2018 Gander Outdoors 400

The 2018 Gander Outdoors 400 is a Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race held on July 29, 2018 at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. Contested over 164 laps -- extended from 160 laps due to an overtime finish, on the 2.5 mi superspeedway, it was the 21st race of the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season.

Background
Pocono Raceway is a superspeedway located in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania at Long Pond. It is the site of two annual NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races held in early June and late July/early August, one NASCAR Xfinity Series event in early June, one NASCAR Camping World Truck Series event in late July/early August, and two ARCA Racing Series races in early June and late July/early August. From 1971 to 1989, and again since 2013, the track has also hosted an Indy Car race, currently sanctioned by the IndyCar Series and run in August.

Pocono is one of a very few NASCAR tracks not owned by either Speedway Motorsports, Inc. or International Speedway Corporation, the dominant track owners in NASCAR. It is run by the Igdalsky siblings Brandon and Nicholas, both of whom are third-generation members of the family-owned Mattco Inc, started by Joseph II and Rose Mattioli. Mattco also owns South Boston Speedway in South Boston, Virginia.

Outside of the NASCAR races, Pocono is used throughout the year by Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) and motorcycle clubs as well as racing schools. The triangular oval also has three separate infield sections of racetrack – North Course, East Course and South Course. Each of these infield sections use a separate portion of the tri-oval to complete the track. During regular non-race weekends, multiple clubs can use the track by running on different infield sections. Also some of the infield sections can be run in either direction, or multiple infield sections can be put together – such as running the North Course and the South Course and using the tri-oval to connect the two.

First practice
Kevin Harvick was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 51.439 seconds and a speed of 174.965 mph.

Final practice
Joey Logano was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 51.029 seconds and a speed of 176.370 mph.

Qualifying
Daniel Suárez scored the pole for the race with a time of 50.851 and a speed of 176.988 mph after Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch were both disqualified after failing post-qualifying inspection.

Qualifying results

 * Kevin Harvick and Kyle Busch will start from the rear after both cars failed post-qualifying inspection, leaving Daniel Suárez as the polesitter. Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, William Byron, Austin Dillon, Jimmie Johnson, Paul Menard, Ryan Blaney, Aric Almirola, Clint Bowyer, Darrell Wallace Jr. and Kasey Kahne also failed post-qualifying inspection. All 13 cars that failed the post-qualifying inspection will start at the rear.


 * Gray Gaulding practiced and qualified the No. 15 for Ross Chastain who was in Iowa for the Xfinity Series race. Chastain will start at the rear due to Driver Change.

Stage 1
At the start, Harvick, Blaney, and Johnson advanced 11 positions on the first lap of the race. By Lap 9 Harvick moved into the top 10. He trailed the leader Suarez by 8 seconds.

The 50 lap Stage converts to 125 miles. Requiring a pit stop during the course of the Stage. With teams on several different pit stop strategies Chase Elliott(9) was the surprise winner of Stage 1. Harvick finished 2nd.

Stage 2
The pit strategy worked perfectly for Byron, Michigan native Erik Jones. On the restart, he jumped to the lead. Elliott and Harvick moved past Truex Jr. But, Jones continued to lead. Elliott’s car bobbled slightly and Harvick passed him for 2nd. On lap 65 Harvick passed Jones for the lead. After starting in 29th place he returned to the front of the field after 162 miles of the 400 scheduled to be run.

On Lap 82, Corey LaJoie(72) spun in turn 3 to bring out the first accident related caution of the day. Again, because of the varied pit stop strategies, some drivers chose to stay on the track during the yellow flag laps. On the restart, it was Harvick again at the front. Elliott restarted 2nd, Kyle Busch 3rd, and Jones 4th.

After last week's finish at New Hampshire where Harvick bumped Kyle Busch out of the lead, Busch said: “how you race is how you get raced.” The end of Stage 2 saw Harvick in 1st and Busch passing Elliott to move into second.

Ultimately Harvick pulled away to eliminate any “end of Stage drama.” Then Kyle Busch pitted from 2nd place prior to the end of the Stage as teams continued to make interesting strategic moves.

Harvick won the Stage along with the Playoff Point that comes with a Stage win.

Final Stage
With a field jumbled by teams trying a number of different pit sequences, the Final Stage started with a number of cars in contention for the win. At the 50 laps to go mark Kyle Busch led and Harvick was working his way through traffic moving towards the front of the field.

With 40 laps to go, Keselowski lost a right rear tire and spun out in turn 2. After backing the car into the wall the team ultimately retired the #2 Ford to the garage. Almost the entire field pitted for tires and fuel for the sprint to the finish. Harvick and teammate Almirola made slight contact on pit road. The incident caused Harvick to return to the pits for minor body repairs. It did relegate Harvick to the rear of the field.

Kyle Busch took the restart green flag from the 1st position. Suarez, Elliott, Kasey Kahne(95), and Hamlin round out the top 5. Back to racing with 28 laps to go. Kyle Busch easily takes the lead and begins to drive away from the pack. Not wanting to allow anyone near his bumper for a repeat of last week, Bush stretches the lead to over 2 seconds. Baring a late caution the race is all but decided.

With 7 laps to go Bubba Wallace(43) suffers a catastrophic brake failure. A caliper in the front of the car explodes and he loses all front braking going into turn 1. Wallace drives through the grass to scrub off speed. Still, he impacts the turn 1 wall with the passenger side at tremendous speed. The crash brings out the red flag and stops the race as they attend to Bubba and clean up the mess.

Fortunately, Wallace escapes with only bumps and bruises. Unfortunately for Kyle Busch, the wreck brings all of his competitors back to his rear bumper.

When the race restarts, Kyle Busch again pulls away to a significant lead. Almirola brings out the yellow with a spin 2 laps from the finish. The race was gone into overtime and Kyle Busch faced another restart.

This time Jones pushes Suarez as the green flag waves. It appears Suarez pulls even with Busch as they drive towards turn 1. Jones dips low and goes 3 wide with his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates. His attempt to pass Suarez kills both cars momentum. Busch pulls away for the win. Suarez recovers to finish 2nd. Alex Bowman(88) takes 3rd. With Harvick coming back for a 4th place finish, Jones ends up in 5th.

The win tied Busch with Tony Stewart on the Cup Series all-time win list with 49 victories each.

Playoff Battle
Bowman’s 3rd place finish strengthed his hold on the 16th and final playoff position. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.(17) and Paul Menard(21) are tied for 17th, 56 points behind Bowman. There are 5 races left before the playoffs and next week is the road course at Watkins Glen.

Stage Results
Stage 1 Laps: 50

Stage 2 Laps: 50

Final Stage Results
Stage 3 Laps: 60

Race statistics

 * Lead changes: 10 among different drivers
 * Cautions/Laps: 7 for 29
 * Red flags: 1 for 10 minutes and 10 seconds
 * Time of race: 3 hours, 5 minutes and 43 seconds
 * Average speed: 132.460 mph

Television
NBC Sports covered the race on the television side. Rick Allen, Jeff Burton, Steve Letarte and two-time Pocono winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. had the call in the booth for the race. Dave Burns, Marty Snider and Kelli Stavast reported from pit lane during the race.

Radio
Motor Racing Network had the radio call for the race, which was simulcast on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.

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 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series playoffs.