Ryan Blaney Becomes A First-Time Cup Winner

Ryan Blaney held off Kevin Harvick over the final laps at Pocono on Sunday to join Daniel Suarez and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. as first time Cup Series winners this season.  Blaney finally tracked down race lap leader Kyle Busch with 10 laps left and held on to give car owners the Wood Brothers their 99th Cup victory.

Harvick could only hope that Blaney would make a mistake over the final laps, but he never did and Harvick was forced to settle for second place.  Erik Jones came in third for his best career finish.  Kurt Busch and Brad Keselowski completed the Top 5.

Kyle Busch's team decided to stay on the track for the final pit stop to maintain position.  But it left him as a sitting duck for cars with new tires in the race to the finish.  Busch led 100 of the race's 160 laps but faded to ninth leaving him still looking for his first victory of the season.

Brakes issues on the cars of Jimmie Johnson and Jamie McMurray ended their day early.  Both cars hit the outside wall in separate crashes on Lap 97 and it led for the race to be red-flagged until the track could be cleaned up.

The series moves to Michigan Speedway next week.