBu (18), Daniel Suarez (19), Chase Elliott (9) and Kasey Kahne (95).
The 22 of Joey Logano is smoking a lot on lap 138 of 160 and poking along. He’s trying to get his car to the pits. He makes it with his blown right rear.
Caution on lap 154 for Darrell ‘Bubba’ Wallace (43) tearing up the car pounding the outside wall.
Bubba is out of the car, but had to sit down beside the car. He slowly climbed out, put his hands on his knees, then sat down with his back to the car. His helmet is off and he’s walking – make that limping to the ambulance. He seems really out of it.
His car ran through the infield a while, then slammed passenger side first into the outside wall. It seems as though he didn’t shave off much speed going through the infield. Rusty Wallace on MRN feels like Bubba lost the brakes.
MRN’s Dave Moody says it looked like one of the brake calipers exploded in turn one.
Rusty and Moody said they don’t believe that crash would’ve been survivable before the SAFER barrier.
The race is red flagged on lap 155 of 160.
They are working to remove portions of Bubba’s car that are wedged under the SAFER barrier. The pieces are so far in they’re using the jaws-of-life to try to get to those pieces.
Rusty believes he saw a brake rotor fly off the car before the crash.
Red flag has been pulled after ten minutes and the caution is out. The 7 car got a push in from the wrecker.
Ricky ‘Stinkhouse’ Stenhouse Jr (17) reported his brake going to the floor about 40 laps ago.
Restarting on lap 157 of 160 with KyBu and Daniel Suarez on the front row.
The 1 of Jamie McMurray is smoking and seems to be heading to the pits.
Caution on lap 158 of 160 as Afterburner has lots of damage.
Stenhouse spins and Afterburner spun into the wall trying to avoid a spinning Stenhouse.
Overtime.
Bubba says it was a huge hit – the hardest of his career. He bit his cheek and banged his foot off the pedal. He said letting the window down was the last thing he thought about. He said he had an ultrasound and everything is okay – ‘no twins or anything’. He said he’ll be limping for a while.
Restarting in overtime with KyBu and Daniel Suarez still on the point.
The leaders have just enough fuel to go one overtime lap.
KyBu takes the white flag all alone.
Kyle Busch wins. He is now tied for 13th on the all-time-wins list.
Daniel Suarez finishes second.
Alex Bowman finishes third. William Byron finishes sixth. Chase Elliott finishes seventh. Great going HMS younguns!
Jimmie Johnson finishes seventeenth after running in the top ten most of the day.
Matt DiBenedetto (32) and Aric Almirola (10) had words after the race. It appears that Afterburner turned Matti Di after the checkered flag. Matt stormed over to the 10 car and said his peace. Aric didn’t take his helmet off until after Matti Di walked away.
NASCAR News:
- Jimmie Johnson reaches 600-start milestone at Pocono.
- Daniel Suarez becomes 1st Mexican driver to win NASCAR Cup pole.
- Busch charges to record-tying 51st NASCAR Truck Series victory.
- NASCAR execs continue to ignore the 2018 sponsor reality.