Iowa-Pocono Weekend

“Pioneer 250”




NEWTON, IOWA- The nationwide Series was scheduled to run 250 laps/miles on the 7/8 mile track on Saturday Night, but “Mother Nature” had a different idea in mind. Rain washed out the race, just a half-hour before the scheduled start time. Austin Dillon (3) won his third consecutive pole start, with Sam Hornish Jr. (12) starting beside him. In other racing news, Trevor Bayne (6) was married this week on Tuesday. The In-Race Reporter was Kyle Larson (32), a rookie that has done very well so far this season. The pre-race ceremonies were not televised. Joey Lagono (22) and Joe Nemecheck (87) were replaced by Ryan Blaney and Kevin Lepage, as they were scheduled to race at Pocono today also. A “Competition Caution” was set up for lap 50, due to all the rain.

Caution came out early on lap 3, when Cole Whitt (44), tagged Brad Sweet (5) spinning him into the wall, and tearing up the rear of the car. Kevin Swindell (98) was also spun in the incident. Swindell would go to the garage for repairs to the front end of his car.

On lap 38, Brad Sweet was given the “Black Flag” for smoke coming from his damaged race car. He would be forced to get off track to get the issue dealt with. There began to be seen, raindrops on the cameras on lap 47.

On lap 51, Brian Vickers (20) was spun out by Trevor Bayne running him three-wide. Vickers fell from fourth to seventeenth. Sam Hornish Jr., Justin Allgaier and Paul Menard (27) only took two tires on the pit stop, while the rest of the field took four.

At the halfway mark, Dillon was the leader by over four seconds. After the pit stops were made, Dillon had close to a six second lead.

On lap 149, the third caution came out for debris. During the pit stop, Dillon lost the lead because he took on four new tires and three cars behind him only took two.

On lap 155, Brian Vickers (20), (30), Max Papis (33), Alex Bowman (99), and Travis Pastrana (60) were all involved in a wreck. The wreck started when Bowman slid up and into Vickers. Pastrana T-boned Papis, sending the 33 car into the air sideways. Before they could restart, rain began falling at the track. A “Red Flag” was thrown for the heavy rain that was falling. Dillon had just re-taken the lead before the wreck happened.

While the red flag came out with 86 laps left, the fields top ten were: A. Dillon (3), T. Bayne (6), B. Scott (2), S. Hornish (12), R. Smith (7), R. Blaney (22), M. Annett (43), K. Larson (32) and P. Kligerman (77).

The race began again after a lengthy rain delay. Another caution came out near lap 175, when Drew Herring (54) ran into, and spun out Michael Annett (43). After dominating the day, Austin Dillon was forced to let Trevor Bayne past him, as Bayne attempted to wreck Dillon numerous times in the late laps. Dillon had better than a two second lead, and lap cars held him up to the point, Bayne was able to catch up with less than twenty laps to go. Once Bayne caught him, he kept trying to spin him out. I counted at least four attempts to spin him out, and NASCAR allowed it. Bayne was involved in a couple incidents in today’s race that could have been looked at, as excessive antics. Bayne won the race over Dillon.

The rest of the top ten were: Elliott Sadler (11), Sam Hornish Jr. (12), Kyle Larson (32), Brian Scott (2), Regan Smith (7), Justin Allgaier (31), Ryan Blaney (22) and Mike Bliss (19). Johanna Long (70) tied a career best twelfth place finish on the lead lap.

The next race will be at Michigan, next Saturday at 2 PM EST.















“Party in the Poconos 400”

LONG POND, PENNSYLVANIA- Rain washed out qualifying for the fourteenth race of the season for the Sprint Cup Series. Jimmie Johnson (48) received the Pole position by points. Carl Edwards (99) started second. A 400 mile race was scheduled to be run on the “Tricky Triangle.” 160 laps were scheduled, for the race to be complete, unless weather or a caution changes the length. Pit stops will be made just about every thirty laps.

In opening ceremonies, Father Mike Coughlin provided the Invocation. Staff Sgt. Naomi Scott sang the National Anthem. The Grand Marshall was Brian Hendricks, a Director of Marketing for Wal-mart.

On lap 2, Kasey Kahne (5) was off-pace and went into the pits. He reported a violent shaking in the car. While in the pits, a crew member was under the car and they dropped the car back on the ground. The crew member was not hurt, but it did surprise me, that there was enough room under the car for a person to lay down when the car was dropped.

On lap 69, the first caution came out for someone throwing a blanket of some sort onto the track. Jimmie Johnson had dominated the race to this point. He led 72 of the first 88 laps.

Near lap 100, Kevin Harvick (29) was penalized for speeding on exit of pit road, after his green flag stop. Harvick had been in the top five most of the race.

Another caution flew on lap 126, for fluid on the track. It was reported the fluid came from the car of Ryan Truex Jr. (56).

On lap 133, Juan Montoya (42) and Matt Kenseth (20) spun, coming through the “Tunnel Turn”. Another caution came out on lap 138, when Dave Blaney (7) spun out, after being tagged by Aric Almirola (43). Another caution fell when AJ Allmendinger had a tire failure on lap 147. He was able to get the car down and out of the way, but NASCAR threw the caution anyways.

On lap 153, Dave Blaney brought out the sixth caution, as he slapped the outside wall. There were five cautions in the last twenty-eight laps, after having only one in the first hundred and twenty-five laps.

Jimmie Johnson (48) was able to hold off Greg Biffle (16) and Dale Earnhardt Jr. (88) on the restart to take the win. This was his third victory of the season, after he dominated this race. Johnson led 128 of the 160 laps. This was his 64th win of his career in the Sprint Cup Series. Johnson now holds a fifty-one point lead in the series.

The rest of the top ten were: Tony Stewart (14), Ryan Newman (39), Kyle Busch (18), Kurt Busch (78), Denny Hamlin (11), Kevin Harvick (29) and Joey Lagono (22).

The next race will be at Michigan next Sunday at 12 PM EST.