Kyle Larson’s loss is Alex Bowman’s gain

When his Hendrick Motorsports Kyle Larson blew a tire and hit the wall as the race leader on the final lap of the Pocono Organics CBD 325 on Saturday, Alex Bowman took the lead to win the first race of a weekend Cup Series doubleheader at Pocono Raceway on Saturday. The win was Bowman’t third of the season and the sixth-straight for Hendrick Motorsports. It was HMS’ ninth win, overall, so far in 2021 but snapped Larson’s winning streak at three-straight.

“Yeah, I hate to win one that way, but hell, yeah, I’ll take it. I’m super proud of this Ally #48 team,” Bowman said.

Kyle Busch finished second, William Byron was third and Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney rounded out the top-five. 

“Starting a long way back was challenging and trying to get on some certain strategies that might help us out. I thought our strategy was really good,” Blaney said. “We were really fast for that last caution. I got really tight after that. We needed a good day in our Menards Ford Mustang after last week, for sure. This is definitely something to learn about for tomorrow and make some changes an,  hopefully, have a really good run.”

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Larson wound up ninth at the checkered flag.

“I guess disbelief still. I don’t know, a little bit laughable just because I can’t believe it,” Larson said. “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. Yeah, I felt something like right in the middle of the tunnel. Wasn’t quite sure what it was, yet. It finally kind of shredded halfway through the short chute, there. Couldn’t turn.”

“Hate that we didn’t get the win. Cool that Alex still did, a Hendrick car with another win. Cool to keep Mr. H’s streak going. Yeah, hate we didn’t get HendrickCars.cominto Victory Lane, but we’ll try to start another streak tomorrow.”

After final pit stops and a final caution on lap 108, Busch was the race leader, with Larson in second. When the race restarted for the final time on lap 112, though, Bowman took the lead and Larson followed him by Busch and into second. The two teammates battled for the lead and the eventual win for the remaining laps of the 130-lap race. Larson took the lead from Bowman on lap 127.

“Man, we kind of gave the lead away,” Bowman said. “We were on two tires and just got super tight. I tried to hold him off as long as I could. I can’t say enough about everybody at Team Hendrick right now, the body shop, engine shop, chassis shop. Top to bottom, everybody is putting race cars on the race track. Greg [Ives, crew chief] and all the guys did a really good job. We didn’t run that good all day, so I’m kind of in shock. I don’t know what to say to you guys. Hell, yeah, so cool. To see all the fans out here. Always like to come to Pocono. It’s a cool place, beautiful weather, great day for a race. Heck, yeah, I’ll take it.”

Pit strategies varied throughout the race, including a strategy of dividing the race into thirds and making only two pit stops — a strategy utilized by Kurt Busch and Joey Logano. That strategy resulted in the two drivers not making their first stops until lap 45 and getting back on schedule with the final round of stops. Under the two-stop strategy, Busch and Logano stayed out late in the 52-lap second stage of the race, resulting in a stage-two win for Busch on lap 77. Logano was third in the stage behind Larson.

The Busch brothers combined for the two stage wins, as younger brother Kyle Busch won the shorter stage one on lap 25. The Hendrick duo of Larson and Byron combined to lead the first 17 laps, with Larson starting on the pole and leading the first four laps, before Busch took what would be his stage-winning lead on lap 18.

Logano and Kurt Busch, then, lined up on the front row to restart for stage two, having yet to make their initial pit stops.

After Kurt Busch took his stage-two win, Larson passed him to return to the top position on lap 84. When most of the frontrunners pitted under green before the final caution, Kyle Busch took fuel only and one of his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, Denny Hamlin, took only two tires to Larson’s four. As a result, Busch came out ahead of Larson and Hamlin in close pursuit.

The yellow flag waved eight times throughout the race, including a caution for Cole Custer on lap 14 when he wrecked because of contact from Brad Keselowski. Keselowski continued to finish the race in 10^th. Custer was the first driver out of the race, credited with a 38^th-place finish.

“Yeah, these restarts, you are trying to get up in those tight holes to make sure you don’t get freight trained by five cars on the straightaway,” Custer said. “Idon’t know. I haven’t seen a replay. I don’t know if it was just too tight or miscommunication or what. I really wanted a good day today. I thought we had a good car those first few laps with our HaasTooling.com Mustang, but we will just move on to tomorrow. It is frustrating. I can’t tell you how frustrating this year has been. We will just have to keep surging on and go to tomorrow.”

After the two-stop strategy, Kurt Busch snd Logano finished sixth and seventh, respectively. 

“We were okay. We were probably a fifth-place car,” Logano said. “We ran about fifth most of the race. The car was pretty good the last run. I just lost too much track position on the final restart. We were able to get some decent stage points. I think we were fourth and third in the two stages, and then, we finished seventh. Not what we want but it is a gain on our 550 package if you look at where we have been. We were able to run towards the front and see the front and actually pass some cars. That is a good sign. Progress is being made.”

Kevin Harvick finished eighth.