Cash Pulls Some Strings and Wins Pocono

POCONO, PA --- As the fog lifted earlier this morning, forty-two drivers sat ready to tackle the long laps of Pocono International Raceway for a 500 mile endeavor. Patrick Britain sat his new Toyota on the front row barely edging Chevy driver Kevin Cargo. Last week’s winner Tim McDonnell would line up eighth with Beano Cup points leader Bryan Kosh starting thirty-first.

Cargo would edge his way out front for the opening laps until the first caution on Lap 3. Jeremy Hevener, making his first start in several weeks, pulled towards the apron of the track in the short chute with an apparent flat right rear tire. Hevener would lose traction on the cool down lane, drifting back up the track and into Jared Meade. The resulting collision sent numerous cars sliding up into the outside wall and a temporary blocking of the track. When the smoke cleared six cars would be forced to bring the remnants of their cars to the garage area to be retired. Hevener would survive the incident with minor damage and eventually made his way to pit road.

Drivers would make their first pit stops of the race during this caution period, with points leader Bryan Kosh being the only driver to stay out on the track to gain five bonus points. The green would come back out on Lap 8, but would be very short lived. Coming out of the tunnel turn on Lap 10, Joe Dirk would brush the outside wall causing Tyler Wildman to take evasive action. Wildman would drive down into the side of Jory Fleischauer who would in turn collect Lance Bridwell. Fleischauer would make a quarter spin, but would manage to recover. Heading into turn three however, Bridwell would drift back up the track, directly into the path of Fleischauer sending the #50 Amp Elevate Energy slamming into Bridwell’s Toyota. Bridwell would recover under his own power, but Fleischauer would require a flatbed to bring his Charger back to the garage area.

More yellow flag pit stops would give Steven Lewis the lead as the field took the green on Lap 15. Shortly after taking the green however, Derek Cash would dive below him in turn one and Lewis would slowly begin to drop back in the field. Lap 28 would see Phoenix winner Will Henderson slip past Cash to lead for a handful of laps. Using a lap car as a pick though, Kevin Cargo would storm past Henderson to enjoy his second lead of the day.

The third caution flew on Lap 40 as Brian Yaczik spun Kurt Goshen while racing off of turn three. Goshen would recover with no damage and would retain a position on the lead lap.

After another round of pit stops, Cash would regain the lead with Cargo directly on his back bumper. Cargo would slip past Cash again and would bring the field to the fourth caution of the race. Attempting to run three-wide while heading into turn three, pole sitter Britain made contact with Brice Draheim. They would then collect second place points runner Derrike Fox, early front runner Will Henderson and many other drivers. Turn three would be littered with cars unable to move under their own power.

“I’d just like to apologize to all the drivers involved in that wreck,” said Britain after being released from the infield care center. “I was just trying to get the Swatch Camry back to the front of the field and got a little overzealous. I took out many good cars because of my own stupidity.”

“Hey my car is junk, but the Carquest Impala got some damned good TV time there,” stated Robert Panko. “I mean did you see the air I gave Brice there? That was just too damned cool.”

All drivers would be released from the infield care center with no injuries, aside from some damaged pride.

The fifth and final caution would come out on Lap 58, shortly after green flag racing resumed. William Goshen attempted to stick a nose under Tim Phillips heading out of turn one, only to clip him in the left rear quarter panel. The ensuing spins again blocked the track with Sebastian Scholl taking the hardest hit with his heat winning Guinness Fusion.  This time a mere three cars would be forced to retire and the stage was now set for a green flag run to the finish.

Just after the green, Hevener would give Cargo a tap in turn one sending the #88 National Guard Impala sliding up the track. This allowed Anthony Crane to take the lead for the first time in the race. A few laps after that Kevin Bartelt would power his #2 Xenos to the lead, giving manufacture Xenos its best BCS run. Those two would swap the lead until Bartelt would take it for good on Lap 69. Near the end of the green flag run, Derek Cash and Anthony Crane would catch Bartelt and would both pass him.

Once green flag stops cycled, Bartelt would regain the lead, albeit by a slim margin over Anthony Crane. For the next thirty laps Crane and Bartelt would take turns swapping the lead between one another while driving away from the field.

After another round of green flag stops that started on Lap 120, Bartelt would go on to lead for the next thirty laps. More stops occurred on Lap 152, this time with Crane inheriting a four second lead over new second place runner Chaz Teets. By lap 168, Teets had erased that deficit and would pass Crane for the lead. Teets would give up the lead on lap 172 for what would be his final pit stops of the day.

With thirteen laps remaining, green flag stops were completed and Derek Cash found himself with a slim advantage over Teets and Crane. As the laps wound down, the handling on both of Teet’s and Crane’s car gave away, and Derek Cash cruised to his first Beano Cup career victory. Evan Beaulieu would wind up second, Bartelt third (giving Xenos it’s highest ever finish), Teets fourth and Crane fifth. Points leader Bryan Kosh would come home seventh for his fourth straight top 11 finish. Coupled with Fox’s poor finish, Kosh’s lead would extend to an even 400 points heading into next week’s race at Michigan.

As the season midpoint nears Kosh appears to be unstoppable. Missing multiple wrecks and coming home in seventh is nothing more than a Jimmie Johnson-esq race. As the second half of the season approaches, countless drivers are waiting for that Sobe Charger’s luck to finally run out. Will it happen at Michigan next week? Only time will tell…