Once again the rains have fallen on the Nascar Sprint Cup Series and washed out qualifying for this weekend’s race at Pocono. That means the Cup teams will line up according to owner points. Emotions are mixed amongst the drivers and crews and, although a little time off is a good thing for many, it just makes Saturday’s practice that much more important, (that is, if it doesn’t rain.)
Now, this is Just A Fan’s View, but, this years lack of extra practice sessions makes race weekend practice and qualifying rain-outs even more critical and noticed by the teams, especially the ones that are struggling or have new drivers. It is one less chance they have to get a grip on the tires and setups to help them be competitive for the weekend.
Most all of the guys that are starting at the front have good records at Pocono and, since I am writing this without the benefit of seeing any Sprint Cup practice at all, I can only say it should be interesting to see who has come with the best setup. I do hope the practice takes place today, (last I checked, it was supposed to), and that it helps the guys that are starting out front have a chance to stay out front, (that only seems fair). Otherwise, they will quickly fade and the others will be more than happy to fill in the gaps. For a driver, there is nothing worse than starting in the front and quickly fading to the rear.
The hot topic for this week is the ‘double file restart’. Although there are mixed emotions throughout the garage area, most think it will be a good thing. It is definite that it could be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how the breaks fall for each driver during an event, but all seem to agree it will make it more exciting for the fans.
I agree with both sides of the discussion. There will be times when it helps a driver and times it will really burn him… but…that just makes it more like it was at the short tracks they grew up on and the way they do it almost everywhere…except Nascar. It remains to be seen how it will affect everything in the long run, but for now, I think it is a going to make for great racing, especially on the restarts.
One thing is for certain. I’m sure we’ll be talking about the double file restart a lot more later as the season progresses from this point.
Well, I guess there isn’t a whole lot left to talk about today other than who, in our opinion, just might take home the trophy this weekend. I guess we have to first look at those guys starting at the front of the pack. Let’s start with Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Jimmy Johnson, Kurt Bush, Ryan Newman and Kyle Bush and these guys all start in the first three rows. Wow, talk about an all star line-up in the top six and then there’s Denny Hamlin, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, Jeff Burton, Carl Edwards and Mark Martin.
The top twelve starters are the top twelve performers on the year so far and I don’t think there’s any way they would have qualified in the order they did. It will all depend on how well their setups match the track this weekend.
After last week, I’m a little gun-shy on pulling the trigger on who might actually win this weekend, but that’s okay, I’ll still get to it soon.
I really have to mention some that could perform very well at Pocono this weekend. David Reutimann has shown some real strength in recent weeks and it is very possible he could do well this weekend. He just needs to keep on being consistent and I’m sure it is going to start happening for him and Michael Waltrip Racing. Another in that camp is Marcos Ambrose. He has struggled a bit lately, but I never count him out.
Kasey Kahne, Juan Montoya, Brian Vickers and Clint Bowyer are all running well enough to pull off the victory at Pocono but I am just not so sure this is their week. With all of the strength starting out front, it could be a little tougher for them to pull it off.
I do think Dale Earnhardt Jr’s team may have something to prove so, even though they are starting from the eighteenth spot, look for them to move to the front during the race. I’m not so sure they will pull off the victory, but I do look for them to finish in the top ten.
This week I don’t think there will be too many surprises. I think it will be the teams that have been performing well in the last few weeks. This fan’s opinion of the way things will stack up at the end of the race is Kyle Bush, Kurt Bush, Jimmy Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Ryan Newman and Tony Stewart running up front and in no particular order other than I think this could be Ryan Newman’s week to take the trophy for Stewart/Haas racing. And the rest of ’em … well … I think it’s gonna be close and … well … Denny Hamlin could be in there mixing it up along with the rest of them…
See ya next time…
Rusty
(All views expressed are strictly the opinion of the writer)
© June 2009 – all rights reserved
Just A Fan’s View and Rusty Norman
