Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the pole position after being allowed to requalify when a rainstorm interrupted his attempt which resulted in a 45-minute rain delay. NASCAR allowed Earnhardt to put on new tires and cool down his car because of the delay, when temperatures cooled down.
Kurt Busch celebrating winning the Pennsylvania 500.
Outside polesitterKurt Busch would be the class of the field, dominating for 175 of 200 laps and taking his first victory since theFood City 500 atBristol Motor Speedway in March 2006. While Busch dominated, the main story of the day was that of the polesitter. Dale Jr.'s team had brought an overly aggressive shock package to Pocono, and it was not working for them as the car was tight despite numerous adjustments. Their struggles hit a low point when Earnhardt Jr. spun the car in turn three. The team changed the shock and Dale Jr. rallied back to second place. Despite this comeback, Busch had overtaken Earnhardt Jr. for the critical 12th position in points.
Kurt's track record for most laps led can't be broken because in 2012 Pocono revised the distances of their races down from 500 to 400 miles. Making the distances of the events only 160 laps. In 2020, when Pocono started the doubleheader weekend, the Saturday Cup event was revised down to 325 miles/130 laps, and the Sunday Cup event was revised down to 350 miles/140 laps.
