LONG POND, Pa. – In a weather-postponed race that turned into a fuel-mileage battle, Hendrick Motorsports left Pocono Raceway with three top-six finishes.
Let’s take a look at what we learned at the “Tricky Triangle.”
TWO-FOUR-SIX FINISH
For the second time this season, three Hendrick Motorsports teammates finished inside the top six.
The previous occasion came in April at Texas, when all four drivers took home top-eight finishes, led by Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s runner-up result.
Once again on Monday, it was Earnhardt who led the way in second – his fourth second-place finish of 2016.
“It was a good run for us,” Earnhardt said. “The car wasn’t all we hoped it would be, but it was good. They worked on it and improved it. We were real tight starting the day and we just kept freeing it up. We got it pretty decent at the end, but still not where we want to be. We will work on it and come back and try to do a little better job the next race here.”
Chase Elliott was the next to take the checkered flag in fourth, with Kasey Kahne right behind in sixth.
ELLIOTT ‘PROUD,’ DETERMINED TO ‘LEARN’ FROM POCONO
Rookie Elliott, who led a race-high 51 laps, came close to notching his first career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory in his very first trip to Pocono in a Cup car.
“I’m just really proud of the car we had today,” he said. “What a fast NAPA Chevy we had -- a car that could compete for the lead all day. There were definitely times we were better than others. I wish once we had taken a couple of those green flags after the cautions we could have got going and ran some laps. That is not how the day unfolded, so we will take it and move on. Just try to be aware of the mistakes I made having a chance there at the end and not getting it done.”
Ultimately a handful of cautions down the stretch saw Elliott shuffled back a bit in the pack late in the race, but he pushed all the way back to second behind teammate Earnhardt.
While battling for the lead once again, Kurt Busch – who ultimately won the race – was able to overtake both drivers for the lead, and Elliott eventually fell back to fourth.
His fourth-place result marked his fifth top-five finish of the past eight races. He has now earned five consecutive top-10 results, as well.
“I feel like we had a car that could do it today,” he said. “I wish I had been just a little more patient behind Dale.I felt like I made a big mistake there in the Tunnel (Turn) and it gave Kurt a big run. Biggest thing is just learn and just be really proud that we had a super-fast car, a car that could lead all day and a group of guys that are willing to fight to try to get to Victory Lane.”
KAHNE HAD ‘FUN’ NO. 5 CHEVY
Starting 11th, Kahne found himself shuffled all the way back outside of the top 35 after a pit road penalty early in the race.
But he continued to battle for the duration of the event, finding the top 10 once again on Lap 73 and racing his way to the doorstep of the top five.
“The car was really solid today -- it was fun to drive,” he said. “It was good to drive all day long. I enjoyed that side of it. I think we can take something very similar to Michigan next week. To me, it’s a similar racetrack in a lot of ways and so hopefully that will still work next week as well. But I was really happy with our Farmers Insurance Chevy and the team today. The speeding penalty was just pushing the lights. I was running what I usually run and we might have just been a little aggressive, but we fought back from that.”