Rain, Rain, Go Away: 2007 Nascar Nextel Cup Series - Pocono 500 Race Observations

-Someone Stop Those Black Helicopters!
The conspiracy theorists were out in full force after Jeff Gordon was declared the winner of the race, and, while I will admit that the timing of the yellow (as Ryan Newman was just about to pass him) was a bit slimy, I think that most people realize that everyone got completely outstrategized by Steve Letarte and the 24 crew. Every other team had the same chance to try what Gordon did, and instead they played it safe and lost. That's racin' boys!

-Why Do We Have to Go To Pocono Twice?
An even better question; why twice in two months? We might have only gotten in 100 laps, but it felt like four days worth of racing. Let's dump the second Pocono date and give it back to the Rock or Darlington. Takers?

-Chase Watch
With Kurt Busch's penalty, he falls all the way to 17th prior to the race and only made up one spot in the abbreviated race itself. He remains 132 markers out of 12th, which is currently occupied by Mark Martin, who stated, yet again, that he has no plans to run for the championship. We'll see how THAT pans out if he's in range come Richmond.

Ryan Newman picks up two spots to 13th with a another 2nd place finish, and Jimmie Johnson breaks up the Hendrick 1-2 at the top by finishing 42nd and dropping to 4th in the standings. He's still over 300 points ahead of 12th, however, so the wheels have not come off that team by any means.

-The Other Side of the Garage
No change to the magical 35th in Owner's Points yesterday, but the 10 car of Scott Riggs pulled within 20 points of the number 70 machine. Keep an eye on both of them at Michigan, as the road course at Infineon has not been kind to either of those drivers and both of them desperately want to be in the top-35 and locked in to the field when we get there in two weeks.

Bill Elliot's ride in the 21 was completely unhelpful, and he leaves the 21 machine mired 240 points out of 35th.

-Welcome back TNT...Oh, How We Did Not Miss You
While DW's incessant Hendrick cheering is not exactly the most pleasant thing to listen to while watching Nascar on FOX, at least he doesn't make mistakes every five minutes or call cars by old drivers and make ridiculously stupid jokes. Aside from Kyle Petty, who did a phenomenal job in his debut Cup race coverage, and Larry Mac, who is on loan from FOX, the entire TNT crew is a joke.

-Final Grade for Pocono: B-
The only thing that saved this from being rated much worse was the pit strategy and the drama of when the rain was coming and who was going to pit when. Pocono, on the whole, is just a boring track in my opinion, and every year it seems like we have to deal with weather there when we come here in June.

Learn more about this author, Ian Essling.
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