Monday At Pocono Raceway

LONG POND, Pa. (August 1, 2016) – A driver from a small team earned his way to victory lane at a family-owned and operated facility.

Rookie Chris Buescher, in the No. 34 Dockside Logistics Ford Fusion, earned his first career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, winning the Pennsylvania 400 Monday at Pocono Raceway.

It was a day late, but Front Row Motorsports’ Buescher, won a weather-shortened Pennsylvania 400 after the race was postponed from its original Sunday start time.

For Buescher, it was the rookie’s first victory in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and the surprise win put a few drivers who are on the Chase bubble on notice. Buescher was 31st in points after his win, six points behind David Ragan for the 30th-place spot required for a Chase berth.

Buescher grabbed the lead before a caution flag on Lap 132 for limited visibility as fog rolled into the area of the 2.5-mile track. A red flag was displayed at Lap 138, and the race was called when fog did not clear adequately for the race to continue.

Brad Keselowski finished in second place. Regan Smith, Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart rounded out the top five.

Polesitter Martin Truex Jr. hit the wall on Lap 19 and fell a lap down, the first of three incidents for the Furniture Row Racing driver during a tough day in which he finished 38th, 56 laps down.

Chase Elliott and Joey Logano collided on Lap 104, bringing out the caution after their accident in Turn 2. Elliott finished 33rd and Logano was 37th.

The race was under caution after Lap 85 because of precipitation, but the cars stayed out on the track until NASCAR cleared a restart.

The Sprint Cup Series will go road-course racing next weekend at Watkins Glen International for Sunday’s Cheez-It 355 at The Glen (2:30 p.m. ET, USA, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

FIRST TIME
Chris Buescher is the third driver to win his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at ‘The Tricky Triangle,” joining Jeremy Mayfield (June 6, 1998) and Denny Hamlin  (June 11, 2006).

WHAT THEY ARE SAYING
Chris Buescher, No. 34 Dockside Logistics Ford Fusion
“That’s pretty awesome. Wild circumstances here at Pocono Raceway This is going to 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. We got a flat tire, but we’re headed in the right direction now, so that will help in points. We got a win here, so we’ll take it any way we can get it.”

Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Alliance Truck Parts Ford Fusion
“Yeah, definitely an odd weekend, long weekend and Monday and so forth. But we were really competitive this weekend.  Was really happy to be running up front. I thought there were probably two or three cars that were really, really strong and kind of stood out, and we were one of them. Great call by my crew chief Paul Wolfe in getting the strategy right and knowing that we had a lot of speed and maximizing that for certain situations.”

Regan Smith, No. 7 APC Chevrolet SS
“I think it was obvious we played the same strategy that Buescher and those guys did to get ourselves up there. The cloud kind of came at just the right time for us. We were within five or six laps of having to pit, but it’s a credit to my guys for seeing the opportunity to do that strategy, and when you’re a small team working hard to try and go up against some of the bigger teams that we do, you’ve got to take the opportunities when they present themselves. I think this is the team’s best finish ever, so that’s cool, and something that you can really get everybody pumped up at the shop about and take this on to the next race.”
ABC SUPPLY 500 VERIZON INDYCAR RACE
The Verizon IndyCar ABC Supply 500 is set for August 21 at Pocono Raceway. This will be the fourth consecutive year that Pocono Raceway will host a Verizon IndyCar Series race after making its return to ‘The Tricky Triangle’ in 2013.

Tickets for all races are now on sale at www.poconoraceway.com or by calling 1-800-RACEWAY.