Cup drivers at Pocono pass on track time at Montreal (cont'd)

RCR regular Stephen Leicht will sub for Bowyer, Auggie Vidovich will again stand-in for Ragan, Erik Darnell will spell Edwards and road-race instructor Chris Cook will sub for Reutimann.

A year ago, Leicht finished fifth in a Robert Yates Racing Ford, Reutimann was ninth, Ragan 19th and Edwards 30th. Among this year's double-duty drivers, Edwards, Biffle, Reutimann and Ragan also doubled up last year.

It's left Edwards wishing his video game console was a little more diverse, given the fact that he won't leave Pocono until Saturday's Happy Hour is virtually over. Teamwork will be a key for the Roush Fenway trio, Edwards said through a smile, in his No. 99 Ford's hauler right before practice, in which he ended up third.

"I've just been having to go through the [Montreal] racetrack in my head, trying to remember everything [about it]," Edwards said. "I use the video games a lot, but Montreal isn't on my system. I feel pretty good about it. We were fast last year, and I think we'll be pretty good -- it'll be fun.

"My plan is to talk to Erik and Colin and Drew [Blickensderfer, his Nationwide crew chief, Friday] after practice and hopefully kind of get an idea what they're doing. Colin's so good on the road courses, the plan is kind of to stick on his setup, and Erik's going to let me know if that works.

"I'll show up, start in the back and get used to it as we go."

Ragan, who's fifth in Nationwide points, 331 behind Bowyer but only 56 points behind the 12th spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup standings, said there was no question what he'd do.

"Our goal is to make the Chase and concentrate on here at Pocono," Ragan said before practice, where he was 16th. "This hasn't been one of our best tracks, so we need to do what we can to try to better our performance, put all our concentration here and show up to Canada and try to get a top-15 finish.

"We know it'll be tough to win the race because the first lap I'll make will be the first lap in the race, so we're just going to stick around here."

Reutimann, who was 19th in the first Cup practice, is fourth in the Nationwide Series standings, and after running both series for the second consecutive year, is familiar with the routine.

"Traveling back and forth is the easy part," Reutimann said of Cook's work preparing him. "The track is a very tough, tricky, technical road course. Chris is a good guy and a super road-course racer, he's good at what he does and he has helped me with my learning curve.

"He taught me techniques to help reduce lap time and build consistency. Everything I've learned will come into play this weekend in Montreal."

Reutimann is looking to pick up from where he left off in last year's crazy finish, in which Harvick, Robby Gordon and Marcos Ambrose were all involved in fender banging before Harvick prevailed.

"It was a wild race in the end, but we were able to capitalize and finish in the top 10," Reutimann said. "I'm looking forward to going back to the city. The people are very nice and we had a great turnout for the race -- I think it was close to 70,000 people there."

Reutimann is most cognizant of his point position.

"We're fourth right now, but we have had some bad stuff happen to us that have been out of our control and also of our own doing," Reutimann said. "We've got to make sure we're not worrying about the points and focus on each race weekend. The points will fall into place if we continue to run well, finish strong and win races."

Edwards, once he gets the course map re-fixed in his mind, is most worried about timing his air travel.

"The plan for [Saturday] is to practice all we can here -- hopefully all of [Happy Hour] -- and still make it to the airport," Edwards said. "We just have to make sure that the helicopter people understand they cannot leave without us because at that time, if they leave with an empty seat or something because somebody is in a hurry, then the round-trip time will make it impossible for us to make it to Montreal."

Speeds
• Cup Series: Practice 1 | • Nationwide Series: Practice 1 | Practice 2