For the second week in a row, Kyle Busch's Toyota has gone to the garage in a plume of smoke. He blew up at Dover last weekend, and now his Joe Gibbs Racing engine has failed after 76 laps in the Pocono 400. The DNF last week ended a streak of four-consecutive top-five finishes including a win at Richmond, and Busch will drop deeper in the standings with another poor finish.
The engine failure this week occurred while the field was under caution for debris. A flat tire by David Ragan of Unadilla drew the yellow flag, which was a major break for Jimmie Johnson. The five-time champ was one of fifteen drivers ticketed for speeding on pit road thus far in the afternoon and was actually caught twice - once on his pit stop, the second time while serving his penalty - and fell off the lead lap. He took the wave-around during the caution for a crash by A.J. Allmendinger to get onto the tail-end of the field, then pitted for fuel just after the restart. Ragan's tire failure drew the caution, cycling Johnson around to the lead lap.
Greg Biffle holds the lead under the extended caution for Busch's engine failure, followed by Mark Martin, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Joey Logano, and Matt Kenseth.