Busch riding Chase bubble; McMurray chasing ride (cont'd)

3. Which race this weekend is more intriguing -- the Sprint Cup event at Pocono or the Nationwide debut at Iowa Speedway?

Bill Kimm: I mean this in all niceness to the folks in Pennsylvania, but anything is more intriguing than a Pocono race!

David Caraviello: Iowa, baby. Let's go racing in the corn! Very intrigued to see the racing on this less-than-1-mile tri-oval. Looks something like Richmond, only bigger. And we know what kind of racing there is at Richmond.,

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Raygan Swan: That is a tough question, especially for me to answer, because what interests me are storylines off the track, not necessarily the racing at either place. But I'm dying to know if Kyle can pull out a top-10 at Pocono, who will run out of gas this time, or how many rain-delay fights Bob Osborne and Carl Edwards will have.

David Caraviello: Oh please, Raygan. You just miss the bathroom in the Pocono media center.

Raygan Swan: Oh, I knew you wouldn't forget. Thank God for the third trimester! I get to stay home. Besides, they didn't serve the darn pretzels last time out. Where were the pretzels? Joe Menzer was bummed! And as for the bathroom, hovering with an extra 40 pounds is far too great a risk to take for me!

Bill Kimm: This backs up my statement. We are talking about bathrooms and pretzels instead of the racing. Pocono is baaaaadddd.

David Caraviello: Seriously, this is a nice stretch for the Nationwide boys. Last week and this week, they're on tracks that appear -- in the case of Iowa, at least -- to be more entertaining venues than those the Cup drivers are racing on. No question, the action at O'Reilly Raceway Park last weekend trumped that at the big speedway in Indianapolis. I fully expect the same to happen this week. You just wish there was some way for NASCAR to capitalize on it to get the Nationwide tour a little more pub.

Raygan Swan: Jason Leffler seems to think so. He said the Iowa track is the perfect combination of short track and superspeedway racing. I'll be watching.

Bill Kimm: You're right, David. Pocono needs to trim at least 150 miles off that marathon and only go once a year. Then it might become semi-entertaining again.

David Caraviello: Bill, Pocono has issues. No question, the people up there have been good to NASCAR, and NASCAR hasn't forgotten. But the location, the length, the lack of action ... and do they still have that infernal guardrail on the inside of the backstretch? I can still see Steve Park flipping over that thing.

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Raygan Swan: Bill, this is the same Pocono where Tony got his first points race win as an owner and pulled some fancy fuel-mileage trick to barely make it across the finish line. How is that not entertaining? And there was a man hug with him and Ryan in Victory Lane!

David Caraviello: And who doesn't love a big man hug from a sweaty Tony Stewart?

Bill Kimm: I know I do!

Raygan Swan: Don't knock it 'til you've tried it, boys!

Bill Kimm: My problem isn't with the people, it's with the track. It just doesn't lead to good racing. And Raygs, I watched every lap of that Pocono race -- it wasn't exciting. I don't care how it finished.

Raygan Swan: You know, a lot of the racing this season has been sort of dull, but I appreciate the stories nonetheless. I think there have been some great happenings this season, and that has kept me entertained enough.

David Caraviello: Right now, it looks like three drivers are competing in both events -- Kyle, Edwards, and Harvick. That means the usual cross-country travel issues that make these weekends kind of fun. I wonder if they'll all be on the same plane?

Bill Kimm: I'm not sure if I would classify Iowa-to-Pennsylvania as cross-country.

Raygan Swan: Oh no, Kyle is screwed! That's how he landed his terrible finishes last season, overextending himself in trying to do the Trucks [at Texas], Nationwide [at Nashville] and Cup [at Pocono] tripleheader. I do like to see Kyle run, though. Remember, David, what did we say he looked like? A blue heron? The grace of a blue heron. That was it.

David Caraviello: We, kemosabe? I believe that was you!

The opinions expressed are solely those of the participants.