2018 NASCAR Gander Outdoors 400 at Pocono highlights, stage results

Thanks to some qualifying issues on Saturday, the Sunday race at Pocono promises more intrigue than usual, and we’ve got you covered with Gander Outdoors 400 highlights, stage results and more.

The Gander Outdoors 400 at Pocono Raceway figured to be yet another race where the Big 3 of Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. flexed their muscles again. After all, Harvick and Kyle Busch had the fastest two cars in qualifying, and Truex won the first 2018 Pocono race in June.

Then post-qualifying inspections happened.

It’s not uncommon for a car or two to run afoul of the body scan or chassis stations, but perhaps because the setups for The Tricky Triangle are so … well, tricky, a total of 13 cars failed the NASCAR test. As a result, they all got sent to the rear of the field to start the Gander Outdoors 400, with Harvick and Kyle Busch among them (and Daniel Suarez saying thanks very much, as he inherited what became his first ever Cup Series Busch Pole Award).

That promised to turn the opening laps into a mad scramble of sorts, as the non-penalized cars try to get out to big leads while the fast cars in the back attempt to get by the teams that are usually back markers as quickly as humanly possible. Will it actually play out that way? That’s what fans have gathered in the mountains of Pennsylvania to find out.

It’s worth mentioning that it’s also the 600th career Cup Series start for a certain seven-time champion …

Three cars dropped to the back of the field before the green flag for car changes (the 95 and 23) or a driver change (the 15, where Ross Chastain hopped in after arriving from Iowa and the XFINITY Series race yesterday).

Stage 1

Suarez found that starting up front suited him just fine, as he showed the way in the opening laps. Meanwhile, it took less than five laps for Harvick to move up from 29th to 12th, with Kyle Busch not all that far behind him.

That man Harvick was able to work his way up to eighth place, passing Truex, but Rodney Childers decided to bring him in as the first car to hit pit road. Not surprisingly, race leader Suarez and Hamlin, who were running 1-2, pitted on the very next lap.

Jamie McMurray, who briefly assumed the lead by staying out when many other cars were pitting, was penalized for going too fast entering pit road.

Things figured to cycle back to the original leaders if everything stayed green, which they did. However, Denny Hamlin had made his way past Suarez before that happened, taking over the lead once Chris Buescher pitted, followed by Chase Elliott, Suarez, Brad Keselowski, and oh yeah, Harvick.

Talk about a popular pass for the lead: Elliott caught and easily passed Hamlin with just over 10 laps to go in the stage, impressing Dale Earnhardt Jr. by being able to use the apron to get through the Tunnel Turn.

With three laps to go, the big question became whether we would see anyone short-pit the end of the stage. The answer was yes, with Erik Jones and Truex giving up top-10 spots, and the bonus points that go with them, to gain track position.

After wondering aloud whether his stage win at New Hampshire was just “dumb luck,” Elliott had to feel good about finding out it might not have been, as he was unchallenged in the closing laps and took the green and white checkered flag to end Stage 1.

Stage 1 results

1. Chase Elliott – 10 points plus 1 bonus playoff point
2. Kevin Harvick – 9 points
3. Denny Hamlin – 8 points
4. Kyle Busch – 7 points
5. Daniel Suarez – 6 points
6. Clint Bowyer – 5 points
7. Brad Keselowski – 4 points
8. Kurt Busch – 3 points
9. Alex Bowman – 2 points
10. Ryan Blaney – 1 point

Stage 2

Thanks to their pit calls, Jones and Truex led the field to green, followed by Kurt Busch, who took just two tires under caution. Jones got the much better jump and was able to lead several laps with Elliott and Harvick behind him.

Once Harvick got by Elliott for second, it seemed like only a matter of time until he ran down Jones as well. That moment came on lap 65, and Jones could put up relatively little fight on slightly older tires.

This time around, cars weren’t even waiting for the halfway point of the stage to start their green flag pit stops. Hamlin came in first, but Elliott, Truex, Kyle Larson, Jones and Kyle Busch weren’t far behind.

The first caution flag for an incident flew shortly after the halfway point of the race, with the 72 of Corey LaJoie finding the outside wall in turn 3. Most lead lap cars had already pitted by that point, but drivers who hadn’t and came in under yellow included McMurray, Keselowski and Suarez.

In case you were wondering when we would see Harvick and Kyle Busch in the top two positions, that time arrived on the first lap of the next green flag run, as Busch passed Elliott on lap 87.

Toward the end of Stage 2, there were more takers for pitting right before pit road closed. Jones and Truex tried it again, but the big surprise was Kyle Busch giving up second place to come in with that group. Undaunted by what other teams were doing, Harvick captured his 10th stage win of the season, getting ever closer to his first ever Cup Series victory at Pocono.

Stage 2 results

1. Kevin Harvick – 10 points plus 1 bonus playoff point
2. Chase Elliott – 9 points
3. Clint Bowyer – 8 points
4. Alex Bowman – 7 points
5. Kyle Larson – 6 points
6. Jimmie Johnson – 5 points
7. Brad Keselowski – 4 points
8. Jamie McMurray – 3 points
9. Ryan Blaney – 2 points
10. William Byron – 1 point

Final stage

Because of the varying pit strategies at play, some different drivers emerged up front for the restart, one of whom was … William Byron? Yep, the rookie managed to hold off the field with older tires for multiple laps. Behind him, the Toyotas of Kyle Busch, Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez were dicing it up.

While that was going on, Larson got into the back of Keselowski, almost causing disaster and bringing a one-word radio response from Brad K.: “Unreal.”

Kyle Busch made his way to the lead while action heated up behind him. His brother Kurt was having much worse luck, cutting down a tire but managing to limp around to pit road without bringing out a caution flag.

A yellow did come out on lap 121 when Keselowski lost a right rear tire while racing for position with Jimmie Johnson, spinning halfway and smashing the tail of the No. 2 Ford into the outside fence. What was shaping up as the money stop ensued, and Kyle Busch won the race off pit road, followed by Suarez.

And could some rare bad luck have finally struck Harvick? On the pit stop, Harvick made contact with teammate Aric Almirola, resulting in both Stewart-Haas Racing drivers coming back down pit road to work on the damage and make sure their tires didn’t rub.

This time, the green flag didn’t even fly for one complete lap, as the engine on Landon Cassill’s 00 Chevy gave up, spewing fluid on the track.

A lengthy cleanup resulted in the field taking the next green flag with 28 laps to go. Kyle Busch proved to be too strong for his teammate Suarez on the restart. Suarez and Elliott fell in line behind the 18, but there was fierce racing from fourth on back.

After near disasters for Kasey Kahne and Blaney, Logano had an issue in turn 2 that caused him to slow and head for pit road.

Just when it appeared the 18 would stroll away with yet another victory, Bubba Wallace made hard contact with the wall in his No. 43 Chevrolet. There was a breathless moment or two as everyone waited for Wallace’s window net to come down, and while he climbed out on his own, he needed to take a seat right after he did.

It looked like Wallace might not have had brakes as he flew through the grass in turn 1 before smashing into the SAFER barrier, passenger side first.

A red flag halted the action while Wallace was attended to and the debris left by his mangled Chevy was cleaned up. Just like in the Truck Series race on Saturday, though, that wasn’t the final caution of the race. A multi-vehicle incident involving Almirola and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. among others, forced an overtime restart.

That didn’t matter for Kyle Busch. Even though Suarez got a good launch to stay with him through turn 1, Jones tried to make it three wide shortly after, which only helped the 18 pull away. Things stayed caution-free this time, and Rowdy enjoyed the weekend sweep at Pocono and his sixth victory of the 2018 NASCAR Cup Series season.