Kurt Busch felt confident heading into the Windows 10 400 Sunday at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway, but his day didn’t end with the finish he had hoped for. Following a restart on lap 65 of the 160-lap race, Paul Menard tapped the side of Busch’s No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet of Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR), sending it into a long, lazy slide through turn one. Just as it appeared Busch had saved it, Sam Hornish Jr. plowed into the left side of his racecar. Busch was OK, but his racecar was not.
Photo Credit: stewarthaasracing.com
After several trips to pit road and another to the garage for extensive repairs, Busch returned to the 2.5-mile triangle to log laps and earn the best finish possible, which was 37th in the 43-car field, 10 laps down to the leaders.
“I got in a pickle on that restart,” Busch said. “I got hit from behind, which spun me through turn one, but then I got finished off by another car that was late to the wreck. I really don’t know what to say. We had a Haas Automation Chevrolet capable of winning the race, but we got taken out.”
Busch, who started sixth, ran in the top-five in the early going and led for 13 laps before making a green-flag pit stop on lap 39. Due to varying pit strategies, Busch would fall to 39th on lap 40. By the time the team made its second stop of the day, Busch had cycled back up to 16th place, where he was scored when he was involved in the accident on lap 65.
Busch’s damaged racecar underwent numerous repairs on pit road but was forced to the garage when the track bar broke after an attempted fix. The crew cut off damaged sheet metal and made other repairs required for Busch to get back on track.
The No. 41 returned to the race scored 10 laps behind the leader and, despite the damage sustained, was able to record lap times faster than those of the race leaders. Determined to make the most of a bad day, Busch completed all of the remaining laps to score the best result possible.
There were eight caution periods for 32 laps, with four drivers failing to finish the 160-lap race around the 2.5-mile triangle.
With round 21 of 36 complete, Harvick leads SHR in the championship standings. He is first with 780 points, 46 ahead of second-place Joey Logano. Busch is ninth with 620 points, 160 out of first. With two wins apiece, teammates Harvick and Busch are locked into the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Patrick is 22nd with 462 points, 91 out of 16th, the cutoff position to make the 16-driver Chase field on points. Stewart is 25th with 417 points, 136 out of 16th.
The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the Cheez-It 355 at The Glen on Sunday, Aug. 9 at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International. The race starts at 2 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBC Sports Network.
