NASCAR At Pocono 2012: Jeff Gordon Wins Rain-Shortened Race

Kyle Busch is a realist.

After a broken brake rotor sent him into the Turn 1 wall on Lap 19 of Sunday’s NASCAR race at Pocono, Busch knows he must win at least one of the next five races to qualify for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Busch had a harrowing experience when he blew out a rear brake rotor heading toward the tightest turn at Pocono.

“Getting down into Turn 1 with a three-wheel brake is about the worst situation you can have as a race car driver,” Busch said. “I kept trying to pump it to keep feeding pressure to the rest of the three wheels to keep it off the fence -- but just couldn’t do it.”

Busch finished 33rd and dropped to 15th in the Cup standings and fourth in the race for one of two available wild card berths in the Chase.

“We’re obviously not going to make the top 10 (and a guaranteed Chase spot), so if we get at win -- great -- we’ll make the Chase,” Busch said. “If not, we’ll probably miss it.”

RAIN PUTS DAMPER ON EDWARDS’ RUN

Another driver in dire need of a victory, Carl Edwards, had his chances cut short by the rain.

Edwards is 12th in the standings, 60 points out of 10th, but without a win since March of last year. Under those circumstances, his seventh-place finish on Sunday wasn’t quite good enough.

“We needed another restart,” Edwards said. “It’s too bad that the rain came when it did, because we needed to keep racing. ... The good news is that we were fast, and (crew chief) Chad (Norris) has done a really good job with the car, and I’m really looking forward to next week (at Watkins Glen).

“I have never wanted to race so bad in my life -- I want to be racing right now.”

When Dale Earnhardt Jr. lost third and fourth gears 49 laps into Sunday’s Pennsylvania 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series event at Pocono Raceway, the points lead he took last week at Indianapolis appeared headed for the door.

That was before his three closest pursuers -- Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle and Jimmie Johnson -- all had issues of their own.

Kenseth wrecked on the decisive restart on Lap 91 -- when race winner Jeff Gordon went to the front for good -- and finished 23rd. Biffle lost pace, in NASCAR’s judgment, on that same wild restart and was credited with a 15th-place result.

Johnson, who caused the wreck when his car broke loose under Kenseth’s, likewise failed to maintain pace and was placed 14th, where he blended back into line after the caution flew.

Consequently, Earnhardt retained a narrow advantage, by five points over Kenseth, six over Biffle and eight over Johnson.

Earnhardt, however, did see his streak of consecutive lead-lap finishes end at 21, a NASCAR record he shares with Gordon.

Here are the top 10 drivers in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series:

Lost amid Jeff Gordon’s somewhat improbable victory and the chaos that ensued during the closing laps of the Pennsylvania 400 was Martin Truex Jr. finishing third on Sunday at Pocono Raceway.

“We had great speed today,” Truex said afterwards. “We had good speed last week. We’re still not exactly where we’d like to be. We’d like to get in Victory Lane. I felt like if we could have had a shot at the restart today, we might have had a shot at it. We were very fast at the end.”

When Jimmie Johnson got loose and took out several cars at the end of Sunday’s Pocono NASCAR race, it seemed the five-time Sprint Cup Series champion simply made a rare mistake that threw away his chance at a victory.

But Johnson, who had by far the best car on the day, said after the race there was a reason for what happened.

Shortly after the conclusion of Sunday’s rain-shortened NASCAR race at Pocono Raceway, three fans were reportedly struck by lightning in the parking lot while retreating to their cars. Their condition is unknown, according to reports from the track.

The area had been under a severe thunderstorm warning and officials had plenty of notice that a storm was approaching, but cars remained on the track until the weather was directly over the venue.

Jeff Gordon, one of NASCAR racing’s biggest rainmakers, got a shower just when he needed it in Sunday’s Pennsylvania 400.

Gordon didn’t lead a lap under the green flag, but he notched a critically important victory at Pocono Raceway after an opportunistic move to the front after a restart on Lap 91 of a scheduled 160.

Jeff Gordon took advantage of a rain-shortened race at Pocono Raceway today to pick up his first win of the season and thrust himself into the Chase wild card race.

Gordon is now the No. 2 wild card with five races remaining before the Chase.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers are finally on track under sunny skies at Pocono Raceway following a downpour that delayed the start of the Pennsylvania 400 by more than an hour and a half.

But with more rain lurking in the area and a long line of storms approaching, today’s race is a dash to halfway.

The rain has begun at Pocono Raceway, which has delayed the start of today’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at the track. So now what?

First, here’s a look at the current conditions:

Here are some storylines, notes and drivers to watch for in today’s NASCAR race at Pocono Raceway:

Hendrick Ascending

It’s NASCAR race day at Pocono Raceway, and we’ve got the actual race start time, the starting lineup and some other facts about today’s Pennsylvania 400 for you below.

What time does the race start today? The command to fire engines will be given today at 1:09 p.m. Eastern time, and it could be an emotional one: The grand marshals of the race are family members of passengers killed on Flight 93 during 9/11. After a few pace laps, the green flag will officially wave at 1:20 p.m. So if you’re looking to skip the pre-race show and just tune in for the race, turn on your TV set at 1:20 p.m. Eastern.

The headline above says it all: Rain is likely for NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series race at Pocono Raceway today. I was tracking showers and storms through Saturday evening and into this morning, and it’s just a matter of when will it rain – not if it will rain.

Showers and storms are likely this morning across central and eastern Pennsylvania. Once the first round comes through, there could be a break. The length of that break is unknown. Once we get into the start of the race and the afternoon, more rain and showers are possible to move through sometimes between 2 p.m. and 5 p.m. EDT.

Pulling away after a strong restart with seven laps left in Saturday’s Pocono Mountains 125 at Pocono Raceway, Joey Coulter notched his first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory, beating James Buescher to the finish line by 1.224 seconds.

Coulter charged from third to first moments after a restart on Lap 44 of 50 at the 2.5-mile triangular track, after a caution on Lap 39 that took series leader Timothy Peters out of the race. Peters was racing through the tunnel turn, got loose beneath another truck and spun into the wall, as two separate incidents in the same corner damaged five cars.

Benefitting from an early draw and aided by cloud cover that burned off as Saturday’s qualifying session progressed, Juan Pablo Montoya was the surprise winner of the pole for Sunday’s Pennsylvania 400 at Pocono Raceway.

Montoya turned a lap at the 2.5-mile triangular track in 51.124 seconds (176.043 mph) and waited as the fastest cars from Friday’s first practice session failed to unseat him from the top spot. The Coors Light pole award was the Colombian driver’s first of the season, his first at Pocono and the eighth of his career.

As soon as last week’s NASCAR race at Indianapolis ended, drivers began talking publicly about an unusual amount of skew in the rear end of Jimmie Johnson’s winning car.

Denny Hamlin called it “unique” and said the tires and rear body of the No. 48 car were “moving quite a bit.”

There will be a new addition to the Denny Hamlin household.

Hamlin announced Friday at Pocono Raceway that he and girlfriend Jordan Fish are expecting the couple’s first child in January.

John Wes Townley hit the wall at the exit of Turn 2 during his warmup lap on Friday at Pocono Raceway, and he was replaced as driver of FAS Lane Racing’s No. 32 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series car before he even turned an official lap.

Camping World Truck Series driver Jason White will replace Townley, who was planning to make his Cup debut in Sunday’s Pennsylvania 400 with sponsorship from the Zaxby’s fast-food chicken restaurant chain.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series makes its second appearance at the “Tricky Triangle” of Pocono Raceway this weekend, and like many Pocono races before, rain is threatening the weather forecast.

It will be very warm and mostly dry today. High temperatures will be in the upper 80s and there is just a small chance of an isolated storm or two developing in the afternoon.

Six races remain before the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup cutoff point, meaning time isn’t the only thing running short for postseason hopefuls. With increasing urgency to lock in a playoff spot, driver patience is in short supply, too.

Joey Logano may be one of the first in line to claim a much-needed win when the series returns to Pocono Raceway for Sunday’s Pennsylvania 400 (1 p.m. ET, ESPN). After all, he was first in line when the checkered flag fell at the 2.5-mile track’s most recent race in June.