As season dwindles, playoff positions at stake at Pocono

 

[July 13, 2024]  For the second straight week, the weekly stop on the NASCAR Cup Series tour produced a first-time winner in 2024, which has further muddled the makeup of the 10-race postseason lineup.

At the Chicago Street Race, hampered by persistent rain for the second straight year, NASCAR resorted to a time clock -- racing to 8:20 p.m. local time -- and saw Alex Bowman hold off a hard-charging Tyler Reddick for his first victory since March 2022.

This week, the series rolls into a track that is not new to NASCAR -- Pocono Raceway -- for Sunday's 21st race, with six more chances existing for non-winners to raise a checkered flag in Victory Lane and stake their claim to a title shot.

After The Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono, the series will visit venerable Indianapolis Motor Speedway on July 21 before taking a few weeks off for the Summer Olympics in Paris, returning on Aug. 11 at Richmond.

So far, 12 drivers have filled the 16-car field by qualifying for the postseason, with Bowman turning the trick Sunday in the Windy City.

Four of the past six races have resulted in 2024 first-time victors -- Austin Cindric, Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano and Bowman -- and given them a championship chance at Phoenix Raceway on Nov. 10.

The quirky, triangular Pocono features three distinct turns modeled after ones found at some of racing's most well-known tracks: Turn 1 after defunct Trenton (N.J.) Speedway, Turn 2 in honor of Indy and Turn 3 for the Milwaukee Mile.

Winless thus far, Martin Truex Jr., Chris Buescher and Kyle Busch would like to win again at the eastern Pennsylvania track.

The 2017 series champion, the 44-year-old Truex is a two-time winner (2015, 2018) on the 2 1/2-mile layout and rides 13th in the playoff standings as the top points earner among winless drivers.

Now in his final season of competition, the 10-time playoff qualifier from Mayetta, N.J., has turned many laps at Pocono but hasn't won since last July 17 in New Hampshire.

Both of his Pocono wins were with Furniture Row Racing in the No. 78, one a Chevrolet and the other a Toyota.

Fifteenth in the playoff standings, putting him currently in playoff position, Buescher said Bowman's win made the No. 17 RFK Racing Ford's plight that much harder.

"We didn't need another (new) winner," said Buescher, whose first career win was Aug. 1, 2016, at Pocono for Front Row Motorsports in a weather-shortened event. "It will make the points thing harder if it comes down to that, but it absolutely will not affect how we go about the next few weeks."

Winless Ty Gibbs and Ross Chastain round out the top 16 drivers presently holding a playoff spot, but Busch -- a four-time Pocono winner -- is 98 points behind 16th-place Buescher and could really use a fifth checkered flag to make the postseason.

A track-record seven-time winner at Pocono in 34 career starts, JGR's Denny Hamlin opened as Hard Rock Bet's favorite to win Sunday's 21st race of the season's 36 at +375.

Hamlin has 54 career victories, tied with Lee Petty for 12th place all-time and one shy of Rusty Wallace, and owns four poles at the 2 1/2-mile track.

--Field Level Media

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