2018 Pocono 400: Highlights, stage results and more from the Tricky Triangle

The Tricky Triangle is one of the more unique challenges on the NASCAR schedule, and we’ll keep you up on the latest from Long Pond as drivers vie to win the Pocono 400.

Darlington is the Track Too Tough to Tame, but Pocono Raceway is the one that might give crew chiefs and engineers the biggest headaches. With its three different turns and tendency toward long green flag runs, the Pocono 400 can really be a pain in the butt to the teams trying to win it.

Still, having the fastest car definitely helps, and some of the best in 2018 entered Sunday’s race from Long Pond looking speedy once again. Kevin Harvick, starting second, never won at Pocono before but qualified well and started on the front row. Kyle Busch, who was dominant in Charlotte and won Saturday’s XFINITY Series race going away, looked to have a typically stout car as well.

Yet Pocono can also produce its share of first-time winners and surprises, and one of them came just last year. Ryan Blaney grabbed his first NASCAR Cup Series victory in the 2017 Pocono 400, and he started from the pole on Sunday, anxious to see if he could repeat and punch his ticket to the 2018 NASCAR Playoffs.

Would it be pure speed, speed plus strategy or simply being in the right place at the right time that ruled the day?

Blaney led the first 10-plus laps after starting out front, but he had plenty of pressure from Harvick and Kyle Busch before too long.

Sure enough, Harvick passed him for the lead, bringing Martin Truex Jr. with him. Even after nearly hitting the wall, Kyle Busch followed them by as well.

Pocono doesn’t have the best reputation for side by side racing for the lead, but no one told Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. that in the closing laps of Stage 1. Truex prevailed with five to go and held on for his second stage win of 2018.

Stage 1 results

1. Martin Truex Jr., 10 points plus 1 bonus playoff point
2. Kevin Harvick, 9 points
3. Kyle Busch, 8 points
4. Clint Bowyer, 7 points
5. Denny Hamlin, 6 points
6. Chase Elliott, 5 points
7. Ryan Blaney, 4 points
8. Kyle Larson, 3 points
9. Jimmie Johnson, 2 points
10. Brad Keselowski, 1 point

Joey Logano had a top-10 car for all of the first stage, but he hit some bad luck when he ran out of fuel before the green and white checkered came out. He had to come in and pit even though pit road was closed, and the penalty he incurred as a result meant he was a lap down when the race restarted.

Most longtime NASCAR fans love seeing the Richard Petty Motorsports out in front, and even though it doesn’t happen weekly, it did at Pocono. Thanks to green flag pit stops cycling through during Stage 2, Bubba Wallace got to lead some laps in the famed 43.

Bubba had to eventually give up the lead to pit (and was nailed for a pit road speeding penalty in the process, alas), which cycled the lead back to a familiar face.

He held on and won the stage, but with Kyle Busch not that far off, it appeared the Harvick-Busch showdown that’s been going on en large might materialize in a single race before the afternoon was over.

Stage 2 results

1. Kevin Harvick, 10 points plus 1 bonus playoff point
2. Kyle Busch, 9 points
3. Clint Bowyer, 8 points
4. Martin Truex Jr., 7 points
5. Chase Elliott, 6 points
6. Kyle Larson, 5 points
7. Brad Keselowski, 4 points
8. Ryan Blaney, 3 points
9. Jimmie Johnson, 2 points
10. Alex Bowman, 1 point

Would drivers start getting impatient with lapped cars as the race got closer to the end? The answer to that was a resounding “yes,” as Kyle Larson appeared to get into the back of Derrike Cope, causing the yellow to fly for the first time for an incident.

A caution with just over 20 laps to go forced another round of pit stops, and we saw the whole range of strategies: Staying out, two tires and four. But that wasn’t the end of the issues, as Denny Hamlin spun and smashed into the inside wall, but not before he bumped into Alex Bowman, who also caught the outside wall.

When the race restarted with 10 laps to go, it didn’t even make it one lap before another yellow flag came out. This time it was for contact between Joey Logano and Erik Jones which sent the 20 into the wall and set up one more, potentially final restart.

It was Truex who was the beneficiary of that last restart, getting out in front (barely) of Larson and driving clear of the battle behind him. Kyle Busch’s fresher tires never got him closer than third place before the checkered flag flew.

Truex’s win was his second of the season, making him the third driver with multiple victories in 2018. Maybe the two-man race for this year’s championship is or will become a three-man duel before it’s all said and done.