The 2017 Winston Cup Series: Rowdy gets redemption

Kyle Busch takes a bow after winning the Overton's 400 at Pocono, his first win since July 2016. Busch led 74 of 160 laps

     Kyle Busch finally pulled through today, and got his first win of 2017. His car was near the front, or leading all day long at Pocono. In the closing stages, strategy was easily the winning move of the race for Busch; pitting late gave him the best tires on the track. While I'm not a Kyle Busch fan, it's good to see him get a win, it's been awhile, and he won it fair and square. After coming far too close at Phoenix, Talladega, Martinsville, Charlotte, Pocono in June, last week at Indianapolis (the list goes on), Busch deserved a victory this year. He punctuated it by bumping Kevin Harvick out of the way to grab the lead, and drive to a six-second margin of victory, the largest for a race this season.

Cars pile up trying to avoid a spinning Matt Kenseth, on lap 1 of the Overton's 400. Aric Almirola and Matt Dibenedetto wrecked out in the only true dust-up of the race

     Aside from a small pileup on the first lap, the Overton's 400 ended up being a fairly clean race. I was very impressed watching the final stage run caution-free, it was nice to see strategy decide the race, and not a late restart. Notably, rookie Daniel Suarez had another 7th place finish, his third straight top-10... Dale Earnhardt Jr. fared well in his final Pocono race, coming home in 12th... Several front-runners ran into trouble: Jimmie Johnson's crash left him in 35th, his third DNF in four races... A broken drive shaft forced Kyle Larson to the garage for repairs, he finished 33rd... Ryan Blaney had tire problems, finishing 30th... two pit road penalties for Joey Logano dropped him to 27th, and Jamie McMurray finished 26th.

     In the classic standings, Kyle Busch's win at Pocono moves him up to third place, ahead of Kyle Larson, who took a big hit this week. With my scoring, Harvick and Truex Jr. both got 39 points for finishing 2nd and 3rd, since Harvick didn't get an extra point for leading a lap. Therefore, the gap between the two remains at six points. The big mover was Suarez, who cracked into the top-10 this week. Jimmie Johnson took a big hit, dropping four spots to 14th in the classic points (Remember that if he wins an eighth title this year).
     Next week we head to Watkins Glen, a track that could play into Busch's favor again. Among active NASCAR drivers, only five have won at the Glen, and Busch is the only one who's won there twice, in 2008 and 2013. And it only gets better for "Rowdy." In 12 starts, Kyle Busch has 10 top-10's at the road course. Qualifying will be key though; no driver has ever won Watkins Glen with a lower starting spot than 18th, when Steve Park did it in 2000. Stay tuned!

Kyle Busch celebrates in victory lane at Pocono