Kyle Busch prevails at Pocono and joins Kevin Harvick as six-time winners this season in the Cup Series.
LONG POND, Pa. — Kyle Busch had no one to bump him out of the lead this week and stormed from the bottom half of the field Sunday at Pocono Raceway on the way to his sixth Cup Series victory of the season.
Busch’s No. 18 Toyota was one of 13 cars dumped to back of the pack for flunking post-qualifying inspection Saturday. That was nothing but a minor bump for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver, who matched Kevin Harvick for most wins this season.
Harvick’s pole qualifying run Saturday also was tossed out, but he ended up leading 30 laps and finished fourth.
The race was red flagged with six laps left after a violent wreck. Darrell Wallace Jr. appeared to lose the breaks in his No. 43 Chevrolet, and the car shot across the grass and slammed into the wall. There were several tense seconds during a wait for Wallace to put down his window net. He sat on the track and slumped against the car before he was taken to the track medical center.
Once the race resumed, Busch zipped away, and he surged ahead again on the final restart in overtime.
Busch, Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. have won 16 of the 21 races this season.
Busch tied Tony Stewart on the career wins list with 49. He held off a pair of young drivers aiming for their first career win. Daniel Suarez, the first Mexican driver to win the pole for a Cup race, finished second, and Alex Bowman was third.
Suarez, one of Busch’s teammates, entered 20th in the points standings and desperately needed a win to earn an automatic berth for NASCAR’s playoffs. There are just five races left before the 16-driver field is set.
Only seven drivers have won races this season.
Harvick had a shot at his seventh win until his car was damaged on pit road. He is now 0 for 36 at Pocono.
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