LONG POND, Pa. — In a race defined by attrition and strategy, Ryan Blaney emerged on the other end with his second victory of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season in the Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway.
While a rash of late cautions equalized everyone on fuel, that doesn’t mean pit road did not play its part. Specifically, it was part of pit road that tripped up a lot of drivers at the Tricky Triangle.
Sneaky Section 7 Dooms Contenders
Before the race, when the drivers came down to check their pit road speeds, section seven near the start/finish line grabbed a lot of teams’ attention. The majority of drivers had trouble staying under the speed limit of 55 mph during the prerace trip down pit lane.
As it turns out, those issues carried over to the race multiple times. On lap 55, Todd Gilliland became the first driver guilty of speeding in section seven.
Ultimately, it was a different issue that derailed Gilliland’s day when a brake rotor failed on his No. 38 Ford, leading to Gilliland hitting the turn one wall.
During the ensuing caution, pesky section seven claimed four more victims.
On lap 116, the field came down pit road for service, with numerous drivers taking two tires. Among them were Chase Elliott, Ty Gibbs, Kyle Larson and Daniel Suarez. All four of them lost their track position due to speeding in section seven. They came back down to pit road to top off on fuel and get left-side tires before going to the tail of the field for the restart.
Out of that quartet, Gibbs figured to be the strongest contender for the win, starting from the pole and leading 21 laps in the early going.
The speeding penalty turned out to be a harbinger of things to come as the engine blew up on the No. 54 Toyota on lap 134, ending Gibbs’ day. In the garage afterwards, Gibbs briefly discussed the speeding penalty that set his team back.
“We had all of our lights to where we usually run them [at…
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