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Kyle Busch Wins 6th Race of Season in Overtime at NASCAR at Pocono 2018
July 29, 2018
Kyle Busch added to his incredible 2018 season with a win Sunday at the Gander Outdoors 400, giving him six victories on the year.
Multiple late cautions led to overtime, but the driver remained in front on the final restart to beat out Daniel Suarez, who finished in second place. Busch began the day in 28th place yet still managed to come through with a win a Pocono Raceway for the second straight year.
The Big Three of Busch, Martin Truex Jr. and Kevin Harvick now have 16 wins in 21 races this season, including five of the last six.
Final Results
1. Kyle Busch (18)
2. Daniel Suarez (19)
3. Alex Bowman (88)
4. Kevin Harvick (4)
5. Erik Jones (20)
6. William Byron (24)
7. Chase Elliott (9)
8. Ryan Newman (31)
9. Kurt Busch (41)
10. Denny Hamlin (11)
Full results at NASCAR.com.
Busch led 52 laps and stayed in front throughout the end of the race, but the final result was far from certain when a red flag came out with six laps remaining.
While the No. 18 car won the first restart with three laps left, another caution led to overtime. This didn't seem to be an issue for the experienced driver, who pulled away from the field once again for what became an easy win:
There were some fresh names in front at the start of the day, with Suarez beginning in first place and leading the first 29 laps. This beat his previous best for laps led in a single race, which was 14 last year, per Zack Albert of NASCAR.com.
Chase Elliott eventually took over to win Stage 1, which was his second straight race with a stage victory.
The middle section of the race saw Kevin Harvick finally look like himself, dominating his way to the lead and the Stage 2 victory after starting in 29th place. He moved into the lead for the first time on the 64th lap when he passed Erik Jones:
Bob Pockrass of ESPN noted how good the No. 4 car looked at the midway point:
Unfortunately, he dropped in the order with some poor pit stops and then fell out of contention when he made contact with Aric Almirola on pit road. He dropped to 30th before working his way back to a fourth-place finish.
A few more big names also had problems down the stretch, with Brad Keselowski and Bubba Wallace ending their days with crashes into the wall:
Wallace was able to walk away from his scary crash, although it led to a red flag with just six laps remaining.
Busch was able to take advantage to earn his sixth win of the year, matching Harvick for the most on the 2018 season.
There are now only five more races before the playoffs, with Watkins Glen International hosting the next competition. The GoBowling at the Glen will take place Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET.