PREVIEW: Pocono's Cup Series entry list the smallest since 1991
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| PHOTO: Ryan Daley Design, @ryandaleydesign |
XFINITY Race 12 of 33
Pocono Green 250 at Pocono
2018 Last-Place Finisher: Jeff Green
ENTRY LIST
There are 38 drivers entered for Saturday’s XFINITY race on “The Tricky Triangle,” down two cars from last week. All entered drivers will start the race.
DRIVER CHANGE: #8-JR Motorsports
Ryan Preece returns for his third XFINITY start for the season and first since Fontana, where he finished 8th. He takes the place of Jeb Burton, 7th in Charlotte, and brings with him sponsorship from Planters.
DRIVER CHANGE: #13-Motorsports Business Management
John Jackson rejoins Carl Long’s #13 team this week, taking the place of Joe Nemechek who qualified 31st and finished 32nd after a vibration. It will be Jackson’s sixth XFINITY start of the season and first since Dover, where he ran 37th.
DRIVER CHANGE: #17-Rick Ware Racing
Camden Murphy will drive in place of Bayley Currey in the Ware-owned #17 Chevrolet, one week after Murphy drove Mike Harmon's #74 to a 29th-place finish in Charlotte.
MISSING: #68-Brandonbilt Motorsports
DRIVER CHANGE: #86-Brandonbilt Motorsports
The BMS team scales back from two cars to just their primary #86, moving Brandon Brown back into his familiar ride in place of Mason Diaz, who finished 30th. Brown chalked up another top-twenty finish last week, coming home 20th in the team’s new #68.
TEAM UPDATE: #74-Mike Harmon Racing
TEAM UPDATE: #89-Shepherd Racing Ventures
Both owner-drivers Mike Harmon (#74) and Morgan Shepherd (#89) are again the listed drivers of their Chevrolets after Camden Murphy and Landon Cassill drove in their place last Saturday.
DRIVER CHANGE: #90-DGM Racing
MISSING: #92-DGM Racing
Mario Gosselin’s team leaves the #92 at the shop, and Ronnie Bassett, Jr. moves from the #92 to the #90 which brother Dillon Bassett couldn’t get into the show in Charlotte.
DRIVER CHANGE: #99-B.J. McLeod Motorsports
Todd Peck eyes his first XFINITY Series start since September 24, 2016, when he finished 25th for Rick Ware at Kentucky. This time around, he takes the place of Jairo Avila, Jr. in B.J. McLeod’s #99, a car that joined Dillon Bassett on last week’s DNQ list. Peck last drove for the team at Atlanta in 2016, finishing 38th in a field of 40. Pulse Transport, a frequent Peck sponsor, is on the car this week.
CUP INVADERS: #8-Ryan Preece, #10-Austin Dillon
Sunday, June 2, 2019
CUP Race 14 of 36
Pocono 400 at Pocono
2018 Last-Place Finisher: Bubba Wallace
ENTRY LIST
There are just 37 drivers entered for 40 spots in Sunday’s Cup race, the fewest to take the green at this track since June 16, 1991, when Darrell Waltrip prevailed in a 37-car Champion Spark Plug 500. J.D. McDuffie finished 34th that day in one of his final Cup starts.
DRIVER CHANGE: #51-Rick Ware Racing
DRIVER CHANGE: #52-Rick Ware Racing
Updated Thursday, Bayley Currey drives Ware's primary #51 for the first time and will drive the P-40 scheme from Charlotte, replacing Cody Ware. This opens the #52 for a returning J.J. Yeley and his Steakhouse Elite sponsorship. It will be Yeley's first start of the season, though Currey ran his sponsor in Richmond.
MISSING: #53-Rick Ware Racing
B.J. McLeod isn’t entered in this Sunday’s race as Rick Ware scales back from three cars to only two. Not making the trip is the team’s newest addition, the #53 car McLeod drove in both the Open and the Coca-Cola 600.
MISSING: #66-Motorsports Business Management
Carl Long’s team goes from two cars at Kansas and the Open to one car in the 600 to not entering at all in Pocono. The team’s two primary Cup drivers Joey Gase and Timmy Hill will instead focus on Saturday’s XFINITY race, where they run MBM’s full-time #35 and #66, respectively.
MISSING: #96-Gaunt Brothers Racing
The third car missing this week is the Gaunt Brothers effort with Parker Kligerman, the 26th-place finisher of the Coca-Cola 600.
SPONSOR UPDATE: #00-StarCom Racing
Derrike Cope’s team welcomes another new sponsor into the fold this week as Madison Group will back Landon Cassill’s #00 Chevrolet.
Friday, June 7, 2019
TRUCKS Race 9 of 23
Rattlesnake 400 at Texas
2018 Last-Place Finisher: Todd Peck
The Truck Series returns next week while Cup and XFINITY battle in Michigan.
LASTCAR STAT OF THE WEEK
Today in LASTCAR history (May 30, 1998): Loy Allen, Jr. picks up the first last-place finish of his NASCAR XFINITY Series career in the MBNA Platinum 200 at Dover. Driving the #78 Mark III Financial Chevrolet for car owner Dan Browder, Allen pulled behind the wall after 18 laps with a broken rear end. For the polesitter of the 1994 Daytona 500, it was the fourth and final series start of his career, though he and Browder would attempt two more races in 1999 at Daytona and Talladega.
