Photo Credit: Tom Pennington/Getty Images
In 2006 it was Denny Hamlin. This time around, it was Dale Earnhardt Jr. who is able to take the credit for winning for the second time at Pocono, and effectively sweeping the season. Dale Jr. picked up his third win of the season and his 22nd victory over all in NASCAR’s most elite series. The last time Dale Jr was able to take the credit for sweeping a race, was in 2002 at Talladega.
Coming in second in the Go Bowling 400 was Kevin Harvick who definitely had his fair share of the battles today, and third was Joey Logano.
The dominant car of the race was Jeff Gordon. After leading a race-high 63 laps, Earnhardt’s strategy beat out Gordon’s, and ultimately left the 5 time Brickyard winner to finish in a disheartening 6th place. Fortunately for Gordon and his fans, Gordon was able to maintain the regular season point’s lead.
The race started when there was nearly a caution on lap one when Brad Keselowski nearly lost his car after Kurt Busch attempted a pass on the two car. Fortunately, the race continued on smoothly until Johnson encountered his first problems for the day.
The first caution of the day coming when debris was reported on the track after Jimmie Johnson brushed the wall and as soon as he went down, a tire blew. The 48 team went a lap down but almost immediately regained it when yet another caution came out.
Danica Patrick brought out the second caution while running in tenth and she clipped the wall which resulted in a blown tire.
Another two cautions were brought out, and Kyle Busch’s day ended early when he encountered engine issues. After that, the race remained relatively quiet, despite the fact that there were three different pit strategies going on by the times that Jimmie Johnson hit the wall and effectively ended his day.
On the restart, Denny Hamlin got a little loose… which caused a 13 car accident that was reminiscent to that you would see on a Superspeedway like Talladega and Daytona. Cars that ran so well earlier on the day suddenly found themselves behind the wall. Drivers like Tony Stewart, Matt Kenseth, and Carl Edwards found themselves out of the running.
Another driver involved in the accident was eventual runner up Kevin Harvick.
Under this caution, eventual race winner Earnhardt chose to pit, making it so he would only have to pit once more… and only for a splash of gas when the time arose.
When the race restarted on lap 126 drivers were wary of gas, and it turns out that that wouldn’t be an issue, as the race went on to have two more cautions. The first of which Dale Junior was able to take the lead for the first time, and the second of which Dale Junior was able to hold of a hard changing Kevin Harvick with three laps to go, and take the win.
Fourth place finisher was Clint Bowyer who ran strongly throughout the entirety of the race and fifth place was Greg Biffle.
