Oh Puh-leeze, not again.....Thunderstorms in Pocono forecast

[Blu]

The caution for Jimmie came a lot faster than the caution did after Robbie had his flat and Robbie's caused a lot more debris.

As for the timing of the rain, you heard them say it was 20 miles away during the second to last caution.  I'm not the brightest guy in the world, but I told my wife that meant it would hit around lap 100 to 105.  That meant that the teams would need 2 fuel stops to make it to the end if they went right away and only one if they kept what they had (they were only 7 laps on the current top off).  Things cycled around just when and how they were predicted to.

Uhh..I dont think any  caution EVER flew for the #48 tire thing. The announcers even made note of it and attributed it to the rain coming and NASCAR wanting to get the race to halfway. Im pretty sure of this.... but..Its possible Im mistaken.

Ill wait for other responses, or a replay of the race to be fair here.


As far as the rain and Letartes call...YES, I figured the same thing as you (as far as the laps it would happen) true, BUT too know the EXACT second it would come.?..come on Smyler.

 LeTarte/ Gordon or Hendrick is not God  fer cryin out loud:



As far as the amount of debris between the #7 and the #48....Let's just say I beg to differ

[Blu]

Found this Lap-by Lap from NASCAR.com....




"7:35 p.m. -- RACE HAS BEEN CALLED. JEFF GORDON WINS THE RAIN-SHORTENED POCONO 500!!!

7:21 p.m. -- Race is still under red flag while the dryers continue to dry off the track.

7:03 p.m. -- Car covers are going on the cars and dryers are on the track.

Lap 107 -- RED FLAG: The race has been stopped due to rain.

Lap 106 -- Caution is still out and NASCAR is bringing all the cars down pit road.

Lap 104 -- YELLOW FLAG NO. 4: Caution is out for rain.
1. Jeff Gordon
2. Ryan Newman
3. Martin Truex Jr.
4. Casey Mears
5. Tony Stewart

Lap 103 -- Jeff Gordon's lead is shrinking. He is in front of Ryan Newman by just 1.2 seconds.

Lap 102 -- Jimmie Johnson is back on the track after a trip to the garage following a flat tire. He is scored in 42nd position.

Lap 101 -- The race is official. Jeff Gordon leads by two seconds in front of second place Ryan Newman. Kyle Busch passes Matt Kenseth for eighth.

Lap 100 -- Martin Truex Jr. passes Casey Mears for third.

Lap 100 -- LEAD CHANGE: Carl Edwards pits giving the lead to Jeff Gordon. Gordon and Mears can stay out until about Lap 114.

Lap 99 -- Ryan Newman catches Casey Mears and passes him for third.

Lap 97 -- Ricky Rudd gives up second place and hits pit road. Jeff Gordon up to second. It has not started raining yet.

Lap 96 -- Reed Sorenson makes his green flag pit stop. Carl Edwards leads by 9.138 seconds in front of second-place Ricky Rudd. Jeff Gordon and Casey Mears are sitting third and fourth.

Lap 95 -- LEAD CHANGE: Carl Edwards inherits the lead when Denny Hamlin hits pit road. Juan Montoya gives up third for his pit stop.

Lap 93 -- Jimmie Johnson takes his car to the garage. Denny Hamlin leads with Carl Edwards second and Juan Montoya third. Kurt Busch is on pit road.

Lap 92 -- LEAD CHANGE: Denny Hamlin takes the lead when Ryan Newman hits pit road.

Lap 92 -- Kyle Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. are on pit road as is Kevin Harvick, Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman.

Lap 91 -- Jimmie Johnson's left-front tire blows. No caution is out. Martin Truex Jr. gives up second to hit pit road.

Lap 87 -- Rain is close and most of the lead-lap cars might not have enough fuel to get to Lap 101, the halfway point of the race which would make this an official race

Lap 86 -- Ryan Newman leads by 1.6 seconds in front of second-place Martin Truex Jr. Tony Stewart sits third with Denny Hamlin fourth and Matt Kenseth fifth.

Lap 83 -- LEAD CHANGE: Jeff Gordon is on pit road and gives up the lead to Ryan Newman. Casey Mears is also on pit road.

Lap 82 -- Ryan Newman is on the move with his fresher tires. He finally caught Casey Mears and makes the pass for second.

Lap 81 -- Dark rain clouds are to the north and west of the track.

Lap 78 -- Jeff Gordon has a 1.2 second lead on second-place Casey Mears.

Lap 76 -- Martin Truex Jr. passes Mark Martin for fifth.

Lap 75 -- Tony Stewart passes Mark Martin for fourth.

Lap 74 -- Tony Stewart and Martin Truex Jr. are now up to fifth and sixth on their fresher tires.

Lap 73 -- Ryan Newman is now up to third after passing Mark Martin.

Lap 70 -- Ryan Newman is up to fourth after passing Elliott Sadler and Joe Nemechek on fresher tires.

Lap 67 -- GREEN FLAG: Jeff Gordon brings the field to the green.
1. Jeff Gordon
2. Casey Mears
3. Mark Martin
4. Elliott Sadler
5. Joe Nemechek

Lap 67 -- Crew chiefs are reporting rain is in the area.

Lap 66 -- Most of the leaders hit pit road and most take just two tires. Ryan Newman wins race off pit road and will restart seventh.

Lap 66 -- LEAD CHANGE: Jeff Gordon takes the lead as he stays out while most of the other teams hit pit road. In all, six guys stay out including Gordon, Casey Mears, Mark Martin, Elliott Sadler, Joe Nemechek and Ward Burton.

Lap 64 -- YELLOW FLAG NO. 3: Debris is on the racetrack in Turn 3.

Lap 62 -- Jeff Gordon is reporting brake problems to crew chief Steve Letarte.

Lap 61 -- Martin Truex Jr. passes Kyle Busch for fourth.

Lap 59 -- GREEN FLAG: Ryan Newman brings the field to the green."

[Matt]

There was NO caution for the 48 cars tire issue and the debris all over the track. Had there been my guess is with the race not yet halfway and weather coming hard everyone would have pitted (thinking if the race resumed Monday they wanted to be on fresh tires with full tanks of gas...if not let the best crew win). Maybe it would have come down to four tires or two tires, or maybe someone like Carl Edwards on the tail end of the lead lap would have stayed out and stolen the thing. It wouldn't have bothered me who won. What does bother me is the inconsistency here. In the wake of Tony Stewart's comments about bogus debris cautions NASCAR huffed when it came to safety issues they were going to always err on the side of caution with the debris flags. Well here's the 48 car shedding bits of sharp molten metal around a track where drivers enter some corners flirting with 200 MPH and yet there's no caution.So I guess NASCAR will always error on the side of safety unless rain is imminent and they are a few laps from halfway.

Oh, by the by, the weather didn't miss by much. I live about 75 miles South/Southwest of the track and it didn't start raining here until 10 PM last night. Not a drop. At my bro-in-laws/buddies house ten miles from the track down Route 81 it didn't start raining until nine after a brief downpour around 12:45 yesterday afternoon.

[flamehothead]

Here's the tables for today at Pocono. They have until about 9:00 tonight to get the race in.

Well I live near Dayton, Ohio and I know I wouldn't feel very comfortable going around a track after 8:00pm.

Yeah... I know what you are saying... but my point is NASCAR runs the show.

Boy, Do they EVER lol. Nascar got a Two-For-One-Deal today.

They got ALL the their ticket money so they wouldn't have to run the race on Monday and their Golden Boy won the race all in ONE day.

[Blu]

GREAT post Matt!

And Flame...Yep NASCAR and HMS had banner days...HOOO RAAAH   . It's good to be King I guess...

.Ohh sweet parity? Wherefore art thou??  Never the twain shall meet I fear The rest..and us..are mere peons. A pebble in the shoe..or the fungus between the toes of Kings such as those. We simply must accept our lot in life....tis the age we live in I fear.



WOW!! I waxed philosophically there for a moment!!! DUDE!!!

[falcon325]

There was NO caution for the 48 cars tire issue and the debris all over the track.

In the wake of Tony Stewart's comments about bogus debris cautions NASCAR huffed that when it came to safety issues they were going to always err on the side of caution with the debris flags. Well here's the 48 car shedding bits of sharp molten metal around a track where drivers enter some corners flirting with 200 MPH and yet there's no caution.So I guess NASCAR will always error on the side of safety unless rain is imminent and they are a few laps from halfway.

I share your thoughts on NA$CAR's inconsistency. 

However, on INC last night, it was pointed out that Pocono is a wide track ("like six lanes of interstate," was the way they put it), the 48 was out of the racing groove and the 48 didn't shed nearly as much debris as R. Gordon's car.  And they pointed out that, after that incident, there were no tires cut down by debris.  So either NA$CAR was right, or lucky.  And maybe--this time--they weren't being as inconsistent as we thought.

As far as who NA$CAR was favoring, I can say with certainty that, amongst the JJ faithful, there was considerable rending of garments and knashing (or, should I say G-nashing) of teeth over the LACK of a yellow hankie when that tire first went down. 

It seems to me that isn't the first time that NA$CAR was slow to throw the caution after Terrible Tony's blow-up.  After all that chatter about safety, it does look like they're trying to make sure that NA$CAR's REPUTATION is safe (what's left of it), by making sure they can actually SEE some debris in the racing groove before whoaing the cars down.

OTOH, also on INC, Biff said that it was raining like a cow pissin' on a flat rock (well, those weren't EXACTLY the words he used, but...) as he was going into turn 2, well before the final caution was thrown.  He said he was wondering when he needed to lift to get through that corner on wet pavement.  He was laughing about it, but it was a nervous laugh. 

At the Daytona 500, NA$CAR got blasted for letting the racing action continue at the expense of safety.  When it was (stupidly) said that the leaders were past the wreck, it was rightfully pointed out that all the other drivers, whose mothers presumably love them too, were NOT past the wreck and were very much in danger.  The 38's wild ride is one of the scariest thing I've seen at a race in ages (and it's interesting to me that it isn't a regular feature of the highlight reels).  Point is, with part of the rest of the field still coming through the turn, I'm not sure that the suits could let the 12 finish passing the 24 without killing somebody.

BTW, Does anybody know if they run an inner tire at Pocono?  Sure doesn't look like it.

[Blu]

I share your thoughts on NA$CAR's inconsistency. 

However, on INC last night, it was pointed out that Pocono is a wide track ("like six lanes of interstate," was the way they put it), the 48 was out of the racing groove and the 48 didn't shed nearly as much debris as R. Gordon's car. 

Sorry...I still beg to differ on that. Looked just as bad if not worse to me personally

But..will watch the replay until I say anymore.

[smyler]

Boy, you were right about the no call on 48.  I guess that'll teach me to drink beer and smoke cigars while I watch the race!  Or maybe not, LOL. 

[Chris]

BTW, Does anybody know if they run an inner tire at Pocono?  Sure doesn't look like it.

NASCAR rules stipulate that inner liners are used at all tracks 1 mile or greater...

[Blu]

Boy, you were right about the no call on 48.  I guess that'll teach me to drink beer and smoke cigars while I watch the race! 

Jeez Smyler, lets not get all crazy  and do somehting rash here! Beer and cigars for all!!

Its all good Bud. I thought I was recomemebering wrong for a bit when you said that.

[smyler]

http://msn.foxsports.com/nascar/story/6903558?CMP=OTC-K9B140813162&ATT=167

Although Newman would have liked the opportunity to race Gordon under green flag conditions, he believed NASCAR made the right call.

"It was raining on me the lap before the and when I came back around, it was raining even harder," Newman said. "It was pouring at that point. It's all about safety. There's no wrong part about that.

"They were in a situation, track position-wise to stay out — get some clean air and do what they could. They did what they needed to do and their car was still fast enough to stay out front even when their car was out of sequence. Obviously, we were just four feet short."

So, Ryan Newman is ok with what happened but conspiracy people want to believe that the flag was thrown just so that Jeff would win the race.  I have to say I am enjoying this a bit more than I should.  I've seen all the reasons why people say they don't like Jeff, but I nearly never recognize facts in what they say.  It's always going to be a mystery to me.  Obviously, we all choose who we want to root for based upon our own prejudices.  At this point, Jeff is the points leader.  I hope he can win at least 2 more before the chase begins, so that he can have some wiggle room in case a dnf hits him.  The races coming in July and June are some of his better tracks.

[falcon325]

NASCAR rules stipulate that inner liners are used at all tracks 1 mile or greater...

Man that's what I thought. 

It sure didn't look like R. Gordon or JJ had any inner liners.  I wonder if we had some pressure equalization problems with the inner Goodyears?

[flamehothead]

However, on INC last night, it was pointed out that Pocono is a wide track ("like six lanes of interstate," was the way they put it), the 48 was out of the racing groove

This is Nascar and if there is Pavement someone will be on it before the race is over. I get SICK of hearing Nascar say "It's out of the RACING Groove" because in all reality it's NOT.

IMO the ENTIRE race track IS the racing groove. I have seen debris laying smack in the middle of the racing groove and the caution never came out and bet ya can't guess who was leading lmao. Now if a certain person/persons complain about debris then they will throw the caution.