Kyle Busch finished his record-setting weekend with a whimper. After racing three days in three different states he ended up in the wall in Pocono and finished 43rd.
Qualifying
Kasey Kahne's Gillette-Evernham Dodge took the pole in qualifying. Jimmie Johnson put his Hendrick Motorsports Chevy on the outside of the front row.
Veteran part-timer Mark Martin had a good run on his qualifying lap and rolled off third. Regan Smith and Joe Nemechek rounded out the top five as the cars took the green.
Drop Of The Green
Jimmie Johnson got a good run into turn one and held on to lead the first lap. Johnson and Kasey Kahne fell into single-file and ran 1-2 during the early going.
Kasey Kahne patiently waited for his chance. That chance finally came on lap 17. Kahne got under Johnson for the lead and Jimmie didn't fight him.
Those two managed to put some space between them and the rest of the field which was lead by Mark Martin in third.
Storylines
Point leader Kyle Busch completed a feat never done before in NASCAR. He competed in all three of NASCAR's top touring series on the same weekend at three different tracks.
On Friday night he finished second in the Craftsman Truck series event in Texas. On Saturday he finished a couple laps down in the Nationwide Series race in Nashville. Then on Sunday he completed his triple-header with trouble.
Kyle Busch pulled up aggressively into the outside lane on the front stretch. The problem is that Jamie McMurray was already there. Busch got turned into the outside wall and spent some time in the garage.
The historic triple turned out to be a non-event. Busch's incident during the Sprint Cup race had some impact in the points. Kyle Busch finished dead last in 43rd. This trimmed his point lead to just 21 points over Jeff Burton.
Chasing The Checkers
The final green flag flew with 19 laps to go. Brian Vickers, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Kasey Kahne lead them to the restart.
Kasey Kahne was fast all day and started to work his way forward. With 16 laps to go Kahne got past Vickers to take the top spot and put some distance on the field.
Kahne was fast at the start, fast through the middle and fast at the end to claim the 2008 Pocono 500 victory.
Top Ten
- Kasey Kahne
- Brian Vickers
- Denny Hamlin
- Dale Earnhardt Jr.
- Jeff Burton
- Jimmie Johnson
- Matt Kenseth
- Kurt Busch
- Carl Edwards
- Mark Martin
The Points
Kyle Busch finished dead last today and erased most of his point lead. He is still out front but Jeff Burton was able to close within striking distance.
At the back end of the top twelve no one cracked the Chase qualifying spot this week. The twelve drivers remained the same. David Ragan and Ryan Newman are knocking on the door just 7 and 10 points behind Tony Stewart.
The top twelve are now:
- Kyle Busch
- Jeff Burton -21
- Dale Earnhardt Jr. -145
- Carl Edwards -228
- Denny Hamlin -284
- Jimmie Johnson -285
- Greg Biffle -303
- Jeff Gordon -317
- Kasey Kahne -365
- Kevin Harvick -394
- Clint Bowyer -405
- Tony Stewart -470
Next Week
Next week the fast and wide 2-mile oval that is Michigan Speedway will host the Sprint Cup stars. There is plenty of room to race at this big D. with Kyle Busch's problem in Pocono we could see a new point leader next week as Jeff Burton is knocking on the door.
