Ryan Sieg before the start of the Explore The Pocono Mountains 250 at Pocono Raceway. (Photo: Declan Wayman | The Podium Finish)
LONG POND, Pa. — After a long and frustrating run of mediocre finishes for Ryan Sieg and his RSS Racing team, his No. 39 Ford Mustang found the front of the field yet again for a top-five finish in Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Pocono Raceway, one his team has desperately needed as they now sit more comfortably above the Xfinity Series playoff cutline.
Sieg started off the weekend strong, qualifying his car in the 5th position for the Explore The Pocono Mountains 250 at Pocono Raceway. With 11 races to go until the end of the regular season, teams around the cutline, like RSS Racing, know that clean and effective points days can give you a solid chance at a playoff berth, and that is exactly what Sieg did at Pocono.
From the drop of the green flag, the now 38-year-old driver as of this past Friday stormed to the front of the field, running in 2nd place behind race leader and pole-sitter Chase Elliott, a defending NASCAR Xfinity Series and Cup Series champion.
Sieg had top-five pace all day, running in the top five or inside the top ten for most of the event. With 28 laps remaining, Sieg restarted from the 10th position after his final pit stop of the day, giving the veteran a challenge near the end of the show to put a good result up for his team. Sieg finished 4th in Stage 1 and 6th in Stage 2, giving his RSS Racing squad valuable points on the day, but also for the long run for later on in the season.
Ryan Sieg (bottom) lines up against Chase Elliott (top) on a restart during the Explore The Pocono Mountains 250 at Pocono Raceway. (Photo: Holden Barnes | The Podium Finish)
But, as the driver out of Tucker, Georgia had shown all day, his No. 39 SciAps Ford Mustang had the top five speed to compete with front runners, including the JR Motorsports drivers of Justin Allgaier and Connor Zilisch, along with RCR driver Jesse Love and Kaulig Racing driver Christian Eckes.
By the end of the race, Sieg came up with a 5th place result, a finish his team has been looking for since May 3, after an 8th place finish at Texas Motor Speedway.
Sieg’s effort on the tricky triangle proved to be effective, moving his No. 39 team to 10th in the Xfinity Series driver standings and plus 18 points to the good in the playoff standings, ahead of the Joe Gibbs Racing rookie in the name of Taylor Gray.
“What an awesome birthday weekend at Pocono. We had a very fast Ford Mustang”, Sieg said in his post-race comments on X. “Finished 5th and had an awesome points day. Very proud of everyone on the No. 39 team for all of their hard work. Looking forward to our next race at home in Atlanta.”
Sieg and his RSS team will take on the high banks of EchoPark Speedway, formerly known as Atlanta Motor Speedway, next weekend. A home track for Sieg, he’s had plenty of history around the facility. The superspeedway style drafting track that could play right into the hands of a driver like Sieg, looking to lock themselves into the postseason fight for a championship.
