NASCAR on TV this week
2021 Pocono II Cup Kyle Busch win NKP
(Photo: Nigel Kinrade Photography)

Kyle Busch Saves Just Enough Fuel, Wins Pocono Stuck in 4th Gear

by

Halfway through the Explore the Pocono Mountains 350 at Pocono Raceway on Sunday (June 27), Kyle Busch‘s day took what seemed like a downward turn.

Busch suffered transmission problems and his car wouldn’t go up through the gears properly, forcing driver and team to stick the car in fourth gear for the remainder of the race. And then it turned into a strategic fuel mileage contest.

The No. 18 passed William Byron and teammate Denny Hamlin in the last several laps as both competitors pitted. Busch gambled, saved as much as he could and coasted under the checkered flag for his second win of 2021, eight seconds ahead of second-place Kyle Larson.

Busch didn’t have enough fuel to get the car to victory lane.

“Stuck in fourth gear, about out of gas,” Busch said with a chuckle in his post-race interview. “Just saving, just riding, playing the strategy the best we could with what was given to us […] 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 […] Really great to pull off another win here at Pocono. Feels good.”

It was Busch’s second win of 2021 and first in nearly two months after winning Kansas Speedway in early May. The win also snapped Hendrick Motorsports’ six-week winning streak, on the heels of Alex Bowman’s victory in Saturday’s race.

Larson, Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick and Bubba Wallace rounded out the top five, with the 23XI Racing driver securing the team’s first top-five and top-10 finish.

After the inversion of Saturday (June 26) afternoon’s top 20 finishers, Chris Buescher and Michael McDowell led the field to green. The yellow flag flew early for Anthony Alfredo, who lost his No. 38 Ford into turn 1 and smacked the wall.

Martin Truex Jr., after a dismal 18th-place run in the first race of the doubleheader, sailed to the lead and won stage one.

The younger Busch brother ran well early but started to have transmission issues and the team began working on diagnosing the problem.

Busch also led for several intervals during green-flag pit stops during the stage two, pleased enough with his car at one point to channel his inner Steve Miller Band on the radio.

Byron, though, cycled around to the lead and took the victory in stage two.

Busch’s team kept working on the transmission problems and timed it so the No. 18 wouldn’t fall a lap down, finishing work quickly in order for him to get out in front of the pace car several times.

The final green-flag run mirrored last week’s race at Nashville Superspeedway but was even more of a fuel-mileage race. Bowman, looking for the doubleheader sweep, waged a ferocious battle with Harvick until both had to eventually pit, handing the lead to Keselowski.

The No. 2 stayed out for ages but stopped with less than 10 laps to go, escaping pit road ahead of Harvick, who could for sure make it to the checkered on fuel.

Byron stayed out and did everything he could to save fuel, including drafting Corey LaJoie as the No. 24 sat 11 seconds ahead of those who stopped. Hamlin, Kyle Busch, Larson, Kurt Busch and Wallace were all playing the same strategy of staying out as the laps ticked down, with the two Joe Gibbs drivers chasing down Byron in a hurry with four laps remaining.

Byron sat a second and a half ahead of Hamlin and Busch with three laps left, but pitted prior to crossing the line with two to go: Hamlin and Busch inherited the top two spots.

The two Toyota stablemates briefly battled before Hamlin ran out and swung his car onto pit road. Busch took the white flag all by his lonesome out front and with few cars to save fuel off of but milked every bit of fuel it had and rolled under the checkered flag to claim the victory.

“The biggest thing was trying to time the restart right,” he said after the race. “Leave pit road, come back around, be at full speed by the time the field takes the start/finish line. We were a little bit off on that, we were from here to pit road off on that.

“That’s about all we could do, that’s all you could think about doing in that situation, just thinking through any opportunity and obstacle that’s on you. That’s just what we did.”

Ryan Blaney, Bowman, Ryan Preece, Tyler Reddick and Joey Logano completed the top 10. Byron ended up 12th and Hamlin 14th.

Sunday Cup Results from Pocono

The Cup Series heads northwest this week, traveling to Road America in Wisconsin for some left and right turns at the 4.048-mile, 14-turn layout. Coverage will be on NBC on Sunday, July 4 at 2:30 p.m.

Adam Cheek joined Frontstretch as a contributing writer in January 2019. A 2020 graduate of Virginia Commonwealth University, he covered sports there and later spent a year and a half as a sports host on 910 the Fan in Richmond, VA. He's freelanced for Richmond Magazine and the Richmond Times-Dispatch and also hosts the Adam Cheek's Sports Week podcast. Adam has followed racing since the age of three, inheriting the passion from his grandfather, who raced in amateur events up and down the East Coast in the 1950s.

20 Comments
Oldest
Newest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments