{"id":27833,"date":"2016-06-06T16:23:51","date_gmt":"2016-06-06T23:23:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/?p=27833"},"modified":"2016-06-06T16:55:12","modified_gmt":"2016-06-06T23:55:12","slug":"kurt-busch-wins-nascar-sprint-cup-axalta-400-in-fuel-saving-finish","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/kurt-busch-wins-nascar-sprint-cup-axalta-400-in-fuel-saving-finish\/","title":{"rendered":"Kurt Busch Wins NASCAR Sprint Cup Axalta 400 in Fuel Saving Finish"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Kurt
Kurt Busch, driver of the #41 Monster Energy\/Haas Automation Chevrolet, celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Axalta “We Paint Winners” 400 at Pocono Raceway on June 6, 2016 in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Sarah Crabill\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Kurt Busch has never been known as a \u2018light foot\u2019.\u00a0 It\u2019s a good thing he decided to ease off his throttle on Monday because it was the only way for him to win the Axalta \u2018We Paint Winners\u2019 400 at Pocono Raceway on a fuel mileage run with Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Brad Keselowski breathing down his neck.<\/p>\n

Interim crew chief, John Klausmeier, (replacing Tony Gibson for a single race suspension due to\u00a0a lug nut violation), earned\u00a0the nickname \u2018Johnny Gunslinger\u2019 by bringing in this win during his debut on top of the pit box.\u00a0 The tension was thick in the Stewart-Haas No. 41 pit area with Klausmeier reassuring Busch that they\u00a0had just enough fuel to take the win, his\u00a028th<\/sup>\u00a0 career victory.<\/p>\n

With\u00a033 laps left on the last restart, Busch asked \u2018are we good?\u2019 His team told him they needed two laps to make it to the finish.<\/p>\n

“I was like, \u2018whoa, how many laps shy are we?\u2019” Busch said. \u00a0“They said two. \u00a0These are really long straightaways at Pocono, and you have to manage saving fuel as well as maintaining lap time. \u00a0So many thoughts can go through your head, but I just stuck with the checklist with saving fuel and watching the No. 88 (Earnhardt) behind us.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"NASCAR
Brad Keselowski, driver of the #2 Miller Lite Ford, and Joey Logano, driver of the #22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, lead the field to the green flag to start the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Axalta “We Paint Winners” 400 at Pocono Raceway on June 6, 2016 in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jonathan Ferrey\/NASCAR via Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For most of the race, it looked like rookie Chase Elliott could have found his key to winning his first race, leading for 51 laps.\u00a0 His Hendrick Motorsports Chevy appeared at times as the class of the field, running high and low and frustrating the competition.\u00a0 He led more laps on Monday than he has in his previous 19 events, taking a\u00a0lot away from this race that he will revisit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe certainly had one of our best days of the year, personally,\u201d said Elliott. \u00a0\u201cI thought for us to be able to contend and lead laps all day and have a car that could fight for the lead the majority of the day I thought was great. \u00a0Obviously, I made a big mistake there behind Dale in the tunnel after that restart. \u00a0I wish I had been a little more patient and given ourselves a better chance, but you live and you learn.\u201d<\/p>\n

Brad Keselowski rebounded from an odd pit road penalty that cost him a trip down the pit road.\u00a0 His jackman earned it pushing the side body panel inward which NASCAR quickly noticed and addressed the issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were able to drive back up there towards the end and thought we had a lot of speed, just every car I would pass would take 10, 15 laps just being stuck in the wake,\u201d said Keselowski.\u00a0 \u201cIt’s just part of it, I guess. \u00a0All in all, a pretty decent weekend for us, and I’m proud of that effort to run up front and to have another solid weekend. \u00a0We’ve had a lot of those lately, and it doesn’t go unnoticed by me. \u00a0I’m really proud of my team for those efforts. \u00a0We just want to keep it going and want to turn them into wins.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Kurt
Kurt Busch, driver of the #41 Monster Energy\/Haas Automation Chevrolet, leads Dale Earnhardt Jr., driver of the #88 Axalta Chevrolet, during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Axalta “We Paint Winners” 400 at Pocono Raceway on June 6, 2016 in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

It was a hard luck weekend for Kevin Harvick.\u00a0 He had a viable car to run up front leading for nine laps, but was relegated to the back for an early speeding penalty and then the caution fell at the wrong time putting him in the back again, just as he was going to make his green flag stop.\u00a0 He finished ninth.<\/p>\n

Michigan is up next for the Sprint Cup series and with the lower down force package, speeds will be exceptional.\u00a0 Tune in.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following a rough weekend of rain delays, Kurt Buscho wraps up the NASCAR Sprint Cup Axalta 400 at Pocono Raceway with a win.<\/p>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":27834,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3424,3470,22],"tags":[4067,1434,2844,127,2843,4406,4562],"class_list":["post-27833","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","category-news","category-event-coverage","tag-2016-nascar-sprint-cup-series","tag-dale-earnhardt-jr","tag-kurt-busch","tag-nascar","tag-pocono-raceway","tag-race-results","tag-stock-car"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/PR_NSCS_KuBusch_VL2_060616-Feature.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p42YSK-7eV","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27833","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27833"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27833\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27840,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27833\/revisions\/27840"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27834"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27833"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27833"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.racingjunk.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27833"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}