The chatter up and down pit lane was about which of the leaders of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Pocono Raceway would have enough fuel to last the final nine laps. Joey Logano was out in front, trying to stay ahead of Kyle Busch, who has making a charge for his fourth-consecutive race win. Disaster struck Logano with three laps remaining. He was out of gas.
“I thought I was going to be good and, then, I started running out and I knew we weren’t going to make it,” said Logano, who ended up in 20th place. “You are counting down the laps in your head, thinking you are going to make it, but just didn’t do it.”
Jumping into the lead is Busch, who was riding a tremendous streak of three-consecutive wins and four in the last five races. The win within his grasp would put Busch inside the Top 30, the provision made to him by NASCAR officials if he was going to qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup after missing the first eleven race of the Sprint-Cup season due to injuries suffered in an Xfinity Series race on Feb 21.
Then, Busch’s next-closest challenger, Martin Truex Jr. coasts onto pit road. He’s out of gas.
Busch eases his car under the white flag, signaling one lap remaining in the race. Busch is 2.5 miles away from his fourth-straight win and a place among the Top 30 in the standings. As he all but coasts around the track, Busch knows the inevitable has grabbed him as well. With less than a mile and a half to go in the Windows 10 400, Busch was out of gas.
“We got greedy,” Busch said. “If it came down to other things, that we haven’t had the success that we’ve had here lately, we would’ve had to have pitted and just made the opportunity of it and made the best race finish that we could. But, we went for broke today and came up a little short.”
Sitting back and watching things unfold ahead of him on the track was Kenseth. He knows all too well that misfortune is part of racing. Whether working for the win or having one handed to you, a trip to Victory Lane tastes just as sweet.
“There’s nothing like wins,” Kenseth said. “I won at Pocono. I didn’t think that would ever happen. And I won a fuel-mileage race. I didn’t think that would ever happen. This is a first for me.”
never thought I’d win at Pocono and I never thought I’d win a mileage race. So, we did both today.”
Kenseth was as surprised as anyone to find himself at the front of the field with half a lap to go in the Windows 10 400.
“I didn’t know we were going to be in the lead until we came off Turn 1 and I could see Kyle shaking his car going into Turn 2 trying to pick up gas,” said Kenseth. When I saw the green car up there shaking, going into 2, I knew that we were going to have the lead as long as we had enough fuel.”
Kenseth said his crew chief kept telling him that fuel was not going to be a problem.
“I wasn’t going to let anybody pass me,” Kenseth said. “I would rather run out of gas then have somebody pass me and beat me.”
Brad Keselowski finished second in the race and Jeff Gordon was third.
Series leader, and defending Sprint Cup champion, Kevin Harvick left the race early due to engine failure, but still leads Logano by 46 points. Dale Earnhardt Jr. sits third, 63 points back of the leader, and four points ahead of Jimmie Johnson.
There are five races remaining on the regular part of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule prior to the start of the Chase for the Sprint Cup. Next is the Cheez-It 355, at Watkins Glen International on Aug. 9, 2015.
