Busch Saves Enough Fuel to Win at Pocono

Kyle Busch won the Explore the Pocono Mountains 350 from Pocono Raceway on Sunday afternoon in the second race of the Pocono doubleheader.

Busch persevered through numerous struggles with his car throughout the race. In the second stage, Busch’s transmission got stuck in fourth gear and they lost the clutch.  That caused Busch to struggle getting on and off pit road along with restart issues.

While the team attempted to fix the issues, Busch pitted a lap later than the rest of the leaders.  Fuel became an issue over the final run, and Busch inherited the lead when William Byron and Denny Hamlin ran out of gas.

Busch said he didn’t think he could win after struggling with the shifter all day.

“Just playing the strategy the best we could with what was given to us,” Busch said.  “I still felt like we had the fastest car even though we were in the back and behind.”

Busch said the biggest struggle throughout the race was getting caught back up to the field before the restarts with his car unable to accelerate properly.

“Trying to time the restart right,” Busch said.  “Leave pit road and then come back around and be at full speed by the time the field takes the start/finish line.  We were a little bit off on that.”

Kyle Larson finished second on Sunday, and said the difference may have been Busch’s late pit stop.

“I thought [Busch] was going to run out,” Larson said.  “I saw [Denny Hamlin] run out and…they’re teammates.  I guess the 18 did pit a lap after us under caution, so that actually probably won them the race.”

Unofficial results:

1. Kyle Busch
2. Kyle Larson
3. Brad Keselowski
4. Kevin Harvick
5. Bubba Wallace
6. Ryan Blaney
7. Alex Bowman
8. Ryan Preece
9. Tyler Reddick
10. Joey Logano
11. Martin Truex Jr.
12. William Byron
13. Austin Dillon
14. Denny Hamlin
15. Daniel Suarez
16. Aric Almirola
17. Michael McDowell
18. Matt DiBenedetto
19. Chris Buescher
20. Kurt Busch
21. Chase Briscoe
22. Ryan Newman
23. Corey LaJoie
24. Cole Custer
25. Justin Allgaier
26. Ross Chastain
27. Chase Elliott
28. Cody Ware
29. BJ McLeod
30. James Davison
31. Erik Jones
32. Christopher Bell
33. Quin Houff
34. Anthony Alfredo
35. Josh Bilicki
36. Garrett Smithley
37. Timmy Hill
38. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.