Week after Indy wreck, Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. to start 1-2 at Pocono

Nick Bromberg
·College football and motorsports writer

Kyle Busch and Martin Truex Jr. will be racing each other into turn 1 on the opening lap at Pocono.

A week after crashing while racing for the lead at Indianapolis, Busch and Truex will make up the front row for Sunday afternoon’s race at Pocono. Busch has the pole while Truex starts second.

The two drivers qualified in the top six at Indianapolis and had the two best cars throughout the first two-thirds of the race. But they collided when Truex got loose inside of Busch entering turn 1 on a restart on lap 111 and they both hit the wall. The accident happened on the first restart after their agreement to cooperate and give each other space on restarts had ended.

Two members from Truex’s team were suspended after a verbal spat with Busch’s crew chief Adam Stevens. The crew members are officially Joe Gibbs Racing employees and were suspended by the organization that owns Busch’s team. As part of its technical alliance with JGR, Furniture Row contracts with the team for its pit crew members.

Busch was the final qualifier to advance from the first round to the second round in Sunday’s qualifying session because he was conservative on his tires. That was a good idea. He was by far the fastest car in the final round.

It’s also the second-straight Pocono pole for Busch. He started first earlier this season at the 2.5-mile track but ended up finishing ninth.

Here’s the starting lineup for Sunday’s race.

1. Kyle Busch
2. Martin Truex Jr.
3. Jamie McMurray
4. Denny Hamlin
5. Ryan Blaney
6. Kevin Harvick
7. Clint Bowyer
8. Daniel Suarez
9. Erik Jones
10. Joey Logano
11. Brad Keselowski
12. Kasey Kahne
13. Chase Elliott
14. Jimmie Johnson
15. Matt Kenseth
16. Kyle Larson
17. Michael McDowell
18. Kurt Busch
19. Trevor Bayne
20. Ryan Newman
21. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
22. Danica Patrick
23. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
24. Chris Buescher
25. Aric Almirola
26. Austin Dillon
27. Paul Menard
28. AJ Allmendinger
29. Matt DiBenedetto
30. Ty Dillon
31. Landon Cassill
32. Cole Whitt
33. David Ragan
34. Corey LaJoie
35. Gray Gaulding
36. Stephen Leicht
37. Derrike Cope
38. Jeffrey Earnhardt


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Nick Bromberg is the editor of Dr. Saturday and From the Marbles on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at nickbromberg@yahoo.com or follow him on Twitter!