Drought-ending wins all the rage
For the third weekend in a row, one of the first words emanating from the mouth of the winning driver was “finally.”
Sunday at Pocono Raceway, Kyle Busch broke a 36-race winless streak in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. His victory came on the heels of Kasey Kahne’s drought-busting win at Indianapolis Motor Speedway that snapped a 102-race winless streak and Denny Hamlin’s New Hampshire Motor Speedway win that ended a 28-race drought.
For Busch, the dry spell was all the more flummoxing, considering how many laps he had led and how many races he could have won in 2017. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver is one of two — along with Martin Truex Jr. — who has led more than 1,000 laps. He was ranked fourth in points entering Sunday’s race, ahead of drivers with not just one win but in some cases two or more.
And yet the 2015 champ had not been able to “get the monkey off our back.” Busch said it was “frustrating and aggravating and disheartening ” to have run so well with nothing to show for it.
“We’ve had fast race cars. It’s not like we’ve been running 10th to 15th every week and don’t deserve to win anyways. I think the fact of it was we were running up front. We should be able to capitalize on those good fast race cars and get to victory lane.”
Now, Busch says, the team can “breathe a little bit easier” and focus on winning more races and getting ready for the playoffs. The series heads to Watkins Glen International, a road course, and Busch should be a heavy favorite. He is the only active driver with more than one win at the New York track. He has 10 top-10 finishes in 12 starts — most among active drivers — and his average finish of 10.1 trails only AJ Allmendinger’s 9.4 — sobering numbers for the rest of the field.
Other takeaways as the series moves to the Finger Lakes region of New York:
Summer swoon:
Jimmie Johnson crashed at Pocono for the second time in 2017 and crashed in three of the five July races this season. But fans of the 48 team have no reason to panic. Johnson is safely locked into the playoffs with three wins and has struggled in this stretch of the season before. Last year, Johnson crashed in four of nine races between June 6 and Aug. 7 before righting the ship and going on to win his record-tying seventh title.
In 2014, Johnson crashed in three of four races in a midsummer stretch but ended the regular season with four consecutive top-10 finishes.
Watkins Glen wild card:
The last road-course race of the season might be the best remaining chance for an underdog to snare a win. That is especially true for Allmendinger, who won at The Glen in 2014 and finished fourth last year.
The JTG-Daugherty Racing driver is 27th in the standings and has tallied one top-five this year — at the season-opening Daytona 500 — but is considered a road-course master. He struggled mightily in the season’s only other road-course race, at Sonoma Raceway — finishing 35th after starting fifth — but The Glen is his best track and his best chance to grab a playoff spot in the remaining five races.
Playoff squeeze:
Busch became the 13th driver to qualify for the playoffs via a win, which leaves three spots open to the remaining winless drivers.
Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott (616 points), Chip Ganassi Racing ’s Jamie McMurray (615) and Joe Gibbs Racing ’s Matt Kenseth (594) would qualify on points if the playoffs started today. But after his sixth-place showing at Pocono, Stewart-Haas Racing ’s Clint Bowyer — with 577 points and just outside the final transfer spot — is on their heels.
It’s unlikely any other winless driver could snare a playoff berth via points after the regular-season Sept. 9 finale at Richmond Raceway. That means drivers such as Team Penske’s Joey Logano (525 points), Furniture Row Racing ’s Erik Jones (469), JGR’s Daniel Suarez (464) and Hendrick’s Dale Earnhardt Jr. (378) are in must-win territory.