Kyle Busch Gets First Win of 2017 NASCAR Monster Energy Cup Series at Overton’s 400 at Pocono

22 Aug 2017

Kyle Busch celebrating his first win of the season at Pocono Raceway.

Kyle Busch won his first race of the 2017 season and punched his ticket into the NASCAR post season. Winning the Overton’s 400 at Pocono Raceway, this was Busch’s 39th victory of his career. The last race that Busch won was the mid-season All Star race at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

“It's pretty cool, finally being able to get the monkey off our back, get to Victory Lane this year,” Busch said. “It's been a long time coming. It's well documented, it's been over a year, but it's finally very rewarding to achieve victory, especially here at Pocono.”

This was Busch’s first career win at Pocono, in which he snapped a career worst, 36 race winless streak in the process. He led 5 times for a total of 75 laps in the win, gaining 50 points and 6 playoff points. Busch won the first stage of the race, giving him the extra playoff point.

With this win, Toyota now has 100 NASCAR Cup Series wins, stemming back to the 2007 season when the company made their debut in NASCAR. Kyle Busch had Toyota’s first win in 2008 at Atlanta Motor Speedway. This was his 176th career NASCAR Race, going across all 3 platforms of NASCAR.

For Busch, Charlotte Motor Speedway is now the only track where he has not won a Cup Series points race. Busch has now never gone a full season without winning a race, with seven top-5 finishes and a second place finish at the Coca Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

Kevin Harvick finished in second place and did not lead during the race. Harvick has also never won at Pocono, in 34 career races.

“Yeah, there was no battle,” Harvick said. “He was way faster than we were. There was no battle. I mean, he was in a league of his own there at the end. Just got through traffic good. Got to us, got around us, gone.”

Martin Truex Jr. finished in third place, who led twice for 31 laps.

Kyle Busch burning his tires off after his first win of the season at Pocono Raceway

“Yeah, overall, I mean, it was definitely a solid weekend,” Truex said. “Had a good practice, two good practice sessions, qualified second, finished third. It was just a solid weekend. We kind of battled a little bit back and forth with the handling today of the car. We never could quite get it right. But everybody did a really good job of staying in it. We still had a shot there leading until the last pit stop.”

Martin Truex Jr. continues to lead the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Standings with 823 points and 29 playoff points. Kyle Larson is in second place with 738 points and 13 playoff points. Kevin Harvick is in third place with 726 points and 8 playoff points.

The next race in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series will be the I Love New York 355 at Watkins Glenn International.

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