Five things to watch in Sunday’s Windows 10 400 – ESPN
LONG POND, Pa. — Pocono Raceway always lives up to its name “The Tricky Triangle” and the drivers in Sunday’s Windows 10 400 know it.
It’s not about being the best driver in all three turns — each with a different radius and banking — but about being better than everyone else overall.
Pocono has been host to many repeat winners over the years, the most notable over the last decade being Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kasey Kahne, Jeff Gordon and Denny Hamlin.
Notably, the two hottest drivers in the Sprint Cup Series — Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick — have never won here. Maybe something has to give.
Here are five things to watch for Sunday.
More roll to go for Kyle Busch?
Kyle Busch has won three straight races and four of five. It’s an epic run, especially when you consider he missed the first 11 races of the season and appeared all but out of the Chase race. Now he’s closing in quickly on the 30th-place position in the points, all he still needs to make the postseason.
But since 1972, the advent of NASCAR’s “Modern Era,” only eight drivers have won four in a row. Go back to 1949 and the number is 14. Since 1995 only two other drivers have won three straight, with Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson each doing so twice.
So he’s going against history for a fourth straight.
But before discounting Busch’s chances, remember he qualified for the pole on Friday. How significant is that? Since the start of the 2006 season, six pole-sitters have won in Pocono’s 19 races. Six more pole-winners have finished in the top three. Will Busch be in position to win?
“The car seems to be settling in and maybe I’m settling in and getting used to it, but things are really looking good for our No. 18 car,” Busch said Friday.
Busch promptly went out and won Saturday’s Camping World Truck Series race at Pocono, to boot.
Jeff Gordon’s Chase bid
This is not the kind of retirement tour Jeff Gordon wanted to go out on, but he can rectify that with one good day at a track that has been good to him almost as long as his replacement — Chase Elliott — has been alive.
Gordon won for the first time at Pocono in 1996 (Elliott was six and a half months old) and has driven to Victory lane six times total, the last being in the race in 2012.
He qualified 10th Friday and realizes that a Pocono victory would secure a Chase berth before the regular season ends at Richmond next month. And after his Brickyard finish last week (42nd), he’s running out of breathing room to earn his way on points by staying in the top 16. He’s 37 points up on Clint Bowyer, who would be the first driver out right now should Kyle Busch make the top 30 and get in the Chase.
“Obviously, having a bad finish like [Indianapolis] can shake things up in a hurry, Gordon said. “I think our team is very capable of getting ourselves in the Chase, but we want more than that.
“We want to be battling for wins and we’re fighting extremely hard to do that. We know what a win can do in securing that spot.”
Remember Kevin Harvick?
Kyle Busch has been the hottest driver the past six weeks, but Kevin Harvick gets the nod over the full season.
Harvick has won twice, finished second eight times and finished in the top 10 in 18 of 20 races in 2015. Top-5s? He’s had 14 out of 20.
That’s hot, as was his second-place finish here in the June race. And he’ll start second Sunday. The rub is that he’s never won at Pocono.
Is he feeling overlooked because of what Busch is doing?
“This is Kyle’s Chase,” Harvick said after qualifying. “His chase is to get into the Chase, I feel like.
“I feel like we’ll be even better when the Chase starts and all the pieces are where they need to be. Every day is important. I think it’s just constantly building blocks and those mental aspects of it and whether people think we should or shouldn’t win races, it’s hard to run second, or third and lead laps and do all the things that we’ve done.”
Those two victories, however, were in the third and fourth races of the season, four and a half months ago.
Been a long time for Logano, too
Joey Logano is another driver with a season-long stretch of excellence, but like Harvick, it’s been awhile since he’s seen the checkered flag first.
Logano’s lone win came in the Daytona 500 in February, and like Harvick he’s been consistent. There’s 15 top-10s and 12 top-5s.
And he has a Pocono victory on his resume, only the second of his career back in 2012. He finished fourth here in June and qualified third Friday.
What about Michael Waltrip Racing?
Clint Bowyer said the right thing on Friday, that he’s just concentrating on his No. 15 team and his new sponsor this weekend at Pocono, that’s he’s trying to make the Chase and go win a title, but when news broke that team co-owner Rob Kauffman had bought a stake in Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, it had to be a bit of a distraction.
Kauffman helped clarify things slightly on Saturday.
“In terms of our plans, whether we have three cars, four cars, two roofs, one roof — that’s all yet to be determined,” Kauffman told reporters Saturday at Pocono. “How we do in the 2015 season will help to determine whether that happens.”
Perhaps that will help Bowyer concentrate on the race.
He needs to. He’s on the Chase bubble and fading.
His teammate, David Ragan has been with the team just since the end of April and a victory for him — and the accompanying Chase berth — could only help him attract a sponsor for next season and keep the No. 55 on the track, whether it be under Michael Waltrip Racing, Chip Ganassi Racing or “Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates, Michael Waltrip and Rob Kauffman.”
About Us
Free Shipping
If your order is $35 or more, you may qualify for free shipping. With free shipping, your order will be delivered 5-8 business days.
