LONG POND, Pennsylvania — Weather was Chris Buescher’s friend Monday, as it paid an assist in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series to help him claim his first career win in the rain and fog-shortened Pennsylvania 400 at Pocono Raceway.
“That’s pretty awesome,” Buescher said. “Wild circumstances here at Pocono. This is gonna change our whole year, right here, so this puts us in a good situation where we had a good day. It was a lot of fun. The guys really toughed it out.”
The race was postponed from Sunday to Monday. The green flag was then postponed another hour by mists on Monday. After a caution for rain on lap 85, the yellow flag waved again — this time for fog — with 27 laps remaining. That caution, the seventh of the race, led to a red flag after the completion of 138 of the scheduled 160 laps.
Rain returned, along with lightning, during the red flag and fog remained, leading NASCAR to call the race official.
Regan Smith finished second, Brad Keselowski was third, Kevin Harvick fourth and Tony Stewart was fifth, respectively.
“It’s been a strange weekend, really, weather-wise,” Smith said. “There were times yesterday I thought we were going to race, and the track had, like, a pond underneath it, apparently.”
The race field, minus Buescher and Smith, cycled through green-flag pit stops with about 36 laps remaining. When the yellow flag that ultimately set the finishing order waved, Buescher and Smith were in the top-two positions, still needing one final pit stop to complete the scheduled distance.
“I’m just proud of Tommy (Baldwin, car owner) and then the guys on the box for kind of realizing there was opportunity for a strategy play, there,” Smith said. “We have had a decent run today.”
Weather conditions, specifically rain, began playing into pit strategy just before the halfway point of the race. Kyle Larson and Austin Dillon, along with a handful of other drivers, stayed out during a lap 66 caution, due in some part to weather radars showing rain moving through the area.
The race restarted and Larson and Dillon battled for the lead for several laps before getting together, drifting up the track, and handing the lead to Joey Logano.
“That was very entertaining for me,” Logano said. “Those guys were racing the heck out of each other and racing for their first win, and there was rain in the forecast, so that was for the win, in my opinion, and I think they had the same thing on their mind. It was a gift for me.”
The rain eventually returned, resulting in a caution on lap 85. Logano, Harvick, Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle took their turns at staying out, but like before, the race restarted.
“Only if it had rained a little earlier, we would have had a lot different outcome,” Logano said.
A sixth yellow flag on lap 105 and pit stops by some during the caution put all competitors what, at the time, looked to be an even playing field, with everyone needing to make one stop to go the remaining scheduled distance.
Martin Truex Jr. started the race on the pole and led the first 16 laps before Keselowski and Biffle stayed out to assume the top-two positions in the running order during a lap 16 competition caution. Troubles quickly came for Truex, as he hit the wall within a lap after the restart, bringing out another caution. He was the culprit of another caution with a flat right-front tire on lap 99.
NOTES: Harvick was without crew chief Rodney Childers at Pocono Raceway, as Childers was suspended by NASCAR for one race because of a lug nut issue July 24 in the Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. … Harvick’s Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kurt Busch won at Pocono in June while his crew chief, Tony Gibson, was serving a one-race suspension, also for a lug nut issue the previous race weekend. … Jeff Gordon subbed for Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet for the second-consecutive race, as Earnhardt continues his recovery from concussion-like symptoms. … Gordon is the winningest NASCAR driver at Pocono with six victories and finished 27th Monday. … The Pennsylvania 400 was Paul Menard’s first race with new crew chief, Danny Stockman. … Monday’s race was Aric Almirola’s 200th-career Sprint Cup Series race. … Kenseth won the 2015 Pennsylvania 400.