LIVE
Badzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Welcome to another episode of the stock car scoop. I am your host Eric Schneck here with
no one. That's right. I am flying solo today to discuss the running of the great American
getaway 400 at the Pocono Raceway where once again Denny Hamlin in a most impressive stretch of races
once again wins at Pocono his third victory in a row. His third victory from the pole. He did not
have to go to the rear this time so he made it a little bit easier on himself but an impressive,
stretch of races for Denny Hamlin. But before we go ahead and dive in to looking at the
great American getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway, I want to talk a little bit about my day because
I attended Pocono Raceway as a fan. That's right. My first time back at the racetrack for a couple
races in two years since my little guy has been born. I was finally back at the racetrack today
and it was a fantastic, fantastic day. I'm recording this episode a little bit later than I normally
do. Normally I try to jump on as soon as the race is over but today I had to of course drive home
from Pocono Raceway which is a solid two and a half hour trip. So a fantastic, fantastic day at
Pocono Raceway. Great job moving the race forward. Two hours. Its original start time was three o'clock
on Saturday. NASCAR announced that it was going to have a new one o'clock start time due to inclement
weather and what a fantastic decision it was. A, because one o'clock starts are fantastic.
Love one o'clock starts. And B, the skies absolutely opened up. I had to actually pull off into a
rest area for a few minutes on the way home because it was absolutely torrentially dumping.
So thank you NASCAR for moving that race up. Thank you for having races in the West Coast for
the next two weeks to facilitate that move up and etc. So fantastic day at Pocono Raceway.
Amazing facility. Every time I go there I'm impressed by how much it's improved year after
year after year. Today is no different. Fantastic fan area. Fantastic pit paddock area.
Lord, food vendors for everything you could possibly imagine.
Just fantastic, fantastic day. The racetrack can't talk enough about how fantastic Pocono
Raceway is. So fantastic day. Great to go as a fan. Weird to not have anything to do professionally
at the racetrack for the first time in a very long time, but I was very, very, very glad to put my
fan hat on today. Anywho, once again, Danny Hamlin wins the Pocono, wins at Pocono Raceway. It was
the great American getaway 400 at the Pocono Raceway. As I mentioned, his third victory in a row,
his first ever time winning three races in a row for as talented as Danny Hamlin is. And for as long
as he's been in the sport, you would sort of assume that has happened already and it has not.
It is his first ever three-peat. Pocono Raceway was officially a sell-out, the fourth sell-out in
Pocono track history, rather the fourth consecutive sell-out in Pocono track history, as well as the
fourth consecutive sell-out for NASCAR. So NASCAR is absolutely crushing it lately.
Yeah, fantastic day at the racetrack. Danny Hamlin, three wins from the poll. Last two weeks,
he was sent to the rear, still won from the poll. This week did not have to go to the rear, still
managed to win. Danny has put an incredible dent into Tyler Reddick's point lead at one point.
At the beginning of the season, when Tyler Reddick was on his five-race run,
he was leading the points by over 100 points. After Danny's three-peat here, he has cut that
lead down to just 19. So Danny Hamlin is absolutely coming for that points lead,
that regular season points lead, because the chase will be here before you know it.
Speaking of impressive runs, if you thought Danny Hamlin was impressive, let's go ahead and give
a shout-out to the boys of Legacy Motor Club. That's probably not where you thought I was
going with that. Legacy Motor Club has had a fantastic couple of weeks. Fantastic. It's amazing
how good they've been. Eric Jones has been the star of that operation, and he was once again
fantastic again today. Started seventh, I believe, and finished sixth, which is a fantastic run
for Legacy Motor Club. However, the true star of Legacy today is the very unexpected John Hunter
Niemachek. John Hunter led three different times for a grand total of 42 laps that was the most
in the race, and he finished fourth. Fourth. No one, nobody saw that coming from John Hunter,
and he was jacked today. Yes, he was good in practice. Yes, he followed that up by a good
qualifying effort, but everybody assumed, and maybe not everybody, the vast majority of people
assumed he would fall back through the field like an anchor, and he did not. He held his own
impressive, impressive day for John Hunter Niemachek. A little bit discouraged post-race.
I listened to what Michael and Stefan had to say from the track, which we'll be getting to those
boys a little bit later on. John Hunter was a little bit upset, thought he could have a little
bit different pitch strategy. He would have been able to win today at Pocono, but still,
a fourth place finish with 42 laps led, I think is his best finish, and definitely the most laps
led in his career. Fantastic, fantastic day for both Eric Jones and John Hunter Niemachek. Now,
they have two weeks of difficulty. I would say, I don't think you look at either John Hunter or
Eric Jones, I consider they have a road course ringer, so to speak, and they have San Diego and
Sears Point next week. So, we're San Diego next week, and then Sears Point the weekend after. So,
it'd be difficult. Difficult two weeks for the Legacy Motor Club boys, but a fantastic,
fantastic run today at Pocono. Also, quick shout out to Denny Hamlin's Joe Gibb racing teammate,
Christopher Bell. C-Bell raced today at Pocono with a fractured wrist, and at one point,
looked like he was going to steal this thing, because him and his number 20 Joe Gibb racing
team was trying to stretch, fuel out an incredibly long distance. He was eventually overtaken by
Denny Hamlin for the various victory for a finish of 26th place. Like I said, not exactly the finish
he wanted, but a fantastic run there late, as well as really an impressive day with his wrist.
Everyone, sort of, not everybody again, I said everybody, I'm generalizing a ton of people.
His wrist was a storyline going into the weekend. Most people remember the incredible
hard hit he took last week at Michigan. The fact he was even racing today in Pocono was impressive.
The fact he made it through all 400 miles was impressive, and he had a chance, a real legitimate
chance to win late, late, late in the race. Fantastic day overall for Christopher Bell,
all things considered. Now, Pocono is the tricky triangle. Three turns, shifting, etc.
Next week, San Diego, the naval base, Coronado. Some people have called this the most technical
road course on the circuit. Will he be able to go next week at San Diego? Will he be able to go
the following week at Sears Point in Fingon? Whatever we're calling it. I don't know, and neither
does he, frankly. So that will be a storyline to watch throughout the week, because like I said,
Pocono is Pocono. Pocono is tricky, no pun intended, in and of itself with the shifting and the three
different turns with having the wrist, etc. San Diego is a whole other ball of wax. So we will see
if Christopher Bell is in the car. Next week, if he does the old start the race to get the points,
and then does a driver swap somewhere, etc. etc. Who knows what's going to happen? Definitely a
storyline to keep an eye on throughout this upcoming week. All right, that is it for my
bullet points. Now, let's head to frontstretch.com reporters, Stefan Stump and Michael Bellafemi,
where they will give their thoughts from a wet Pocono. Boys, take it away.
Hello, everyone, and welcome to Pocono Raceway. After the conclusion of today's great American
getaway 400, I'm Stephen Stump. He's Michael Bellafemi, we're reporters for frontstretch.com,
and the reason why we're doing this inside and not outside right now is because there's a massive
rainstorm that's going through the area right now, the same range from that moved the race up earlier,
and you know, props to NASCAR and Amazon for making the race happen. So we got all 160 laps in,
and it was a pretty good one, I'd say, pretty sharp one too. Denny Hamlin wins for the third
time in a row, and he started on pole for all three races, 64 wins in his career fourth the
season. He's cut the red X points lead to 19. I mean, he's just on the fire. Yeah, it was
long after the race, I knew where I started drizzling. So props to Amazon and NASCAR for
getting the race fully in. I thought the race was pretty good, it's just a typical Pocono race,
where a few mileage is important, track position is important. So Hamlin, he'd have to go to back
this time, so they did a little easier for him. But not only Hamlin continues to dominate, but the
Toyota is really dominated, I'd say, because Reddick got second, he had a late surge, and Hamlin won
a stage, and legacy almost won a stage, if not for Todd Gillon stretching the fuel in the second
stage, but then Brisk goes up there too. So it was really just another Toyota master class, if I
would say it. Yes, it was Reddick second, and Reddick and Hamlin have won now nine of the 16 races
this year, more than half. And then there was a couple of surprises for Toyota too, John
Hunter Nemechek finished fourth and led the most laps, Eric Jones finished sixth, he's now above
the chase cut line. Toyota continues to be strong, and you've got to talk to the legacy guys after
the race, what did they have to say? Yeah, I asked them both if they thought they had race winning cars,
Jones didn't think he had it, he thought he did pretty good for the result, he was satisfied with
it, and he's obviously happy to get back in the chase, he said it's been a while since he's been
in the playoff picture, legacy continues to grow, and then Nemechek said on the other hand,
like if he had clean air he thinks that he could have won it, he said that the strategy that he was
on, he had to take more fuel in the last green flag stuff, put him behind Hamlin and put him behind
Byron, so just wasn't able to get back up to first, but still tied his career high, and led his most
laps in his career, so those guys really strong runs. Yeah, also strong was William Byron finished
third when we weren't able to talk to him, but after a really miserable couple of months he
finally had a great run, and it looked like for a moment he could have won, because he was he and
Denny that were chasing down Christopher Bell, more on Bell later, but you know Byron and Hamlin
were the first two cars to go down fuel, and it looked like Byron was catching him, but then with
about 10 to go, Denny changed his line, and the 24-something in progress, you know after that,
for that, and as clearly the 11 was out front, the battle came down to him and his teammate,
Christopher Bell, obviously Bell, you know, was playing hard, had the had the broken wrist from
his terrifying Michigan crash a week ago, he called his performance, they kind of lackluster,
he said his wrist gave him, you know, his wrist luckily wasn't in pain, his wrist sometimes gave
him some pits like when he couldn't make like sharp maneuvers, but when he was running by himself,
it was fine, for him he just said, you know, to qualify, didn't qualify in the big pack, they
were just stuck in traffic, and just couldn't really make much out of it, but they tried to roll
the dice and go, you know, try and stretch the fuel, for a moment it looked like it might have
worked, but Denny catched him with five to go, and fortunately for Bell, he ran out with one to go,
and went from fourth to 26th, I mean, he wasn't too sad about it because it was like, it was a
kind of a halem-eric landing way, but man, another rough stop for them on the 20 to a sixth tour.
Yeah, they were kind of just mired and mid-packed, that's why they decided to gamble for it, and
because he just didn't have the speed, maybe he just didn't have the, he had the injury that he
couldn't get the most out of his car, but at first it seemed like they were trying to win it, but then
I saw that they kind of changed their plan, like, all right, Hamlin's gonna get to you, just sat over
third or fourth, and then I saw him drop behind Reddick, saw him drop behind Byron, I mean,
they'll get like fourth or fifth, and then like coming to the white, I see him coming up,
pit road, I guess he thought that he was going to make it, so that's a bummer for him, but
it kind of makes it look like, you know, if he didn't try to fuel gambling, he probably would
only finish like five or six spots higher than he did, so it's not the end of the world for him,
and he's, hopefully he could manage the road courses well, because those might be tough for him, but
missed opportunity, I wouldn't say missed opportunity, just a tough finish for him, and then Byron,
I think he got third in the All-Race yesterday, so that's a third place finish this week.
I think he'll win it, Pokon eventually, he's had a lot of good runs here,
surprisingly as we want to hear you add, he's still looking for the first one this year,
but he definitely needed a good points day after he fell off that last run last week in Michigan.
The chase has also become a pretty big topic, in particular with the cut line,
Eric Jones is that a massive surgeon last month and a half, and he's gone from 25th and points to
15th, he's now above it for the first time, you know, this year, on the other hand, going backwards
is Brackas Lasky, he started the year doing great, but then he's now at three D&Fs in a row, finished
last today, brutal, try for him, and he's now three points below it. Yeah, the forwards kind of
struggled again today, but especially RFK had some troubles, Brad had a cool box problem, I think
that's what it was diagnosed as, but he was way off the pace in qualifying, Priest had some struggles
too, and not only Brad had the wreck today, but Priest was kind of invisible, Bush had a top 10,
but Priest is like 30 points behind the cutoff now, because the penalty, so Priest is dropping
but he finished, but Brad got caught up in something that wasn't his fault, and he wrecked
in Michigan, I think he wrecked in Nashville, so he's been, like Priest kind of gave him the wreck
bug, I guess, because they're both having a lot of crashes, and now Brad's only four points behind
Jones and Cinder, could tie for the last two spots, and Priest has a little bit of climbing to do, but
still a lot of time left in the turnaround. Yeah, Chris Buescher finished the top 10, but that's
about the only good bright spot for RFK this weekend, they've had a pretty run month, but
that kind of covers everything from the opening of this weekend, but next weekend is going to be
the fun part, we were going to San Diego at Naval Base Coronado, can be I think one of the most
unique and fun races we've had in a long time, what are your thoughts on that one? I'm excited
to get to do an all new unknown track that no one's ever, it's kind of like, reminds me of the
inaugural Chicago race, because no one had a notebook on it, Chase Briscoe said in a press
yesterday, they called the most technical course he's ever ran in practice, and I talked to SCG
really briefly in the bullpen, and he said that he hasn't actually, I don't think he's practiced
yet, so like maybe if he has late practice, maybe there's a shot someone else could beat him, plus
it's a new track, so he has no laps on it, everyone else has no laps on it, kind of seems like a
great equal either compared to Sonomo, which I think he would be more of a favorite at, but
we'll see how it goes, I'll definitely be tuning in and watching, and I'm looking forward to see
the like the backdrop of it, it's gonna be really cool. Yeah, it's gonna be a great race, it might be
a wild card, obviously, SCG will be a favorite, but as we've seen before in three courses, you know,
anything can happen, although what's usually happened is an SCG win, but we still have to wait
and see, that's why we're running the races, and it's gonna be a good one, and also speaking of
at the San Diego and Bell, Bell wasn't, you know, wasn't able to say, yeah, I'm gonna be racing at
San Diego, but he said, you know, he's not, he's doing fairly well, just gonna play it, you know,
as the week goes on, so we'll see if he's there too, if he needs another relief driver, Brandon
Jones was on standby just in case for Bokeh, and I would like he ended up being fine around 400 miles,
but that's all for today, we had, I think we had a very great weekend, I'm glad we avoided the rain,
and you know, hope you guys enjoyed it, and see you guys at San Diego for a great one.
All right, we are back, thank you Stefan and Michael, like you witnessed in that video,
they did that video, and they did their PRC rather inside today, rather than the normal
TraxhyPRC PRC, because once again, the heavens opened up, not too long after the checkered flag
dropped, and it was some crazy rain in, so I'm not sure how crazy it was in Pocono, but
coming home from Pocono, it was pretty, pretty gnarly, so thank you boys for working with the
elements there, and you know, we get that video done, I much appreciate it. Next week, like I
mentioned, San Diego Naval Base Coronado, no one knows what to expect, right? I think the
lead thought going into this is of course, Shane Van Gisburg, it will be the odds on favorite,
not that this is a gambling show, but what will he open up at on the Vegas books, definitely be
probably minus 125, minus 150, will he be minus 200, who knows, but everyone thinks it will be the
Shane Van Gisburg and show next week, will Connor Zillich finally have a great day? He once again,
struggle today was caught up in an accident, not of his doing, that kid needs a good performance,
and he's going to San Diego next week, where everybody should be on the equal playing field,
and his road course abilities should elevate him above the majority of the field,
and then the following week at Sears Point, now, the majority of the cup roster has a lot of laps
at Sears Point, so he does not have any kind of advantage besides his natural course ability
at Sears Point, however, he needs some kind of positivity from this race season, something, and
San Diego is his first chance to get it in a very, very long time, so while all eyes will be on
Shane Van Gisburg, Tyler Reddick, William Byron, et cetera, I'm going to be keeping a close eye
on Connor Zillich to see how he handles everything, to see if he can put together a complete whole
good solid day, because man, he needs it. Anyway, that's going to be it for me here for the stock
car scoop. Next week after San Diego, we will be back with our regular format of immediate post-race
reactions, myself and a co-host yet to be named. Thank you once again for listening to another
episode of the stock car scoop. See ya.
you
0:00
22:16