Race winner Matt Kenseth to Dave Burns on outlasting the field: “I never thought I would ever win at Pocono, and I never ever thought I would win a fuel mileage race. We did both today.”
Kyle Busch to Mike Massaro on his first loss in four races: “Man that is a bummer…We went for broke today and came up a little bit short.”
Steve Letarte on fuel strategy: “We talk about pit strategy and fuel strategy. It is not always clear who is going to be the winner. A lot can happen in two and a half miles.”
Jeff Burton on Kyle Busch’s run for a win: “When you have been winning races, and you have a shot to win it, you don’t want to give that up.”
Long Pond, Pa. – August 2, 2015 – NBCSN presented NASCAR Sprint Cup Racing from Pocono Raceway this afternoon. Inside the NBCSN broadcast booth, race announcer Rick Allen, 21-time Sprint Cup winning driver Jeff Burton, and Daytona 500-winning crew chief Steve Letarte called the action. Working the pits were NBCSN reporters Marty Snider, Kelli Stavast, Mike Massaro and Dave Burns.
In the final lap at Pocono Raceway Matt Kenseth secured his second victory of the year, passing race leaders Joey Logano and Kyle Busch in a thrilling finish. In a game of fuel conservation, Kenseth proved he could outlast the field.
| Position | Driver | Car # |
| 1 | Matt Kenseth | 20 |
| 2 | Brad Keselowski | 2 |
| 3 | Jeff Gordon | 24 |
| 4 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 88 |
| 5 | Greg Biffle | 16 |
The following are highlights from today’s NASCAR Sprint Cup race coverage on NBCSN.
Burton on Kasey Kahne hitting the inside wall, knocking it down: “We saw this Saturday in practice, something almost identical. We talked about how rare it is and now it’s happened twice in two days.”
Burton on Kasey Kahne after his pit road crash: “He’s almost stunned. He can’t believe that happened, he’d never done anything like that before. When you’re going down the angle that he was going and you’re seeing people approaching at that rate of speed, that has to scare you to death.”
Letarte on the Chase point system: “That’s what makes this playoff system so exciting. That red line that we want to put up underneath sixteenth. That is a moving target. Every new winner we have moves that red line up and down.”
Stavast on Keselowski’s driving through his pit box: “This is a disastrous stop for Brad Keselowski. He went through his pit stall. He didn’t hear Paul Wolfe, his crew chief, call him in the lap before so they are a lap behind. And now just disaster as he went through his pit box and saw the crew member get hit and a tire go flying. They have had issues with pit stops before.”
Letarte on Keselowski’s stray tire on pit road: “All these crew chiefs are expecting a caution…so when we talk about strategy and trying to go into pit road, you want to be on pit road before the caution comes out...that’s just a veteran call.”
Letarte on the first half of the race: “What a day, seven cautions in the first 72 laps. This doesn’t feel like Pocono. Pocono is known for long green flag runs. We talk about strategy, we play strategy, we angle strategy. No one strategy book had seven cautions in the first 72 laps. This is definitely not a standard race here at Pocono.”
Letarte on Kyle Busch’s changing driving strategy on each turn: “Every single lap, 160 times today or however many green flag laps we are going to have. He is going to move that track bar and move those switches during the front stretch and exit of turn one.”
Letarte on Truex Jr.’s flubbed final pit stop: “There is a lot of opportunity to make mistakes when it comes to green flag pit stops…Truex Jr. pulled in and slid through his pit box. They have to push the car back and then provide the service. That might not seem like much…but those are valuable seconds.”
Letarte on the second half of racing at Pocono Raceway: “It is like the tale of two races. We have seven cautions in the first 70 laps and here we are on a 36 lap run.”
Letarte on fuel strategy: “We talk about pit strategy and fuel strategy. It is not always clear who is going to be the winner. A lot can happen in two and a half miles.”
Race winner Matt Kenseth to Burns on outlasting the field: “I never thought I would ever win at Pocono, and I never ever thought I would win a fuel mileage race. We did both today.”
Kyle Busch to Massaro on his first loss in four races: “Man that is a bummer…We went for broke today and came up a little bit short.”
Letarte on Kyle Busch’s chances on making the Chase: “He has confidence they are still going to make it, that says a lot about the Kyle Busch we are dealing with, and the team we are talking about.”
Burton on Kyle Busch’s run for a win: “If they didn’t have the speed that they have shown and the ability to win races. They would have gone in full conservation mode. They wouldn’t even have tried to win the race…When you have been winning races, and you have a shot to win it, you don’t want to give that up.”
Jason Ratcliff, Kenseth’s crew chief, to Stavast on his win: “I thought those guys in front of us could make it. When they started running out ‘I’m like, oh man what do we do.’ Matt did a fantastic job of maintaining his track position and saving fuel. This has not been one of our better tracks so to come home with a victory here is a dream come true.”
Logano to Snider on his 22nd place finish after running out of fuel leading the final lap: “We did everything right today…We keep getting so close to these wins and we are not winning, it is so frustrating.”
Brad Keselowski to Stavast on finishing second: “We had a really fast car, but made a big mistake on pit road earlier in the race. It got us behind. We had enough speed in our car to drive up to about fifth or sixth on our own merits and then of course some guys ran out of fuel ahead of us.”
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–NBC SPORTS GROUP–