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Today, the NASCAR Cup Series took to the Tricky Triangle in the Pennsylvania Pocono Mountains for round 21 of 36 as we rapidly approach the 2024 NASCAR Playoffs. Starting on the pole this afternoon was Ty Gibbs, looking for his first career win in the Cup Series. Starting along side him was William Byron, who has had an up and down year thus far. Maybe today was the day that he and that number 24 HMS team could work on their consistency as they gear up for the post-season. Also fast in qualifying were the Toyotas of Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, and Tyler Reddick. Were any of them able to capitalize today? Let’s talk about it! Here’s everything that went down in the NASCAR Cup Series race at Pocono Raceway!
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Various strategies saw Chris Buescher and Josh Berry assume the lead to start the final stage. Buescher was able to fend off the likes of Martin Truex Jr. and Ryan Blaney. However, Josh Berry fell all the way back to 10th after being caught on the outside amidst aggressive 3, 4, and even 5-wide racing. Falling through the field, Berry pitted on Lap-110, far from when the fuel window was set to open at Lap-118. To make matters worse, a slow pitstop saw Berry give up a lot of precious time on track.
On Lap-115, a brake rotor on the right front side of Todd Gilliland’s number 38 exploded, causing him to get into the wall in Turn-1. This ended his day. With this caution, everyone pitted, which made them all around 1 lap shy of being able to make it to the finish. Fuel-saving commenced immediately. Kyle Larson won the race off pit road, taking the lead. Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott followed him off.
However, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, and Ty Gibbs were all caught speeding in section 7. They all had to perform a pass-through penalty, forfeiting the track position they gained. Fortunately, they were able to top their fuel off, putting them in a better position to make it to the end. Ryan Blaney then cycled to the lead with Denny Hamlin, William Byron, Alex Bowman, and Martin Truex Jr. behind him.
After re-starting on Lap 121, Kyle Busch made an aggressive block on Corey Lajoie. In response, Lajoie tagged the number 8 from behind, taking Busch out and several others he collected after washing up the track. When we went green once again, the 71 of Zane Smith and the 42 of John Hunter Nemechek got together. As the saying goes, cautions breed cautions.
When the race restarted with 30 laps to go, we were able to get a couple of laps of green flag racing under our belt before the 8th caution of the day came out. This caution was due to Ty Gibbs’ engine expiring. JGR has had a lot of engine troubles in recent weeks. At what point to we consider engine failures no longer rare?
After a lengthy track cleanup, the race restarted with 23 laps remaining. With sixteen laps being run under caution, fuel was no longer a concern. Ryan Blaney rocketed out front, putting some distance on Alex Bowman and Denny Hamlin who battled for second behind him. Bowman was eventually able to clear Hamlin and he then set his sights on Blaney. The 48 slowly started to reel in the 12 of Blaney. The 48 was 0.3 seconds faster than the 12 with 21 laps to go.
By breaking the draft and taking away Bowman’s line, Blaney was able to put a bit of a cushion between himself and the 48. He was able to stretch it out to just under two seconds as the field took 10-to-go. By 5-to-go, Denny Hamlin overtook Alex Bowman for 2nd and started to slowly reel in Ryan Blaney. Sensing that the 11 was coming, though, Blaney started to drive a little harder, able to grow the cushion between him and Hamlin a little bit more.
Ryan Blaney went on to win his 12th career Cup Series win at the site of his first, Pocono Raceway. This win marks Blaney’s second of the season and awards him the 5 additional ever so important playoff points. Congratulations to Ryan Blaney on this win and Team Penske for a perfect race weekend!
As reported by Bob Pockrass of FOX Sports, the layout for today’s race in the Pocono Mountains was as follows:
With an estimated fuel run predicted to be between 37 and 42 laps, teams were given 7 sets of tires. Drivers who were forced to drop to the back were:
The opening stage was the shortest stage of the race at 30 laps, well within the range of a fuel run. When the field took the green flag, the number 54 of Ty Gibbs rocketed out front, stretching his lead upward to 2 seconds over second place runner William Byron. After the 24 came the Toyota trio of Martin Truex Jr., Denny Hamlin, and Tyler Reddick rounding out the top-5 in the opening 10 laps of the stage.
As the field closed in on the halfway mark of stage 1, the first caution of the day came out. It was a one-car incident which saw Noah Gragson get loose and plow hard into the outside wall. His day was over from there. At the time of caution, Ty Gibbs seemed to show dominant speed, stretching his lead out to 5 seconds over Byron.
During the caution, a handful of cars pitted towards the back, possibly playing a gamble on strategy. It was a no-contest upon the restart as Ty Gibbs took a commanding lead. However, as the field entered Turn-1, the 54 over-cooked the entry and slid up the track. This opened the door for Truex Jr. and Hamlin to get by as Gibbs fell down to 6th.
A number of drivers in the bottom half of the top-10 (including Ty Gibbs and Kyle Larson) elected to pit with 3 laps to go in the stage. Martin Truex Jr., meanwhile, stretched his lead over Hamlin to just over a second. He went on to win the stage relatively uncontested. It was his 3rd stage win of 2024 for the 19 crew.
When the green flag dropped to begin stage 2, Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski, playing strategy, inherited the lead. Heading into Turn-1 after taking the green, Logano drifted high and fell all the way down to 10th. Keselowski took the lead but not far behind were the Toyotas of Erik Jones and Christopher Bell.
The field settled into a pace with many of the leaders needing to pit within the next 20 or so laps. They were spared of those green flag stops, however, as Ross Chastain got into the wall in Turn-3, bringing out the third caution of the race. During the caution, nearly every car came down pit road, many of them taking 2 tires rather than 4. Ty Gibbs stayed out, retaking the lead along with his Toyota teammates, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr.
The Toyotas were slow to jump on the restart, allowing for Josh Berry to get by and assume the lead. After leading for about 5 laps, Hamlin started to reel in the 4 of Berry. By lap 67, Denny Hamlin passed Berry for the lead. The number 4 then went into fuel conservation mode. Meanwhile, Chase Elliott overtook Ty Gibbs for 3rd.
Berry came down pit road on Lap-77 to gas up. From there, he only needed to stop one more time. Also on this strategy was Ty Gibbs who pitted on Lap-75. As the stage started to close, Denny Hamlin started running harder to stretch his lead as far as he could to persuade drivers not to short pit the stage. The only drivers electing to short pit as Hamlin took 3 to go were Ryan Blaney and Martin Truex Jr. They were able to remain on the lead lap after pit stops.
Denny Hamlin went on to win the second stage. This earned him 10 additional points plus 1 playoff point. It was his first ever stage win at Pocono, as unbelievable as that seems. Chase Elliott came in second, Brad Keselowski in 3rd, William Byron in 4th, and Erik Jones rounded out the top-5 to end the stage.
The first caution of the race came out on Lap-14 as Noah Gragson, after bottoming out, snapped his number 10 Ford loose. He backed it in hard into the outside retaining wall in Turn-1. The impact was significant enough to end Gragson’s day. Reportedly, the hit damaged the steering of the SHR number 10. You can watch the impact in the clip below provided by Skewcar.
The second caution for cause came out on Lap-53 as something on Ross Chastain’s number 1 Busch Light Peach Chevy seemingly broke. Chastain, unable to save it, plowed into the outside wall coming out of Turn-3. The damage was significant enough for him to be done for the day. Chastain was one of the drivers around the playoff bubble. It will be interesting to see how this affects that race as the regular season continues to dwindle down. You can watch the contact in the clip below provided by NASCAR on NBC.
The Big One at Pocono went down on Lap-121 upon a restart. Kyle Busch made an aggressive block on Corey Lajoie. The 7 apparently didn’t take to kindly to it and, in response, hooked Busch. The 8 of Busch spun down on the apron and washed back up the track. He collected the likes of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Ryan Preece. You can watch the various replays in the clip below.
Cautions breed cautions and the 7th caution of the day came as Zane Smith and J. H. Nemechek got together battling for too little real estate. The incident totaled Smith’s car, which you can see in the clip below.
That does it for our coverage of the Pocono race weekend, Daily Downforce readers. We have just one more race before the Olympic break! What did you think of this race? Are you a Blaney fan and are elated? Or are you an angry and disapointed Kyle Busch fan? Will his bad luck ever end? Tell us what you think by commenting on all of our social media pages.
We’ll be back next weekend as NASCAR returns with the Brickyard 400. But in the meantime, keep checking into DailyDownforce.com throughout the week for all the latest silly season rumors, news, and fan discussions!
