NASCAR Pocono Results: Hendrick Motorsports Shines As Stewart-Haas Struggles

Hendrick Motorsports: 1st, 4th, 6th, 18th

Hendrick Motorsports once again had a strong showing Sunday at Pocono Raceway, putting three cars in the top 10 at the time of the checkered flag. Jeff Gordon led the way for the Hendrick team, scoring the win Sunday over Kurt and Kyle Busch. Gordon had to fend off a late charge by teammate Jimmie Johnson to secure the victory.

“Had Jimmie taken me three wide and gotten the lead, gotten that all important track position, I don’t know if we could have beat him,” Gordon said.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. had yet another solid day in the No. 88 Chevrolet, finishing the day in sixth. Mark Martin once again struggled to keep pace with his three teammates, at one point earning the free pass.

Penske Racing: 2nd, 23rd

For the third consecutive week, Penske Racing showed a marked improvement. Kurt Busch scored the team’s third consecutive pole Saturday afternoon and led 37 laps en route to his second place finish. Brad Keselowski was unable to back up last week’s win, finishing in the 23rd spot. Despite Keselowski’s mediocre day, the Penkse cars once again proved they are on the right track, with Busch taking the pole in a backup car and contending for the win much of the afternoon.

“I feel like we’ve got what we need to continue moving forward,” Busch said. “It’s not all there. We still need to have A pluses in all areas of our team, whether it’s the motor department, aerodynamics, pit crew, crew chief driver communication.

“To run for the win the last two weeks in a row and have two poles, it’s pretty solid.”

Joe Gibbs Racing: 3rd, 11th, 19th

Coming into the weekend, many had Denny Hamlin as the favorite to score the win at Pocono Raceway. One of best at the ‘Tricky Triangle’ each time the series heads to the track, Hamlin did not disappoint in the early stages of the 500-mile race. Leading four times for a race-high 76 laps, Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota was the car to beat for much of the afternoon.

Yet a flat tire following the final caution flag pit stop ruined the team’s day. When a broken valve stem cause the tire to go flat, the remains of the tire wrapped around the housing and cut the brake lines. Instead of contending for the win, Hamlin finished the day in 19th.

Kyle Busch was able to fight off a constant charge by the Richard Childress Racing brigade throughout the day to score a third place finish Sunday afternoon. However, the No. 18 Toyota failed post-race inspection for being too low on the left front. The car was taken back to NASCAR’s Research and Development Center in Concord, N.C. and it is expected NASCAR will announce further penalties early this week.

Richard Childress Racing: 5th, 14th, 16th, 20th

Following a week in which their team owner was fined by NASCAR $150,000 for a physical altercation with Kyle Busch, the RCR group headed to Pocono eager to defend Richard Childress. That was evident early in the race when Kevin Harvick raced Busch especially hard. The two ran side-by-side down the frontstretch, with Harvick pushing the No. 18 Toyota down the track towards the inside wall. With both Harvick and Busch on probation following their run in at Darlington, NASCAR warned both drivers to “run the race, have a good afternoon and cut all of this out.”

Even Jeff Burton and Paul Menard mixed it up with Busch at various points of the race, always making it especially tough on the JGR driver.

In typical Harvick fashion, a mediocre day was turned into a solid run as he finished in the fifth spot. Menard, Clint Bowyer and Burton were unable to run as well throughout the day, all finishing outside the top 10.

Stewart-Haas Racing: 9th, 21st

Pocono is typically a strong track for the Stewart-Haas Racing team, but on Sunday both Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman lost third gear due to the excessive shifting. While Stewart’s issue developed earlier in the race, Newman’s problems came late enough in the running to allow for a ninth place finish.

“I think what happened was it just kind of dumped all the fluid out of the transmission; it just got hot and started pumping it out,” Newman’s crew chief Tony Gibson said. “So, we were just very, very lucky today to finish this race. For once a break went our way. We didn’t need a green-white-checkered and we needed to finish with a broken transmission. So like I said, it worked out good for today and we’ll take it and go on.”