Aric Almirola’s crew chief made a bad pit call and Kevin Harvick capitalized. Both drivers hit pit road on the same lap on Lap 93, but Almirola took four tires with Harvick and everyone else up front on that pit cycle electing for two tires. 

Harvick, exited pit road well ahead of Almirola and would eventually top him by over 13 seconds in the end. Denny Hamlin was Harvick’s only other challenger as he took over the lead when the duo pit but had a big enough advantage that when he pit on Lap 96, he came back out second among the guys who had already pitted. 

Chris Buescher was the final car to pit of the ones that tried to stretch the fuel and handed the lead to Harvick for good on Lap 114. 

Harvick, would lead the final 17 laps, the only laps around the Pocono Raceway that he would lead all day, en route to his first career win in 39 starts on the Tricky Triangle. 

“I got to thank everybody on our team,” said Harvick after scoring his 52nd career win, three of which coming this season (all since the COVID-19 break). “We weren’t where we needed to be to start the race and lost a bunch of track position. We came back and made some great strategy calls and were able to get out front and make some good laps. It’s great to finally check Pocono off the list.”

The Stewart-Haas Racing driver would have four runner-up finishes in his last 10 starts on the 2.5-mile track, but a win has always evaded him. Now, he crosses another winless track off his list leaving only Kentucky and the ROVAL as the only tracks left that Harvick has failed to win at. 

Hamlin, despite having a bad vibration for much of the final green flag stint settled for second in his No. 11 Toyota. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver now has four straight top 10 finishes at Pocono and four in his last five starts on the season. 

Almirola, had arguably the fastest car all day in leading a race-high 61 of 130 laps, had to settle for third in his No. 10 Ford. 

Rookie Christopher Bell came from 36th to finish fourth in his No. 95 Toyota for his best career Cup Series finish while Kyle Busch rounded out the top five in his No. 18 Toyota. 

Here are my main takeaways. 

Hamlin Keeps Rolling

This is starting to look at a championship year for Denny Hamlin. He came into 2020 on the heels of six wins and a Championship 4 appearance last year. Back in February, he came out of the gates to earn his second straight Daytona 500 triumph. Unfortunately, he struggled a bit on the west coast wins (1 top 15 in 3 tries). But, since the COVID-19 break ended, you can make a solid case that Hamlin is the one to top for the title this Fall. 

In 10 starts since, Hamlin has two wins and seven top five finishes now. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver has four top five finishes in his last five starts on the season including a runner-up on Saturday afternoon at the Pocono Raceway. 

Hamlin, endured a bad vibration throughout the final green flag stint but still chopped Harvick’s lead down to less than a second and nearly won. 

Now, he’ll get rewarded with a 19th place starting spot on Sunday as a result. 

Hamlin, said on Friday that he thought whoever got good finishes on Saturday would struggle to get all the way to the front a day later.

“I think the race is plenty long enough as to where if your car is good, you’ll make up some positions,” Hamlin said of the second race of the weekend. “Getting back to the front will be difficult. Without a doubt, it will be difficult for somebody to win both races simply because the track is a little harder to pass at unless you have a superb, dominant car. Even if you have that, it’s going to be difficult to really pass guys simply because the big aero that you have there when you’re behind someone.”

Hamlin, did say that a couple of top five finishes would be great still and that they can strategize their ways there on Sunday. 

“If you get out of there with a couple top fives, it’s a good weekend,” the Joe Gibbs Racing driver continued. “If one of them can be a win, that’s a very, very good weekend. You definitely have to set your goals even though you want to win both. You can still get back to the front with strategy in certain places, but I think that’s the goal.“

Almirola’s Head Scratching Pit Call Costs Him A Win

Aric Almirola hasn’t won since Talladega in 2018.  He should have won Saturday’s Pocono Organics 325 though. Almirola, started from the pole and led the first 19 laps. He’d lead a race-high 61 circuits around the 2.5-mile Pocono Raceway overall and have a shot to take his No. 10 Ford to victory for the first time in 55 starts. Instead, a final pit call kept him away. 

Almirola, was second in the first stage and second in Stage 2 on Saturday and was well on his way to a triumph. Then, on his final pit stop, his crew chief called him to take four fresh Goodyear tires. The problem was, everyone else was taking two tires, even none for some too. With him being one of the final drivers among the leaders to have not pit yet, he should have known better to just take two like the rest. 

Kevin Harvick, Almirola’s Stewart-Haas Racing teammate, pit on the same lap as him and took just two tires. He’d quickly pull out to a six second lead and would cross the finish line 13 second ahead of Almirola in the end. 

It wasn’t like Harvick had that much of a better car than Almirola. It’s just that Harvick had clean air and only a few laps to go. Harvick, didn’t even lead all day until he took over the top spot on Lap 114. Almirola, led 61 of the first 93 laps. 

Almirola, if taken two tires, likely had this thing in the bag. The Toyota’s behind all had vibrations and he would have exited pit lane ahead of Harvick. 

Still, Almirola now has three straight top five finishes on the season and four top 12 finishes in his last five Pocono starts. His previous best before that was 18th. 

Career Best 4th Place Finish For Bell

Christopher Bell wasn’t much of a factor on Saturday. But, that’s because they were working strategy. Bell, started 36th in his No. 95 Toyota in Saturday’s Pocono Organics 325. So, they decided to move their way forward in the first stage, but also elected to pit towards the end of it to earn better track position as several other cars would have to pit for fuel following the end of Stage 1. 

It helped him rise up to 11th in Stage 2. Then, in the final stage, there he was battling inside of the top 10. Bell, had a great final pit sequence in taking two tires and was there mixing it up with Toyota pals Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch. 

Bell, got by both and would finish a career best fourth in just his 10th race of his rookie campaign. Now, he gets to start 17th on Sunday, but that’s vastly better than 36th on Saturday. 

He can be a contender again. 

Busch Earns A Top 5, Needs A Win Badly Sunday

This was going to be the race weekend that set the barometer for Kyle Busch. The defending NASCAR Cup Series champion had yet to win this year. In fact, other than his win in the season finale last year at the Homestead-Miami Speedway, Busch hasn’t won in over a year. 

If you take his last 36 starts now, a full Cup season, he’s won just once. 

Part of that is the lack of practice time this year. Ever since the COVID-19 break ended, NASCAR has eliminated the use of practice. For Busch, his cars aren’t evolving during a race like he would have hoped and that’s because they’re chasing his No. 18 Toyota all day. In the past, they could get it dialed in during the practice sessions and hit the ground running. 

This weekend at Pocono, well, it would tell us a lot. 

Busch, had three wins in his last five Pocono starts. Just getting one win in the doubleheader weekend would eliminate any doubts. 

But, after Day 1, the doubts are there. Busch, did finish fifth in Saturday’s Pocono Organics 325, his seventh top 10 in-a-row on the 2.5-mile Tricky Triangle and his seventh on the season, the problem is, he never really as much of a factor. 

Busch, was fourth and eighth respectively in the two stages and failed to lead a single lap. He’s only led 128 laps all year, 100 of them coming earlier this month in Bristol. 

While he’s had some solid finishes this season, he’s always admitted after them that they punched above their weight too. 

Sunday, will tell us a lot about Busch because he essentially got 325 miles of practice on Saturday. 

Rough Ending For Hendrick Motorsports

The Hendrick Motorsports camp felt like they had something for the field this weekend at the Pocono Raceway. It started off looking like that too. Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman and William Byron were fifth, ninth and 11th respectively in the first stage. 

Byron, had good speed in the second stage but elected to go for pit strategy and clean air in the final stage, so gave away stage points to pit. Bowman, finished sixth and Elliott 10th. 

Unfortunately, Jimmie Johnson had problems on pit road on his stop during that stage and for Elliott, he had an uncontrolled tire penalty on pit road after the stage ended. They were marred in the back and never rebounded. 

Bowman, got into the wall twice in the final laps and had to pit. 

Instead of all four getting top 20’s, three finished outside of the top 20 and will have to come from the back now on Sunday. 

Only the top 20 finishing positions from Saturday were inverted. Spots 21st-40th will start in that order on Sunday. 

Johnson, finished 21st and will start there in Sunday’s race. Elliott was 25th and Bowman 27th. 

With clean air and track position meaning so much on the Tricky Triangle, HMS has their work cut out for them to just get a top 10 Sunday afternoon in the 350 mile race. 

Penske Has Rough Ending Too

Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney looked like two of the favorites early on to win Saturday’s Pocono Organics 325. Logano, won the first stage and finished second in Stage 2. Blaney, was third and fourth respectively in his No. 12 Ford himself. 

Unfortunately, both had issues in the final stage and would finish 12th (Blaney) and 36th (Logano). For Blaney, this was his third 12th place finish in his last four Pocono starts and eighth top 12 in nine Pocono tries. 

For Logano, he’s failed to score a top five in each of his last eight Pocono starts and in eight of his last nine starts on the season. 

He told me on Friday that the lack of practice has hurt them, but this result wasn’t that. This one was bad luck. 

Brad Keselowski was the top Penske finisher in ninth for his 10th top 10 in his last 11 Pocono starts and eighth in his last nine tries on the season. 

McDowell Thriving

The post COVID-19 break is helping some of the smaller teams. Michael McDowell is living proof of that. McDowell, beat all four Hendrick Motorsports cars and two of the Penske’s en route to an impressive eighth place finish in his No. 34 Ford at the Pocono Raceway on Saturday. 

It was McDowell’s fourth top 15 finish in the last six races on the season. 

Key Stat

With Harvick starting ninth and winning, the race winner has now started in the top 10 in five of the last six Pocono races and 11 of the last 13 overall. 

Pocono Organics 325 Results

1.  4 Harvick
2. 11 Hamlin
3. 10 Almirola
4. 95 Bell R
5. 18 KyBusch
6. 19 Truex Jr. 
7. 14 Bowyer
8. 34 McDowell
9.  2 Keselowski
10. 17 Buescher
11. 42 Kenseth
12. 12 Blaney
13. 21 DiBenedetto
14. 24 Byron
15.  6 Newman
16. 41 Custer R
17. 47 Stenhouse Jr. 
18.  1 KuBusch
19.  3 ADillon
20. 37 Preece
21. 48 Johnson
22. 43 Wallace -1
23. 32 LaJoie -1
24. 38 Nemechek R -1
25.  9 Elliott -1
26. 13 TDillon -1
27. 88 Bowman -1
28. 96 Suarez -2
29. 15 Poole R -3
30.  8 Reddick R -4
31. 27 Yeley -5
32.  7 Bilicki -5
33. 53 Smithley -5
34. 77 Davison -5
35. 66 Hill -5
36. 22 Logano -6
37. 51 Gase -9
38. 20 Jones OUT
39. 78 McLeod OUT
40. 00 Houff R OUT