SRT Motorsports - Sprint Cup Race Recap - Pocono2

 
LONG POND, Pa. (Sunday, August 5, 2012) – Brad Keselowski scored his fifth consecutive top-10 finish in impressive fashion Sunday afternoon at Pocono Raceway.

Keselowski finished fourth in the rain-shortened Pennsylvania 400, rallying from a 31st-place starting position. It was his seventh top-five and 11th top-10 finish this season. The driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge moved up to seventh in the series standings, a gain of two positions. He’s just four points out of fifth.

And, Keselowski had a chance to win the race. In an effort to gain track position, crew chief Paul Wolfe put Keselowski on a different pit cycle than the majority of the field. The move worked perfectly, with Keselowski lining up third for what would be the final restart of the race on lap 90 of the scheduled 160 laps.

With an intense thunderstorm looming on the horizon, the race restarted with Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth leading the field to Turn 1. Johnson and Kenseth made contact and both cars slid up the track toward the outside wall, triggering a five-car pileup. Keselowski cleared the spinning duo by just a few inches and fortunately lost just one position in the skirmish.

NASCAR was unable to clear the accident ahead of the fast-approaching rain. As the cars circled the track under caution, a heavy rain began to fall, forcing the race under the red flag on lap 99. Moments after the cars were brought to a stop on pit road an intense storm hit the area and the event was called.

“It was a solid run,” Keselowski said. “I thought we had a shot at it. That last restart just didn’t get it done but that’s part of the deal. I think our tires were cooled off and I had a Dodge that was really fast on restarts. I was looking forward to it. We just never had a chance for it to play out. We had such a long yellow that everybody’s tires turned into junk and you know they (Johnson and Kenseth) were the first ones to get to the corner with junk tires. I think that’s just the way that it played out. That’s the way it goes.”

Sam Hornish Jr. turned in another solid performance in the No. 22 Shell/Pennzoil Dodge. Hornish started 25th and steadily gained positions throughout the race. He was credited with a 19th-place finish.

“I feel like we would have finished better if we had run the rest of the race,” said Hornish. “We were steadily working our way forward, passing some people, just need to get to the end, that’s all. Guys made good adjustments on the Shell/Pennzoil Dodge. We felt like we got better throughout the race.”

Todd Gordon, Hornish’s crew chief, said he took a calculated gamble to pit on lap 87 for four, thinking that they might be able to gain a few more spots before the rain came.

“I thought we’d have 10 minutes to go run 12 or 13 laps,” Gordon said. “We put tires on and thought we could slug our way up through there but that wreck down in Turn 1 kind of put an end to the day. Nineteenth is another step and we will continue to build off that.”

NSCS Driver Point Standings (21 of 36 races)
1. Dale Earnhardt Jr.  744
2. Matt Kenseth  -5
3. Greg Biffle  -6
4. Jimmie Johnson  -8
5. Martin Truex Jr.  -50
6. Tony Stewart  -53
7. BRAD KESELOWSKI  -54
8. Denny Hamlin  -61
9. Kevin Harvick  -64
10. Clint Bowyer  -65
11. Kasey Kahne  -122
12. Carl Edwards  -125


Race Results
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Pennsylvania 400
Pocono Raceway
Sunday, Aug. 5, 2012
1. Jeff Gordon
2. Kasey Kahne
3. Martin Truex Jr.
4. BRAD KESELOWSKI
5. Tony Stewart
6. Ryan Newman
7. Carl Edwards
8. Clint Bowyer
9. Regan Smith
10. Marcos Ambrose
19. SAM HORNISH JR.

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