Pennsylvania 400 at The Tricky Triangle

GREAT blog, Grill. Thanks for posting it! Looking forward to seeing what will happen at practice and qualifying.

Nice blog Grill. I'm pulling for my fantasy team - gotta catch you, Sea, and san!

Thank you so much Sea. Practice and Qualifying will be the key here. Not to many places to pass.


Aug, Good Luck. You're looking good so far for being a NASCAR VIRGIN. You've come a long way in a short amount of time.

Great job on the blog, Grill!!! Gonna be a nail biting next few weeks till the end of segment 2 !!!

And, NO, I did not vote for BB in the poll......JJ is looking strong, and I think he may have a slight edge over BB.....but either one would make me happy.....

Had to put him in there San. You might have banned me if I hadn't. But he does have the same amount of wins as Jimmie and Tony. Ya never know, despite what I think of the boy, he can race and definitely has a shot at it.

Nice blog Grill. Good to see my Driver's made your list twice. Must mean they are really good.

Don't know how that got so small; but you can click and enlarge it!

Yesterday was a busy day at the track.



The Team Chevy display getting set up inside Fan Fair.



Here is NASCAR on ESPN's Pit Studio, just outside the exit of the garage area.



The Sunoco Racing fuel truck is set up and ready for the weekend to begin.

Today the Trucks will be arriving. People up there have been lining the streets since midnight to try and get a glimpse of them coming in.

Great blog Grill, thanks for the info. Oh, and watch out guys, I'm definitely making a come back this week.

Seawall wrote:Don't know how that got so small; but you can click and enlarge it!

I only wish I could do that Sea!

Pocono a mixed bag for JGR

Two Joe Gibbs Racing drivers love the unique layout of Pocono Raceway. The other finds the Tricky Triangle just that.

Logano, winner of June's Pocono race, placed himself in the wild-card conversation with a pass for the lead of Mark Martin with three laps remaining. That same race, teammate Denny Hamlin rung up a typical top-five Pocono finish, another in a line of solid performances that include four career wins at the 2.5-mile track. Logano looks to become the first driver to win three consecutive poles at Pocono since Bill Elliott in 1984-85.

But then there's the curious case of Busch, dominant at almost any venue he enters -- except for Pocono. In June, he finished 30th. And it wasn't all that surprising. In 15 starts, Busch has four finishes of 30th or worse. His Pocono Driver Rating of 86.5 makes the track his fourth-worst in terms of the Loop Data statistic. His average Pocono finish of 18.3 makes it his fifth-worst track.

But there have been glimmers of brilliance from Busch at NASCAR's most unique venue. Prior to June's race, Busch ripped off two consecutive top-five finishes, including a second-place finish in this race last year.

Momentum, as well as a sense of urgency, envelopes Busch as the regular season comes to a rapid close. Busch finished second last week at Indianapolis, his first top-five finish since the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte in May. Prior to the Indy run, Busch had an average finish of just 22.6 in the previous seven starts.

I had to jump in the someone else catagory...tracks like a three sided coin it could land on the edge:))

Thanks Grill, interesting article.

Pocono Raceway announces Alex Boyd, RCA Recording artist, to sing the National Anthem for the 2012 Pennsylvania 400! Additionally, the United States Air Force will have a special "Heritage Flight" flyover to cap off the pre-race festivities!

Great blog Grill ! You all going to be skeered when I unveil my team this week!

Also saw on Twitter that Kid Rock is gonna be the Grand Marshall. Or, at least I think I did.. lol

Trop. I think we'll all be OK. Just remember Dinger doesn't race anymore.

Sea I hadn't heard who the Grand Marshall would be. Kid Rock would be killer there.

Aboard one of the Penske jets headed to Iowa for the NW race. Not a bad ride...

PRACTICE SPEEDS
Pennsylvania 400 | Pocono Raceway
08/03/2012 | Race 21 of 36 | Practice 1

Don't think this has been posted before; but a link to the Penske/Roush/Ford Engine situation.
http://www.mikemulhern.net/DailyBriefing/roger-penske-jack-roush-and-ford-all-now-have-a-game-plan-for-2013-but-dodge-well-still-a-veil-of-silence-over-its-nascar-plans/page-1/

Also heard today that John Wes Townley pulled himself out of the 32. Not sure who is replacing/replaced him.

Weather definitely might come into play this weekend at Pocono. Just like Ernesto, we should know more by tomorrow.

http://www.sbnation.com/nascar/2012/8/3/3217097/nascar-pocono-schedule-weather-forecast-2012

Practice 2 (Happy Hour) Speeds

Something is a little fishy with the #32 car and the owners points going into this weekend's race at Pocono. I saw something on Twitter about somebody buying the owner points for this car, but it was briefly mentioned, and I didn't copy it. I also several tweets earlier this week about John Wes Townsley driving the 32 this weekend, and notable peeps on twitter were all but calling it absurd as he has little to no driving experience in cup, and apparently wrecks a lot in the NW or Truck series; whatever he runs most in. Then everything went quiet, until today.
This is a link to the Jayski PDF of the owner points after the last Indy race. I do remember FASLANE or somebody like that owned the car, or I thought so. But the car is 34rd in owner's points; so guranteed a starting position...
http://www.jayski.com/stats/2012/pdfs/20indy2012owners.pdf

Note that Jack Roush is listed as the car owner....

Now, we have this little development with Townley out of the car...


So, get your detective caps on and figure out what is going on here. Is Jack getting his stable ready for a fourth driver? He already has the stable full for next year with Stenhouse, Biffle and Edwards. Will he think about bringing up Bayne full time?

Now, THIS is just plain funny. You have to laugh at it.

More twitter good ones from tonight.....

LMAO Sea

That was Great Sea thanks for posting them.

Jeff Gordon, driver of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet, celebrates his birthday today. Happy Birthday, Jeff!


Good day for winning the pole.

Also, a BIG OLD HAPPY BD to KURT BUSCH TODAY. He did well in Happy Hour. Now, if the car would just hold together for one entire race....

Thanks for all of the twitter feeds, and the articles this morning!! Made for some good chuckles this morning....

Dammit Grill, you skeered me. Looked at qualifying order and thought that was the way they qualified and couldn't figure out why all the good guys were a the bottom.

LOL. Qualifying on now. Kurt posted a lap of 51.33. All according as to who gets the cloud cover today.

Qualfying just finished.....Watch out drivers.......JP on Pole.......keep your distance!!!!!!

**Did not qualify**
Jason White
Mike Skinner

Thanks San. They may want to keep the pace car at a safe distance also. Are we going to see a wreck on the first lap??

Jeez; wouldn't have figured JP for the pole. Looks like Sam might be able to gain some points position wise....

Sam one of the handful of drivers doing double duty between Pocono and Ohio; just flew in.

I'll take Sam in the NW race. Any takers?

I'll take Sadler, He's ticked after last week.

<----Gearing up to win fantasy league this week (AGAIN)

Sorry Aug, you and all others are racing for second today. Look who I brought to drive my car, .....That's right! The Man in Black is Back!!!

LOL Trop, the only way you're winning is if he shoots the tires out of everyone else's car!

Meaning he's in mourning for your place in the league??

Good Morning Race fans.

Green Flag has been moved up to 1:12 ET because of weather moving into the area. Let's hope we can get a full race in.

Our race day forecast...


Mostly cloudy with a chance of a thunderstorm and a chance of rain, then thunderstorms in the afternoon. High of 79F. Breezy. Winds from the SSW at 10 to 20 mph. Chance of rain 60%.

I will be watching...I think..lol
Today could be E juniors day