NASCAR Notebook: Pocono
Barry F. Hess
July 21, 2006
Mountain Men
Despite a chance of heavy rain in the forecast the NASCAR Nextel Cup returns to the Pocono International Speedway this Sunday for the second time in just over a month and while thunder and lightening me be coming from the skies above there will be plenty on the unique two-mile triangle track as well.
Though several drivers have changed positions in the points over the last several weeks one driver who, surprisingly enough, has not is Kevin Harvick.
Harvick, currently eight in points, has finished inside the top 10 in four of his last five races and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere but up.
The driver of the No. 29 Goodwrench Chevy earned a 13th place finish in the first race at Pocono and will look to improve on that to solidify his slot in the Chase for the Nextel Cup.
Don’t be surprised if you see Kurt Busch handling the same blue duce this Sunday as he was a few weeks ago when the No. 2 Miller Light team traveled up the Pennsylvania Turnpike for a Sunday drive.
Busch qualified on the outside pole and finished there the last time he raced in Pocono and though his chances at making the chase are virtually slim to none after getting involved in a late wreck last weekend at Loudon, expect Busch to rebound in what is becoming a heated battle for 11th place and the million dollar bonus that goes to that driver at the end of the year.
Denny Hamlin is hoping his second time around Pocono is just as good as his first.
The rookie driver of the No. 11 FedEx Chevy took the pole, rebounded from a flat tire while in the lead and took his first checkered flag in a points race at the first Pocono race.
Expect another solid qualifying effort from the young Virginian and just as we saw the last time around if he can get his car out front in clean air it’s bye-bye to the rest of the field.
Hamlin, currently 12th in points, has just one top 10 finish since his win at Pocono, a sixth place effort last weekend despite running out of gas on the last lap, and needs a solid run this weekend to keep him in contention for that last coveted position in the Chase.
The man Hamlin saw in his rear view mirror for much of his first win was the driver of the No. 16 National Guard Ford, Greg Biffle.
Biffle was forced to relinquish second place late in the first Pocono race after running over debris from the wreck Jeff Gordon created after he lost his breaks heading into turn one.
Though he salvaged a sixth pace finish out of it Biffle is hungry for his second win of 2006 and now that he is once again in the Chase will do anything and everything he can to stay there.
Expect a very solid qualifying run from the No. 16 team that will put them in position to maintain their current position in the points.
With just seven races remaining until the Chase top 10 finishes are becoming just as important as wins.
Prediction: If anyone in this weekend’s field is on the verge of winning a race it has to be Jeff Burton. Burton has raced in 98.1 percent of the laps in 2006 and has four top fives and 12 top 10 finishes to his credit.
After leading nearly 70 laps at the first Pocono race a drive through speeding penalty hurt his chances at winning the race but over the last few weeks no one has been as consistent as Burton, earning eight top 10 finishes in his last 10 races.
After moving up to the third position last weekend look for Burton to qualify near the front of the pack and compete for the win all afternoon to solidify his team in the Chase for the first time ever.
Seven Races Reaming…Few Safely in the Chase
Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth.
Those are the two names, barring some sort of catastrophe of biblical proportions, that are safely in the Chase for the Nextel Cup as we wind down to the last seven races of the regular season.
After another wild shake up in the points last weekend in Loudon it’s been made very clear that almost no one is safe from missing out on NASCAR’s version of the playoffs and that includes last year’s champion, Tony Stewart, who finds himself heading into Pocono on the outside of the top 10 looking in.
Not even the NASCAR officials that conceived this unique new point system could have ever imagined it would influence the championship has much as it has.
When you get right down to it there really six drivers competing for only three spots but just as we saw Dale Earnhardt Jr. drop from third to seventh in the points last weekend a string of bad luck by anyone in the top 10 could prove to be a fatal blow to their championship run.
Greg Biffle battled his way into the top 10 a few weeks ago only to fall out after a late wreck in Daytona.
Another strong push has Biffle back in the Chase, currently in 10th place, but just barely.
Biffle’s lead over Stewart and 12th place driver Denny Hamlin is just a combined 18 points, leaving absolutely zero room for a mistake of any kind by any of the three.
But wait, there’s more.
Thought to be out of things completely after a less than stellar sophomore season, Carl Edwards has come storming back and is currently in the 13th position just waiting for one of the three drivers in front of him to make that all important mistake.
Edwards, currently 146 points out of 10th place, earned his best finish of the season, second place, last weekend at Loudon and appears to in position to make a late season run at a post-season berth.
While some drivers like Jeff Gordon have openly disagreed with the new point system since its inception three years ago, though I’m sure that has nothing to do with the fact that Gordon has only made the Chase once in that time, you can’t help but think that NASCAR actually got this one right.
The racing is more exciting than ever before and with more on the line than ever before expect the hellacious pace to keep up for the remainder of the season as this may be one of the closest Nextel Cup Championship ever decided in the sports storied history.
Silly Season Becoming To Silly To Soon
Has anyone else noticed that the Silly Season, you know that span of a few weeks in the off season where teams are making changes, drivers are switching teams and cars are changing sponsors faster than a fat kid says yes please when asked if he wants more cake, began in Daytona this year and hasn’t stopped since.
Since the season began in February five driver and/or sponsor changes have already been announced for 2007 leaving teams looking for new drivers and sponsors when they should be looking for ways to win the next week’s race.
In that infinite and seemingly always changing NASCAR rule book something needs to be done.
All other professional sports have a detailed outline of when teams may begin discussions with other players for the next season and while NASCAR really has no need for a trade deadline there has to be a limit as to when teams can begin negotiating with drivers for next year.
Is it fair that Robert Yates has no drivers and just one sponsor lined up for 2007 when 2006 is hardly even past the halfway mark?
Absolutely not.
Is it fair that Michael Waltrip can basically raid the garage area as he prepares to begin his new race team in 2007?
No way.
But under the current rules that type of behavior is not only aloud but almost encouraged.
It’s not Waltrip’s or Evernham’s or whoever’s fault that this is going on, they are simply conducting business as NASCAR allows them to.
Tell me how a driver like Brian Vickers, who announce earlier this year he leaving Hendrick MotorSports, does not have a conflict of interest for the remainder of 2006.
Clearly Vickers was not devoting 100 percent of his attention to his No. 25 team otherwise he would not have had the time to negotiate the deal with Waltrip Racing.
So maybe the next time you wonder why Vickers is running near the back of the pack and is only 18th in points ask yourself how much time is he really spending trying to improve his race team.
When NASCAR’s rules committee meets at the end of the season, as they do every year, some sort of schedule needs to be put in play.
Drivers can not talk with other teams until this date, teams can not sign drivers for the next season until this date and so on and so forth.
NASCAR is already one of the toughest, if not the toughest, sport to maintain a competitive edge on the competition with the ever changing technology of the equipment and evolving skills of the drivers.
Compensating for lost talent and ever so valuable sponsorship is a task in and of itself and should not be something teams and crews should have to worry about during the season and until some sort of rules are placed on this sort of behavior teams like Yates will never get back into the mix of the championship hunt.
Random Thought
The past two winners of the New Hampshire summer race of gone on to win the Nextel Cup Championship so don’t be so surprised to see Kyle, or Rowdy as he is now called by his crew, hoisting that title at the end of the year.
Over the past two season only one other driver, Casey Mears, has scored fewer points from Loudon to Miami-Homestead…none other than your current points leader Jimmie Johnson…a tragic foreshadow…perhaps.
I can’t help but think that old Aarons Dream Machine will be near the front of the pack all afternoon Saturday in Martinsville as the track’s all time winningest driver, Darrell Waltrip, will be behind the wheel….Boogety, Boogety, Boogety!
Despite a chance of heavy rain in the forecast the NASCAR Nextel Cup returns to the Pocono International Speedway this Sunday for the second time in just over a month and while thunder and lightening me be coming from the skies above there will be plenty on the unique two-mile triangle track as well.
Though several drivers have changed positions in the points over the last several weeks one driver who, surprisingly enough, has not is Kevin Harvick.
Harvick, currently eight in points, has finished inside the top 10 in four of his last five races and doesn’t seem to be going anywhere but up.
The driver of the No. 29 Goodwrench Chevy earned a 13th place finish in the first race at Pocono and will look to improve on that to solidify his slot in the Chase for the Nextel Cup.
Don’t be surprised if you see Kurt Busch handling the same blue duce this Sunday as he was a few weeks ago when the No. 2 Miller Light team traveled up the Pennsylvania Turnpike for a Sunday drive.
Busch qualified on the outside pole and finished there the last time he raced in Pocono and though his chances at making the chase are virtually slim to none after getting involved in a late wreck last weekend at Loudon, expect Busch to rebound in what is becoming a heated battle for 11th place and the million dollar bonus that goes to that driver at the end of the year.
Denny Hamlin is hoping his second time around Pocono is just as good as his first.
The rookie driver of the No. 11 FedEx Chevy took the pole, rebounded from a flat tire while in the lead and took his first checkered flag in a points race at the first Pocono race.
Expect another solid qualifying effort from the young Virginian and just as we saw the last time around if he can get his car out front in clean air it’s bye-bye to the rest of the field.
Hamlin, currently 12th in points, has just one top 10 finish since his win at Pocono, a sixth place effort last weekend despite running out of gas on the last lap, and needs a solid run this weekend to keep him in contention for that last coveted position in the Chase.
The man Hamlin saw in his rear view mirror for much of his first win was the driver of the No. 16 National Guard Ford, Greg Biffle.
Biffle was forced to relinquish second place late in the first Pocono race after running over debris from the wreck Jeff Gordon created after he lost his breaks heading into turn one.
Though he salvaged a sixth pace finish out of it Biffle is hungry for his second win of 2006 and now that he is once again in the Chase will do anything and everything he can to stay there.
Expect a very solid qualifying run from the No. 16 team that will put them in position to maintain their current position in the points.
With just seven races remaining until the Chase top 10 finishes are becoming just as important as wins.
Prediction: If anyone in this weekend’s field is on the verge of winning a race it has to be Jeff Burton. Burton has raced in 98.1 percent of the laps in 2006 and has four top fives and 12 top 10 finishes to his credit.
After leading nearly 70 laps at the first Pocono race a drive through speeding penalty hurt his chances at winning the race but over the last few weeks no one has been as consistent as Burton, earning eight top 10 finishes in his last 10 races.
After moving up to the third position last weekend look for Burton to qualify near the front of the pack and compete for the win all afternoon to solidify his team in the Chase for the first time ever.
Seven Races Reaming…Few Safely in the Chase
Jimmie Johnson and Matt Kenseth.
Those are the two names, barring some sort of catastrophe of biblical proportions, that are safely in the Chase for the Nextel Cup as we wind down to the last seven races of the regular season.
After another wild shake up in the points last weekend in Loudon it’s been made very clear that almost no one is safe from missing out on NASCAR’s version of the playoffs and that includes last year’s champion, Tony Stewart, who finds himself heading into Pocono on the outside of the top 10 looking in.
Not even the NASCAR officials that conceived this unique new point system could have ever imagined it would influence the championship has much as it has.
When you get right down to it there really six drivers competing for only three spots but just as we saw Dale Earnhardt Jr. drop from third to seventh in the points last weekend a string of bad luck by anyone in the top 10 could prove to be a fatal blow to their championship run.
Greg Biffle battled his way into the top 10 a few weeks ago only to fall out after a late wreck in Daytona.
Another strong push has Biffle back in the Chase, currently in 10th place, but just barely.
Biffle’s lead over Stewart and 12th place driver Denny Hamlin is just a combined 18 points, leaving absolutely zero room for a mistake of any kind by any of the three.
But wait, there’s more.
Thought to be out of things completely after a less than stellar sophomore season, Carl Edwards has come storming back and is currently in the 13th position just waiting for one of the three drivers in front of him to make that all important mistake.
Edwards, currently 146 points out of 10th place, earned his best finish of the season, second place, last weekend at Loudon and appears to in position to make a late season run at a post-season berth.
While some drivers like Jeff Gordon have openly disagreed with the new point system since its inception three years ago, though I’m sure that has nothing to do with the fact that Gordon has only made the Chase once in that time, you can’t help but think that NASCAR actually got this one right.
The racing is more exciting than ever before and with more on the line than ever before expect the hellacious pace to keep up for the remainder of the season as this may be one of the closest Nextel Cup Championship ever decided in the sports storied history.
Silly Season Becoming To Silly To Soon
Has anyone else noticed that the Silly Season, you know that span of a few weeks in the off season where teams are making changes, drivers are switching teams and cars are changing sponsors faster than a fat kid says yes please when asked if he wants more cake, began in Daytona this year and hasn’t stopped since.
Since the season began in February five driver and/or sponsor changes have already been announced for 2007 leaving teams looking for new drivers and sponsors when they should be looking for ways to win the next week’s race.
In that infinite and seemingly always changing NASCAR rule book something needs to be done.
All other professional sports have a detailed outline of when teams may begin discussions with other players for the next season and while NASCAR really has no need for a trade deadline there has to be a limit as to when teams can begin negotiating with drivers for next year.
Is it fair that Robert Yates has no drivers and just one sponsor lined up for 2007 when 2006 is hardly even past the halfway mark?
Absolutely not.
Is it fair that Michael Waltrip can basically raid the garage area as he prepares to begin his new race team in 2007?
No way.
But under the current rules that type of behavior is not only aloud but almost encouraged.
It’s not Waltrip’s or Evernham’s or whoever’s fault that this is going on, they are simply conducting business as NASCAR allows them to.
Tell me how a driver like Brian Vickers, who announce earlier this year he leaving Hendrick MotorSports, does not have a conflict of interest for the remainder of 2006.
Clearly Vickers was not devoting 100 percent of his attention to his No. 25 team otherwise he would not have had the time to negotiate the deal with Waltrip Racing.
So maybe the next time you wonder why Vickers is running near the back of the pack and is only 18th in points ask yourself how much time is he really spending trying to improve his race team.
When NASCAR’s rules committee meets at the end of the season, as they do every year, some sort of schedule needs to be put in play.
Drivers can not talk with other teams until this date, teams can not sign drivers for the next season until this date and so on and so forth.
NASCAR is already one of the toughest, if not the toughest, sport to maintain a competitive edge on the competition with the ever changing technology of the equipment and evolving skills of the drivers.
Compensating for lost talent and ever so valuable sponsorship is a task in and of itself and should not be something teams and crews should have to worry about during the season and until some sort of rules are placed on this sort of behavior teams like Yates will never get back into the mix of the championship hunt.
Random Thought
The past two winners of the New Hampshire summer race of gone on to win the Nextel Cup Championship so don’t be so surprised to see Kyle, or Rowdy as he is now called by his crew, hoisting that title at the end of the year.
Over the past two season only one other driver, Casey Mears, has scored fewer points from Loudon to Miami-Homestead…none other than your current points leader Jimmie Johnson…a tragic foreshadow…perhaps.
I can’t help but think that old Aarons Dream Machine will be near the front of the pack all afternoon Saturday in Martinsville as the track’s all time winningest driver, Darrell Waltrip, will be behind the wheel….Boogety, Boogety, Boogety!
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