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Kurt Busch fuels 'em at Pocono finish

[June 07, 2016] By Jonathan Ingram, The Sports Xchange

So how did Kurt Busch win the 400-mile race on the track known as the Tricky Triangle?

Perhaps, there was there fuel in the roll cage. Maybe his Stewart-Haas Racing Chevy had a larger gas tank. Busch might have even channeled Alexander Rossi, last week's winner of the Indy 500, who went four laps farther than his nearest competitor to triumph on fuel mileage.

In the end, it appeared more like a game of liar's poker. And you don't expect that from a rookie crew chief. But that's how it appeared to go for Busch and John Klausmeier, an interim crew chief substituting for Tony Gibson.

Klausmeier told Busch he was two laps short on fuel during the last green flag stint. But that didn't stop Busch from gunning into the lead from the second row on the final re-start with 33 laps to go.

The three cars and teams behind him might have assumed Busch was short on fuel, having intercepted the radio transmission.

So when Busch slowed at the front, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Brad Keselowski and Chase Elliott all slowed behind him on a Pocono International Raceway track known for running drivers out of fuel on the 2.5-mile last lap and never making it back to the start-finish.

Like Busch, the trailing cars had concerns about making it. But they were poised to move up if Busch faltered -- which didn't happen.

In fact, Busch did a major burnout before driving to Victory Lane, then made sure to parallel park perfectly by reversing and pulling forward again.

"It's tough to balance everything," a remarkably poised Busch said after climbing out. "We had a fast car and an interim crew chief. The way the fuel mileage played out, I didn't know if we would have enough fuel."

On an afternoon when crunching fuel mileage numbers was the order of the day -- after many contenders crunched the walls and their sheet metal -- it was not such a bad idea to have the team engineer calling the shots.

Klausmeier normally plays that second-in-command role for Gibson. But the latter was suspended for this one race after officials discovered a lug nut violation in Charlotte.

Usually, drafting behind another car is the best way to save fuel. But Busch took advantage of Elliott's bid for the lead in the Tunnel Turn on the final re-start to pass the Hendrick Motorsports Chevy on the outside.

Elliott's bid also slowed leader Earnhardt Jr., enabling Busch to grab the lead underneath on the front straight.

"Me and (Elliott) was racing pretty hard and it gave (Busch) the opportunity to get a run on us," said Earnhardt, Jr. "I should have been able to defend that a little bit better. If I could have got in front of him, I don't think he would have got by us."

From there, it was clean air for Busch, who began lifting early for the turns at the tri-cornered track and dipping the clutch on corner entry.

Known as a "roval" where driver shift from third to fourth gears and back on each lap, Busch also started short shifting, which uses fewer RPM.

"I was like, 'Whoa! How many laps shy are we?" Busch said of the radio call from Klausmeier. "They said two. These are really long straightaways at Pocono and you have to manage saving fuel as well as maintaining lap time. So many thoughts can go through your head, but I just stuck with the checklist (for saving fuel)."

The Pocono race marks the beginning of "the second half" of the regular season. Coming into the event with 13 races down and 13 to go until the start of the Chase, drivers looking to score a victory looked toward the unique confines of Pocono to make it happen.

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Maybe there is something to a Chase format that rewards risk taking.

The three leading Chevy drivers were in position to make the Chase on points, but a stagnant final lap due to a shortfall on fuel would have cost winner Busch, runner-up Earnhardt Jr. and fourth-placed Elliott dearly in points, not to mention momentum for the Chase.

They weren't alone in the risk-taking. Re-starts on NASCAR's longest and widest front straight looked like the Oklahoma Land Rush. Cars spread five-wide before funneling into Turn 1's narrow two-lane elbow.

Among those desperate to make the Chase is Tony Stewart, who ran in the Top 10 and made one of his best showings before a three-wide scenario exiting Turn 1 became a disaster and sent his Chevy into the wall due to an aero flurry.

Not only did Stewart, who missed the season's first eight races, lose ground on his bid to finish 30th or better in the points to qualify for the Chase. He lost what appeared to be his best shot at a victory thus far this year.

Stewart ran as high as sixth place and spent most of the race in the Top 10. On the lap he crashed, Stewart re-started in ninth place. What's worse, he collected teammate Danica Patrick's Chevy, which had brake trouble, in the incident.

This from a team that also produced the winning car.

While the victory by Busch, who was second in the points coming into the race, virtually guarantees him a spot in the Chase, Stewart's hopes now look forlorn.

On the eve of the race and shortly before the death of Muhammad Ali, Earnhardt Jr. had all but predicted a victory for his team at either Pocono, where he won last year, or next week's race in Michigan. He fell short, but the early calls for the demise of the Hendrick Motorsports team look more than premature.

The team had three cars in the top six, including Kasey Kahne's Chevy. Jimmie Johnson re-started fifth when he brought out the day's last caution with an almost near-brilliant save at the exit of Turn 1.

It was a tough day for the presumed dominant teams of Joe Gibbs Racing and Penske Racing.

Brad Keselowski, who finished third, was penalized for his jackman altering his Ford's bodywork during a pit stop before coming back to third. Joey Logano had his rear bumper hammered by an angry Ryan Newman in traffic before bouncing back to fifth following bodywork repairs.

The Gibbs team's Kyle Busch found the wall during one of the free-for-all restarts, and Matt Kenseth and Carl Edwards just couldn't find their way to the front with their Toyotas.

So who says the Chase format isn't fun? On a track made green by rain and without much practice due to rain earlier in the weekend, the Triangle Scramble made it a four-team championship race.

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