• Thursday, July 11th, 2024
• NASCAR Wire Service - Holly Cain

Only six opportunities left in the regular season to earn a Playoff spot

After a thrilling race on the downtown Chicago streets last weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series moves to one of its most iconic venues, the 2.5-mile Pocono (Pa.) Raceway for Sunday’s The Great American Getaway 400 Presented by VISITPA.com (2:30 p.m. ET on USA Network, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

With Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman’s victory at Chicago, only four positions remain up for grabs with six races to go to formalize the 16-driver Playoff field. Sunday marked the second consecutive race a new driver earned a Playoff bid with Team Penske’s Joey Logano securing his position at Nashville two weeks ago.

Three former Pocono Raceway winners – Joe Gibbs Racing’s Martin Truex Jr., RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher and Richard Childress Racing’s Kyle Busch – are still competing for their first win of the 2024 season to become championship eligible.

Martin Truex Jr. – ranked fifth, the highest points position of a driver without a win so far this year – has a pair of past victories (2015 and 2018) at the Tricky Triangle. Buescher, ranked 16th, earned his first career NASCAR Cup Series win at Pocono in 2016. And the two-time series champion Kyle Busch, who is a surprising 19th place in the standings, has celebrated in Pocono’s Victory Lane four times (2017, ’18, ’19, ’21) – second most among active drivers. Only defending race winner Denny Hamlin (seven) has more wins.

“Really looking forward to going to Pocono this weekend in our Interstate Batteries car,” the New Jersey native Truex said. “It’s one of our home tracks, as they say. I’ve won there a couple times but really excited to get back with the fast race cars [crew chief] James [Small] and all the 19 guys have been bringing to the track lately. We’re fired up and hope we can get another win at Pocono.

The regular season championship presents a compelling storyline in addition to the dramatic Playoff contention. Kyle Larson holds a slight 11-point edge over his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Chase Elliott atop the championship – even having missed a race (Charlotte). The three-time 2023 winner Larson has never won at Pocono. Elliott, who has one win this season, was the 2022 Pocono race winner.

Should either 2021 series champion Larson or 2020 series champion Elliott win the regular season title, they would join Truex and Busch as the only multi-time regular season champions. 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick is now ranked a season high third place, 23 points behind Larson.

Also, with victories this year to secure their race for a championship are Joe Gibbs Racing’s Hamlin, Hendrick Motorsports’ Byron, JGR’s Christopher Bell, Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney, RFK Racing’s Brad Keselowski, Bowman, Logano, Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez and Team Penske’s Austin Cindric.

Truex, his JGR teammate Ty Gibbs, Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain and Buescher hold the current remaining four Playoff positions based on points. 23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace is 17th, 45 points behind Buescher followed by Stewart-Haas Racing’s Chase Briscoe (-88 ) and Busch (-98).

Wallace has one top five and a pair of top 10s in 11 starts at Pocono. Briscoe’s best finish in four Pocono starts is 15th-place. In addition to his four wins at the track, Busch has 11 top-five and 18 top-10 finishes in 36 starts.

Busch finished ninth at Chicago – his first top-10 since an eighth place at Kansas eight races ago. The two-time series champ’s best finish of the season is third-place at Atlanta, the second race of the year. He is looking to extend his career winning streak to 20 consecutive years.

“You make your own luck, it’s when opportunity meets preparation and we just haven’t done that,” said Busch, driver of the No. 8 RCR Chevrolet.

• Saturday, July 13th, 2024
• NASCAR Wire Service - Holly Cain

Ty Gibbs earned his second career NASCAR Cup Series Busch Light Pole

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Ty Gibbs earned his second career NASCAR Cup Series Busch Light Pole Position Saturday claiming the top starting spot for Sunday’s The Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway (2:30 p.m. ET, USA Network, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The 21-year old Gibbs will line up first in the No. 54 JGR Toyota, equaling his best previous series qualifying effort at Charlotte Motor Speedway this May. His lap of 170.039 mph around the 2.5-mile Pocono oval was .118-seconds faster than William Byron in the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

“Definitely satisfying for sure,’’ Gibbs said, adding, “We were really fast and I just appreciate all the effort from my Monster Energy team, wouldn’t be here without them and all my sponsors. It was really really fun and the car is really good. So we’ll see what we can do and hopefully we can get a win tomorrow.’’

Three of the four JGR drivers advanced the final round of qualifying. And it was an all-JGR second row including Martin Truex Jr. in the No. 19 JGR Toyota and the track’s all-time winningest active driver, seven-time Pocono race winner Denny Hamlin in the No. 11 JGR Toyota.

Stewart-Haas Racing’s rookie Josh Berry and last week’s Chicago race winner, Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman will take the green flag from the third row. 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick, Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney, Spire Motorsports rookie Zane Smith and Penske’s Joey Logano round out the Top-10 drivers who advanced to the final round of qualifying.

Hendrick Motorsports’ teammates Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott, who are first and second in the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings, will start 12^th and 11^th, respectively.

Reddick was fastest in practice with a lap of 168.231 mph in the No. 45 Toyota. He was second fastest to Truex in 10 Lap Consecutive Speed.

Hamlin, Truex, Bowman, Blaney and Logano are all past-Pocono winners. Both Hamlin (2006) and Blaney (2017) earned their first career NASCAR Cup Series wins at the Tricky Triangle.

• The Great American Getaway 400 Presented by VisitPAcom
• Busch Pole Award Pole Winner: Ty Gibbs
• Age: 21
• Team : No 54 - Monster Energy Toyota
• Owner: Joe Gibbs
• Crew Chief: Chris Gayle
• Ty Gibbs won the Pole Award for the The Great American Getaway 400 Presented by VisitPAcom with a lap of 52929 seconds, 170039 mph
• This is his second pole in 72 NASCAR Cup Series races
• This is his second pole and 13th top-10 start in 2024
• This is his first pole in three races at Pocono Raceway
• William Byron (second) posted his 13th top-10 start of 2024 and his fifth in 11 races at Pocono Raceway
• Martin Truex Jr (third) posted his 13th top-10 start at Pocono Raceway It is his 10th in 21 races this season
• Josh Berry (fifth) was the fastest qualifying rookie

• Drivers Entered: 37
• Laps Scheduled: 160
• Margin of Victory: 01.312 Seconds
• Time of Race: 3 Hours 13 Minutes 59 Seconds
• Average Speed: 123.722
• Cautions: 8 for 34 laps
• Lead Changes: 8
• Green Flag Passes: 2,209 (17.5 passes per green flag lap)

• The Great American Getaway 400 Presented by VisitPAcom
• Race Winner: Ryan Blaney
• Age: 30
• Team : No 12 - Wabash Ford
• Owner: Roger Penske
• Crew Chief: Jonathan Hassler
• Ryan Blaney won the The Great American Getaway 400 Presented by VisitPAcom, his 12th victory in 327 Cup Series races
• This is his second victory and 10th top-10 finish in 2024
• This is his second victory and seventh top-10 finish in 15 races at Pocono Raceway
• Denny Hamlin (second) posted his 23rd top-10 finish in 35 races at Pocono Raceway It is his ninth top-10 finish in 2024
• Alex Bowman (third) posted his fifth top-10 finish in 15 races at Pocono Raceway
• Carson Hocevar (17th) was the highest finishing rookie
• Chase Elliott leads the point standings by 3 points over Kyle Larson