Weekend That Was: Pocono

No whining, please.

Especially not by those who steadfastedly accuse Jeff Gordon of being the ultimate whiner.

Yet you knew there would be some coming as soon as Gordon's rain-shortened victory in Sunday's Pocono 500 at Pocono Raceway became official. Another half a lap -- shoot, another half a second, it seemed -- and win-starved Ryan Newman would have been the driver cavorting about in Victory Lane instead of Gordon (watch video).

But the yellow caution flag flew when it did, and what's done is done. Newman was about half a car-length behind Gordon and charging hard when the heavy rains came and the yellow flew as the two drivers approached the last scoring loop that mattered on Lap 106 of the scheduled 200-lap event.

It was Gordon's fourth win of the year, and by far his most clairvoyant. In his first run in the announcer's booth for TNT instead of being on the track competing against the eventual winner, Kyle Petty declared that he was ready to retire as a driver if the plan mapped out by Gordon and Steve Letarte, the crew chief on Gordon's No. 24 Chevrolet, ended up working out.

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Petty said he can't compete against that kind of unerring excellence, or at least he said something to that effect. Others must have been left feeling the same after Gordon won with a car that had bad brakes, worn tires -- and clearly was not the class of the field at any point in the race, even, and perhaps especially so, when he was in the final stages of actually winning it.

But guess what? Gordon was right when he told reporters afterward that everyone else in the field had the same opportunity as him to pit for fuel on Lap 84, ensuring that he had enough gas to pedal well beyond the halfway point of the race.

All the other teams were well aware of how much fuel they had left, and whether or not it would be enough to carry them past the halfway mark when the results would become official (no one expected NASCAR to have time to dry out the track and restart the race again once it was stopped for rain -- not after the initial start had been delayed by nearly three hours).

Everyone knew the rain was coming. They all had access to the same weather radar. (Continued)