Rush Truck Centers/Mobil 1 Driver Gaining Momentum

Date:  Aug. 2, 2015

Event:  Windows 10 400 (Round 21 of 36)

Series:  NASCAR Sprint Cup Series

Location:  Pocono (Pa.) Raceway (2.5-mile triangle)

Start/Finish:  5th/9th (Running, completed 160 of 160 laps)

Point Standing:  25th (417 points, 136 out of 16th)

Winner:  Matt Kenseth of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota) 

Progress is what Tony Stewart has sought during this NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, and that’s exactly what he found Sunday in the Windows 10 400 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway. The driver of the No. 14 Rush Truck Centers/Mobil 1 Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) finished ninth despite running out of gas on the final lap of the 160-lap race. It was Stewart’s 23rd top-10 in 34 career Sprint Cup starts at the 2.5-mile triangle and his second top-10 of 2015. 

“We struggled the first part of the race with our Rush Truck Centers/Mobil 1 Chevrolet, but we got better the last third (of the race),” said Stewart, a two-time Sprint Cup winner at Pocono. “I felt really good about the car at the end of the race, and that’s been our weakness all year. 

“I think we’re starting to kind of get a read on this thing a little bit. I’m not going to say after two weeks that we’ve got it figured out, because that would be very premature, but at least this weekend we got going a lot better than we had been. I’m hopeful the rest of it will start to come around a little bit. And at least this is some momentum.”

Stewart qualified fifth, his second-consecutive top-five start after qualifying fourth last week at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The three-time Sprint Cup champion struggled early at Pocono, noting that his car was handling on the tight side in the center of each of the track’s three turns. It was an issue that would be alleviated through a combination of chassis adjustments on successive stops. Each adjustment was subtle, but enough to improve the overall balance of the car. Stewart reported his car was “pretty good” just past the halfway point.

Varying pit strategies throughout the race, however, served to camouflage the efforts. Stewart found himself on a different pit sequence than the race leaders, keeping him mired between 20th and 25th in the 43-car field. But the combination of a fast car and his experience negotiating Pocono’s quirky layout, Stewart overcame the disadvantage in the final third of the race, cracking the top-20 by lap 100 and the top-15 by lap 130.

With just five laps to go, many drivers who were attempting to stretch their fuel mileage lost their gamble, enabling Stewart to climb as high as third before running out of fuel himself on the final lap. Unlike many of the race leaders, Stewart was able to cross the finish line, locking up his top-10 finish.

While Stewart led the SHR contingent, his teammate Danica Patrick enjoyed the second-best SHR finish. Patrick, driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy Chevrolet SS, finished 16th to score her eighth top-20 of the year.

Not faring so well were teammates Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick, both of whom found trouble.

Busch, driver of the No. 41 Haas Automation Chevrolet SS, finished 37th despite leading 13 laps early in the race. An accident during a restart on lap 66 briefly sent him to the garage for repairs.

Harvick, driver of the No. 4 Jimmy John’s/Budweiser Chevrolet SS, finished 42nd after a rare engine failure just 20 laps into the race. It was Harvick’s first DNF (did not finish) since April 2014 at Texas Motor Speedway in Fort Worth, a span of 49 races.

Matt Kenseth won the Windows 10 400 to score his 33rd career Sprint Cup victory, his second this season and his first at Pocono.

Brad Keselowski finished 9.012 seconds behind Kenseth, while Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Greg Biffle rounded out the top-five. Jimmie Johnson, AJ Allmendinger, Clint Bowyer, Stewart and Carl Edwards comprised the remainder of the top-10.

There were eight caution periods for 32 laps, with four drivers failing to finish.

With round 21 of 36 complete, Harvick leads SHR in the championship standings. He is first with 780 points, 46 ahead of second-place Joey Logano. Busch is ninth with 620 points, 160 out of first. With two wins apiece, teammates Harvick and Busch are locked into the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Patrick is 22nd with 462 points, 91 out of 16th, the cutoff position to make the 16-driver Chase field on points. Stewart is 25th with 417 points, 136 out of 16th.

The next event on the Sprint Cup schedule is the Cheez-It 355 at The Glen on Sunday, Aug. 9 at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International. The race starts at 2 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by NBC Sports Network.

-TSC-