Rudd wins from pole
Ricky Rudd held off a late challenge from Jeff Gordon to win the Pocono 500, his first victory since 1999
It was also the first time Rudd had won a race since joining Robert Yates Racing at the start of the season.
Rudd topped both practice and qualifying at the start of the weekend, and took a decisive lead in the race with 24 laps to go when he passed team-mate Dale Jarrett. The Pocono victory is the 21st of Rudd's Winston Cup career.
The final stages of the race were the reverse of the scenario in the previous round at Michigan a week ago. On that occasion it was Rudd chasing leader Jeff Gordon to the flag, but at Pocono the roles were reversed and it was Gordon who had to give best to Rudd. Jarrett came home third, ahead of Sterling Marlin and Mark Martin.
The biggest incident of the race came on lap 53, when Brett Bodine went into a series of spins exiting turn two. Another 13 drivers were involved in the chaos that followed, many of them ending up bouncing across the sodden grass, soaked by heavy overnight rain. Remarkably, none of the cars suffered anything more than light bodywork damage.
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