LONG POND, Pa. – Despite a mid-race speeding penalty and concerns about fuel late in the going, Kyle Busch still conquered all to capture his first NASCAR Xfinity Series win of the season Saturday at Pocono Raceway.
Busch led a race-high 64 of 100 laps in the Pocono Green 250 en route to victory in the No. 18 Comcast ‘Salute to Service’ Toyota Camry. He crossed the finish line 2.852 seconds in front of fellow Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series regular Chase Elliott.
Though his final pit stop came with 48 laps to go, Busch stretched his fuel to perfection down the stretch run to the checkered flag.
Just as he did one week ago at Charlotte (N.C.) Motor Speedway at the top level, Busch’s triumph Saturday at Pocono gave him a win at every active NASCAR Xfinity Series track on the schedule.
“This feels good for as good as our car was,” said Busch of his record-extending 92nd series win. “I tried to screw it up again early this week (by speeding), but my guys are amazing. This car was on rails this week, just like it was last week. We were able to overcome our speeding issue we had this weekend to get back to the front.
“It’s been a lot of fun racing in the Xfinity Series. This is pretty cool to check off the list and a win here at Pocono feels really good,” Busch added. “This Toyota Camry was very fast all day today. … We had to bide our time and be patient a little bit and make moves … but we knew we had speed in our race car and it was really fast out front.”
Pocono marks the 26th different track all-time in the Xfinity Series where Busch has at least one victory. Of the 15 facilities which host all three of NASCAR’s national divisions, Busch now has wins in each division at every one of them.
Busch passed polesitter Cole Custer for the top spot on lap three and controlled the opening stage of the race, but was tabbed for speeding on his pit stop during the first stage break and had to rally back from as deep as 22nd during the second stage.
It took him just nine green flag laps to return to the top 10 and by the end of the second stage at lap 50, Busch was sixth on the scoring pylon and firmly back in position to contend for the victory.
From there, a slow pit stop with 48 to go dropped Busch back to 11th but he dug his heels in and charged up to fourth after a multi-car crash following the next restart with 45 to go eliminated Michael Annett and Chase Briscoe from contention with heavy damage.
Busch lined up behind teammate and race leader Brandon Jones for the race-defining restart with 40 laps left and, when the green flag waved, pushed Jones out ahead of the pack before charging to the point for good in turn two as calamity erupted behind him.
Contact between Justin Allgaier and Dylan Lupton on the Long Pond straightaway saw Allgaier pound the outside wall before coming down the track and hooking Christopher Bell into the wall in the aftermath.
That set up a final restart with 35 to go, where Busch simply drove away from the pack. He got out front and was never seriously challenged the rest of the way.
Elliott raced past Daniel Hemric with two laps left after running in the top five for much of the final stint, but could not overcome a near-three second deficit to Busch, coming home as the runner-up in his second drive of the season for GMS Racing.
“Kyle was really fast from the beginning through about half of the run. I thought about halfway through that I was equal to him,” noted Elliott. “If I was right behind him, I could draft and stay close to him. I thought we were going to be good if I could have gotten further up on that restart. It was fun and we had a good day; I just wish we could’ve had that last spot. We came in to top-off because we wanted to be on the good side of fuel and just hoped the guys ahead of us would push it a little too close.”
Hemric tied his career-best mark on an oval, finishing third for the fourth time this season. Rookie Austin Cindric and sophomore driver Cole Custer completed the top five.
Elliott Sadler, John Hunter Nemechek, Paul Menard, Tyler Reddick and Ryan Truex finished sixth through 10th, respectively.
