2020 Pocono 350

The 2020 Pocono 350 was a NASCAR Cup Series race held on June 28, 2020 at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. Contested over 140 laps on the 2.5 mi triangular racecourse, it was the 15th race of the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Entry list

 * (R) denotes rookie driver.
 * (i) denotes driver who are ineligible for series driver points.

Qualifying
Ryan Preece was awarded the pole for the race as determined by the top 20 from Saturday's finishing order inverted.

Stage 1
As the cars hit the track for warm-up laps storm clouds threatened. A lightning strike in the area brought the field back to pit road where they were parked and made to wait until the potential danger passed.

After about a 45-minute delay cars returned to the track, no rain fell on the racing surface. Kurt Busch got a big push from Cole Custer to drive off into Turn 1 with the lead. The yellow flag came out on Lap 3 with raindrops falling on the track. The red flag was displayed on Lap 6.

After a 51 minute delay, cars were back on the track. It will take 70 laps today for the race to be official, darkness may be the biggest threat to completing all 140 laps. The race restarted with 12 laps in the books with Kurt Busch and Ryan Blaney fighting for the lead. Busch stayed in the top spot.

Michael McDowell spun and crashed into the wall bringing out the caution on Lap 15, his car was destroyed and was taken to the garage. Fortunately, the remainder of the field missed getting caught up in the incident.

On the restart, Busch again held off Blaney and he drove to the Stage win. Kevin Harvick, yesterday’s winner worked his way into the top 5 by the end of the Stage.

Stage 2
The top 6 did not pit under the stage ending caution. This time on the restart, Blaney grabbed the lead. On Lap 38 Christopher Bell spun and backed into the wall bringing out the caution. This allowed drivers who had not pitted previously to come in for service.

Back under green for only a lap, Chris Buescher spun coming out of Turn 3 onto the front stretch and backed his car into the wall. Just as Saturday’s race developed, many different pit strategies are being employed with teams looking for any advantage they can find.

Blaney, Truex, and Kyle Busch have yet to visit pit road as the race goes back to green 51 laps in. Denny Hamlin and Bubba Wallace round out the top 5. Blaney pitted on Lap 58, Truex followed on the next lap, and Kyle Busch came in on Lap 60.

The new top 5 was Hamlin, Harvick, Matt DiBenedetto, Chase Elliott, and Brad Keselowski. Passing the halfway point the race became official, darkness still threatens the ability to run all 140 laps.

With 10 laps to go in the Stage Kyle Busch wrecked while racing Blaney for a position, they touched fenders and Busch went around.

The race restarted with 6 laps remaining in Stage 2, Keselowski and Aric Almirola led the field back to the green flag. A lap later, Ryan Preece spun off Turn 1 bringing out the 8th caution of the day.

With just 2 laps to go the cars sprinted to the finish of the Stage. Keselowski won the dash with Almirola coming in 2nd and Ryan Newman 3rd.

The Final Stage
Keselowski and Newman stayed out during the Stage ending caution to lead the field back to the restart. As drivers scrambled for positions, Keselowski pulled away to a slight advantage.

Keselowski pitted with 46 laps to go, turning the lead over to Harvick. Hamlin, Elliott, Kurt Busch, and Erik Jones filled out the rest of the top 5. With 40 laps to go the fuel window opened so that a fill-up would allow cars to finish the race and green flag stops began through the field.

Hamlin opted to stay out and stretch his fuel mileage as much as possible, hoping to pit for a splash of fuel near the end. A quick pit stop might allow him to retain the lead. Harvick who is good to go on fuel runs in the 6th spot 33 seconds behind Hamlin.

Hamlin pitted with 21 laps to go, Truex inherited the lead, Hamlin with his quick stop held onto 2nd with Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in 3rd, Harvick 4th, and Austin Dillon in 5th place. Truex pitted with 15 to go leaving the Hamlin and Harvick to sort things out for the win, Hamlin led by 2.4 seconds.

With 10 laps to go, Hamlin had stretched the lead to over 3 seconds. With 5 to go Harvick had cut the lead a full second, but laps were running out. Hamlin had to deal with some lapped traffic during the closing laps but was able to stay out of trouble and lock up the win, his 6th at the “Tricky Triangle.” Harvick finished 2nd and Erik Jones drove a solid race to take 3rd place at the checkered flag.

Stage Results
Stage One Laps: 30

Stage Two Laps: 55

Final Stage Results
Stage Three Laps: 55

Race statistics

 * Lead changes: 12 among 8 different drivers
 * Cautions/Laps: 8 for 32
 * Red flags: 1 for 50 minutes and 50 seconds
 * Time of race: 2 hours, 50 minutes and 54 seconds
 * Average speed: 122.879 mph

Television
Fox Sports televised the race in the United States on FS1. Mike Joy and six-time Pocono winner Jeff Gordon will cover the race from the Fox Sports studio in Charlotte. Jamie Little handled the pit road duties. Larry McReynolds provided insight from the Fox Sports studio in Charlotte.

Radio
MRN had the radio call for the race which was also simulcast on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio. Alex Hayden, Jeff Striegle and Rusty Wallace called the race in the booth when the field raced through the tri-oval. Dave Moody called the race from the Sunoco spotters stand outside turn 2 when the field raced through turns 1 and 2. Mike Bagley called the race from a platform inside the backstretch when the field raced down the backstretch. Kurt Becker called the race from the Sunoco spotters stand outside turn 4 when the field raced through turns 3 and 4. Steve Post and Kim Coon worked pit road for the radio side.

Standings after the race

 * Drivers' Championship standings


 * Manufacturers' Championship standings


 * Note: Only the first 16 positions are included for the driver standings.
 * . – Driver has clinched a position in the NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.