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Clint Bowyer and Kyle Busch need to look no further than Jeff Gordon on how to improve upon their top-10s at Pocono.By the Numbers: Pocono II
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As the Nextel Cup Series begins to cirle around to many tracks at which it has previously raced this season, By the Numbers will take a different approach to the facts and figures that belie the repeat venues.
We will look back to the first race at that track this season and compare the drivers who finished in the top 20 and other notables to their previous races there along with current trends.
For example, Jeff Gordon tied Tim Richmond, Rusty Wallace and Darrell Waltrip with his fourth victory in the June race at Pocono. It also marked Gordon's fourth win this season. Although Gordon hasn't won since, his top-10 streak has reached eight in a row.
Interesting Fact
5Races at Pocono that have not gone at least 500 miles. Rain ended the June 2007 race after 265 miles, the shortest in the 59-race history at Pocono.
Fun Fact
2,693 Elevation in feet of the highest summit in the Pocono Mountains (Elk Hill's North Knob).
All the Facts (Top 20)
1Jeff Gordon’s victory was his fourth at Pocono Raceway, tied for second-most of all time. Bill Elliott, who has a track-best five wins, finished 37th in the June 2007 race.
2Ryan Newman’s runner-up his fifth top-10 in a six-race stretch, including back-to-back second-place finishes. Newman hasn’t had a top-five since.
3Martin Truex Jr. followed his first career win the week before by posting consecutive top-fives for the first time. It was Truex’s second consecutive top-10 at Pocono.
4Casey Mears posted his best career finish in nine Pocono starts. It was his third top-five in four races and just his second top-10 at Pocono.
5Tony Stewart posted his fourth consecutive top-10 finish at Pocono. The last time Stewart had a four-race streak of top-10s at the track, he won the next time out there (2003).
6Denny Hamlin couldn’t make it three in a row at Pocono, but he did lead a race-high 49 laps. In just three starts, he’s fifth among lap leaders (283) by active drivers and has a 2.7 career average finish there.
7Mark Martin now has more top-10s at Pocono (28) than any other track. He has 41 career starts at Pocono and a 10.8 average finish, but is still looking for his first win there.
8Kyle Busch’s second top-10 at Pocono began a current streak of seven races where he hasn’t finished worse than 13th, including five top-10s.
9More steadiness for Matt Kenseth, who has 14 top-10s in 20 races this season and seven top-10s in 15 career Pocono starts.
10Pocono is one of five tracks in 2007 at which Clint Bowyer has posted his first top-10. He has 10 top-10s this season.
11Since Pocono, Kevin Harvick has finished in the top-10 in five of six races. Three of Harvick’s four top-10s at Pocono have come in summer race. His worst finish there since 2005 is 13th.
12The good news for Dale Earnhardt Jr. is he recorded his best finish at Pocono since a run of three consecutive top-10s ended in June 2004. The bad news for Junior, clinging to the 12th spot in the Chase, is his average finish in the past three summer races at Pocono is 33.3.
13If five starts at Pocono in the RCR No. 31 Chevy, Jeff Burton has a 17.4 average finish. That is on par with his career average finish of 17.0 in 27 starts at the track.
14Carl Edwards posted his best finish at Pocono since his first year in the Cup Series, when he followed his victory in his track debut in 2005 with a fourth-place run in the summer race.
15Pocono was Joe Nemechek’s best finish of the season since the first two races of the year when was ninth at Daytona and 14th at Fontana. For just the second time since becoming a full-time driver in 1994 and the first since 2001, Nemechek will not race at Pocono this week.
16Pocono was Kurt Busch’s only top-20 finish in a six-race stretch from Charlotte to New Hampshire that included a crash, being parked by NASCAR and falling out of the top 10 in points. Busch, who is 13th in the standings and just 13 points out of a Chase spot, has a win and three runner-up finishes in the past five summer races at Pocono.
17J.J. Yeley hasn’t had a top-20 finish since Pocono and has crashed out of the past two races. He has completed every lap in his three career starts at Pocono with a 14.3 average finish.
18Pocono represents Scott Riggs’s third-best finish of the season. The June 2007 race also represented his third-best finish in seven Pocono starts.
19Bobby Labonte posted his 19th career top-20 at Pocono. Two of his three wins at Pocono have come in the summer race. Labonte has finished eighth in each of the past two summer races at Pocono.
20Making his track debut, Juan Montoya improved 18 places from his starting position.
All the Facts (Notables)
29Jamie McMurray has went from 10th to 29th in the past five races at Pocono, each time finishing worse the next time out. Sitting 15th in points, he has just two top-10s in nine starts there.
30Greg Biffle matched his worst finish at Pocono. Sitting 16th in points, Biffle has just two top-10s in nine starts there.
42A blown tire gave Jimmie Johnson his worst finish by far in 11 career starts at Pocono. It was the first time he failed to finish on the leap lap.
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Pocono 500
June 2007
| Pos. | Driver | Make |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | Jeff Gordon | Chevrolet |
| 2. | Ryan Newman | Dodge |
| 3. | Martin Truex Jr. | Chevrolet |
| 4. | Casey Mears | Chevrolet |
| 5. | Tony Stewart | Chevrolet |
| 6. | Denny Hamlin | Chevrolet |
| 7. | Mark Martin | Chevrolet |
| 8. | Kyle Busch | Chevrolet |
| 9. | Matt Kenseth | Ford |
| 10. | Clint Bowyer | Chevrolet |
Nextel Cup Series
Official Standings
| Pos. | +/- | Driver | Points | Behind |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | -- | Jeff Gordon | 3076 | Leader |
| 2. | -- | Denny Hamlin | 2705 | -371 |
| 3. | -- | Matt Kenseth | 2699 | -377 |
| 4. | -- | Jeff Burton | 2633 | -443 |
| 5. | +1 | Tony Stewart | 2599 | -477 |
| 6. | -1 | Carl Edwards | 2582 | -494 |
| 7. | +1 | Kevin Harvick | 2488 | -588 |
| 8. | +1 | Kyle Busch | 2479 | -597 |
| 9. | -2 | Jimmie Johnson | 2469 | -607 |
| 10. | -- | Clint Bowyer | 2405 | -671 |
| 11. | -- | Martin Truex Jr. | 2335 | -741 |
| 12. | -- | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 2217 | -859 |
• Complete Standings: click here
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