LONG POND, Pennsylvania — The Windows 10 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Pocono Raceway on Sunday came down to a game of haves and have nots, with Matt Kenseth coming out on top among drivers who had enough fuel in the closing laps to get to the checkered flag.
“Jason (Ratcliff, crew chief) just told me to just keep saving (fuel),” Kenseth said. “We talked about it a little bit before the race and just saved as much as we could. So, again, just need to thank all of my partners and all our sponsors on this car and everybody back at Joe Gibbs Racing. Glad to get one here at Pocono.”
It was the second win of the 2015 season for Kenseth and the fourth consecutive victory for Joe Gibbs Racing, adding to Kyle Busch’s wins in the last three races.
Brad Keselowski finished second, Jeff Gordon was third, Dale Earnhardt Jr. placed fourth and Greg Biffle rounded out the top five.
Keselowski barely had enough fuel, running out just as he approached the start/finish line for the last time.
“I did (run out), right as we were coming to the finish,” Keselowski said. “I think our fuel mileage is pretty strong and pretty equal between all the Ford cars; it just didn’t come together for Joey (Logano) today and it did for us.”
Logano and Busch, who ran up front throughout much of the race, ran first and second with two laps remaining, both shutting off their engines at points on the race track under green-flag conditions. But it was all for naught, with Logano running out of fuel with less than two laps to go, and Busch running out with about half a lap remaining. As a result, Logano was credited with a 20th-place finish and Busch 21st.
“I guess our numbers, from what Todd (Gordon, crew chief) said, was good enough to make it by a half a lap,” Logano said. “I was saving fuel just to cushion it. I thought I was going to be good and then I started running out and knew we weren’t going to make it. It was tough.”
Logano led a race-high 97 laps of the 160-lap race before running out of fuel.
“We did everything right today,” Logano said. “We had such a fast Shell Pennzoil Ford and got clean air and stayed up there, and the pit crew did awesome on pit road and kept me up where I needed to be.”
Martin Truex Jr., running third before Logano ran out of fuel, also ran out fuel and wound up 19th.
Logano gave up the lead to pit for what his team expected to be the last time on lap 123. Among others to pit on the same lap were Truex and Busch, who were running second and third to Logano at the time of the stops.
A slow stop for Truex when he slid through his pit stall allowed Busch to get off pit road ahead of him to claim the second spot behind Logano after the rest of the race field eventually cycled through pit stops. With stops completed, Truex was a distant third, six seconds behind the two front-runners.
Busch started on the pole, with Kevin Harvick next to him on the front row. Harvick inherited the lead when Busch pitted during the second caution of the race, a competition yellow flag on lap 15. After his stop, Busch restarted outside the top 10 in 11th, with Logano in 12th.
Throughout much of the remainder of the race, pit strategies varied, putting several drivers at the front of the field, including Kurt Busch, Keselowski and Danica Patrick. But for most of the race, Logano led the way, with Kyle Busch not far behind.