Friday Pocono Notebook

Friday Pocono Notebook

Notebook Items:

-           A fourth straight win would put Kyle Busch in exclusive company

-           Clint Bowyer circumspect about future plans

-           Martin Truex Jr. hopes absence of bumps won't hurt his chances for repeat win

July 31, 2015

By Reid Spencer

NASCAR Wire Service

A fourth straight win would put Kyle Busch in exclusive company

LONG POND, Pa. – Should Kyle Busch win Sunday’s Windows 10 400 at Pocono Raceway, he would join an exclusive club reserved primarily for NASCAR Hall of Fame members.

A fourth straight victory would put Busch on a list that includes Dale Earnhardt, Bill Elliott, Harry Gant, Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, Mark Martin, David Pearson, Billy Wade, Darrell Waltrip and Cale Yarborough.

Those are the drivers in the sport’s history to string together exactly four straight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victories.

Richard Petty holds the top two spots on the consecutive wins list, with a record 10 straight in 1967 and six in a row in 1971. Bobby Allison is the only driver to have won five straight, a feat he accomplished in 1971.

Of those who have won four in a row, Earnhardt, Elliott, Pearson, Waltrip and Yarborough already are in the Hall of Fame. Martin has been nominated for the honor, and Gordon and Johnson are likely first-ballot shoo-ins when they become eligible.

And now Busch is in a position to join that group, having won consecutive races at Kentucky, New Hampshire and Indianapolis.

“I’ve never won at Pocono, and I hope that’s about to change,” Busch said on Friday before opening Sprint Cup practice at the Tricky Triangle. “We’ve certainly had some good runs over the years—sometimes in the spring race, sometimes in the summer race—but overall, I feel like our team has come a really long way.

“I like where we’re going and where we’re at, so I can just hope that we can continue here this weekend and get ourselves a win and make it four in a row.”

BOWYER CIRCUMSPECT ABOUT FUTURE PLANS

The landscape of the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series changed dramatically this week when Rob Kauffman, majority owner in Michael Waltrip Racing, announced he was buying into Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates.

Kauffman’s presumptive departure from MWR raised immediate questions about the future of not only the entire organization but of MWR drivers Clint Bowyer and David Ragan.

On Friday at Pocono, in a brief, non-committal session with reporters in the Cup garage, Bowyer deflected speculation that he and sponsor 5-Hour Energy will join Kauffman at Ganassi Racing.

“This isn’t what any of you guys want,” Bowyer said. “You need to bear with us. There’s obviously some change on the horizon. I got the same release you guys did. We’ve got a new sponsor on the car this weekend (Maxwell House). It’s a big deal for us. We’ve been working on this a long time.

“Got a lot of momentum going into this – we’re 20 points out of the Chase, and we’ve got to finish this year strong. Like I said, there’s a lot of work to be done in the future, and we’re all working on it, and when I have something to tell you guys, you all know me and I’ll tell you.”

TRUEX HOPES ABSENCE OF BUMPS WON’T HURT HIS CHANCES FOR REPEAT WIN

When Martin Truex Jr. won at Pocono in June and secured a likely spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, there was a huge bump in the asphalt in the Tunnel Turn (Turn 2) at the 2.5-mile triangular track.

Now it’s late July, and the bump is gone, along with several small ones, thanks to timely work and a commitment from the track. But is the absence of the bump a good thing or a bad thing for Truex’s hopes of sweeping the Pocono weekend?

“Hopefully, we can repeat on what we did last time,” Truex said. “Obviously, it’s not going to be easy, but I feel like we’re up for the challenge. A few differences in the race track, with the Tunnel Turn being smooth again—I think that certainly makes it a little bit easier on everybody else.

“I kind of like the challenge of the bumps, just because obviously we had them, seems like, figured out pretty good.”