The first ever NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Pocono Raceway was shorter than anticipated, but winner Kyle Larson was just fine with that. He won the Pocono Green 250 after NASCAR was forced by persistent rains to call the race after just 53 of 100 scheduled laps.
Brandon Stivers / VAVEL USA
The race went green with Kyle Busch, who will also run Sunday's Sprint Cup race on the pole, and he got a huge boost out of Turn 2 on the first lap to take the lead. He was gradually reigned in by the field.
The big story was the restart on Lap 44 after Ryan Reed and Jeremy Clements had a violent collision. Larson had the lead when the green flag flew, with Erik Jones in the fourth position. Jones quickly got into the second position and was pressuring Larson for the lead when a big rain storm drenched Turn 3 and quickly moved over the entire track.
Brandon Stivers / VAVEL USA
After an hour delay, the race was officially called, and Larson declared the winner. It was his first win this season, and fourth career win in the Xfinity Series.
"The rain was coming, and it was starting to sprinkle on his windshield," Larson said after the race. "We weren’t quite to halfway yet (when a race becomes official), so I wasn’t really saying much on the radio, but once we did get to halfway, it started coming down a lot harder. We were going to be racing a lot harder in the next lap or half a lap maybe, so I’m happy that it started downpouring when it did."
Jones had a different take, as he commented after the race "It’s pretty frustrating. You look at this whole year, and it’s kind of been a season of just missing it by that much.
"We’ve missed a few races with penalties and circumstance and the way things worked out, and today was another one of those days where I thought we had a good shot at the win, and the way it played out, it just didn’t work out for us."
Reed and Sieg address their shoving match
After the race was put into a delay, a shoving match broke out in the garage between Reed and Ryan Sieg after contact between them a few laps prior.
"You can’t race around the kid," Sieg said of Reed, a Roush Fenway Racing driver. "He’s got a lot of money, and he’s got a Roush car, but he can’t drive it. ... Money can’t buy skill, obviously, with him. We had a really good car, but it just sucks that it’s torn up here in the garage, and we’ve got nothing to show for it."
Reed had a much calmer response, saying "Emotions run high, obviously. It’s racing. I look forward to talking about it in a calm, cool, collected manner and working it out. Obviously, we race every week, and it’s not going to do us any good to go out there and get into a battle royal."
The Xfinity Series now heads to Michigan International Raceway next weekend.