What a day: Larry Mac says Pocono provided plenty of storylines

I thought Sunday's race was one of the better Pocono races that we've had in a while. I still tip my hat to those whoever it was that decided to reduce this to a 400-mile/160-lap race. Sure, I was a little concerned early on trying to find side-by-side racing when we were something like 60 laps deep with no caution.

Then before you knew it, right before the halfway point in the race we started having some cautions. From that point to the very end it created storylines after storylines for all of us to keep up with. We also had our fair share of folks spinning out and hitting the wall, plus lots of teams on different agenda's when it came to their strategy for the race. We even had some folks pretty ill at each other after the race.

I would wager you would have to go pretty far back pretty far to find a win as popular as Sunday's was for Martin Truex Jr. I think it was a great moment for our sport as a whole and even greater moment for Martin Truex Jr. Just stop and think about everything that man has been through both personally and professionally the last few years. I also was absolutely thrilled for that race team.

They really don't come any better than team owner Barney Visser. He reminds me of the old Alan Kulwicki days of doing it his way based there in Denver, Colorado. That was his second win as an owner. It had been a long 69 races between wins for driver Martin Truex Jr., but an even longer four years for his owner.

I'm also very happy for crew chief Cole Pearn. I had talked to him on Friday in Pocono and to be honest, he was pretty down.

They had a car that had led the most laps the last three consecutive weeks and couldn't get the win. I got the feeling on Friday that his confidence was low and he was starting to second-guess himself on the way he called the races. I told him to keep his confidence up because they were giving Martin fast race cars each and every week. I reminded him that if they kept doing that then things would break their way. Sunday was proof of that.

I thought it was really cool to watch all the drivers and crew chiefs go to Victory Lane to congratulate Martin and Cole. It definitely put a lump in my throat for sure. I truly believe the flood gates are finally open, and I think Sunday's win will be the first of many to come for that No. 78 bunch.