With a dominating performance at a track he has learned to love, Kyle Busch cruised to his fourth Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season in Sunday’s Pocono 400 at Pocono Raceway.
Busch led a race-high 79 of 160 laps — including the final 21 after a cycle of green-flag pit stops — in collecting his second straight win at the 2.5-mile triangular track and his third overall, all three of which have come in the last four events after years of frustration at the Tricky Triangle.
With his 55th victory in the series, Busch tied NASCAR Hall of Famer Rusty Wallace for ninth on the career win list. Next above him is the late Dale Earnhardt, who won 76 races. It was the ninth triumph in 14 races this season for Joe Gibbs Racing, equaling the organization’s total from 2018.
“I just can’t say enough about everybody at Joe Gibbs Racing,” Busch said in Victory Lane. “Everybody that works there works so hard to build these awesome Camrys. … We’ve had an amazing roll this year here so far. We’ve been doing well.
“We feel like we’ve kind of given away a couple of wins that we thought we had a shot for, but overall, it’s been awesome to get back to Victory Lane here. Pocono’s been a struggle, but it’s a lot better now.”
Not even a late caution on Lap 147, when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. pounded the outside wall in the Tunnel Turn, could interrupt the flow of Busch’s race. After the subsequent restart on Lap 152, the No. 18 JGR Toyota gradually pulled away from Brad Keselowski, who shot past Erik Jones into the runner-up position on the restart.
Busch crossed the finish line 2.224 seconds ahead of Keselowski’s No. 2 Team Penske Ford. Jones held the third position, followed by Chase Elliott, who recorded his fifth consecutive top-five result. Clint Bowyer completed the top five.
THE FRATERNAL ORDER OF THE GO FAST
This week we have two ladies who were riding shotgun with Rowdy at Pocono. Both Snoopy Dawn and Linda The Lemonade Lefty added a very cool 40 points for their second race of the 2nd segment as they rooted very loudly for Kyle Busch.
THE MOVERS AND THE SHAKERS
Once again the race winner did not deliver the highest score to his supporters. The highest weekly scorers include Karen The Highly Opinionated Southern Belle, Kathy The Church Forecloser, Linda B. The Cookie Mom, as well as Dan the Numbers Cruncher. Each one of these players was hanging out with Blazingly Bad Brad Keselowski, which added 50 big ones to their first race total of this segment. The Numbers Dude, The Highly Opinionated One, and The Cookie Mom are on a roll so far this segment! Can anyone one stop these individuals? Those three are setting the world on fire so far!
Ranking number two on the hot 18 scoring sheet this week are the two ladies who were hanging out with Rowdy, and mentioned above, during the Pocono race, Snoopy , and The Lemonade Lefty.
Meanwhile, Jim, aka Chiefy, and Carole, aka Rudy, added a very nice 33 points to their totals for supporting Chase Elliott throughout the Pocono race weekend.
This fivesome consisting of Edie The Las Vegas Super Star, Carlton The Doorman, Bernie The Bay Area Bandit, David The Mudslinging Throttle Jockey, as well as Amber The Extremely Lucky Cheddar Head gathered up 31 points from the 6th place finish of The Delivernator, Denny Hamlin, at “The Tricky Triangle”.
Rounding out the top five scorers of the week is Bobby Blue Crush. Blue Crush added 30 points to his totals while he was hidden away in the Ryan Blaney’s hot rod for the duration of the race!
Because there were so many ties among the players last week, there were actually only eight (8) scoring places. The movement this week resembled putting something into the blender, hitting the on switch, and watching things fly wildly out of control, and landing all over the room!
The single largest mover of the week was Lonna The Quilt Angel. The Quilt Angel went from a tie for 2nd place last week to landing in 17th place this week. A loss of sixteen (16) positions, the likes of which this fantasy league has never seen before!
Almost as wild of a position swing is Wild Bill The Pretzel Man. The Pretzel Dude dropped like a bad habit, from a tie for third place last week to now sitting in 16th place. A precipitous plummet of 13 spots!
Your Most Humble Sheriff also took a direct hit in the shorts this week! The Part-Time Cardiologist and Strawberry Picker dropped like a rocket ship experiencing Earth reentry, losing ten (10) places, and resting this week in 11th place.
Bobby Blue Crush was not that far behind all of the above fallen angels. Kilimanjaro Bobby lost nine (9) spots this week firmly positioning himself in 15th place when the checkered flag waved at Pocono.
Rounding out the top five movers is Jim, aka Chiefy. Ol Chiefy followed suit with all of the aforementioned players by dropping seven (7) spots to now compete in 14th place.
STRAIGHT FROM THE CRAPPER
It seems that Lonna the Quilt Angel is getting a lot of press this week! With her microscopic four (4) points added this week from Martin Truex, Jr’s dismal performance, she is the recipient of “The Crappiest Pick of The Week” award!
Apparently Amber The Extremely Lucky Cheddar Head is getting somewhat comfy in her digs, The Outhouse, because even though she racked up a fairly respectable 31 points this week, it was not enough to get her evicted form her residence. Maybe she could rearrange some of the furnishings and possibly add some new color patterns to the inside!
Next week it is on to Michigan!
TIL NEXT TIME, PULL YOUR BELTS TIGHT AND LET’S GO RACIN’!