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.

• Send Joe your thoughts

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.

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.

• Complete story, click here
• 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.

Any doubt?
Yes, they are still racing Formula One.

And after dynamic rookie Lewis Hamilton won the Canadian Grand Prix on Sunday to become the first black driver to win a race in F1, can there be any doubt that NASCAR folks will soon be knocking on Lewis' door -- if they haven't already?

Hamilton, an Englishman, is only 22. Even if he races F1 for a few more years, he will remain plenty young enough to try his hand at stock-car racing, if he so desires. And you can bet that there are plenty of Nextel Cup teams that will be lined up to take him in if that desire becomes apparent at any time.

Many in racing believe that a successful black driver in this current era could ultimately have the same effect on the NASCAR fan base that Tiger Woods had on golf when he burst onto that scene.

Pit Stops
• Edwards nearly missed his Busch qualifying attempt at Nashville Superspeedway. After practicing earlier Saturday at Pocono for Sunday's Cup event, he arrived at the Nashville track via helicopter, jumped out in his race uniform, signed in and sprinted to his Busch car with about 60 seconds to spare before launching a Busch qualifying run that was good enough for him to start seventh.

• You can't blame Newman for backing off of Gordon when the heavy rains came on what turned out to be the final lap of the Pocono 500 Sunday. He was walking a fine line between wanting to win the race and risking a wreck that would have ruined his fine day. But you'd also like to see a little more fire out of Newman, who afterward said, "I'm not mad by any means." Darn it, he had a right to be hopping mad -- and folks might take to him a little more if he showed more emotion.

• Riding the coattails of Letarte's strategy, Mears ended up with a fourth-place finish at Pocono. It came only two weeks after the first Cup victory of his career in the Coca-Cola 600 at Lowe's Motor Speedway and was only the eighth top-five finish for him in 158 Cup starts.

• Not to be totally lost on the weekend that was is Todd Bodine's Truck Series victory at Texas Motor Speedway on Friday night. It was a good one, with Bodine spinning out Travis Kvapil on Lap 165 to bring out a caution in the scheduled 167-lap event (watch video). Bodine then held off Mike Skinner by 0.188 seconds in a green-white-checkered finish, and afterward apologized for spinning out Kvapil. Hey, Todd, you never have to apologize when you win.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.