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CUP: Stewart Heads Favorites At Pocono
Written by: Tom Jensen   
07/30/2009
 
Tony Stewart has two victories and nine top-five finishes in the last 11 NASCAR Sprint Cup races. (Photo: LAT Photographic) ยป More Photos
It’s an old cliché, but it still holds true: To be the man, first you’ve got to beat the man.

And so far in the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup season, Tony Stewart has been The Man. The two-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Champion comes into Sunday’s Pennsylvania 500 with a lead of 192 points over second-place Jimmie Johnson. And given that the most points a driver can accumulate in any one race is 195 and the last-place finisher earns 34 points, all Stewart has to do at Pocono is start the race and he’s guaranteed to leave with the points lead again.

Pocono, of course, is one of the most challenging tracks on the NASCAR circuit, a 2.5-mile triangle with three distinctly different turns, each with its own radius and banking. It is impossible to set a car up for maximum performance in each of the three corners, so crew chiefs typically aim to get Turn 3 right, since that dumps onto the long 3,740-foot frontstretch.

As always, track position will be critical, since passing with NASCAR’s new-generation race car is so difficult, particularly at the front of the field.

Here’s this week’s list of five drivers to watch:

1. TONY STEWART, Stewart-Haas Racing — Stewart has been by far the biggest positive story of the year for NASCAR, opening up an enormous points lead in his first season as co-owner/driver of his own team. He won the June Pocono race after starting from the back of the field when he wrecked his car in practice. Stewart did have the advantage of the No. 1 pit stall, which helped him tremendously in that race.

And on the season, he’s been red hot. In the last 11 races, Stewart has won twice, finished second three times, third twice and has amassed nine top-five finishes. He is going to be tough to beat on Sunday and tough to beat in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

“It seems like you can always get your car good in two of the three corners, but the guys who are contending for the win are the guys who can get their car good for all three corners, which is very hard to do,” said Stewart. “It seems like if we can get our car to go through the Tunnel Turn well, then we’re normally able to get it to go through the rest of the racetrack well. The Tunnel Turn seems to be our toughest turn on the racetrack. Getting through (the Tunnel Turn) and the last corner of the racetrack that’s flat, long and sweeping — those seem to be the toughest two corners to get through. And if you’re a little bit off, you’re a bunch off.”

2. JIMMIE JOHNSON, Hendrick Motorsports — Johnson hasn’t won at Pocono since 2004, when he swept both races, but he’s been consistently good here. In his last four starts here, Johnson’s worst finish was seventh, and he’s finished in the top 10
in six of the last seven Pocono races.

He’s having a pretty strong season, too, having finished in the top 10 in seven of the last eight races and leading 146 of 200 laps before running out of gas at Michigan. It doesn’t hurt, either, that he’s coming off a victory at the Brickyard 400. He and Stewart have clearly separated themselves from the rest of the field right now.

3. CARL EDWARDS, Roush Fenway Racing — Although he’s still winless this season after nine Cup victories last year, Pocono is one of the best tracks for Edwards, who finished second here in June after leading 103 of 200 laps, and won this event last season. He also won here in 2005 in his first race on this track.

Sooner or later, you have to figure that Edwards will break into Victory Lane again, and Pocono might be just the place to make it happen.

4. DENNY HAMLIN, Joe Gibbs Racing — There are two key points to be made with respect to Hamlin: 1. He loves flat tracks. 2. His racing luck has been pitiful this year. Just pitiful. His engine died mysteriously at the June Pocono race and he finished 38th, 22 laps down. Last week, his JGR Toyota was one of the fastest cars at the Brickyard but was felled by a driveshaft failure.

But he won his first two Pocono Cup races and finished sixth, third and third in his next three. If he ever gets his luck untracked, he’ll be tough.

5. JEFF GORDON, Hendrick Motorsports — No active, full-time Sprint Cup driver has more Pocono victories than Gordon, who has won four times here. And in his last six races this season, the four-time series champion has finished second at Michigan, New Hampshire and Chicago, so he’s certainly capable of winning at any time.




Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of ?Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,? and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to

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