Chase Bubble: Pocono (cont'd)

Behind Busch comes his teammate, Ryan Newman, who has quietly been regaining the form that led him to eight victories in 2003. Newman is just 59 points out of the Chase himself, and he too has a victory at Pocono to his name. Newman's 11 starts have resulted in five top-five finishes, and he was at Jeff Gordon's A pillar when the yellow waved for rain in June, so he's recaptured some of the "Rocketman" magic.

Newman is trending generally upward, despite a 42nd-place result at Indy last week. The two races before that, he was eighth and 14th.

Jamie McMurray has had a couple of bad races following his Daytona victory, but he's still just 113 points out with six races remaining. Pocono hasn't been all that special for McMurray, as in nine starts he's had but two top-10 finishes. But he and crew chief Larry Carter broke through at Daytona, so there's a chance they could put something together at Pocono, too.

Greg Biffle is coming back around after a 2006 season spent wandering around the middle of the pack. His last three races, he's been sixth, 11th and 15th, and he's come from 20th after Michigan to 16th in the points after Indy.

Biffle is just 15 points behind McMurray for 15th, and that leaves him 128 shy of the Chase with six to go. Despite some powerful racecars at Pocono, Biffle's best finish there in nine starts is fourth.

In 17th place, there's the semi-retired Mark Martin, who is just 172 points out of the Chase despite having missed five races. He's running well, finishing 17th, 14th and sixth in his last three, and if his schedule permits and some of the others have trouble, he could be a contender in the final weeks.

Despite never having won at Pocono, Martin has six runner-up finishes on the tricky triangle, and in 41 career starts, he's managed a top-10 on 28 occasions. He has 19 top-fives, too, as well as three poles. This isn't over yet, despite what Martin might say.

Finally, Montoya occupies 18th in the driver standings, exactly 200 points behind Earnhardt Jr.

His last three races resulted in a rookie-like 35th, a solid 15th and a fast-closing second at Indy, and he's one of those guys who can hit a hot streak and make some noise. Of course, he's had some growing pains, including an eight-race stretch where his best finish was 23rd and his worst was 43rd, so he's a dark horse at best.

Montoya did finish 20th in his first race at Pocono, which is fairly impressive given he'd never seen the place before that weekend.

That does it for Bubble Watch this week. Who knows how it will look seven days from now.