LONG POND, Pa. — Eight of the top 10 staters in today’s Cup race at Pocono Raceway have not won this season, making today’s race one that could potentially alter the playoff standings.
Ten races remain in the regular season, including today’s event before the playoffs begin.
While Denny Hamlin, a three-time winner this season, has the pole, Chris Buescher, who holds the final playoff spot, starts second.
Others without a win this season starting in the top 10 today are: Carson Hocevar (starting third), John Hunter Nemechek (fourth), Cole Custer (fifth), Chase Briscoe (sixth), Ty Gibbs (seventh), Tyler Reddick (eighth) and Daniel Suarez (10th).
Buescher, Briscoe and Reddick enter today’s race in a playoff spot.
The 160-lap event will set the seedings for the In-Season Challenge.
Go further into the field and 15 of the top 18 qualifiers have not won this season. That includes Erik Jones (starting 11th), Ryan Preece (13th), Brad Keselowski (14th), Zane Smith (15th), Austin Dillon (16th), Noah Gragson (17th) and Chase Elliott (18th).
Here is what else to watch for in today’s race (2 p.m. ET on Prime):
Differing strategies
Teams will be able to pit at Pocono without losing a lap provided they are no more than about 12 seconds behind the leader. That means those further behind likely will have to use a different strategy.
The back half of the field will be worth keeping an eye on.
William Byron had the fastest car in practice and wrecked in qualifying. The team was repairing the car with work to be finished this morning.
Bubba Wallace had a starter issue and didn’t even make a lap in qualifying. He’ll also be at the rear when the green flag waves. He enters the race 57 points above the cutline but starting this deep might keep him from scoring points in the first stage. He ranks sixth in the series in stage points.
“I don’t think you can get to panicked about it, you can’t change it,” said Denny Hamlin, co-owner of Wallace’s 23XI Racing car, about the possibility of Wallace not getting points in the first stage. “If you are Bubba Wallace it’s not something you did. I’m confident it’s not something the team did, it’s just one of those mechanical things where the anvil fell on your this time. It happens to others as well.
“It’s very easy for drivers and teams to get down about their bad luck, but everyone has it and usually washes itself out over time. I think they are running fast enough to be a playoff car and a lot of that is going to depend on who jumps up on the wild card races over the next 10 weeks, but I feel confident the 23 team will be a part of it.”
Denny Hamlin scored his 44th career Cup pole.
Another strategy to watch will be if anyone tries a three-stop strategy. Most teams pitted four times in last year’s race. Austin Cindric’s team pitted three times but finished 18th.
“We had a caution every time that I was on a tire disadvantage last year,” Cindric said. “ … I’m not sure it’s going to discourage us from, maybe not necessarily that strategy, but from going and trying to make up spots.”
Can Chase Elliott build momentum?
Chase Elliott seeks to score back-to-back top-10 finishes for the first time since late March and early April at Martinsville and Darlington.
Elliott is coming off a third-place finish at Mexico. Although he is on a 43-race winless drought, he’s been consistent enough to rank fourth in the points this season.
Cliff Daniels said he was ready to park Kyle Larson when they could gain no other positions in the finishing order.
So with 16 of 36 races run, has this been a good season for Elliott?
“That is a good question,” Elliott said. “Good? Sure, but it’s not where I want to be no doubt.
“I think for us there have been some high spots and to be honest, there have been weeks where we have run well where we have had a good finish… and I can go home and be like, ‘Man, we were in the mix, and we had good pace today.’
“… It’s the days and weekends where we are just not even relevant that I think are the most frustrating to me. We have had more of those than I would want to have and that we would want to have as a team.
“So, I think it’s been good but not satisfactory for myself or to our team, but there is still a lot of racing left in the season, and I think we have ourselves in a position to make a mediocre day alright. We can build from it, and we still have a chance.”
Denny’s unique double
Denny Hamlin seeks to score his second consecutive win of the season with a catch.
He won at Michigan, skipped the race in Mexico City for the birth of his son, and will look to win at Pocono — where his seven wins here make him the track’s all-time winningest driver.
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