LONG POND, Pennsylvania — For the second consecutive NASCAR race weekend at Pocono Raceway, the Sprint Cup Series race has been postponed until Monday because of rain. The Pennsylvania 400, originally scheduled to get underway at approximately 1:30 p.m. Sunday, is scheduled to take the green flag shortly after 11 a.m. Monday.
The Sprint Cup Series last raced at Pocono in June. That race, scheduled for a Sunday but delayed by rain until Monday, was won by Kurt Busch.
When the Pocono 400 begins on Monday, Martin Truex Jr. will start on the pole with fellow Toyota driver Carl Edwards alongside on the front row.
Truex earned the pole position on Friday.
After heavy rain Sunday morning, NASCAR and track personnel began track-drying activity and got the track mostly dry, with the exception of some weepers (drainage issues) in the race track. But with the track surface nearly dry, rain returned soon after the scheduled green flag.
Jones turns back Dillon’s bid in Xfinity race
NEWTON, Iowa — For 83 laps, it looked like Ty Dillon’s drought would finally end. That was until Erik Jones flashed the brilliance that has many predicting big things for the Joe Gibbs Racing prodigy.
Jones led a race-high 154 laps en route to his victory on Saturday night in the U.S. Cellular 250 at Iowa Speedway. Jones passed Dillon with 15 laps remaining to retake the lead for the final time and beat Dillon to the checkered flag by 3.533 seconds.
The NASCAR Xfinity Series victory was the third of the season for Jones and the fifth of his career in his 45th start. After one of the more impressive Rookie of the Year campaigns in recent memory, Jones has 11 top-five and 12 top-10 results in 19 starts this season.
“It’s a great day. We had a great car. One that definitely deserved to win the race,” Jones said in Victory Lane. “The fastest car I feel like won tonight, which is always a good feeling. It was an awesome day for us.
“I feel like we deserved to win when we came here earlier this year. We had a really fast car. It was nice to get some redemption for that one.”
Jones qualified second but passed Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Daniel Suarez on the first lap. While several teams flew in Sprint Cup pit crews from Pocono, the Joe Gibbs Racing teams did not. Despite dropping spots after pitting, Jones quickly regained them when the field returned to green.
When the caution flew at Lap 150 as Brandon McReynolds made hard contact with the Turn 1 wall, teams hit pit road for fresh tires and fuel. Dillon’s pit crew had the quickest stop to give him the lead for the first time of the night at Lap 152.
When the field returned to green, Dillon was able to put some distance between his car and Jones. Dillon led the next 83 laps before Jones drove to the bottom and made the final pass on Dillon on Lap 235.