NASCAR: Pocono 400 Results, Dale Earnhardt Jr. Wins

USA Today Sports

Dale Earnhardt Jr. locked himself definitively in the Chase by getting his second win of the season at Pocono Raceway today. Earnhardt clearly was not the fastest driver in the field (Keselowski and Stewart dominated for much of the race) but he took advantage of  Keselowski having to slow down after picking up debris on his grill and passed him with five laps to go, never letting him fight back again. The top-five was completed by Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin and by rookie Kyle Larson.

A lot of contenders had issues during the 400-mile race including Matt Kenseth, who ran into the back of Jamie McMurray’s car and destroyed the nose of his Toyota Camry, Jimmie Johnson who collided with Marcos Ambrose on pit road, Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick and Danica Patrick. Kasey Kahne and Carl Edwards were involved in a big crash with 18 laps to go with Kahne hitting the wall really hard in turn one probably because of fluid on the track and then colliding with Edwards, before taking another hard hit in the Tunnel turn. With his eighth place finish Jeff Gordon goes back atop of the points standings with a 16-point margin over Matt Kenseth. Here’s the running order of the Pocono 400:

Next weekend the Sprint Cup moves to Michigan, where Earnhardt won in 2012. With that in mind and with today’s win, the so-called Jr Nation will probably cheer for him even more than usual and, who knows, he could pull out another victory there.