Pocono NASCAR: Kyle Busch’s form continues with pole for Joe Gibbs

Suddenly, instead of blitzing toward the checkered flag with the lead, Busch was wiggling his Toyota, trying to squeeze the final bits of gas from its fuel cell. His seven victories at Darlington are the most among active drivers.

Who might be some of the other drivers today at Pocono who could slow down JGR and deny Busch his bid to become the eighth driver in NASCAR’s modern era (since 1972) to win four straight races? After his 43rd-place finish, Kahne sits 15th in the Sprint Cup point standings, dangerously close to slipping out of the top-16.

The good news for Busch, however, is that he gained in his top-30 quest and, with five races remaining in the regular season, is 32nd, only 13 points out of 30th, a relatively easy climb.

“Man, that’s a bummer”, said Busch, who was in the top 30 in points prior to running out of gas.

His two wins have him solidly in “The Chase“, but things got a little testy on July 26 at Indy and he let everyone know he wasn’t happy over his radio.

Joey Logano led 97 laps but with two circuits to go, started to stumble.

When the green-flag stops had cycled through by lap 129, Kenseth was in fifth place. David Gilliland saw what was happening and swung his vehicle down the track to avoid Hornish, but Ricky Stenhouse Jr. plowed into the back of Hornish’s No. 9 and completely destroyed the front end.

A second rash of cautions began with a debris caution on lap 61. Among others to pit on the same lap were Truex and Busch, who were running second and third to Logano at the time of the stops. “We were playing cat and mouse out there”. “I want our team to go out and earn it”. But Busch also was in save mode and as he approached Turn 2 on the final lap, he reported to the crew, “It’s out”. He was able to make it back to pit road, but was nabbed for entering the pits too fast. He was mixed up in an early race wreck last weekend in the Brickyard 400 and took a auto patched with duct tape to a 42nd-place finish. “We will keep working at it. We need a win to get in the Chase”.

“I was saving fuel just to cushion it”, Logano said after finishing 20th.

“What we’re actually doing is integrating the businesses, trying to get the most competitive product on track, do the best for all of our partners-that’s really our focus”. “I don’t know how greedy, but that’s the position we’re in”. “We had a lot of wins in 2013 and we were pretty spoiled”.

Logano pitted from the lead on Lap 123, with most of his challengers pitting within a couple of laps of him.

On Saturday, the competitors delivered with Kyle Busch winning in double overtime.

Busch was just as confused as to why he ran out of fuel.

Busch led 53 of 69 laps in the No. 51 Toyota. I wish I would’ve saved a little more there that last run. I just hope we can continue going this direction. “That allowed us to run hard at the end and not conserve or save fuel”.

Matt Kenseth asked members of his pit crew a simple question as he blasted out of turn 3 and down the straightaway at Pocono Raceway.

Former Daytona 500 champion Trevor Bayne wound up with someone else’s tailpipe somehow, some way, impaling his radiator on lap 67.

“I’ve had plenty of times in my career when things have all gone in the wrong direction, so this is a sweet change from that”, Busch said.

The Kyle Busch Motorsports trucks of Jones and Busch started the race on the front row.

Pit road proved a risky place even for the crew that call it home.