www.nascar.com/2008/news/opinion/08/04/jmenzer.five.things.after.pocono/index.html

This past weekend was a crazy one to say the least.  Both the Nationwide and Cup Series races got a little wet, and the end of the Cup race "fueled" a wave of different emotions.  The link above discusses 5 burning questions in NASCAR Land.  Yinz all know I always have an opinion about everything under the sun, so naturally I have to throw my two cents in for each question.

1. Tired of Tires?
Yes, yes I am!  I've had it up to my forehead with the tire trash talk, enough is enough already!  NASCAR and Goodyear are currently working on a new larger tire which will supposedly work better with the COT platform.  The only problem is the R&D party is taking for forever and a day to finish, and the tire isn't supposed to be ready to put on the cars for two years!www.nascar.com/2008/news/headlines/cup/08/02/goodyear.bigger.tires.ap/index.html
Yeah, that sickened me as well!  That means we're still going to have to listen to the Goodyear b****fest until 2010...I can't take it anymore!  The only reason tires are a topic of discussion this week is because of the Nationwide Series puddle-jumping debut up in Montreal this past Saturday.  While it was cool to see drivers racing on rain tires like Indy cars have done for years, it seems safe to say they won't attempt to put rain tires on the cars on an oval, not even the Pocono triangle where speeds reach 200+ mph.  When drivers are slip-sliding away under caution, I say the experiment was a flop.  However, we may see rain tires down the road, but ONLY for road races.  The NASCAR video of the week though had to be Carl Edwards driving with one hand and using a squeegee to wipe the windshield with the other.  Now THAT was a sight I will never forget!

2. Suddenly human?
Last week at Indy, Kyle Busch finished 15th.  This week he was running much better in the closing laps at Pocono, passing Dale Earnhardt Jr. for 4th with just a handful of laps remaining.  Then the bottom fell out for Shrub.  He ran out of fuel with 2 laps to go and stalled the car at the exit of pit road.  He finished 2 laps down in 36th.  Hey he improved from his finish in June...although the only way he could go was up.  You can't finish any worse than 43rd, and that's where he wound up at Pocono the first time around.  Is Shrub falling apart?  No, of course not.  He's hitting a small pothole.  It's still his championship to lose at this point, but these last 2 weeks have proven he's not invincible.  He still holds a lead of more than 1 race difference over Dale Jr., but the rest of the top 5 all finished ahead of him, 3 of them WAYYY ahead!  He'll still be leading the chase come Richmond though, but there won't be any room for these mistakes at that point.

3. The Carl Rises
Cousin Carl backflipped into victory lane for the 4th time in the Sprint Cup Series in 2008.  He won on fuel mileage, but it's not like he didn't have a car capable of winning even if that issue hadn't come into play.  He has a chance to get the lead away from Shrub before the Chase starts, but that would require winning 4 of the last 5 races prior to the Chase to tie him.  Yeah, that would give him 8 wins, but don't forget about the oil cooler debacle in Las Vegas.  Carl got docked 100 points and was also told he would NOT be awarded the 10 bonus points for winning that race if he made the Chase.  Jack Roush was also fined an undisclosed amount for accusing Toyota of using their mind powers to blow the gasket on the #99.  So Carl is safely in the Chase, and we know he'll be out 10 points when it starts.  That 10 points could come back to haunt him.  Remember last week when he finished 2nd to Jimmie Johnson at Indy.  That one position and Johnson's most laps led bonus gave him 20 points over Edwards, and even though Carl finished in 2nd position, he lost 4th in the standings to Johnson.  Just remember that every point counts.  Anyone who has doubts, just ask Bill Elliott about 1992 when Alan Kulwicki won the championship by finishing 2nd and leading just 1 more lap than Elliott to get the extra 5 points.

4. Whatever happened to...
Well it finally happened...Denny Hamlin had a bad day at Pocono.  Hamlin never led a lap yesterday, and wound up 23rd because of a late race pit stop.  Everyone has a bad day at their best track, but for Hamlin he went back down the ladder when he expected to be jumping hurdles over a few guys on his way UP the standings.  It wasn't meant to be.  Denny is still 10th in the points, however, Matt Kenseth wasn't so lucky.  Remember last week's power rankings when I had Kyle Busch below a few guys because they had better days than he did?  Well that's what happened with Kenseth yesterday.  Matt was the last driver to pass Dale Jr. who coasted across the line on fumes, which gave Matt an 11th place finish.  That's not so bad, but it turns out he's now 13th and back out of the Chase because Harvick finished 4th, Bowyer 6th, and Kahne 7th.  That turned out to be a spread of only 25 points, but it cost Kenseth 2 spots in the standings.  7th-14th in the standings are STILL separated by less than a 1 race margin, which is 161.  Kenseth is just 11 points behind 12th, so it's still anyone's game back in that mess.

5. So now it's off to...
Watkins Glen and the 2008 road racing finale.  Kyle Busch won in Sonoma, but after 2 weeks of BLAH, what will the #18 team do?  I expect to see Stewart and both Gordons at the front.  Don't be shocked to see Kevin Harvick up there as well, as he is a former winner of the NY road course.  The road course ringers will be back in full force as well.  Will one of those guys steal the victory?  It's not likely, but it wouldn't be a complete shock either.  Let's just hope we don't have to witness squeegee driving again this coming Sunday.

Keep it posted right here for the latest NASCAR news during the week.

Until next time, BK over and out!