NASCAR Wrecks - Pondering Pocono
Drivers and Storylines to watch at Pocono
By Greg Engle - Cup Scene Daily
The NASCAR Nextel Cup Series heads for the mountains this weekend for the running of the Pocono 500 at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa.
Pocono’s irregularly shaped 2.5-mile triangle could provide the reinforcement that current points leader Jimmie Johnson needs to continue his surging season.
After starting 40th at Dover last Sunday, then going a lap down and spinning on Lap 275 damaging the rear section of his car, Johnson rebounded to a sixth-place lead-lap finish to hold on to a 74-point lead over Matt Kenseth who won the Dover event.
Will his lucky streak continue this weekend? Johnson swept both Pocono events in 2004, although last year he posted finishes of sixth in June and 12th in July. Overall, in eight previous Pocono starts, Johnson has two wins, three top-5s, four top-10s, and a pole, that coming in 2003.
The biggest obstacle for Johnson may come in the form of Roush Racing. Carl Edwards is the defending champion here, while former Roush driver Kurt Busch won the July event last year.
Up until this week, drivers who chose to run both NASCAR Nextel Cup and Busch Series races on the same weekend, merely had to walk from one side on the garage to the other.
But that will change this weekend when the Busch Series stages its first stand-alone event of the year to take place in the same weekend as a Nextel Cup event. The Nextel Cup series will race here at Pocono, the Busch series at Nashville Superspeedway.
For those drivers who aren’t running both series full time, it’s easy to simply skip the Busch Series race at Nashville. For several however, it’s crucial that they run both events; The Nextel Cup race at Pocono to fulfill their obligations to that series and the Busch Series race in Nashville because they are in the thick of the points battle.
Edwards was the only driver to attempt this Busch/Nextel “double” in 2005 and things didn’t exactly go as planned.
Edwards led the NASCAR Busch Series standings before last season’s same-weekend June events at Pocono and Nashville. Poor weather in Nashville forced a postponement of that race to Sunday. And while Edwards went on to win the Cup event at Pocono on the same day, missing the Nashville event cost Edwards the NASCAR Busch Series lead; he finished third at season’s end
Greg Biffle along with Edwards, Busch, Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick, Reed Sorensen, J.J. Yeley and Denny Hamlin are the other drivers running in both series this year.
“It'll be hectic,” said Kyle Busch. “The Busch Series race is on Saturday night, so it won't be too bad. I know there have been a lot of meetings and conversations about the itinerary and just making sure there's no possible way for anything to go wrong, whether it's getting me to the Busch race or getting me back to Pocono for the Cup race on Sunday.”
So if the weather turns ugly, those hopping back and forth may turn ugly as well.
Substitute drivers will be on call to accommodate the back-and-forth schedules.
Hank Parker Jr. will be sitting for Carl Edwards, Brandon Miller for defending race winner Clint Bowyer; Justin Labonte for Kyle Busch; Kertus Davis for Denny Hamlin; Kevin Hamlin for Reed Sorenson and Casey Atwood for J.J. Yeley.
Perhaps the driver who has the most to lose is Kevin Harvick. Harvick’s on top of the Busch Series standings and 8th in the Nextel Cup points.
“The thing I look at is that the next five guys behind me are in the same boat I am,” Harvick said. “If it’s weather, it’s going to be for everyone. It’s nice to have a big lead…but you can lose it in a hurry.”
Harvick’s sub will be two-time NASCAR Busch Series champion Randy LaJoie.
Here are some drivers to watch this weekend:
Michael Waltrip sat on the pole here last year. After having to buy his way into the Charlotte race a few weeks ago and a forgettable day at Dover last Sunday, he’ll be looking for a positive visit this weekend at Pocono.
Besides his pole Waltrip has three top-5 and six top-10 finishes at Pocono Raceway.
Waltrip will make his 21st start in the Pocono 500; Waltrip’s best finish in the event was second (1988) and his worst 43rd (2000).
“I love this track,” Waltrip said. “It’s fun to drive on. The weather is always a little cooler up there than at other tracks this time of year. We won the pole for this race last year, so we know we can do it. It’s just a matter of having the car prepared the way we like it.
The first laps of practice will be important, and you can tell a lot about a car and a setup when you unload it. When we went to Pocono last June I loved it, the first lap on the racetrack I told my team, ‘I hope that was fast enough because I wish they would call off practice right now and we could go race’. I hope we can have that good of an experience this year. Then we can try to capitalize on that at a track that I love.”
Brian Vickers asked for and received this week a permission slip from his current boss Rick Hendrick to seek his fortunes elsewhere. Vickers may want to use this weekend as an audition and improve his resume. And Pocono is a good place for Vickers to try and shine.
Vickers finished second in the first race last year so feels this a good track for him to show what he’s made off.
“Our car was at its best on the shorter runs,” Vickers said of his run last year. " Carl (Edwards) had a car that was better on longer runs and the way the race transpired, the longer run at the end was just too much for us. If there had been a caution later, we might have been able to take a shot at Carl. It was still a good race for us to lead the most laps and finish second.
"I'm a fan of racing at a variety of tracks and Pocono is definitely different.”
Joe Nemechek has been in the lowest part of the pit of despair lately. He’s 29th in points and has an average finishing position of 24th.
Last year wasn’t exactly a stellar one for Nemechek either. He finished 16th in points and couldn’t seem to buy a win. The biggest highlight of the year came here at Pocono in June when he finished third.
He was also in contention for a victory in Pocono's July race, but a pit road miscue and a flat tire relegated him to a 22nd-place finish.
"We have a real good baseline for Pocono," said Nemechek. "This is one track where our Army team has consistently run strong. Last year, we were running up front at both races and the year before, we were up there again until we had gear problems. I look for a good, solid run this weekend."
Matt Kenseth heads here with the momentum that only a recent win can provide. He won at Dover International Speedway last Sunday scoring his second victory and ninth top-10 finish in 2006.
Kenseth has won at least one race each season for five consecutive years (2002-2006).
The Roush Racing driver and former champion has competed in 12 races at Pocono Raceway scoring five top-10 finishes. He has led in five of his 12 races at Pocono and would love to leave here Sunday night with a win and the points lead.
“That was last week,” Kenseth said of his Dover win. “And that's how you have to approach this, week by week. Pocono is a new weekend and a completely different track. You need a lot of grip off the corners, which are pretty flat, if you're going to get the big run you need down the straight-a-ways to make the pass. It's a unique track with a lot of room to pass, it's really fast and I'm looking to have a lot of fun out there on Sunday."
Mark Martin has 27 top-10 finishes in 38 races at Pocono but has never won here. This will be his second to last shot to do so as a full-time Nextel Cup competitor so will have extra motivation. He finished seventh in this race a year ago and third last July. He has led the most laps (121) in a Pocono race, in July 1996 and has finished on the lead lap in his last three Pocono starts.
"Pocono is one of my favorite race tracks, “Martin said. “It's really hard to believe that we've never won there, but we've run really well and we've finished second a whole bunch of times. We've had some really good cars there over the years and we've been really fast the last several times that we've raced there. Hopefully we'll be able to build on that and finally get over that hump and get our first win at a track that I really love to go race at.”
Others.
Kasey Kahne won the pole in his first Pocono start in 2004, and posted a best finish of third in the July event that same year. He’s having a good season and will look to continue his upward mobility.
Carl Edwards made history, gave Jack Roush his first Pocono victory last year, and earned his second victory of 2005. This weekend, Edwards hopes to repeat his performance of last year in the Pocono 500.
Scott Riggs has been enjoying a good season as well so far. He won the Nextel Open at Lowes Motor Speedway and has been quietly making his presence known each and every race.
“We are taking the same Valvoline/Stanley Tools Dodge Charger that we won the Nextel Open pole and race with,” Riggs’s team director Rodney Childers said. “Scott’s pretty good at Pocono. Last year he was fastest in practice, qualified fifth, and run good up until the end."
Jeremy Mayfield, Riggs’s teammate at Evernham Motorsports is the only driver in that organization who needs some positive reinforcement. At Pocono he may just get that. In 23 starts here Mayfield has two wins 4 top 5’s and 9 top tens.
"There's no question we're looking forward to this weekend,” Mayfield said “Pocono has been a great track for me. We've had our share of problems this year with the new program, but things are coming together.”
Fast Facts:
Pocono 500
Pocono Raceway / Long Pond, Pa.
2.5-mile tri-oval / 200 laps / 500 miles
Sunday, June 11, 2006
TV: Fox, 1:30 p.m. ET
Radio: Motor Racing Network (MRN), XM Radio.
Bud Pole Qualifying: Speed Channel / Friday, June 9 / 3:30 p.m. ET.
2005 winner: Carl Edwards
By Greg Engle - Cup Scene Daily
The NASCAR Nextel Cup Series heads for the mountains this weekend for the running of the Pocono 500 at Pocono Raceway in Long Pond, Pa.
Pocono’s irregularly shaped 2.5-mile triangle could provide the reinforcement that current points leader Jimmie Johnson needs to continue his surging season.
After starting 40th at Dover last Sunday, then going a lap down and spinning on Lap 275 damaging the rear section of his car, Johnson rebounded to a sixth-place lead-lap finish to hold on to a 74-point lead over Matt Kenseth who won the Dover event.
Will his lucky streak continue this weekend? Johnson swept both Pocono events in 2004, although last year he posted finishes of sixth in June and 12th in July. Overall, in eight previous Pocono starts, Johnson has two wins, three top-5s, four top-10s, and a pole, that coming in 2003.
The biggest obstacle for Johnson may come in the form of Roush Racing. Carl Edwards is the defending champion here, while former Roush driver Kurt Busch won the July event last year.
Up until this week, drivers who chose to run both NASCAR Nextel Cup and Busch Series races on the same weekend, merely had to walk from one side on the garage to the other.
But that will change this weekend when the Busch Series stages its first stand-alone event of the year to take place in the same weekend as a Nextel Cup event. The Nextel Cup series will race here at Pocono, the Busch series at Nashville Superspeedway.
For those drivers who aren’t running both series full time, it’s easy to simply skip the Busch Series race at Nashville. For several however, it’s crucial that they run both events; The Nextel Cup race at Pocono to fulfill their obligations to that series and the Busch Series race in Nashville because they are in the thick of the points battle.
Edwards was the only driver to attempt this Busch/Nextel “double” in 2005 and things didn’t exactly go as planned.
Edwards led the NASCAR Busch Series standings before last season’s same-weekend June events at Pocono and Nashville. Poor weather in Nashville forced a postponement of that race to Sunday. And while Edwards went on to win the Cup event at Pocono on the same day, missing the Nashville event cost Edwards the NASCAR Busch Series lead; he finished third at season’s end
Greg Biffle along with Edwards, Busch, Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick, Reed Sorensen, J.J. Yeley and Denny Hamlin are the other drivers running in both series this year.
“It'll be hectic,” said Kyle Busch. “The Busch Series race is on Saturday night, so it won't be too bad. I know there have been a lot of meetings and conversations about the itinerary and just making sure there's no possible way for anything to go wrong, whether it's getting me to the Busch race or getting me back to Pocono for the Cup race on Sunday.”
So if the weather turns ugly, those hopping back and forth may turn ugly as well.
Substitute drivers will be on call to accommodate the back-and-forth schedules.
Hank Parker Jr. will be sitting for Carl Edwards, Brandon Miller for defending race winner Clint Bowyer; Justin Labonte for Kyle Busch; Kertus Davis for Denny Hamlin; Kevin Hamlin for Reed Sorenson and Casey Atwood for J.J. Yeley.
Perhaps the driver who has the most to lose is Kevin Harvick. Harvick’s on top of the Busch Series standings and 8th in the Nextel Cup points.
“The thing I look at is that the next five guys behind me are in the same boat I am,” Harvick said. “If it’s weather, it’s going to be for everyone. It’s nice to have a big lead…but you can lose it in a hurry.”
Harvick’s sub will be two-time NASCAR Busch Series champion Randy LaJoie.
Here are some drivers to watch this weekend:
Michael Waltrip sat on the pole here last year. After having to buy his way into the Charlotte race a few weeks ago and a forgettable day at Dover last Sunday, he’ll be looking for a positive visit this weekend at Pocono.
Besides his pole Waltrip has three top-5 and six top-10 finishes at Pocono Raceway.
Waltrip will make his 21st start in the Pocono 500; Waltrip’s best finish in the event was second (1988) and his worst 43rd (2000).
“I love this track,” Waltrip said. “It’s fun to drive on. The weather is always a little cooler up there than at other tracks this time of year. We won the pole for this race last year, so we know we can do it. It’s just a matter of having the car prepared the way we like it.
The first laps of practice will be important, and you can tell a lot about a car and a setup when you unload it. When we went to Pocono last June I loved it, the first lap on the racetrack I told my team, ‘I hope that was fast enough because I wish they would call off practice right now and we could go race’. I hope we can have that good of an experience this year. Then we can try to capitalize on that at a track that I love.”
Brian Vickers asked for and received this week a permission slip from his current boss Rick Hendrick to seek his fortunes elsewhere. Vickers may want to use this weekend as an audition and improve his resume. And Pocono is a good place for Vickers to try and shine.
Vickers finished second in the first race last year so feels this a good track for him to show what he’s made off.
“Our car was at its best on the shorter runs,” Vickers said of his run last year. " Carl (Edwards) had a car that was better on longer runs and the way the race transpired, the longer run at the end was just too much for us. If there had been a caution later, we might have been able to take a shot at Carl. It was still a good race for us to lead the most laps and finish second.
"I'm a fan of racing at a variety of tracks and Pocono is definitely different.”
Joe Nemechek has been in the lowest part of the pit of despair lately. He’s 29th in points and has an average finishing position of 24th.
Last year wasn’t exactly a stellar one for Nemechek either. He finished 16th in points and couldn’t seem to buy a win. The biggest highlight of the year came here at Pocono in June when he finished third.
He was also in contention for a victory in Pocono's July race, but a pit road miscue and a flat tire relegated him to a 22nd-place finish.
"We have a real good baseline for Pocono," said Nemechek. "This is one track where our Army team has consistently run strong. Last year, we were running up front at both races and the year before, we were up there again until we had gear problems. I look for a good, solid run this weekend."
Matt Kenseth heads here with the momentum that only a recent win can provide. He won at Dover International Speedway last Sunday scoring his second victory and ninth top-10 finish in 2006.
Kenseth has won at least one race each season for five consecutive years (2002-2006).
The Roush Racing driver and former champion has competed in 12 races at Pocono Raceway scoring five top-10 finishes. He has led in five of his 12 races at Pocono and would love to leave here Sunday night with a win and the points lead.
“That was last week,” Kenseth said of his Dover win. “And that's how you have to approach this, week by week. Pocono is a new weekend and a completely different track. You need a lot of grip off the corners, which are pretty flat, if you're going to get the big run you need down the straight-a-ways to make the pass. It's a unique track with a lot of room to pass, it's really fast and I'm looking to have a lot of fun out there on Sunday."
Mark Martin has 27 top-10 finishes in 38 races at Pocono but has never won here. This will be his second to last shot to do so as a full-time Nextel Cup competitor so will have extra motivation. He finished seventh in this race a year ago and third last July. He has led the most laps (121) in a Pocono race, in July 1996 and has finished on the lead lap in his last three Pocono starts.
"Pocono is one of my favorite race tracks, “Martin said. “It's really hard to believe that we've never won there, but we've run really well and we've finished second a whole bunch of times. We've had some really good cars there over the years and we've been really fast the last several times that we've raced there. Hopefully we'll be able to build on that and finally get over that hump and get our first win at a track that I really love to go race at.”
Others.
Kasey Kahne won the pole in his first Pocono start in 2004, and posted a best finish of third in the July event that same year. He’s having a good season and will look to continue his upward mobility.
Carl Edwards made history, gave Jack Roush his first Pocono victory last year, and earned his second victory of 2005. This weekend, Edwards hopes to repeat his performance of last year in the Pocono 500.
Scott Riggs has been enjoying a good season as well so far. He won the Nextel Open at Lowes Motor Speedway and has been quietly making his presence known each and every race.
“We are taking the same Valvoline/Stanley Tools Dodge Charger that we won the Nextel Open pole and race with,” Riggs’s team director Rodney Childers said. “Scott’s pretty good at Pocono. Last year he was fastest in practice, qualified fifth, and run good up until the end."
Jeremy Mayfield, Riggs’s teammate at Evernham Motorsports is the only driver in that organization who needs some positive reinforcement. At Pocono he may just get that. In 23 starts here Mayfield has two wins 4 top 5’s and 9 top tens.
"There's no question we're looking forward to this weekend,” Mayfield said “Pocono has been a great track for me. We've had our share of problems this year with the new program, but things are coming together.”
Fast Facts:
Pocono 500
Pocono Raceway / Long Pond, Pa.
2.5-mile tri-oval / 200 laps / 500 miles
Sunday, June 11, 2006
TV: Fox, 1:30 p.m. ET
Radio: Motor Racing Network (MRN), XM Radio.
Bud Pole Qualifying: Speed Channel / Friday, June 9 / 3:30 p.m. ET.
2005 winner: Carl Edwards
1 Comments:
Hey Mark, I really appreciate you pasting my stuff, but you need to not post the entire story, please. You can post ta paragrapgh or two but you need to link back to the original..thank you.
Greg
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