Long Pond, Pa. – Brandon Jones took home a trophy and sent a car to the trash in about an hour in Pocono.
Jones won a two-lap sprint to finish to win the leftover Truck Series race, the first of three NASCAR races on Sunday at Pocono Raceway.
It is the first time that three NASCAR National Series races have been held on the same track on the same day. It will be the fifth time that three races of the National Series will be held on the same day, but they were on different tracks.
The truck race was rained on Saturday, forcing it to pass at dawn on Sunday. The second level Xfinity Series and Cup races will follow. Kevin Harvick looks for Cup wins on consecutive days at Pocono.
Jones’ enjoyment was short-lived: he sank on the first lap of the Xfinity Series race.
“It doesn’t take much when you’re three wide,” Jones said. “We won the Truck race and I also had high hopes for this race.”
The Truck race never had momentum and was dragged from start to finish due to nine caution flags and two red flags on a sloppy racing day in Pocono. Clint Bowyer prepared for his Cup career with a jog on the track when the Trucking race began and tweeted on the waning laps: “There is a good chance that he can still get through this trucking race.”
Bowyer could have had the longest race of the day.
Christian Eckes blew out a right rear tire that took him out of the lead with 12 laps remaining, ending his career. The green flag went out with eight laps remaining, only to have the race drop again three laps later when the ninth caution of the 60-lap race grabbed the field.
That left two laps to go before the traditional green-white checkered finish, and Jones made a mess when he quickly walked away from Sheldon Creed to win his first Truck race in 46 career starts and his first start since last season. He had 13 results in the top five in the Truck Series, only he never went checkered.
“We finally made it,” said Jones. “We have been close in the past.”
Jones drives the No. 51 Toyota for Kyle Busch Motorsports, the dominant team in the series, and got some advice on how to handle his championship owner’s tri-oval track after Saturday’s Cup race.
“It really isn’t that much pressure, honestly,” Jones said. “I think there is so much to [Busch] He provides us We all had a call with him last night after the Cup race and he gave us so much information that it led to this victory today. It is a group effort and I cannot do it alone. I have to have all those things to put the pieces together. “
Austin Hill was second. Creed, who won the first two stages, was third.
The race had a couple of big accidents within 10 laps that gave the drivers a wake-up call from the start of the morning. Three-time series champion Matt Crafton and Codie Rohrbaugh hit the wall on lap one of lap one. Austin Wayne Self and Raphael Lessard also hit the wall and that raised the red flag for an extensive cleanup.
The caution flag went off again when Ty Majeski crashed hard entering the first turn to pull out the third caution flag with just 12 laps. SAFER energy absorbing barriers were used throughout the race.
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