Kyle Busch overcomes woes for Pocono Raceway win

Kyle Busch suffered transmission and clutch problems in the Explore the Pocono Mountains 350 at Pocono Raceway on Sunday, but he had enough fuel to claim his second win of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series season in the second race of a weekend doubleheader.

“Yeah, stuck in fourth gear,” Busch said. “About out of gas. Just saving, just riding, playing the strategy the best we could with what was given to us. Just can’t say enough about everybody on my team, everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota, TRD, all the work they’re putting in.

“Sometimes these races aren’t always won by the fastest car, but I felt we had the fastest car. Even though we were in the back and behind and having to come through and persevere through being stuck in fourth gear, no clutch, all that stuff. It’s all burned out. Nothing left in this M&Ms Minis Camry. It was awesome today.

“Thanks to Rowdy Energy, Interstate Batteries, Stanley, Rheem, everybody that works on this car. A lot of our M&Ms friends are here today, so it’s really cool to have them here back at the track. Thanks to Rowdy Nation, all the Kyle Busch fans up there supporting and pulling for us. Really great to pull off another win here at Pocono. Feels good.”

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Sunday’s win snapped a six-race winning streak for Hendrick Motorsports. As a result of his mechanical woes and a lack of fuel, Busch needed assistance getting his car to victory lane.

Kyle Larson finished second after starting in the back in a backup car because of a crash on the final lap of the first race on Saturday.

“I don’t know. It’s a surprising finish for us,” Larson said. “Our HendrickCars.com Chevy was really loose for a majority of the race. Then, we got a lot of nose damage there on one of the restarts. Was off on speed, I felt like, after that. Cliff [Daniels, crew chief] and everybody did a really, really good job managing the race, coached me through saving fuel there at the end. Was hoping that the 18 [Busch] was going to run out. I saw the 11 [Denny Hamlin] running out. I was, ‘Okay, they’re teammates, they got to be close to running out.’”

“The 18 did pit a lap after us under caution. That actually probably won them the race. But, yeah, second-place finish, I thought we would be outside of the top-20. A lot of points throughout the race today; we’ll take it. Happy about the effort for sure all weekend.”

Brad Keselowski was third, Kevin Harvick fourth, and Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. rounded out the top-five.

“Our Busch Light Ford Mustang, we struggled with it the first half of the race,” Harvick said. “Then, we had a good restart, there, a couple restarts, there, from the end that got us some track position, and we were able to have a good strategy and stay up front, there. I didn’t think any of those guys could make it on fuel. I thought I was just racing Brad.

“At the end of the day, it was a solid day, a solid finish for us. I thought our car was better yesterday than it was today. We just kind of over adjusted from what we had yesterday to where we started today. They did a good job keeping us in the game and made some good adjustments in the car. We had some good restarts and good track position and were able to pick up the pace. Just still we just lose the handling of the car more than I would like to behind cars. Other than that, we just keep clawing along.”

Final pit stops for fuel began just past lap 100 of the 140-lap race. Keselowski waited until lap 132, giving up the lead to take only three seconds of fuel. 

“We ran a really good race but just didn’t have enough fuel to make it to the end like those others guys did,” Keselowski said. “They beat us on power and fuel mileage. We have a lot of work to do to keep up with those guys. I am really proud of Jeremy Bullins and the team. They had the setup really well and it put is in position and we ran a great race today and maximized our day. It was a nice rebound from where we have been. We have had a lot of bad breaks with things breaking and all kinds of issues across the board. My mistakes, other mistakes. This was a really good day for us.”

William Byron inherited the lead and went into fuel-conservation mode, catching drafts from lapped cars. He aborted the attempt to go the remaining distance without pitting again, though, on lap 138.

Byron’s stop put  the Joe Gibbs Racing duo of Denny Hamlin and Busch in the top-two positions in the running order to race for the win. Hamlin ran out of gas on lap 139, turning the lead over to Busch.

Busch took a lead on lap 46 when Keselowski finally made his first pit stop. Despite already dealing with a transmission problem, Busch was able to remain up front for 28 laps before the ill transmission began causing problems on pit road. By the end of the race, Busch’s clutch also had gone out.

Another JGR driver, Martin Truex Jr., won the opening stage at lap 30. After front-row starters Chris Buescher and Michael McDowell combined to lead the first 13 laps, Truex passed McDowell for the top spot on lap 14.

Byron won the 55-lap second stage that ended on lap 84. Keselowski led early in stage two before his initial stop. After Busch, then, led laps, Byron was up front after a cycle of green-flag stops completed on lap 77.

The yellow flag waved only twice for on-track incidents. The first caution came on lap two for Anthony Alfredo. Debris from an Erik Jones flat tire on lap 93 resulted in the final yellow flag on lap 93.

Ryan Blaney finished sixth, Alex Bowman was seventh, Ryan Preece eighth, Tyler Reddick ninth, and Joey Logano finished 10^th.

“It was an okay day for the #48 Ally team,” Bowman said. “Strategy didn’t work out for us. We struggled in traffic; kind of knew we would have after yesterday. But we got out front for a bit, and we were pretty decent. On to Road America next weekend.”