Event statistics following the 14th race of the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season, the Pocono 400 at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pennsylvania.
Martin Truex Jr. earned his second victory of the 2018 season, leading 31 laps to beat Kyle Larson by 2.496 seconds. Truex also earned a stage victory, his third of the season. Points leader Kyle Busch was third, while Kevin Harvick – who led a race-high 89 laps – was fourth and Brad Keselowski fifth.
Pocono 400
Pocono Raceway – Long Pond, Pennsylvania
- Winner (starting position): Martin Truex Jr. (4th)
- Top Five: Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski
- Full Results: Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Brad Keselowski, Ryan Blaney, Aric Almirola, Jimmie Johnson, Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Paul Menard, Austin Dillon, Matt Kenseth, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Jamie McMurray, David Ragan, Chris Buescher, William Byron, Kurt Busch, Clint Bowyer, Michael McDowell, A.J. Allmendinger, Ty Dillon, Daniel Suarez, Ryan Newman, Cole Custer, Alex Bowman, Ross Chastain, Erik Jones, Cole Whitt, Landon Cassill, J.J. Yeley, Gray Gaulding, Derrike Cope, Denny Hamlin, Kasey Kahne, Matt DiBenedetto, Darrell Wallace Jr.
- Average Speed: 139.535 mph
- Laps Completed: 160
- Race Leaders: 7
- Laps Led: Kevin Harvick (89), Martin Truex Jr. (31), Kyle Busch (13), Ryan Blaney (11), Brad Keselowski (10), Darrell Wallace Jr. (4), Jimmie Johnson (2)
- Pole Position: Ryan Blaney (176.897 mph; 50.877 seconds)
- Hard Charger: Aric Almirola (+27; 34th to 7th)
- Margin of Victory: 2.496 seconds
- Car Count: 38
- Cars Entered: 40
- Cars Running at Finish: 34 (of 38; or 89 percent of the field)
- Drivers to Finish on Lead Lap: 27
- Cautions: 6 for 23 laps
- Lead Changes: 11
- Stage Winners: Martin Truex Jr. (1), Kevin Harvick (2)
- Manufacturer Breakdown: Chevrolet (18); Ford (14); Toyota (6)
Notes of Interest – Race/Weekend Recap
- This was the 81st Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Pocono Raceway.
- This is Martin Truex Jr.’s second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2018 season and the 17th of his career. This is his second win at Pocono; he also won the first Pocono race during the 2015 season.
- Overall, Truex now has 30 victories between his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series and Xfinity Series careers.
- Truex is the third driver to win multiple Cup Series races this season. Kevin Harvick has a season-leading five victories, while Kyle Busch has four wins. Austin Dillon, Clint Bowyer and Joey Logano have one victory apiece.
- This is the third consecutive season Truex has earned multiple Cup Series victories; he won a series-high eight races in 2017, and four races in 2016. Overall, Truex has victories in six different seasons.
- This is Truex’s fourth top-three finish of the season, as well as ninth top-five and ninth top-10 finish of the season.
- This is Truex’s third victory on an oval track measuring two miles or more. In addition to his two Pocono wins, he also won on the two-mile Auto Club Speedway in March.
- Truex won from the fourth starting position, marking the first time he’s won from fourth and fifth time he’s won from the second row (won after starting third four times). It also marks the first time a driver has won a race this season after starting fourth, and the first time a driver has won from fourth since Kyle Larson won the 2017 fall race at Richmond International Raceway.
- This is the second consecutive spring race at Pocono that a driver has won from fourth (Ryan Blaney won from fourth in the June 2017 race) and the ninth time a driver has started fourth and won.
- Truex led 31 laps, and has led nine races for a total of 308 laps (fifth most laps led among all drivers this season).
- This is Truex’s 15th Cup Series victory with Furniture Row Racing and the 15th of his career driving a Chevrolet. Fourteen of the wins have been in a Furniture Row Toyota.
- In addition to his 17th win, Truex also now has 76 top fives and 169 top 10s in 455 Cup Series races.
- Through 14 events, Truex has an average finish of 10.93, which is the fourth best among all drivers this season and second best among Toyota drivers (Kyle Busch is best overall and among Toyota drivers at 7.57).
- This is the 400th race in which Truex was running at the finish.
- This is Furniture Row Racing’s second Cup Series victory of the season and the 16th in team history. Fifteen of those 16 wins have come with Truex behind the wheel (Regan Smith is the only other driver to win for the team, at Darlington Raceway in 2011).
- This is Toyota’s second consecutive win and sixth victory of 2018 – four with Joe Gibbs Racing and two with Furniture Row Racing. Ford continues to lead all manufacturers in victories with seven this season.
- Kyle Larson finished second, his third runner-up finish this season. Like Truex, it marked Larson’s fourth top-three finish and ninth top-10 result of 2018, as well as fifth top-five finish of the season.
- It marks Larson’s best career finish at Pocono, and second top-five finish in nine races at the two-and-a-half mile track.
- Larson gave Chevrolet its highest-finishing result since Chase Elliott finished second at Richmond International Raceway.
- Kyle Busch finished third, his series-leading ninth top-three finish of the season, ninth top-five and 11 top-10 result of 2018.
- Kevin Harvick was fourth, the highest-finishing Ford driver. It marks his 10th top-five and 11th top-10 finish of the season.
- Harvick led a race-high 89 laps, the fourth race in 14 this season that he led the most laps of a race.
- The next two drivers came from the Team Penske stable. Brad Keselowski finished fifth, his fourth top-five finish of the season and second in a row.
- Polesitter and defending June Pocono race winner Ryan Blaney was sixth, his eighth top 10 of the season. This marks the second pole of the season for Blaney and fourth of his career, as well as first at Pocono and first on a track larger than a mile-and-a-half.
- Aric Almirola finished seventh. He advanced 27 positions, from the 34th starting position, and has now advanced the most positions in a race five times this season; no other driver has accomplished the feat more than twice (Jimmie Johnson has advanced the most positions in two races).
- Jimmie Johnson was eighth, his sixth top-10 finish of the season. It marked his first finish at Pocono since the second race at the track in 2016 (crashed in both of the 2017 races), and first time he’s completed 160 laps at Pocono since the second race of the 2015 season.
- Joey Logano was ninth, his 11th top-10 finish of the season. Logano completed his 12th race in 14 starts this season on the lead lap, tied for the most of any driver (Kyle Busch), and has finished 4,460 out of 4,462 laps this season.
- Chase Elliott finished 10th, his seventh top-10 finish of the season.
- Matt Kenseth (13th) and Derrike Cope (34th) earned season-best finishes at Pocono.
- Alex Bowman finished 27th, the final driver to finish on the lead lap.
- Darrell Wallace Jr. finished last (38th), the first time he’s finished last in a Cup Series race and his first retirement in 19 career Cup Series races (completed 108 laps before he retired with engine problems). Wallace led seven laps, marking the second time this season the last-place finisher led laps in a race (Michael McDowell finished last at Las Vegas Motor Speedway after leading 11 laps).
- A total of seven drivers led the race, trading the lead 11 times.
- A total of 27 drivers finished on the lead lap, the most of any race this season.
- A total of 22 drivers improved on their starting position in the race.
- A total of 34 cars finished the race.
- The next Cup Series race will be Sunday, June 10, with the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Michigan.
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