A little less Thunder on the Mountain

For years drivers and many fans have been complaining that the two Pocono races were too long, at 500 miles. On the often hot and humid days up on the mountain, the extra distance took a physical toll on drivers and on equipment with its three unique turns and long front straightaway. As for the fans, sometimes it's hard to think about going and sitting out in the heat and humidity for what was often times in excess of four hours. So it was announced Wednesday the races starting next year will be 400 miles.
The pure racing fans probably won't like the move to the shorter distance. The extra miles are suppose to tell us who is the best driver and who has the best car. But with the Car of Tomorrow, that often doesn't tell us who is going to win the race anyway as these cars are hard to pass in traffic. These days it's all about track position and fuel strategy at the end, it doesn't matter if its 400 or 500 miles.


Looking ahead
With bits and pieces of the 2012 schedule known, here's how the Dover-Pocono schedule is shaping up. Dover's first race will be June 3 and then it will be to Pocono the next weekend, June 10. Then the Sprint Cuppers return to Pocono on Aug. 5 and their final time in the area will be at Dover Sept. 30.

Thunder on the Mountain
Thunder on the Mountain is a Bob Dylan song, but maybe the good people at Pocono Raceway should use that as their marketing theme for two reasons: 1) Simply the loudness of the cars as they rumble down the long straightaway. 2) It seems like you can almost count on some type of afternoon thundershower up there in these summer months to delay things for a while, like the 1 hour, 40 minute delay we had Sunday.

Helpers and hurters
The final 19 laps at Pocono Sunday brought about some changes in the points standings.
First, Joey Logano, who had been in contention to win much of the day, fell from the top 10 and finished 26th. Second, Denny Hamlin, who was also in contention to win much of the day, faded late and finished 15th. Gibbs Racing teammates Logano and Hamlin combined to lead 109 laps. Hamlin's faded coincided with Tony Stewart's charge from 20th to 11th in those final laps, meaning Stewart remained ninth in the points standings, one ahead of Dale Earnhardt Jr. The two wild-card spots based on the wins by drivers who are 11th-20th in the points go to winner Brad Keselowski, who has two wins this season, and Hamlin, who has one, but is 11th the overall standings.
Until next time.

A quick look at those Daytona records

Yes, it was a record-setting day at Sunday's Daytona 500. Here's a look at the marks that were broken.
Youngest winner - Trevor Bayne, 20 years, one day. The previous youngest winner was Jeff Gordon when he was 25.
Lead changes - 74. Significant in that the former record was 60 lead changes and was set in 1974.
Number of leaders - For the second straight year this mark fell, with 22 different leaders Sunday, compared to 21 last year.
Caution flags - There were 16 Sunday, which led to a record-tying 60 caution flags.
Years between Daytona victories for a team - The last time the Woods Brothers had a car win the Daytona 500 was in 1976 when David Pearson beat Richard Petty to the line in a famous last-lap battle. That makes it 35 years between Daytona 500 victories. This is not an official record, but considering most teams racing today weren't even in existence 35 years ago, it's safe to say this is a record, too.

Who's the real champion?

NASCAR named its latest class of five Hall of Famers this week. The organization limits it to five per year, and this is the second class that was named. There was one driver named this year, who should have made it last year, and one driver who could have made it this year, but didn't that helps us yet again define class.

Last year, the first class was named and in what was a definite error, David Pearson was left off. He won 105 races, second only to Richard Petty's 200. Pearson without question should have been in that first class. The fact that he was overlooked put a serious dent into the credentials of the voters. His rivalry with Petty when the sport was first hitting the television airwaves in the late 1960s and early 1970s helped draw fans to the sport. Just five guys or not, he deserved to be on the first ballot.
However, Pearson was an easy pick to make it in this year, and he did, being named on 94 percent of the ballots (what those other six percent were thinking, who knows?). When Pearson was asked if he was bitter about not making the first ballot, he said he certainly was not. That's a champion-like reaction to what could have been a not-so-pretty situation.
One former driver, and current announcer, who didn't make it this year was Darrell Waltrip. He's going to make it eventually, probably next year. He deserves it at some point, with over 80 victories. However, all Waltrip could was go to Twitter and tweet about how disappointed he was and how unfair the process was for not letting him in.
Not the reaction of champion. So, if I was on the voting panel (which I'm not), I'd have to think about it before I vote for him next year. If someone wants into the Hall of Fame, having a Hall of Fame attitude when things don't go your way when you want them to should be requirement.