Pocono 500 Race Review

Pocono Raceway -- 06/7/2009

Author: Becca Gladden

Published: Monday Jun 8 2009 4:37am

If you read my Pocono practice and qualifying update on Saturday, one of the last things I wrote was: “Although Tony Stewart will be starting at the rear of the field, he will maintain his number one pit stall selection, which could be an important factor in the outcome.”

Not a bad prediction, when you consider that is exactly what happened.

Carl Edwards was in the lead, as he had been for much of the race, with Tony Stewart running second on lap 155 of 200. On lap 158, NASCAR threw a caution flag for debris, but the combination of a fast pit stop and the first pit stall got Stewart out ahead of Edwards.

The rest of the race from that point forward went caution free, and no one really challenged Stewart for the lead from the final pit stop on.

The only real drama was whether he would make it to the end on fuel, having pitted on lap 159 – 41 laps from the checkers – with a normal pit window of about 35 laps.

Stewart drove masterfully in fuel conservation mode and did cross the finish line first after leading a total of 39 laps. Carl Edwards finished second, although he had dominated most of the race, leading 103 laps overall.

“I didn’t think Tony could save that much fuel, but he did a really good job,” said Edwards after the race. “Our car was getting great fuel mileage all day … Tony beat us off of pit road that last stop by about three-quarters of a car length or something, but that’s primarily because of his pit stall.”

Following Stewart and Edwards across the finish line were David Reutimann (3), Jeff Gordon (4), and Ryan Newman (5). Rounding out the top 10: Marcos Ambrose (6), Jimmie Johnson (7), Juan Pablo Montoya (8), Jeff Burton (9) and Sam Hornish Jr. (10).

Aside from Stewart and Edwards, the only other driver to lead double-digit laps was Jimmie Johnson, who led 31 of the first 37 laps, but none after that.

Johnson started on the pole after qualifying third on the basis of points due to Friday’s rain-out, but Stewart’s practice crash Saturday forced him to a back-up car, and to the rear of the field to start the race. Johnson ran out of fuel coming to the start-finish line at race’s end.

The race was run nearly caution free, with only five yellow flags accounting for 20 laps of the 400-lap event – the last three all for debris. 29 cars finished on the lead lap with AJ Allmendinger the first driver to finish a lap down in 30th.

Five drivers DNF’d and, while Denny Hamlin did finish the race, the two-time Pocono winner was 22 laps down after battling a fuel pump issue from the start of the race.

Mike Ford, crew chief for Hamlin and the No. 11 team, had strong words after the race. “It was just unacceptable. It’s not the first time we’ve had fuel issues across all three cars. It’s just plain unacceptable and it should never happen. We had a fuel pump lock up and that broke a couple other pieces in the system. It’s one of those things that’s difficult to troubleshoot in a short amount of time. What started it was having the fuel pump lock up. It was just a parts failure.`

Other finishes worth noting include Mark Martin, 19th, Kyle Busch, 22nd, Dale Earnhardt Jr., 27th, and Kurt Busch, 37th. All complained of ill-handling cars, although Kurt Busch had a mechanical issues as well that sent him to the garage for a time.

Tony Stewart’s win helped pad his points lead over Jeff Gordon from 46 to 71 points. Jimmie Johnson held onto third, but Kurt Busch fell another spot to fifth as Ryan Newman climbed to fourth.

Carl Edwards made the biggest upward gain, climbing five spots to fifth, while Denny Hamlin dropped five spots to 12th. Hamlin is now one point ahead of Mark Martin, who slipped out of the top 12 to 13th.

Just 53 points currently separate the four drivers between 9th and 13th in the standings.

This week, the series heads to Michigan, where Dale Earnhardt Jr. posted his only win of the season last June.

Please check back later in the week for our race preview.

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