By: Zach Catanzareti, Staff Writer
For the third straight time at Pocono Raceway, Kyle Busch was in serious contention for a trip to Victory Lane. But for the second time of that trio of races, that’s not where the day ended.
Busch started Sunday’s Pocono 400 from fifth and was a constant top-three threat on the day. Kevin Harvick led more than half of the 160-lap race and was Busch’s top contender for the win once again.
Busch eventually grabbed the race lead on lap 127 and held it until an “odd” late-race debris caution gave him his first blow of the afternoon.
“If it wasn’t for a shoe bootie we probably would’ve won this thing,” Busch said of the yellow in Turn 1 with 20 to go. “When I came back around and looked at it, that’s what it looked like to me. Some guys get awfully creative to try and get cautions.”
The yellow set up a split strategy up front with Busch taking to pit road for fresh rubber while the likes of Harvick, Truex and Kyle Larson chose to stay out. With a 16-lap run to the end that featured two cautions, Busch was sure to have the advantage with fresh tires.
Now enter more disappointment.
Tire fall-off was not a significant factor in the closing stages as Busch managed to only climb to the third spot behind Larson and race winner Martin Truex Jr.
“It was disappointing that the tires didn’t mean anything more than they did at the end,” he said. “Guys had 10 or 11 laps on their tires and they were still able to out-run us and beat us.
“That’s not what we all want to have. We want to have fall-off and there didn’t seem to be any of that.”
The run still gave Busch his ninth top-three result in just 14 races in 2018, extending his point lead.
“We all made what we thought would be our final stop,” he said. “Overall, we had a good Camry, ran up front all day and led laps. A good day.”