Pocono Raceway - Pocono 500
RACE WINNER: JEFF GORDON
Martin Truex Jr.: 3rd (started 3rd)
- Martin had a great car and I was hoping that the race would get restarted because I think he may have had something for Jeff Gordon.
- Quotes:
“I’ve got mixed emotions. I'd be happy to go home with a third place finish. But I think at the same time, at the end there, we were catching the No. 12 (Newman) and the No. 24 (Gordon) was coming back to both of us pretty quick. Who knows what might have been and what could be later, but either way I'll be happy.”
Casey Mears: 4th (started 12)
- Like Martin’s case, I wanted the race to go on to see what he had for Jeff as well.
- Quotes:
“We've got a couple of good weathermen on our team. It just worked out good. We had a car capable of running inside the top five, we just needed to get there and he made a great call. It was a great call for us."
Dale Earnhardt Jr.: 12th (started 13th)
- Pocono isn’t one of Junior’s best tracks but I think 12th is a pretty decent finish for him.
Martin Truex Jr.: 3rd (started 3rd)
- Martin had a great car and I was hoping that the race would get restarted because I think he may have had something for Jeff Gordon.
- Quotes:
“I’ve got mixed emotions. I'd be happy to go home with a third place finish. But I think at the same time, at the end there, we were catching the No. 12 (Newman) and the No. 24 (Gordon) was coming back to both of us pretty quick. Who knows what might have been and what could be later, but either way I'll be happy.”
Casey Mears: 4th (started 12)
- Like Martin’s case, I wanted the race to go on to see what he had for Jeff as well.
- Quotes:
“We've got a couple of good weathermen on our team. It just worked out good. We had a car capable of running inside the top five, we just needed to get there and he made a great call. It was a great call for us."
Dale Earnhardt Jr.: 12th (started 13th)
- Pocono isn’t one of Junior’s best tracks but I think 12th is a pretty decent finish for him.
-Quotes:
"It's hard to say too much when you have such a strange, short race. We were really good early on, but the car got tighter and tighter as the day wore on. The nose would get to bouncing like a spring over the bumps going into turn one and the tunnel turn (turn two) and it just wouldn't turn. Early in the race, I could get underneath someone and make a pass, but that became more and more of a struggle as each run continued. We would end up kind of getting strung out and just stay in the same position for lap after lap."
Kurt Busch: 16th (started 27th)
- 16th isn’t very good, but considering Kurt was driving a backup car that had never seen a track before I’ll take it. Basically I’m just glad he was racing.
-Quotes:
“We were working our way up through. At times we were as fast as the leader. At other time we weren’t quite as quick. Track position is important and we kept getting a little bit at a time. We ended up 15th [actually he was 16th]. We were a little tight in the tunnel turn. I think that’s what hurt some of our momentum; otherwise we’re maintaining our pace. I wish it was just before halfway so we’d have all day tomorrow. A lot of people are looking at it the opposite way. We needed more laps to get the car just right.”
Kurt Busch: 16th (started 27th)
- 16th isn’t very good, but considering Kurt was driving a backup car that had never seen a track before I’ll take it. Basically I’m just glad he was racing.
-Quotes:
“We were working our way up through. At times we were as fast as the leader. At other time we weren’t quite as quick. Track position is important and we kept getting a little bit at a time. We ended up 15th [actually he was 16th]. We were a little tight in the tunnel turn. I think that’s what hurt some of our momentum; otherwise we’re maintaining our pace. I wish it was just before halfway so we’d have all day tomorrow. A lot of people are looking at it the opposite way. We needed more laps to get the car just right.”
Brian Vickers: 35th (started 9th)
- Unfortunately Brian was having issues with the engine, which is discouraging since it had to bottom-end power – what Toyota had fixed. I don’t know if the engines are ready for every race yet, but it sucked to watch Brian run poorly for the first time.
- Quotes:
"The thing we've battled today has been the bottom-end power in the motor. We've been working on that the last couple weeks and the power shows more at this track than anywhere else because we can't shift anymore at this track. But everyone at TRD (Toyota Racing Development) is working hard to get better and we've all continued to improve, this was just a tough day for us. We fought a loose car, but not bad. Most of the guys I could gain some on them into the corners and then we would loose it on the straight-aways."
David Reutimann: 38th (started 23rd)
- I listened to David’s radio the whole race and it was pretty depressing. At first the car was good but suddenly became extremely tight. Soon after the BK crew jacked the car up in its pit stall and discovered the ductwork was torn out of the car. They were going to replace it but it was too difficult with David being a lap down and with the quickie yellows.
- Quotes:
"We've just struggled with the car all day today. It wasn't turning like we needed it to turn and it really just wasn't doing anything we needed it to do and wasn't really responding to anything we were trying to do to it. Then we ran over something and it tore some of the duct work out of the left-front of the car. That created a little more down force and we were trying to get that patched up to see if that might help the car turn any better. It was just a tough day and then the rain started again so we'll have to take the finish and get ready for Michigan."
Other Notes:
- There’s not much else I can say that wasn’t said in the In Person report, other than rain sucks.
- All quotes come from Race2Win except Dale Jr.'s, which come from his Bud Report.
