Chevrolet nowhere to be seen in Pocono battle

Kyle Busch led a parade of Camrys with Toyota capturing seven of the top 10 spots.

But the Bow-tie Brigade was missing in action when the checkered flag fell after 160 laps.

Chase Elliott was the only Chevrolet to finish among the top 10. Austin Dillon led two laps in the second segment but that was only after the leaders pitted and had not cycled out to the front. He finished 21st.

Jimmie Johnson, whose day was over after 57 laps when his teammate Kasey Kahne slid up into the No. 48 Chevy, acknowledged that the Hendrick Motorsports cars are down on speed.

“I think we are missing a little bit of speed and then to have luck kind of not go our way the last few weeks; I mean we want the momentum going the right direction for us,” said Johnson, who finished 35th. “We are getting close to the end of the regular season, so ideally, we would like to get things rolling.

“We have won championships a variety of ways. I know it’s a heck of a lot easier if you have some momentum on your side rolling into August and September.”

Since the defending Cup champion won at Dover in June, he’s wrecked four times — at Kentucky, last weekend at Indy and twice at Pocono.

As for Johnson’s recent string of bad luck?

“If it ends now, yeah, then it’s perfect,” Johnson added. “If it keeps going then it sucks.”

With three wins this season, Johnson is locked into the playoffs as is Kahne, who won the Brickyard 400. Elliott would transfer in because he’s seventh in the standings — the highest driver in points without a win.

But even the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports team made a critical error on Sunday. Before the final segment, Elliott returned to the pits on Lap 104 after running over debris. He was mired in traffic for the final 55 laps but came back from 24th to finish 10th.

“Our race was alright,” Elliott said. “I made a mistake, thought I had a flat tire and pretty much ruined out day.”

Kahne finished 11th and picked up points in the second stage. Earnhardt finished 12th, his second top-15 finish since finishing sixth at Sonoma in June but he wasn’t please with the handling of his car through qualifying or the race. And like Johnson, Earnhardt feels his cars lack speed to contend.

“We were scrambling so hard to get this car figured out,” Earnhardt said. “We got it a little bit better as the race went on, but man, I don’t know where the speed is that the front three or four have and they’ve got it every week.

“We don’t have that and we are not going to find it in that garage on Friday or Saturday if we don’t show up with it we ain’t going to find it. That is somewhere in the shop… so we will have to keep working back there.”