John Hunter Nemechek tops Busch for Pocono Truck win

Nemechek passed Busch with five of 60 laps remaining and held on to win Saturday’s NASCAR Truck Series race at Pocono Raceway.

The win is Nemechek’s fifth in the 2021 season driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports and in the five races in which Busch has competed, Nemechek has finished better than Busch in three of them.

“How about that, baby? 3-2 we beat Kyle,” Nemechek said over his team radio as he claimed the 11th victory of his Truck career.

As a fulltime competitor in the Cup Series, Busch is only allowed to make a maximum of five starts each season.

“It just means a lot. This whole group just works so hard. These guys never gave up,” Nemechek said. “We weren’t very good the first stage. We were off. We were only planning to do one (pit) stop but we ended up with way more.

“I’m just super-pumped. Five wins this year and beat Kyle. Three for five against Kyle is pretty good odds.”

On Nemechek’s pass for the lead, Busch said, “We were all even going into (Turn) 1 and John Hunter just slid me and got into the lead. I was trying to figure out what I could do to get the lead back and them I got drilled in the left-rear. We were just fighting for second from there on out.”

Sheldon Creed finished third, Tyler Ankrum was fourth and Austin Hill rounded out the top-five.

Completing the top-10 were Matt Crafton, Todd Gilliland, Zane Smith, Ryan Preece and Derek Kraus.

Stage 3

Following the break between Stages 2 and 3, several lead-lap trucks pit but Busch stayed out and inherited the lead.

Ben Rhodes was penalized for speeding on pit road and had to restart from the rear of the field. The race returned to green on Lap 36.

With 20 laps remaining in the race, Busch had not been able to shake Creed, who remained glued to his rear bumper while Carson Hocevar ran third.

On Lap 48, Chandler Smith was forced to pit under green for a flat right-front tire.

On Lap 51, Stewart Friesen wrecked and in Turn 1 and did significant damage to his No. 52 truck, which brought out a caution.

Several lead-lap trucks pit but Busch remained on the track and in the lead. The race returned to green on Lap 55 with Busch out front followed by Creed and Nemechek.

Nemechek cleared Busch in Turn 1 on the restart to take the lead.

Stage 2

Nemechek held off Rhodes to claim the Stage 2 win, his ninth stage victory of the year.

Friesen was third, Austin Hill fourth and Crafton rounded out the top-five.

Following the break between Stages 1 and 2, several lead-lap trucks elected to pit with Nemechek the first off pit road.

Zane Smith stayed out and remained in the lead when the race returned to green on Lap 20. Busch and Creed were second and third, respectively.

On Lap 22, Busch tagged the wall off Turn 1 but didn’t appear to suffer any serious damage.

On Lap 25, Creed got around Zane Smith to take the lead for the first time in the race.

With five laps remaining in the stage, Creed held a less than a second lead over Nemechek with Zane Smith in third.

Several drivers elected to pit before the stage break but Zane Smith entered pit road after it was closed and was penalized.

Nemechek inherited the lead during the pit stops.

Stage 1

Zane Smith held off a fast-approaching Busch to claim the Stage 1 win, his third of the 2021 season.

Creed was third, Gilliland fourth and Chandler Smith rounded out the top-five.

Gilliland started on the pole but the race was immediately placed under caution when Chandler Smith got into the back of Jack Wood and turned him into the frontstretch wall. Johnny Sauter was also caught up in the incident.

On the restart on Lap 5, Gilliland remained the leader followed by Zane Smith and Austin Hill.

Zane Smith quickly powered to the lead on the restart. One lap later, Rhodes got around Smith to grab the lead for the first time. Smith returned the favor and reclaimed the lead on Lap 8.

With five laps remaining in the stage, Zane Smith held a small lead over Creed with Gilliland in third.

Cla	#	Driver		Manufacturer	Laps	Time	Gap	Interval	Laps Led
1	4	John Hunter Nemechek		Toyota	60	1:13'34.139			12
2	51	Kyle Busch		Toyota	60	1:13'35.476	1.337	1.337	20
3	2	Sheldon Creed		Chevrolet	60	1:13'36.380	2.241	0.904	3
4	26	Tyler Ankrum		Chevrolet	60	1:13'38.577	4.438	2.197
5	16	Austin Hill		Toyota	60	1:13'38.790	4.651	0.213
6	88	Matt Crafton		Ford	60	1:13'39.677	5.538	0.887
7	38	Todd Gilliland		Ford	60	1:13'39.796	5.657	0.119	4
8	21	Zane Smith		Chevrolet	60	1:13'40.248	6.109	0.452	18
9	17	Ryan Preece		Ford	60	1:13'40.908	6.769	0.660
10	19	Derek Kraus		Toyota	60	1:13'44.355	10.216	3.447
11	25	Josh Berry		Chevrolet	60	1:13'44.855	10.716	0.500
12	98	Christian Eckes		Ford	60	1:13'45.914	11.775	1.059
13	42	Carson Hocevar		Chevrolet	60	1:13'47.254	13.115	1.340
14	66	Ty Majeski		Toyota	60	1:13'47.829	13.690	0.575
15	23	Chase Purdy		Chevrolet	60	1:13'48.235	14.096	0.406
16	15	Tanner Gray		Ford	60	1:13'48.926	14.787	0.691
17	99	Ben Rhodes		Ford	60	1:13'49.480	15.341	0.554	2
18	40	Ryan Truex		Chevrolet	60	1:13'50.189	16.050	0.709
19	22	Austin Wayne Self		Chevrolet	60	1:13'50.224	16.085	0.035
20	34	Alan Lawless		Toyota	60	1:13'52.216	18.077	1.992
21	12	Tate Fogleman		Chevrolet	60	1:13'53.009	18.870	0.793
22	3	Howie Disavino		Chevrolet	60	1:13'53.424	19.285	0.415
23	49	Ray Ciccarelli		Toyota	60	1:13'58.544	24.405	5.120
24	56	Tyler Hill		Chevrolet	60	1:14'08.678	34.539	10.134
25	18	Chandler Smith		Toyota	59	1:13'48.303	1 Lap	1 Lap
26	1	Hailie Deegan		Ford	59	1:13'50.451	1 Lap	2.148
27	20	Spencer Boyd		Chevrolet	59	1:13'59.109	1 Lap	8.658
28	33	Josh Reaume		Toyota	59	1:13'59.265	1 Lap	0.156
29	41	Todd Peck		Chevrolet	59	1:13'59.765	1 Lap	0.500	1
30	02	Kris Wright		Chevrolet	59	1:14'12.348	1 Lap	12.583
31	10	Jennifer Jo Cobb		Chevrolet	58	1:14'10.682	2 Laps	1 Lap
32	6	Norm Benning		Chevrolet	58	1:14'12.261	2 Laps	1.579
33	52	Stewart Friesen		Toyota	58	1:14'33.889	2 Laps	21.628
34	28	Bryan Dauzat		Chevrolet	57	1:14'12.691	3 Laps	1 Lap
35	13	Johnny Sauter		Ford	55	1:13'59.519	5 Laps	2 Laps
36	9	Grant Enfinger		Chevrolet	52	1:03'43.188	8 Laps	3 Laps
37	45	Bayley Currey		Chevrolet	38	50'11.926	22 Laps	14 Laps
38	30	Danny Bohn		Toyota	17	21'44.119	43 Laps	21 Laps
39	24	Jack Wood		Chevrolet	0	0.856	60 Laps	17 Laps