The two-and-a-half-mile, triangular-shaped track has three turns, none of which are the same. If you get your car set up for turn one – chances are that turn two and three won’t go as well for you. Then you’ve got the long straights between the corners, which as we lamented in our podcast chat, make this track not exactly the most exciting.

Nascar Now, which I watch during the week, usually has a few good stories about the tracks we’re heading to for the weekend. This week I haven’t caught a single one. Is it because even they realize that this weekend is a good time to nap between the green and the checker? I think this weekend we will see some interesting driving, regardless of this fact.

Drivers say this track changes every time you run on it, which makes me want to re-think my choice for this week’s race. However, Denny Hamlin, is never a bad choice at Pocono. He swept both races last year when he was a rookie, and he qualified second just two one-hundredths of a second behind the pole-sitter, Ryan Newman. This leads me to believe he remembers what he learned last year and the track has not changed for him.

Despite his horrid qualifying run, I am going to pick Mark Martin. In thirty-nine starts at Pocono, he has yet to win. Only at Daytona does he have a longer winless streak, with forty-four, and we know how close he came to breaking that this year. He may not have won here, but he runs well. He has six second place, nineteen top five and twenty-seven top ten finishes. A Daytona win was snatched away from him by mere inches so I’m hoping he’ll get his win here.

I boycotted picking a Hendrick driver for a win last week, and that worked out well for me. Unfortunately, I don’t think I can do that this week. Jimmie Johnson will be a driver to watch and has a very good shot at the win, try not to be surprised.

None of the Roush-Fenway drivers qualified well, getting loose seemed to be the move of the day for them. They do have practice time to get the cars running like they want to, so I feel safe in picking one. Carl Edwards blames his loose car on his aggressive driving trying to qualify. He was doing fairly well up until that point, so he may not have much work to do in order to get it right for Sunday.

For some strange reason I really want to pick Kasey Kahne. Technically, I think he should count as a dark horse choice, considering the way he has been running this year. Dale Earnhardt Jr. is also someone who I think has a good chance this weekend. But, I can only pick five, so I’m going to go out on a very weak and wobbly limb and choose Kahne.

Dark horse this week will be someone who has not won a Nextel Cup race, trying for three new winners in a row. Clint Bowyer is just like Casey Mears and Martin Truex Jr. They are all good drivers who have yet to make it into the winner’s circle. With the large amount of good drivers on the circuit today, it takes luck as well as talent to get your first win. Clint has been waiting for everything to come together for him and he has been steadily getting closer. He’s poised to make it. If it doesn’t happen this weekend, I’d be surprised to see him not do so at some point this season.

Have a question or comment for Jennifer? Email her at jenniferpatterson@sportsgrumblings.com.