2014 Pocono 400

Race details[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]
Race 14 of 36 in the2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Date	June 8, 2014 (2014-06-08)
Location	Pocono Raceway,Long Pond,Pennsylvania
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	2.5 miles (4 km)
Distance	160 laps, 400 mi (643.737 km)
Weather	Sunny with a temperature around 76 °F (24 °C); wind out of the south at 8 miles per hour (13 km/h).
Average speed	139.440 mph (224.407 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing
Time	49.610
Most laps led
Driver	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske
Laps	95
Winner
No. 88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Hendrick Motorsports
Television in the United States
Network	TNT &MRN
Announcers	Adam Alexander,Wally Dallenbach Jr. andKyle Petty (Television) Joe Moore,Barney Hall and Jeff Striegle (Booth) Dave Moody (1), Mike Bagley (2) and Buddy Long (3) (Turns) (Radio)
Nielsen ratings	3.0/8 4.5 Million viewers[12]

The2014 Pocono 400 was aNASCARSprint Cup Series stock carrace held on June 8, 2014, atPocono Raceway inLong Pond,Pennsylvania. Contested over 160 laps on the 2.5 miles (4.0 km) triangular superspeedway, it was the 14th race of the2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the race, his second of the season and his first at Pocono.Brad Keselowski finished second, whileKurt Busch,Denny Hamlin, andKyle Larson (who placed as the highest finishing rookie) rounded out the Top 5. Behind Larson, the other top rookies in the race wereAustin Dillon (17th) andMichael Annett (20th).

Earnhardt Jr. was the fourth straight different driver fromHendrick Motorsports to win at Pocono, followingJeff Gordon's rain-shortened win in August 2012 andJimmie Johnson andKasey Kahne in the June and August 2013 (respectively) races.

The entry list for the Pocono 400 was released on Tuesday, June 3, 2014, at 11:09 a.m. Eastern time. Forty-three drivers were entered for the race which meant no one failed to make the race.

Brian Vickers was the fastest in first practice with a time of 49.764 and a speed of 180.854 mph (291.056 km/h).

Denny Hamlin won the pole for the race with a time of 49.610 – a new track record – and a speed of 181.415 mph (291.959 km/h). "It's a tough balance, but we really just made the car a lot better," Hamlin said. "Each session our balance got a little bit better and we were able to get a little bit more speed out of it. That's kind of what you want to do, play it enough in the first few rounds to get to the final round where you go all out. Good job by our FedEx Ground Toyota team. We didn't test up here, we're one of the only teams that didn't test, but it's good to at least have a good Friday."^[13]

Kevin Harvick was the fastest in the second practice session with a time of 50.764 and a speed of 177.291 mph (285.322 km/h).

Harvick was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 51.251 and a speed of 175.606 mph (282.610 km/h).Aric Almirola had to change his transmission after fluid started leaking out of it with 15 minutes left in practice. It was initially thought that he lost an engine.^[14]

Denny Hamlin led the field to the green flag at 1:20 p.m. butBrad Keselowski took the lead from him to lead lap one. The first caution of the day came out at lap 32 for a fire in the inside wall in turn 3. The fire apparently was in the area where pyrotechnics were launched during the pre-race ceremonies. After getting into the rear ofJamie McMurray and damaging the front of the car on the ensuing restart, points leaderMatt Kenseth wound up going a lap down on lap 50. Keselowski led the first 56 laps until he came in to pit andJeff Gordon took the lead for one lap before handing it toTony Stewart.

The second caution of the race came out on lap 60 for debris in turn three in the middle of green flag stops. Debris on the back stretch, fromJ. J. Yeley's car, brought out the third caution of the race on lap 72. Stewart took the lead from Keselowski on the restart. A spin in turn 1 byDave Blaney brought out the fourth caution on lap 80.Kurt Busch took the lead from Stewart on lap 84, before Stewart regained the lead from Busch five laps later. RookieKyle Larson led his first ever lap in Sprint Cup competition on lap 102, beforeJimmie Johnson found his way to the lead for the first time at lap 109; he pitted not long after, ceding the lead to another rookie,Michael Annett.

Stewart re-took the lead on lap 112 after the green flag stops cycled through, while team-mateKevin Harvick had a flat tire four laps later. The fifth caution of the race came out on lap 118 for fluid on the race track. Stewart was too fast entering pit road and had to serve a drive-through penalty, handing the lead to Keselowski.Justin Allgaier led his first ever lap on lap 134, beforeDanica Patrick brought out the sixth caution, by crashing at turn three. The seventh caution of the race came out with 18 laps to go.Kasey Kahne,Kyle Busch,Carl Edwards andGreg Biffle were involved.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. took the lead from Brad Keselowski with five laps to go and took the checkered flag.^[15] He inherited the lead after Keselowski dropped back to try to remove the piece of trash on his grill. "That's unfortunate for him," Earnhardt said. "He had me beat. I couldn't get to him. It's real hard to pass here. I've lost some in strange ways. It feels good to win one like that. Brad definitely had the better car. I'll own up to that, but we won the race." Keselowski stated that his car "was running really hot" and that he thought it "was going to blow up".^[16]

• Lead changes: 21 among different drivers
• Cautions/Laps: 7 for 26
• Red flags: 0
• Time of race: 2 hours, 52 minutes and 7 seconds
• Average speed: 139.440 miles per hour (224.407 km/h)
• Dale Earnhardt Jr. took home $198.965 in winnings

Drivers' Championship standings Pos Driver Points 1 1 Jeff Gordon 498 1 2 Matt Kenseth 482 (−16) 2 3 Dale Earnhardt Jr. 476 (−22) 4 Jimmie Johnson 475 (−23) 3 5 Brad Keselowski 448 (−50) 1 6 Kyle Busch 443 (−55) 4 7 Carl Edwards 441 (−57) 1 8 Denny Hamlin 420 (−78) 3 9 Joey Logano 418 (−80) 10 Kyle Larson(R) 417 (−81) 11 Ryan Newman 411 (−87) 12 Kevin Harvick 403 (−95) 13 Brian Vickers 392 (−106) 2 14 Greg Biffle 385 (−113) 15 Austin Dillon(R) 385 (−113) 1 16 Clint Bowyer 383 (−115)

Manufacturers' Championship standings Pos Manufacturer Points 1 Chevrolet 632 2 Ford 602 (−30) 3 Toyota 569 (−63) Note: Only the first sixteen positions are included for the driver standings.

• 2014 in sports in Pennsylvania
• 2014 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
• June 2014 sports events in the United States
• NASCAR races at Pocono Raceway

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