Weekend That Was: Pocono (cont'd)

What they lacked was Letarte's creative radar vision, which accurately mapped out how the rain and the race would play out. Was it a gamble? No doubt. Letarte even joked that he couldn't argue with those who thought it was stupid at the time for him to order up a green-flag stop to make certain Gordon would have enough fuel to coast past the halfway point without stopping again.

Unfriendly skies

With different timing, someone else could have been celebrating in Victory Lane.

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• Hamlin questions strategy

"Sometimes stupid works, I guess," he said.

Gordon said afterward that when things are going good, as they so obviously are for his team this season, frequently you make your own luck.

"I have never appreciated things in life and my good fortune more than I am right now," he said. "When you have that chemistry and positive energy surrounding you, I think good things happen. I don't think things happen because you're lucky; you put yourself in position to make things happen."

You also are aggressive and confident and go for the wins, instead of playing not to lose like Denny Hamlin and others did on Sunday. The only other car to take the same gamble as Gordon was the No. 25 of driver Casey Mears, his Hendrick Motorsports teammate who ultimately finished fourth.

Everyone else played it safe -- and lost.

It was yet another lesson in why Hendrick's cars in general, and those of Gordon and Jimmie Johnson in particular, continue to dominate this Nextel Cup season.

Walk the walk
No one seemed more disappointed in the race results than Hamlin, who won both Pocono races last season and led more laps than anyone else before settling for a sixth-place finish Sunday.

But Hamlin's No. 11 Chevrolet team had no one to blame but themselves. Prior to the race, Hamlin talked openly about how they had to start taking chances, that he was tired of falling just short of getting to Victory Lane.

"We are starting to take the mentality now that we have got to start taking chances to get wins -- because if we're not winning, we're not doing anything," Hamlin said.

But when the caution came out on Lap 65 Sunday, Hamlin, who had been the class of the field to that point, agreed with crew chief Mike Ford to take the conservative approach of taking on four tires -- while everyone else took on only two or fuel only in an attempt to gain track position. After coming in as the leader, he came out 21st on the restart and never had enough time to get all the way back to the front.

You might say that Hamlin talked the talk before the race, but then obviously failed to walk the walk. In what would have been a perfect time for the type of gamble he had talked about prior to the race, Hamlin's team played it safer than anyone else and paid a higher price for it than anyone else.

Carl the closer
Carl Edwards' domination of the Busch Series this season has no doubt been impressive, as he captured his fourth win of the season Saturday at the Federated Auto Parts 300 at Nashville Superspeedway (watch video).

But was car owner Jack Roush just a little too giddy when he told reporters afterward that Edwards is "as good a closer as there has been?"

It's a little early in Edwards' career to make that claim. And let's see him build on his Busch Series success by winning a few more races at the Nextel Cup level before anyone seriously broaches the subject again. (Continued)