For a while, it looked like the showdown for the win was developing between young drivers Austin Dillon and Kyle Larson. In the end, though, it was rookie Chris Buescher who stole the show at the shortened Pennsylvania 400 at Pocono Raceway.
For Larson, the pressure to win mounts. The 23-year-old finished second at Dover earlier this season. He’s been in the hunt for the win on multiple occasions in his 96-race career. Heralded as the next big star since in the series, he’s run well but has yet to win.
MORE: Images from Pocono | Get to know Buescher | Results
Dillon, 26, should understand that type of pressure. He’s brought Dale Earnhardt's famed No. 3 back to the track — and has shown flashes of his potential in it. He, too, has been challenging for a win this season. He entered the race with three top-10 finishes this season.
Suddenly, late in the rain-delayed Pennsylvania 400 at Pocono, with rain threatening at the track, these two young stars were battling for the win.
Rain threatened. Some drivers had pitted during a recent caution period, others had not. Larson and Dillon were among those who had remained on the track — and restarted with Larson in the lead and Dillon following.
Racing was intense. On Lap 77, Dillon was pushing Larson at the front of the field. Dillon made a run and Larson blocked him. The battle continued over the next three laps.
Dillon moved to the inside. He took the lead briefly at the line, but barely.
The two ran side by side into Turn 1, then Larson retook the lead.
Dillon still loomed on his rear. With Logano closing up on the pair, Dillon got in position to make his move once more, but Larson held the lead at the halfway mark of the race.
MORE: Elliott, Logano wreck at Pocono | Fog shortens Pocono race
On the next lap, Dillon again nosed to the inside of Larson. They made contact as Dillon tried to slide by – and Joey Logano stormed to the inside of both and took the lead on Lap 82.
“I don’t think you ever want to expect contact, but obviously we were racing really hard,” Larson said. “I was doing all I could to stay in front of him and he was doing all he could to get by me. We battled hard down the front stretch one time and then he got back to my inside into Turn 3.
“I left him plenty of room I was just going to try and run side-by-side with him again and try and slow him down on the frontstretch. I guess he got loose underneath me and got into our door. That was pretty frustrating at the time, but it happens to not even really matter. That part of the race doesn’t matter at all.”
Larson said he did have some body damage from the contact.
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Dillon said it was “fun” racing against Larson. Talking prior to the finish of the race, he did find the bright spot in the day that would eventually result in a 13th-place finish.
“We proved today that we’ve got the speed to win we’ve just got to work on all the other aspects,” he said.
.@joeylogano continues to lead at @poconoraceway. The caution is out for RAIN. #NASCAR https://t.co/Zerzlgakft
— FOX SPORTS: NASCAR (@NASCARONFOX) August 1, 2016
Later, it would be Buescher who used pit strategy to his advantage. In his case, though, it was fog that rolled through the track and led to a caution, a red flag and then to the race being called.
That gave Buescher, another 23-year-old, the win. And, while the other two are battling for the win and playing the game of staying high enough in points to snare a berth in the Chase for the Sprint Cup, Buescher faces a different battle.
Buescher’s win will get him into the Chase — if he’s in the top 30 in the standings after the season’s 26th race. He’s currently six points outside of that field. Now, Dillon and Larson must continue to push for a win. They will have to calculate the risk of making a potentially winning move versus what it could result in when it comes to the points.
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Buescher faces a completely different scenario.
"The plan was always to try and make the Chase," Buescher said. "That was always the goal so we're that much closer now. We've got a hole to dig out of just from superspeedway racing. But we're in a good spot. The cars have been getting faster each and every weekend. These second times around, we're going to make sure that we have more speed than we did the first time."
Buescher, meanwhile, is confident he can gain enough points to safely get into the Chase.
"Surely our bad luck's got to be past us at this point ... We've been seeing a trend in speed through the last six, seven, eight weeks," he said. " ... We have been cutting that points deficit almost every week. All we've got to do is keep doing what we've been doing. We're in a good spot. We can definitely make up those six points and we're going to try and get a lot more than that and be ready when the Chase does start to make sure we can advance as it goes through."