It’s looking gray and cloudy in Pocono and quite breezy. I noticed Matt Yocum was wearing a jacket and putting his hand in his pocket as often as possible, so I’m guessing its rather chilly there. Congrats to Ryan Blaney on his pole win for the race. He and Kevin ‘Happy’ Harvick will lead the field to the green flag. The stages for this race are 50-50-60. The track temperature is 78 degrees as opposed to the 120 it was during practice. Chiily day. I see lots of clouds, but it looks like the sun is trying to peek through.
Kyle ‘KyBu’ Busch has gotten to second on lap 5 of 160 and is stalking Ryan Blaney for the lead and KHarv is dogging KyBu’s bumper.
Martin Truex Jr has caught up tot he bumper of KHarv and Joey Logano is not far behind him.
KHarv just grabbed second from KyBu on lap 9.
Truex just passed KyBu for third. The MRN guys are saying KyBu got in a bit of trouble on the tunnel turn and had to pump the brakes allowing those guys to pass him as he lost momentum.
Happy takes the lead on lap 14 of 160. Truex passes Blaney as doe KyBu.
Blaney heads in for a green flag pit stop on lap 17 of 160 kicking off the flow.
Truex and Harvick are battling door-to-door for the lead on lap 44 of 160. Truex wins the battle.
The fourth place car is 14 seconds behind the leader.
Truex wins stage one.
Truex had a slow pit stop and lost more than a dozen positions.
Restarting on lap 57 of 160.
KHarv who started outside pole beside Brad ‘It’ Keselowski runs away from the field.
KHarv is stinking up the show again.
‘It’ is on pit road on lap 66 of 160. I guess green flag stops are underway again.
No, it looks like ‘It’ is doing a gimmick, again.
On lap 77 of 160 green flag stops are underway.
Harvick won stage two. What a snoozer. There are 20 cars on the lead lap.
Restarting on lap 107 of 160.
And away goes Harvick again. Austin ‘Frankenstein’ Dillon is in the way bothering KyBu and Truex from getting a good start. They eventually get around him.
On lap 113 of 160 Martin Truex Jr has a vibration and is concerned all the lugnuts aren’t on or tightened. Crew chief Cole Pearn says they said they got them all and advised Martin to ride it out.
With 43 laps to go Matt DiBenedetto is climbing out of the 32 car which is smoking a lot.
It’s funny, early in the race when Ryan Blaney was leading, the MRN guys said they had been afraid the leader would just run off from the field and no one would be able to catch him, but they were excited because that wasn’t happening. I thought to myself, its early and Harvick isn’t in the front. Once Harvick got in the front it seems their concerns were realized.
Darrell ‘Bubba’ Wallace Jr. (43) is in the garage and apparently killed his engine by going from third to second.
Caution on lap 124 of 160 for Derricke Cope (99) spinning. Looks like ‘Kutey’ Kyle Larson (42) sent him around.
KyBu beat Harvick off pit road.
Restarting on lap 129 of 160 with KyBu and KHarv leading the field to green.
That pit stop takes the fuel mileage angle out of it.
KyBu shoots off followed by Martin Truex Jr then KHarv and Ryan Blaney who’s overtaken by Denny Hamlin.
Harvick is stalking Truex who’s stalking KyBu on lap 133 of 160.
Larson loosened up Jimmie – not sure if it was a tap or just moving the air.
Caution is out on lap 139 of 160 for debris.
Michael McDowell in the 34 and Ricky Stenhouse in the 17 collided on pit road. McDowell is sitting backward.
Martin Truex Jr, Kevin Harvick, Chase Elliott and Kyle Larson stayed out on this stop.
Restarting on lap 143 of 160 with Truex Jr in the lead.
Denny Hamlin goes for a spin bringing out the caution on lap 146 of 160. He got loose and into Alex Bowman in the 88 sending him into the outside wall and spinning out to the inside wall. Bowman tapped the outside wall, but kept going.
Restarting on lap 150 of 160 wit RJ in the lead.
Caution on the restart as Erik Jones (20) spins out. MRN says Logano got into the back of him.
Restarting on lap 153 of 160 with Truex still in the lead with Larson alongside. KHarv is behind Truex.
27 cars on the lead lap heading to green.
MRJ is blocking his butt off on Larson.
KyBu passes KHarv.
Martin Truex Jr wins.
What a boring race. Nothing interesting at all until the last 20 laps of the race. Pocono used to be a good race. Now its mostly a parade at the front with a little racing for a few laps in the pack.