Chase Elliott won a NASCAR Cup race at Pocono in 2022, but it came in the most bizarre fashion.
Saucon Valley High graduate Matt Barndt is the car chief for Hendrick Motorsports driver Chase Elliott. (Hendrick Motorsports/Adrian Lauerman).
Long after the race had ended and the track’s grandstands had cleared, the apparent race winner, Denny Hamlin, and the apparent runner-up, Kyle Busch, were disqualified when their cars didn’t pass inspection.
Elliott, who had finished third, found out about his “victory” after he got back home in Georgia.
Matt Barndt found out about Elliott’s win while getting ready to get on a plane at the Wilkes-Barre/Scranton International Airport. He was stunned, but happy.
Barndt, a Lower Saucon Township native and Saucon Valley High School graduate, has one wish this weekend as he returns to familiar turf at Pocono Raceway as Elliott’s car chief.
“This time I want us to win because we were the first ones across the finish line,” Barndt said. “I don’t want to win it any other way. And I want to get a celebration in Victory Lane. That didn’t happen the last time.”
Barndt, a 2009 Saucon grad, has been working with Elliott since Elliott joined Hendrick Motorsports on a full-time basis in 2016. Barndt previously worked with NASCAR legend Jeff Gordon, a staple of Hendrick’s dominant racing team.
“Basically, everyone who worked on Jeff”s team went on Chase’s team,” Barndt said.
Bardnt has formed a strong bond with Elliott, who is 29 and five years younger than Barndt.
“His experience far exceeds his years because he grew up in a racing family,” Barndt said. “He’s a great person to work with, and we communicate quite well. We both grew up around race tracks.”
Of course, Barndt must also work with crew chief Alan Gustafson, who has been working with Elliott since 2016 and entered this season as the longest-running driver-crew chief pairing in the Cup Series. Barndt and Gustafson also have a great rapport.
During an interview available on the Hendrick Motorsports website, Barndt said he was fortunate that Gustafson saw something in him when he was ready to graduate from college.
“You transitioned from design engineer to race engineer to car chief in a really short period of time, and you’re still really young.” Gustafson said. “And now you have a really difficult job.”
Barndt said that NASCAR’s newest car, now in its third season, makes it difficult for any team to gain an advantage. That’s one reason why Hendrick, which used to be considered the Yankees of NASCAR because of its all-star lineup and dominance in the Cup series, no longer dominates.
But Barndt said Hendrick remains a great place to work. He started working there on an internship while a sophomore at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, which is located right smack dab in the home base for NASCAR and its teams.
Barndt earned a degree in mechanical engineering, but his heart was in racing, which is something he started at the age of 5.
“I started in quarter-midgets, then did mini-cups, asphalt late-models, and after starting at local tracks, I went to national events around the country,” he said. “My sister was racing, too. We were a racing family. The dream was always to make it to this level of the sport, but it happened in a different capacity. That competitive drive and desire to win when I was a kid is still there. But now I’m not on the track, but you still want to find an edge. I still want to win.”
Elliott, the 2020 Cup Series champion, is a seven-time winner of NASCAR’s Cup Series Most Popular Driver Award as voted on by the fans. His father, Bill, won the same award 16 times.
There are a lot of people who hope Elliott can end a drought and win a Cup points race for the first time since April 2024 at Texas.
While he hasn’t won a race, he has a streak of 16 top-20 finishes going for him.
“I go into every race thinking we can win,” Barndt said. “And I feel the same way about this race. We’ve been running well. We would love to get one at Pocono.”
Win or lose, Barndt, who flew to Pennsylvania late Friday afternoon from Charlotte, said it’s tough to find time to go home and visit with family.
Saucon Valley High School graduate Matt Barndt (left) is the car chief for popular Hendrick Motorspots driver Chase Elliott.
(Hendrick Motorsports/Adrian Lauerman)
“We now put on two-day shows in NASCAR, and things aren’t spread out like they used to be when you’d get to town on Thursday night,” he said. “From the time we get there, we’ll be going to work and try to figure out what we need to do to be successful.”
Kurt Busch named grand marshal
Kurt Busch made his way into Victory Lane at Pocono Raceway three times and won on the Cup circuit 34 times.
He’s on his way into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in January.
But he will make a pitstop at Pocono Raceway on Sunday to serve as grand marshal of The Great American Getaway 400, the marquee event of NASCAR’s three-race weekend at Pocono.
Governor Josh Shapiro will serve as the honorary starter and wave the green flag for the 2 p.m. race being live-streamed by Amazon Prime.
“We’re honored to celebrate Kurt’s Hall of Fame career with our fans,” Pocono Raceway President Ben May said. “Pocono Raceway is proud to be a small part of that illustrious career with Kurt being a three-time race winner and two-time polesitter.
Busch, 46, won at Pocono in 2005, ’07, and ’16. He also won the pole in 2005 and ’11. He totaled 21 top-10 finishes, including 14 in the top five, in 41 career starts in Monroe County.
In 23 years on the circuit, Busch won the series title in 2004 and the 2017 Daytona 500. He also won at least four times in each of the three NASCAR national series — Cup, Xfinity, and Craftsman Truck.
In addition to being named grand marshal, Busch will be honored by Pocono with “TY KURT” painted on the start/finish line, and the Mattioli Foundation will donate $10,000 to Vet Tix in his honor.
Pocono Raceway schedule
Saturday
8 a.m. — Gates, Fan Fair & Paddock Open
10 a.m. — NASCAR Xfinity Series practice
11:05 a.m. — NASCAR Xfinity Series qualifying
12:35 p.m. — NASCAR Cup Series practice
1:45 p.m. — NASCAR Cup Series qualifying
3:30 p.m. — Explore the Pocono Mountains 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series Race (100 Laps / 250 Miles)
Sunday
8 a.m. — Gates, Fan Fair & Paddock Open
2 p.m. — The Great American Getaway 400 NASCAR Cup Series Race (160 Laps / 400 Miles)