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 Busch battle

Kyle Busch passed his brother Kurt to take the lead and we've got 33 laps to go. It looks like the race will beat the rain. Without a yellow, to bunch everyone up, it looks like this is Kyle Busch's race.

Restart coming soon

The drivers are in their cars and have started their engines. It looks like we've got about an hour before the next rain storm hits here. Will it be enough to finish 76 laps?

Dillon rules ARCA race

Ty Dillon won the 50-lap ARCA race late Sunday morning. Dillon is the grandson of Sprint Cup owner Richard Childress. The closest thing to a local driver at Pocono Sunday was Cherry Hill, N.J..'s Tom Hessert in the ARCA race. He came in to the day seventh in points driving the No. 52 car owned by Ken Schrader. It was a good finish for Hessert considering he had to start at the back of the pack due to engine problems. Hessert took two tires on a pit stop to gain track position.
Weather is sunny right now, but could be questionable later, so there could be some pit stop, or no pit stop, games with weather watching in the Sprint Cup race.

Harvick takes truck race

The NASCAR Trucks race at Pocono had to be finished Sunday and thanks to some fuel saving abilities, Kevin Harvick came out the winner. According to Harvick's crew chief James Cook, they had enough fuel to make it through the scheduled 50 laps, but not enough in case of a green-white-checkered finish, NASCAR's version of overtime. But Cook said Harvick conserved enough fuel to earn the win.
It was Harvick's 10th victory in 110 races Truck Series races, putting him in a tie for 12th place with Bobby Hamilton for all-time series wins.
ARCA cars are going now, after a long yellow for a spectacular crash where Buster Graham's No. 59 car jumped the infield fence in turn 1, a lucky break for him, as he seemed destined to take a big hit, and something rarely seen in this type of racing.

Pickin' for Pocono and flag stand crash

The last couple of weeks the end game has been the tricky part of the race, so maybe there will be more fuel strategy in the final laps at Pocono's Tricky Triangle Sunday. Last week Jeff Gordon unquestionably had the fastest car, but settled for second as Paul Menard combined a good car with better fuel mileage. So, as has been the case in racing for years, the fastest car doesn't always see the checkered flag first. Since Pocono is 500 miles (whether you like it or not), and because of the three distinctly different turns, there can be more accidents than usual.
Hopefully, a truck series hauler demoloshing the flag stand is not a sign of things to come. My guess is we could see more fuel mileage games in the final 50 laps on the 2.5-mile track Sunday afternoon. And with a 40 percent chance of thunderstorms, somebody could try and steal a win by not pitting when the raindrops start to fall.
So with all that in mind, here are my Pocono picks:

1) Denny Hamlin - Four wins in young career at Pocono.
2) Jeff Gordon - Is tied for most wins at Pocono with five.
3) Carl Edwards - The potential No. 1 free agent just announced he's returning to Roush, so there's all kind of positive vibes for this team.
4) Tony Stewart - He's got two wins here, desperately looking for a third to help his Chase chances.
5) Mark Martin - When you're talking fuel mileage, and endurance tests, he's one of the best at saving fuel and still is in great physical condition for his age.
Until next time

Stewart talks Pocono (video) and other notes

The Sprint Cuppers visit Pocono Sunday, and with three different turns, the Tricky Triangle can often be a nightmare for crew chiefs when it comes to making cars handle well. Sometimes you can be good in two of the turns, but not the other. There's also the matter of power as Pocono has the longest front straightaway in NASCAR at 3,055 feet and then there's the matter of endurance, with it being a 500-mile race.
Tony Stewart, a two-time winner at Pocono, says its possible to have a car that can handle well in all three Pocono turns.




Here are some other interesting NASCAR numbers heading into race No. 21 on the schedule.

4 - Number of first time Sprint Cup winners this season, most since 2007 and number of wins by Denny Hamlin at Pocono
5 - Number of wins by Jeff Gordon at Pocono, tying Bill Elliott for most all-time at Pocono.
6 - Number of season sweeps at Pocono. Those who have won two races in one season at the Tricky Triangle are Bobby Allison, 1982; Bill Elliott, 1985; Tim Richmond, 1986; Bobby Labonte, 1999; Jimmie Johnson, 2004; Denny Hamlin 2006.
7 - Number of places Dale Earnhardt Jr. has dropped in the standings since the June Pocono race when he left in third, but is 10th heading into this weekend.
167 - Number of races needed by Paul Menard to earn his first win, the 10th most all-time.
250 - The number of Sprint Cup starts Carl Edwards will have assuming he takes the green flag Sunday.
5,0000 - Number of laps Hamlin will have led in his Sprint Cup career if he leads just one lap Sunday.
Until next time

Getting to the points

There are just six races left until the Chase for the Championship begins. So, getting into the top 10 in points, or winning one of the two wild-card spots by having the most wins of a driver in the top 20 in points, but not in the top 10, is becoming more urgent.
The two drivers who helped themselves the most at Indianapolis Sunday were Paul Menard, obviously, with his first career win, and Tony Stewart. Menard, who became the first driver to win his first Sprint Cup race at Indy, is 14th in points, but would make the Chase based on his win, even though he sits behind Clint Bowyer and Greg Biffle, who are each winless this season. Bowyer and Biffle have run well at this week's venue, Pocono, in the past, so they're not out of it yet.
Stewart put himself in better position by moving from 11th to ninth in the point standings with a sixth-place finish at Indy. Stewart doesn't have that coveted win yet, but he does have a 22-point lead over 11th place Denny Hamlin, who does have a win, and 35-point lead over Bowyer.
Though he didn't have a disaster of a day, Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 16th, which bumped him back to 10th in the points. He also does not have a coveted victory this season as his winless streak reached 113 races (for those of you snoring at home). He's 19 points ahead of Hamlin and 32 ahead of Bowyer. His chances of making the Chase are slipping every week as he inches closer to falling out of the top 10 and with the fact that there have been 14 different winners in 20 races this season. Junior needs one of those different winners to be him in these next six races.
Until next time.

The Gibbs show

Out of the pits onlap 168 it was the Gibbs show with Kyle Busch, Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin coming out first. Busch will restart 14th. Let's see if he and his teammates have enough time to catch the fuel-gamers, who had pitted between laps 160-165.

Denny or Kyle

We've got teammates Busch and Hamlin together here on the restart. Will Kyle block Denny if needs to keep the lead. Of course, and he should, just like Denny did at the All-Star race where Kyle got mad.
Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon get a splash and dash of fuel. With one more caution, could they make it to the end? We might find out.

Thunder on the Mountain ... and picks

It will be a real endurance test at Pocono. The race is long at 500 miles, it's likely to be hot and humid and the track has three distinctly different turns. The one break the drivers do get is the long straightaway at Pocono, so they do get a chance to catch their breaths for a few seconds before going into turn one.
First a look at how my picks fared last week at the 600-miler:

Kyle Busch: Finished third, so OK there, whether Jeff Burton likes it or not.
Jimmie Johnson: Got caught in an accident, but came back out and ran some laps to finish 37th.
Jeff Gordon: Was solid all day and took sixth, continuing a very good season.
Kurt Busch: The winner. You're welcome.
Kasey Kahne: A respectable 12th. Debated on whether to pick Kahne or Logano in that last spot, and Logano was 13th, so not much difference.

OK, for this week at Pocono ... remember when a deer ran onto the track there? You never know what kind of critters you might see up in Long Pond.

Denny Hamlin - He runs well at Pocono and the team is pretty hot, so hard not to pick him.
Tony Stewart - He needs a win and he won here last year. Has traditonally run better in warmer weather, so maybe it's his time to step up.
Kyle Busch - He drives for Gibbs. He's been leading and winning in everything, so got to pick him here.
Jeff Gordon - The dude's gonna win soon ... really.
Joey Logano - I wrote about why I liked him earlier this week, so it wouldn't look good if I didn't pick him right?

P.S. - Wanted to pick Junior, but not a believer on one good qualifying run.
Don't forget the race is on TNT, Sunday, 1 p.m. start.