#3WideBlog Race Review: Pennsylvania 400 at Pocono Race Review

     The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series made their second trip to the "Tricky Triangle" Pocono Raceway for the Pennsylvania 400. Juan Pablo Montoya took the pole with a lap of 51.124 seconds or 176.043 Mph, Denny Hamlin was on the outside front row, followed by Paul Menard, Kasey Kahne, Marcos Ambrose, Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth, series points leader Dale Earnhardt Jr., Ryan Newman and Jimmie Johnson as your starting top 10. The race was delayed by almost 2 hours after the skies opened up over Pocono Raceway but eventually the race did get started.

     Montoya and Hamlin led the field to the green flag, and quickly drivers would fight for position. By lap 6 Earnhardt Jr. had moved to 3rd, Kahne and Kenseth were also fast and Hamlin was fighting for the lead with Montoya. The drivers were trying to figure out what setup changes were required for the NASCAR mandated competition caution at lap 20. By lap 16 it was clear who had the strong cars early Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a lead over 1.5 seconds over 2nd place Kasey Kahne followed by Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth and Kurt Busch hanging on for 5th. The caution would come out at lap 19 (used as competition caution) for Kyle Busch who punctured a left rear tire and hit the turn one wall, he would not be able to recover finishing 33rd 24 laps down.

     While inclement weather was predicted there were varying strategies on pit road. The restart on lap 23 would see a change of the leaders due to this strategy, Jamie McMurray, Mark Martin, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Brad Keselowski and Matt Kenseth were the top-5 on the restart. As McMurray, Martin and Keselowski are forced to pit due to differing strategies, on lap 33 the top 5 cycles through to Earnhardt Jr., Kenseth, Johnson, Greg Biffle and Kahne. By lap 41 Jimmie Johnson had taken over the top spot and led Earnhardt Jr. by over a second, Biffle had fought up to 4th spot, and Carl Edwards was charging towards the front in 7th. Drivers began short pitting at lap 44 with Joey Logano, the winner of the race here earlier in the season, and the rest of the field began coming down at lap 47.

     On lap 50 Dale Earnhardt Jr, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points leader, broke a transmission exiting the tunnel turn. After listening to the in car camera, you can see he is exiting turn two and attempting to shift from 3rd gear to 4th and you can hear the transmission break. After a short chat with crew chief Steve Letarte, they both decided to head straight to the garage and change the transmission. In a championship mindset, Earnhardt Jr. could be seen by the in car camera, jacking the car up even before he had his helmet off to try and help the change take place as quickly as possible. He would end up 32nd 18 laps down and only retain the points lead by 5.

    With Earnhardt Jr. in the garage, the green flag pitstops would cycle through around lap 54 and your top three were Jimmie Johnson, Brad Keselowski and Matt Kenseth were the top 3. They would remain close to the same through another set of green flag pitstops that ended at lap 79, with Johnson leading, followed by Kenseth, and Keselowski. Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart had worked hard and were positioned for good runs inside the top ten after starting 27th and 28th respectively.

     On lap 86, 6 laps past halfway (the distance required for a race to become "official"), Kurt Busch saw his solid day end in the turn 2 wall. Busch got loose and backed the car into the wall, destroying it. Having only changed two right ride tires on the previous stop, it was suspected he had a left side tire flat. With large storms in the area, very few drivers pit and that set up a restart with Johnson leading followed by Kenseth, Keselowski, Biffle and Kahne.

     On the restart heading into turn 1, Johnson got loose underneath Kenseth and that pushed them up to the wall, behind them Keselowski seeing this also got loose under Biffle and pushed Biffle to the wall. Kenseth was the only one to eventually lose control sliding down directly in front of Denny Hamlin. Jeff Gordon came out with the lead followed by Kahne, Martin Truex Jr., Keselowski and Stewart would grab 5th. That would wind up being the finishing order. After running 7 laps under caution, the skies over Pocono Raceway opened up and the rain poured down, along with thunder and lightning. Shortly after NASCAR declared the race official and Gordon was announced the winner. He would celebrate his victory in the shelter of the Pocono garage.

     The race was marred by tragedy as 1 fan was killed and 9 others injured due to lightning at and around the track. My thoughts and prayers are with those affected at this time. Jeff Gordon had this to say in a NASCAR.com interview. 
     
     "We were walking down pit road, the umbrellas weren't doing any good, [and] there was a huge, huge crack from lightning," he said. "You could tell it was very close. I mean, that's the thing that's going to take away from the victory, is the fact that somebody was affected by that. I mean, the fans here are so loyal and avid. When we were going back to the garage area, there was a group of fans chanting up there that were not leaving. That's just so unfortunate, because they're so loyal and avid here, so you hate to hear something like that. Certainly our thoughts are with them. I hope everything is OK there."

   
Race Facts:
• The race was halted after 98 of the 160 scheduled laps due to heavy downpours. Race time was 1:45:33
• There were 3 cautions for 7 laps, and one red flag
• Average speed was 140.578 Mph
• Jeff Gordon earned his 86th Sprint Cup win, 3rd all-time, in his 674th start.(6th at Pocono. Most all time)
• Jeff Gordon is the 13th different driver to win this season.
• This is Jeff Gordon's 17th season with at least one win.
• Jeff Gordon led once for eight laps.
• HMS earned its 206th Cup win. Its 7th victory of 2012 and 13th at Pocono are both most of all teams.
• Kasey Kahne (second) got his third top-two finish in the past five races.
• Martin Truex Jr. (third) matched his best Pocono finish (2007); it was his first top-five since finishing fifth in May at Darlington.
• Brad Keselowski (fourth) earned his 11th top-10 finish of 2012.
• Tony Stewart (fifth) got his fifth top-five during the past eight races.
• Dale Earnhardt Jr. (32nd) had his worst finish of 2012 and failed to finish on the lead lap for the first time this season. It broke a streak of 21 lead-lap finishes.

        

     Race Results:

FIN	ST	CAR	DRIVER	MAKE	SPONSOR	PTS/BNS	LAPS	STATUS
1	27	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	Drive to End Hunger	47/1	98	Running
2	4	5	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	Farmers Insurance	43/1	98	Running
3	15	56	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	NAPA Auto Parts	41/0	98	Running
4	31	2	Brad Keselowski	Dodge	Miller Lite	41/1	98	Running
5	28	14	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet	Office Depot "Back to School"	39/0	98	Running
6	9	39	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	Haas Automation / Quicken Loans	38/0	98	Running
7	17	99	Carl Edwards	Ford	Fastenal	37/0	98	Running
8	19	15	Clint Bowyer	Toyota	5-hour Energy	36/0	98	Running
9	11	78	Regan Smith	Chevrolet	Furniture Row / Farm American	35/0	98	Running
10	5	9	Marcos Ambrose	Ford	Stanley	34/0	98	Running
11	3	27	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	Menards / Serta	33/0	98	Running
12	18	55	Mark Martin	Toyota	Aaron's Dream Machine	32/0	98	Running
13	14	20	Joey Logano	Toyota	The Home Depot	31/0	98	Running
14	10	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	Lowe's	32/2	98	Running
15	12	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	3M	29/0	98	Running
16	21	29	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	Budweiser	27/0	98	Running
17	16	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	Bass Pro Shops / Allstate	27/1	98	Running
18	13	43	Aric Almirola	Ford	Automotive Lift Institute	25/0	98	Running
19	25	22	Sam Hornish Jr.	Dodge	Shell / Pennzoil	0	98	Running
20	1	42	Juan Montoya	Chevrolet	Target	25/1	98	Running
21	26	38	David Gilliland	Ford	ModSpace	23/0	98	Running
22	23	31	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet	Enersys / Odyssey Battery	22/0	98	Running
23	7	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford	Zest	22/1	98	Running
24	24	10	David Reutimann	Chevrolet	TMone.com	20/0	97	Running
25	37	93	Travis Kvapil	Toyota	Burger King / Dr Pepper	19/0	97	Running
26	22	83	Landon Cassill	Toyota	Burger King / Dr Pepper	18/0	97	Running
27	39	47	Bobby Labonte	Toyota	Scott Products	17/0	96	Running
28	32	34	David Ragan	Ford	Taco Bell	16/0	96	Running
29	2	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	FedEx Ground	16/1	90	Accident
30	6	51	Kurt Busch	Chevrolet	Phoenix Construction Services	15/1	84	Accident
31	41	32	Jason White	Ford	Zaxby's	0	81	Transmission
32	8	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	Diet Mountain Dew / AMP Energy / National Guard	13/1	80	Running
33	20	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	M&M's	11/0	74	Accident
34	36	30	David Stremme	Toyota	Inception Motorsports	10/0	43	Transmission
35	29	13	Casey Mears	Ford	GEICO	9/0	40	Brakes
36	38	87	Joe Nemechek	Toyota	AM / FM Energy Wood & Pellet Stoves	0	37	Brakes
37	34	26	Josh Wise *	Ford	MDS Transport	7/0	34	Brakes
38	42	36	Tony Raines	Chevrolet	@TMone / CRM Hiring Veterans	6/0	31	Fuel Pump
39	30	119	Mike Bliss	Toyota	Plinker Tactical	0	29	Overheating
40	35	37	J.J. Yeley	Chevrolet	Max Q Motorsports	4/0	27	Brakes
41	43	98	Mike Skinner	Ford	TRAQM.com	0	26	Rear Gear
42	40	191	Reed Sorenson	Ford	Plinker Tactical	0	10	Brakes
43	33	23	Scott Riggs	Chevrolet	North Texas Pipe	1/0	9	Brakes

* Denotes Rookie                                                   Race Results & Facts via NASCAR.com