Harvick takes truck win at Pocono
It may have taken two days, but Kevin Harvick claimed the win in the Good Sam RV emergency Road Service 125 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa., on Sunday morning.
The race took the green flag on Saturday afternoon, but rain halted the racing action after 17 laps were completed. The race resumed on Sunday morning, with 33 scheduled laps remaining to decide the winner. Kyle Busch finished second, James Buescher was third, Johnny Sauter fourth, and Austin Dillon rounded out the top-five.
Most trucks pitted under the final caution on Saturday, just before the red flag came out for rain. Six drivers, though, including Parker Kligerman, opted to stay out. As a result, Kligerman restarted in the top spot when the racing action resumed on Sunday.
Most of the trucks that pitted just before the red flag on Saturday pitted again prior to Sunday’s restart to top off their fuel. Harvick didn’t pit at all on Sunday and went into fuel conservation mode for all of Sunday’s laps.
“The truck was so fast, that I was able to get out there and really conserve fuel,” Harvick said after the race.
Busch pitted again and took two fresh tires during a caution that came out for debris with 20 laps to go. On two newer tires, he made his way back up through the field and was in the second spot soon after the race restarted from a caution that came out with nine laps to go.
By that time, Harvick had pulled out to a sizeable lead, but his cushion was diminished when the final caution came out after a Todd Bodine spin with two laps to go.
That final caution set the race up for a green-white-checker attempt -- a two-lap sprint to the finish, with Harvick and Busch restarting side-by-side on the front row. Despite being on older tires, Harvick got out in front of Busch on the restart and pulled away.
With his fourth-place finish, Sauter maintained his spot as series points leader. He increased his margin to five points over Dillon, adding a single point to his lead over the fifth-place race finisher.
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Photo: Kevin Harvick (No. 2) leads the field to the green flag at Pocono Raceway (photo courtesy of NASCAR Media).
