Weekend Recap: Pocono, Iowa

Weekend Recap: Pocono, Iowa

                                                 

Camping World Truck Series: Pocono Mountains 125 @ Pocono

Results (Top 10):                                       Standings (as of Pocono):        Points Behind

1. Joey Coulter                                            1. Timothy Peters                       Leader

2. James Buescher                                       2. Ty Dillon*                             - 8

3. Nelson Piquet Jr.                                     3. James Buescher                     - 15

4. Matt Crafton                                            4. Justin Lofton                         - 18

5. Denny Hamlin (i)                                    5. Matt Crafton                          - 33

6. Ty Dillon*                                               6. Parker Kligerman                  - 35

7. Parker Kligerman                                    7. Joey Coulter                          - 49

8. John Wes Townley*                                8. Ron Hornaday                      - 59

9. Justin Lofton                                            9. Nelson Piquet Jr.                   - 73

10. Ross Chastain                                       10. Jason White                          - 89

(i) = ineligible for points in this series              *= Rookie

Joey Coulter scored his first career NASCAR win in the Camping World Truck Series race at Pocono on Saturday.

Coulter, a college student at North Carolina - Charlotte and a full-time driver, took advantage of the final restart of the race to shoot past Nelson Piquet Jr. for his first career win. He did not have the most dominant car all day by any means, that was Piquet, who absolutely blistered the field in the first 30 laps of the 50 lap race. For Piquet, it looked like it was finally his day to score his first Truck Series win, but on the final restart of the race Coulter made it three-wide going into the first turn and Piquet got sandwiched in the middle, lost his momentum, and fell to 6th. Piquet was able to rally to third, but it wasn't enough and he left the track dejected.

Piquet was also in a notable wreck with Todd Bodine after a restart. Bodine edged in front of Piquet coming off the first turn and tried to cut in front of his truck. However, Bodine wasn't clear of Piquet and was clipped, sending him into the wall. Bodine thought Piquet intentionally wrecked him and threw his helmet at Piquet's truck in disgust. Bodine later realized he was at fault and apologized. Series points leader Timothy Peters was also involved in a late race wreck, but maintained his lead on Ty Dillon heading into Michigan in two weeks.

Nationwide Series: U.S. Cellular 250 @ Iowa

Results (Top 10):                                    Standings (as of Pocono):     Points Behind

1. Elliott Sadler                                        1. Elliott Sadler                        Leader

2. Justin Allgaier                                      2. Austin Dillon*                    -18

3. Sam Hornish Jr.                                   3. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.            - 21

4. Michael Annett                                    4. Sam Hornish Jr.                  - 34

5. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.                             5. Justin Allgaier                     - 78

6. Michael McDowell (i)                         6. Michael Annett                   - 104

7. Darrell Wallace Jr.                               7. Cole Whitt*                        - 149

8. Jason Leffler (i)                                    8. Mike Bliss                          - 203

9. Brett Moffitt                                         9. Brian Scott                         - 265

10. Ryan Blaney                                      10. Danica Patrick                  - 266

(i) = ineligible for points in this series              *= Rookie

Redemption. A statement.

Elliott Sadler yelled over his radio, "They (NASCAR) aren't gonna take this championship from me!". Just one week after Sadler looked like he was on his way to the inaugural win at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway and NASCAR penalized him for a bad restart, Sadler made sure they didn't take this one from him. Sadler won from the pole for his fourth win of the year and his first at Iowa, snapping Ricky Stenhouse Jr.'s streak of three wins in a row there. 

Sadler arguably should have five wins this year, but NASCAR black flagged him last week at Indy for beating eventual race winner Brad Keselowski to the start/finish line. The penalty dropped Sadler to 15th in the race and gave him only a one point lead over Austin Dillon for the championship. Sadler was furious and distraught saying, "NASCAR is trying to take this championship from me." But some good advice from Sadler's father over the week lit a fire under Sadler and it appears now that he's poised not only for a Nationwide championship, but perhaps a career resurgence after falling out of the top tier Sprint Cup Series two years ago.

Darrell Wallace Jr. qualified second in his second career Nationwide race and finished seventh for his second top-10 while also leading roughly the first thirty laps of the race. Wallace, a K & N Series regular is only 18 years old and is most likely going to be the first African-American driver to achieve success in NASCAR if he keeps up what he's been doing. K & N Series regulars Brett Moffitt and Ryan Blaney also scored top-10's. Moffitt finished 9th in his first ever Nationwide race and Blaney finished 10th for his second Nationwide top-10, both this season, and his first with his new team, Penske Racing. It looks like some great young talent is on it's way up in the not too distant future. 

Sadler extended his points lead to 18 points over Austin Dillon as the series heads to the road course of Watkins Glen this weekend.

Sprint Cup Series: Pennsylvania 400 @ Pocono

Results (Top 10):                   Standings (as of Pocono):      Points Behind

1. Jeff Gordon                         1. Dale Earnhardt Jr.                Leader

2. Kasey Kahne                       2. Matt Kenseth                       - 14

3. Martin Truex Jr.                   3. Greg Biffle                          - 22

4. Brad Keselowski                 4. Jimmie Johnson                   - 27

5. Tony Stewart                       5. Denny Hamlin                     - 64

6. Ryan Newman                    6. Kevin Harvick                     - 78

7. Carl Edwards                      7. Martin Truex Jr.                   - 78

8. Clint Bowyer                       8. Tony Stewart                       - 79

9. Regan Smith                        9. Brad Keselowski                 - 82

10. Marcos Ambrose               10. Clint Bowyer                     - 88

                                                WC1. Kasey Kahne                 - 122

                                                WC2. Jeff Gordon                   - 133

Finally, some good luck.

Jeff Gordon's once dismal season is now starting to look like he could make the Chase and challenge for a championship. Gordon took advantage of teammate Jimmie Johnson's wreck on the final restart and then received a glorious downpour to win a rain-shortened race at Pocono. For Gordon, this was finally a bright spot in a season filled with bad luck. Numerous times this season Gordon had been in a position to win races, only to be wrecked or have a mistake on pit road that cost him those wins. Now, Gordon finally has his first win of 2012 and though it wasn't the way he wanted to win it, this victory puts Gordon in the second wild card spot and squarely in Chase contention after being 22nd in points only seven races ago.

Gordon's teammates probably should've won this race, however. Dale Earnhardt Jr. jumped from 8th into the lead within the first twelve laps and pulled away substantially, only to break his transmission around lap 50 and he went several laps down repairing it. Then there was Johnson, who dominated after Earnhardt went out and appeared to be on his way to back-to-back victories after winning at Indianapolis the week before, a track that has many similarities to Pocono. On the final restart before the rains came, Johnson was the leader and dove into turn 1 only to have a tire go flat and slid up into second place Matt Kenseth. Third and fourth place Brad Keselowski and Greg Biffle had to slow up to avoid running into the top two which allowed Gordon to slip by for the win.

Though the rain helped Gordon, he didn't just luck into the win. He qualified a distant 27th but worked his way up to 5th within the first 60 laps with the help of only one caution. The win also makes things extremely interesting now, as Gordon is in the second wild card spot to get into the Chase. Gordon is tied in points with Ryan Newman and they both share one of those all important wins. But because Gordon has more 5th place finishes than Newman, Gordon currently holds the tiebreaker, how's that for close?

Earnhardt looked like he might lose his point lead, the first on he's had since 2004, after blowing his transmission, but after Johnson got into Kenseth on the final restart, Kenseth wrecked and got crushed by Denny Hamlin allowing Earnhardt to retain his point lead heading into Watkins Glen this weekend.

There was an unfortunate side of the race though as the storm that caused the race to end early was filled with lightning. This lightning struck 10 fans, one of whom died and another left in critical condition. Brian Zimmerman of Moosic, PA died from a lightning strike just outside of the track after the race was cancelled. Many drivers have expressed their condolences to his family, including race winner Jeff Gordon. I will show many of these tweets in tomorrow's blog post.

Note: Gordon's win was his 86th career win and his 6th career Pocono win, making him the all-time leader in wins at Pocono by breaking a tie with Bill Elliott.