What Happened?
Another strategy shake-up allowed Ryan Blaney to get to the front of the field, and he didn’t look back after the final restart, earning his second win of the season at Pocono Raceway.
Blaney finished two seconds ahead of Denny Hamlin, who passed Alex Bowman late but could not close the gap to the No. 12 car. This goes down as Blaney’s 12th career Cup Series win and his second win at Pocono.
What Really Happened?
The Fords had another sluggish start to the season, which wouldn’t appear to be too alarming after the slow starts in the two previous years with this Next Gen car. The difference this year, however, is that Ford expected to be more competitive out of the gate with the new Mustang Dark Horse body.
It seemed like Ford would follow their Next Gen blueprint until something changed in May. Including Chris Buescher’s photo-finish runner up at Kansas Speedway, Ford has now finished inside the top two in nine of the last 10 races.
The sudden summer speed has placed a Ford in victory lane in five of the last nine races, with victories coming in alternating weeks. Instead of struggling through the summer, the Dark Horses have galloped to the top of the speed charts.
This is a big deal, because in the past two seasons, the Fords, specifically from Team Penske, have simply hung around until the final 10 weeks of the season, flipping a quiet season into two consecutive championships.
For example, in the past two Next Gen Pocono races, Ford had a total of three top-10 finishes. In the two races, Team Penske had a best finish of 20th. This weekend, Ford had three in the top 10 and Penske left with two in the top five.
In a championship format where a late season run matters the most, are Team Penske and Ford peaking too early?
Since the May shift, the blue ovals have been a serious weekly threat for the first time in a few years. While Ford drivers and teams continue to share how much they like the recent speed they’ve shown, what good does a summer advantage do if the other teams find a way to catch up when the playoffs come around?
On one hand, this feels like getting too big of a lead at a superspeedway. Maybe the Dark Horses have run too far ahead, and could possibly be sitting ducks when it matters most at the end of the season. However, the Fords have maintained their speed on short tracks, which will make the most difference in the final two races.
At the end of the day, I don’t think that Ford or Team Penske are peaking too early. Instead, Penske again looks like the top Ford team, and its discovery of speed outside of the short track arenas could possibly set it up to have more than one car competing for the championship in Phoenix this November.
Who Stood Out?
For whatever reason, William Byron almost always seems to find his way into a rocky summer slump through driver errors, team mistakes or issues with the car. That has continued this summer, but the No. 24 team put together its first solid weekend in a month after qualifying on the front row and racing with the top contenders all day.
Here’s a crazy stat: Entering this weekend, Martin Truex Jr. had only recorded one top 10 in the last eight races. Much like Byron, Truex unloaded fast and stayed in contention most of the day. It seemed like his car soured on the final run, though, and he dropped to eighth, his best finish since Darlington Raceway.
After a controversial penalty, Bubba Wallace responded in the best way possible by recording a 10th-place finish. Along with the top 10, Wallace also made a major gain on the cut line, sitting just 27 points outside of the playoffs.
Who Fell Flat?
On the other side of that cut line sits Ross Chastain, who crashed in the middle of stage 2.
“I just spun out,” Chastain repeated in interviews.
Chastain was credited with a 36th-place finish, and he now feels the most pressure to perform, both to stay ahead of Wallace, but also to prepare in case another surprise winner takes another playoff spot.
Speaking of the cut line, Kyle Busch continues to drift further and further away. In yet another incident that was out of his control, Busch recorded his fifth DNF in the last seven races after contact with Corey LaJoie.
Even before the accident, Busch had very little to show on speed. While the other former Pocono winners in the field ran well all day, Busch ran outside the top 20.
Better Than Last Time?
For the first time in the Next Gen era, Hamlin did not cross the finish line in first. However, last year’s battle between Hamlin and Kyle Larson added a little fuel to the fire for the two frenemies, whereas this year’s strategy battle led to a little less on-track swapping for the lead at the finish.
Paint Scheme of the Race
We didn’t see too many new paint schemes on the track this week, but the best of the race has to go to Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s Sugarlands Sippin’ Cream look. The creamy colors had some extra small details spread throughout the wrap that helped the No. 47 stand out.
What’s Next?
The NASCAR Cup Series returns to Indianapolis Motor Speedway. Unlike the last three years, though, Cup drivers will take on the famous oval for the first time in the Next Gen car. The Brickyard 400 and its 30th anniversary is scheduled for Sunday, July 21 at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
About the author
Caleb began sports writing in 2023 with The Liberty Champion, where he officially covered his first NASCAR race at Richmond in the spring. While there, Caleb met some of the guys from Frontstretch, and he joined the video editing team after graduating from Liberty University with degrees in Strategic Communications and Sports Journalism. Caleb currently work full-time as a Multi-Media Journalist with LEX 18 News in Lexington, Kentucky and contributes to Frontstretch with writing and video editing. He's also behind-the-scenes or on camera for the Happy Hour Podcast, live every Tuesday night at 7:30!
A daily email update (Monday through Friday) providing racing news, commentary, features, and information from Frontstretch.com
We hate spam. Your email address will not be sold or shared with anyone else.