Loop Data Box Score

Explore the Pocono Mountains 350

Sunday, June 27th, 2021

Pocono Raceway, Long Pond, PA

  • 14 Ford
  • 6 Toyota
  • 18 Chevrolet

  • Race lineup was set based on Saturday’s race finish.

  • Positions 1 through 20: Drivers start from their inverted finishing position in Saturday's race. (1st starts 20th, 2nd starts 19th, etc)

  • Positions 21 through 38: Drivers start from their finishing position in Saturday's race.

  • Sunday, June 27th, 2021
  • NASCAR Wire Service - Holly Cain
Kyle Busch hangs on to win at Pocono

With remarkable perseverance behind the wheel of a car stuck in fourth gear, Kyle Busch saved enough fuel to win Sunday's Explore the Pocono Mountains 350, the second leg of a weekend NASCAR Cup Series doubleheader at Pocono Raceway.

After William Byron and Denny Hamlin ran out of gas ahead of him, Busch cruised to an 8.654-second victory over Kyle Larson, who started from the rear of the field in a backup car after crashing while leading in the final corner of Saturday's race.

Busch brought his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota to pit road for the last time on Lap 95, one circuit after Hamlin and Byron—and that one lap of extra fuel made all the difference.

"Yeah, stuck in fourth gear, about out of gas, just saving, just riding, playing the strategy the best we could with what was given to us," said Busch, who won for the second time this season, the fourth time at Pocono and 59th time in his career—most among active drivers and ninth all-time.

"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&M's Minis Camry.

"Really great to pull off another win here at Pocono. Feels good."

With the victory, Busch also snapped Hendrick Motorsports' six-race Cup Series winning streak.

Larson, also on a fuel-saving strategy in the closing laps, rallied for a runner-up finish after early contact with Hamlin's car dented the nose of his No. 5 Chevrolet. On a pit stop under caution, Larson's crew raised the hood of the car, pounded out the damage and secured it with tape.

"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.

"(Crew chief) Cliff (Daniels) 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 (Hamlin) running out. I was, ‘OK, 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 (at) a lot of points throughout the race today. We'll take it. Happy about the effort, for sure, all weekend."

Brad Keselowski led a race-high 31 laps but had to pit for fuel on Lap 132 of 140. As drivers ran out fuel over the final three laps, Keselowski held third at the finish, one spot head of fellow Ford driver Kevin Harvick.

"We ran a really good race but just didn't have enough fuel to make it to the end like those other 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'm really proud of (crew chief) Jeremy Bullins and the team. They had the setup really well, and it put us in position and we ran a great race today and maximized our day."

Bubba Wallace ran fifth, the first top five for the 23XI team that debuted this year under the co-ownership of Hamlin and NBA superstar Michael Jordan.

Ryan Blaney, Saturday's winner Alex Bowman, Ryan Preece, Tyler Reddick and Joey Logano completed the top 10.

Despite finishing 14th after running out of fuel, Hamlin retained the series lead by four points over Larson. Sunday was another hard-luck story for the driver of the No. 11 Toyota.

"I mean, you're trying to win or you're trying to get the best finish that you can," Hamlin said. "But ultimately, we just didn't save enough. The 18 I think came in and got topped off because he had transmission issues. That was essentially the race."

  • Drivers Entered: 38
  • Laps Scheduled: 140
  • Margin of Victory: 08.654 Seconds
  • Time of Race: 2 Hours 26 Minutes 49 Seconds
  • Average Speed: 143.036
  • Cautions: 4 for 15 laps
  • Lead Changes: 12
  • Green Flag Passes: 2,302 (18.4 passes per green flag lap)

  • Pocono Raceway
  • 48th Annual Explore the Pocono Mountains 350
  • Race Winner: Kyle Busch
  • Age: 36
  • Team : No. 18 - M&M's Mini's Toyota
  • Owner: Joe Gibbs Racing
  • Crew Chief: Ben Beshore
  • Kyle Busch won the 48th Annual Explore the Pocono Mountains 350, his 59th victory in 589 NASCAR Cup Series races.
  • This is his second victory and 11th top-10 finish in 2021.
  • This is his fourth victory and 17th top-10 finish in 34 races at Pocono Raceway.
  • Kyle Larson (second) posted his seventh top-10 finish in 14 races at Pocono Raceway. It is his 13th top-10 finish in 2021.
  • Brad Keselowski (third) posted his 14th top-10 finish in 24 races at Pocono Raceway.
  • Chase Briscoe (21st) was the highest finishing rookie.
  • The win today was Joe Gibbs Racing's 16th NASCAR Cup Series victory at Pocono Raceway - Denny Hamlin (six wins), Kyle Busch (four), Bobby Labonte (three), Joey Logano (one), Tony Stewart (one) and Matt Kenseth (one).
  • 23XI Racing and Bubba Wallace scored their first top-five finish of the 2021 season and first for the organization in the series.
Kyle Busch celebrates in victory lane
Long Pond, Pennsylvania - June 27, 2021 : Kyle Busch, driver of the #18 M&M's Mini's Toyota, celebrates in victory lane after winning the NASCAR Xfinity Series Pocono Green 225 Recycled by J.P. Mascaro & Sons at Pocono Raceway on June 27, 2021 in Long Pond, Pennsylvania.
Sean GardnerGetty Images
Explore the Pocono Mountains 350 at Pocono Raceway : Loop Data Box Score results
DRIVER ST MID CLO FIN HI LOW ARP PL DIF GFP GFxP PD QPS % QPS FST % T15 LED % LED LAPS DR TOT PTS
Kyle Busch 19 1 6 1 1 30 9.1 18 77 61 16 36 46.75 19 79.3 30 21.4 140 129.80 44
Kyle Larson 12 23 5 2 2 34 17.5 10 106 50 56 23 21.70 4 38.6 0 0.0 140 83.70 38
Brad Keselowski 11 18 1 3 1 31 8.0 8 68 52 16 33 48.53 20 80.7 31 22.1 140 124.20 50
Kevin Harvick 13 27 13 4 2 28 12.1 9 76 64 12 39 51.32 2 81.4 0 0.0 140 96.50 33
Bubba Wallace 7 12 7 5 1 25 11.7 2 73 60 13 44 60.27 1 71.4 3 2.1 140 88.10 38
Ryan Blaney 16 31 14 6 2 34 16.2 10 74 83 -9 37 50.00 13 61.4 0 0.0 140 97.70 38
Alex Bowman 20 8 15 7 1 24 12.0 13 75 70 5 32 42.67 4 71.4 18 12.9 140 93.80 30
Ryan Preece 23 11 8 8 2 32 17.0 15 85 63 22 25 29.41 0 48.6 0 0.0 140 73.80 29
Tyler Reddick 10 9 16 9 2 22 11.3 1 73 62 11 41 56.16 1 80.7 0 0.0 140 92.30 31
Joey Logano 14 7 17 10 1 29 14.2 4 77 67 10 38 49.35 3 67.9 0 0.0 140 83.10 28
Martin Truex Jr 3 4 11 11 1 24 8.8 -8 56 46 10 31 55.36 10 85.0 19 13.6 140 98.00 41
William Byron 18 19 2 12 1 33 8.5 6 73 75 -2 42 57.53 16 81.4 22 15.7 140 111.50 35
Austin Dillon 21 24 18 13 3 34 19.8 8 77 80 -3 18 23.38 1 28.6 0 0.0 140 70.80 24
Denny Hamlin 17 22 4 14 1 33 9.9 3 73 75 -2 35 47.95 8 72.9 1 0.7 140 102.10 32
Daniel Suarez 8 30 10 15 6 32 15.2 -7 67 66 1 28 41.79 0 62.9 0 0.0 140 70.80 24
Aric Almirola 5 5 22 16 2 26 9.8 -11 53 59 -6 28 52.83 1 77.9 0 0.0 140 90.00 32
Michael McDowell 2 16 20 17 1 25 14.4 -15 57 83 -26 17 29.82 1 45.7 7 5.0 140 69.80 25
Matt DiBenedetto 32 15 21 18 2 32 20.5 14 75 81 -6 15 20.00 0 12.9 0 0.0 140 60.00 19
Chris Buescher 1 17 24 19 1 30 19.6 -18 72 105 -33 17 23.61 6 25.0 6 4.3 140 63.00 18
Kurt Busch 15 10 3 20 3 30 12.2 -5 84 76 8 34 40.48 1 72.1 0 0.0 140 77.00 17
Chase Briscoe 24 20 12 21 9 34 19.2 3 93 77 16 21 22.58 0 24.3 0 0.0 140 58.50 16
Ryan Newman 37 25 9 22 9 37 20.8 15 78 71 7 13 16.67 0 18.6 0 0.0 140 59.20 15
Corey Lajoie 36 21 23 23 7 36 25.3 13 82 64 18 5 6.10 0 1.4 0 0.0 139 48.50 14
Cole Custer 38 14 26 24 14 38 22.8 14 93 63 30 2 2.15 0 2.9 0 0.0 139 50.70 13
Justin Allgaier 27 26 19 25 15 36 26.4 2 52 43 9 2 3.85 0 0.0 0 0.0 139 43.80 0
Ross Chastain 33 6 25 26 2 33 18.0 7 79 77 2 25 31.65 0 42.9 0 0.0 139 57.30 12
Chase Elliott 9 3 28 27 1 32 15.1 -18 50 86 -36 25 50.00 2 57.1 0 0.0 139 85.80 16
Cody Ware 25 29 27 28 19 33 27.3 -3 57 65 -8 0 0.00 0 0.0 0 0.0 139 40.70 0
BJ McLeod 30 32 29 29 24 33 30.1 1 25 40 -15 0 0.00 0 0.0 0 0.0 138 38.70 0
James Davison 28 33 30 30 25 34 31.4 -2 26 29 -3 0 0.00 0 0.0 0 0.0 137 35.80 7
Erik Jones 22 28 31 31 14 34 27.0 -9 51 55 -4 2 3.92 0 0.0 0 0.0 136 43.70 6
Christopher Bell 4 2 33 32 1 34 13.1 -28 36 92 -56 21 58.33 6 65.7 3 2.2 135 85.10 12
Quin Houff 31 35 34 33 31 37 34.5 -2 8 12 -4 0 0.00 0 0.0 0 0.0 135 30.30 4
Anthony Alfredo 26 38 35 34 25 38 36.6 -8 15 10 5 0 0.00 0 0.0 0 0.0 134 27.20 3
Josh Bilicki 34 36 36 35 34 38 36.5 -1 8 4 4 0 0.00 0 0.0 0 0.0 132 27.50 2
Garrett Smithley 29 34 32 36 27 36 33.3 -7 18 40 -22 0 0.00 0 0.0 0 0.0 122 31.00 0
Timmy Hill 35 37 37 37 33 38 37.2 -2 2 9 -7 0 0.00 0 0.0 0 0.0 113 24.70 0
Ricky Stenhouse Jr 6 13 38 38 4 28 18.8 -32 58 87 -29 23 39.66 1 41.4 0 0.0 111 62.20 5