While Chevy might have dominated the leader board, it was Kurt Busch's Dodge taking home the win.

In the last few minutes that I have spent clinging to my computer for dear life, waiting for Indycar.com’s “live timing and scoring” to update, my blood was pumping faster than it had during the Pennsylvania 500. 

Coming into the race, many people automatically assumed that Denny Hamlin would win, and with good reason too. As a rookie, he swept both races at Pocono.  The second obvious choice for picking a winner this weekend would have been Jeff Gordon, who won the spring race. But neither of these drivers found themselves in victory lane at the end of the day. Hamlin and Gordon finished a solid 3-4, both racking up another tally under the “Top-5 finishes” category.

Instead, Pocono found a new winner in Kurt Busch, who broke a 51-winless streak, after leading 175 of the race’s 200. For the mathematically challenged among us, that’s a grand total of 25 laps that Kurt didn’t lead. His dominance at Pocono aided him in sliding into the coveted twelfth spot in the championship standings. This was the first time that Busch moved back into the slot number 12, something he hasn’t been able to do since being docked 100 points for reckless driving back on June 17.

Busch holds a slim, seven point lead over Dale Earnhardt Jr., who won the pole for the race, his first since 2002. But Earnhardt didn’t hold the lead for long: Kurt managed to snatch that away from him by the end of the first lap. In the end, Earnhardt delivered a solid second place finish for his Budweiser team.

But don’t get too accustomed to the idea that no other driver will dawn a red fire suit, embroidered with the Bud stylization. News was made this week when Kasey Kahne said that he was in negotiations with Bud, hoping to seal deal with them as the primary sponsor of his number 9 Dodge for 2008.  Kahne also created a buzz this week when it was reported the he and hotel heiress Paris Hilton got friendly at a Hollywood club, Les Deux, last week. When asked about the encounter, Kahne played it cool:

"She was there, it was cool, I got to talk to her and meet her -- that was it. We talked for two or three minutes, she said bye and I walked away."

Kasey should stick to racing over socializing. Let’s hope that Kasey wasn’t filled constant thoughts of Paris as he drove his Dodge Dealers Dodge to this less than impressive 26th place, after starting in 5th.

Here’s an interesting tidbit about I learned about Juan Pablo Montoya this week: he was one of the few IRL drivers to win the Indy 500 and the race at Michigan International Speedway (ironically called the Firestone Indy 400) in the same year; a feat shared by IRL legend Rick Mears. After his best finish of the season last week at Indy, Montoya qualified ninth for this weekend’s race, but ended up seven places behind where he started: in 16th. For Montoya and the Texaco/Havoline crew, it wasn’t a bad weekend, but at the same time, it wasn’t a weekend to write down in the record books.

Six Toyota teams made the race this weekend, with an average starting position of 33.3 and a similar finishing average of 33.5. While only 14 cars remained on the lead lap, despite the fact that 39 drivers finished the race. (That means that four drivers were officially out.) Tony Raines, in fifteenth, was the first car a lap down when the checkered flag flew.

Some may attribute this lackluster race to the racetrack itself. With it’s three awkward turns, a driver must constantly battle the track as each turn offers new challenges. Personally, I point the finger at the heat wave and heavy humidity that’s settled across the area. Pocono Speedway, only an hour and a half away from my suburbia abode, has had little relief from the heat. Thankfully, the rain that caused the “green” conditions also cooled things down considerably. Today was the first day where was nice enough to leave the comfort of the indoors to spend time outside without feeling like you were melting into a puddle. I could only imagine being stuck inside a racecar in these humid, hot, summer days. However, the better finger to point is in the direction of Kurt Busch, who was the dominant car the entire race. Congratulations, Kurt!

Race Results

Nextel Cup Standings

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