Kurt Busch hopes to make a move in points at Pocono

At Pocono Raceway's quirky 2.5-mile triangular track -- and with a new restart format that favors his brother, Kyle -- Kurt Busch looks to improve on his third-place standing in Sprint Cup points.

Pocono is one of Busch's best tracks -- he has seven top-five finishes there, including two wins and four seconds -- and Sunday's Pocono 500 begins a two-race swing at speedways where he has been successful in the past. On June 14 the series moves to Michigan International Speedway where Busch also has two victories but lacks the consistency he has shown at Pocono.

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"It's a period of the schedule where, if you can mount a good charge -- if you can thrive while many of the teams are burning out -- it certainly can pay big dividends down the stretch," said Busch, who trails series leader Tony Stewart by 71 points. "It can separate the men from the boys. That's for sure. With the great cars we're putting out there week in and week out, we're really looking forward to all the races this summer, and we're optimistic about being competitive in all of them."

Busch achieved a perfect Driver Rating of 150.0 in both his Pocono wins.

For the Pocono 500, NASCAR has adopted a double-file restart format that will keep the leaders up front and side-by-side when they take the green flag. The format was last used in the May 16 Sprint All-Star Race at Lowe's Motor Speedway, where Kyle Busch used it to his advantage before his car sustained damage in the frenetic final 10 laps.

NASCAR announced Thursday that it has decided to implement the double-file format (where the leader has the choice of inside or outside lane, and the third-place car always starts to the inside) starting this weekend at Pocono and continuing for the rest of the season.

Double the fun

NASCAR announced a change to its race format with the addition of double-file restarts throughout each race, and many welcome it.

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Other storylines to watch include how Jeff Gordon's back pain, which caused him to withdraw from the Prelude to the Dream at Eldora Speedway before the event was postponed because of rain, responds to a few days' rest. After crashing his primary car in qualifying last week at Dover, Gordon finished 26th in Sunday's race at the Monster Mile and surrendered the championship lead.

Stewart also will be looking to bring his No. 14 Chevrolet to Victory Lane for the first time since acquiring ownership interest in what is now Stewart-Haas Racing. Stewart, whose only win at Pocono came in June 2003, has posted six top-fives, including three runner-up finishes, in his last eight races. Having moved to Stewart-Haas for the start of the 2009 season, Stewart is the first owner/driver to lead the Cup standings since the late Alan Kulwicki did so in 1992.

FIVE TO WATCH
Denny Hamlin, No. 11: Hamlin, who has two wins and two thirds in six races at Pocono, is winless this year despite having led 479 laps, fourth-most in the Cup Series. Right now, Hamlin ranks seventh in the modern era for most laps led in a season without a victory.

Jeff Gordon, No. 24: This is a 500-mile race, and Gordon is experiencing back problems. Not a good combination. Gordon's record at Pocono is excellent: four wins in 32 starts with 22 top-10s.

Juan Montoya, No. 42: Montoya sits 15th in the point standings and is 92 points behind No. 12 Mark Martin. Montoya is 0-for-4 at Pocono and failed to finish both races last year. Although winless at Pocono, Martin has 31 top-10s in 44 starts. Montoya needs a solid finish to keep the bottom of the Chase within site.

Jimmie Johnson, No. 48: Johnson won last week and is on top of his game going into a track in which he has finished worse than 15th only once in 14 starts. He has two wins and nine top-10s at Pocono.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88: Junior and his new brain trust have had a full week to work together, so more will be expected from the No. 88 team. Earnhardt is winless at Pocono with six top-10s in 18 starts.

TRACK CHATTER
Jamie McMurray: "Due to the unique layout of the track, it forces us to look at a few different aspects of our race car for this weekend's race. Horsepower is the key at Pocono, and you need to have a fast and powerful car since there are three different straightaways."

Denny Hamlin: "To get the two wins in my rookie season was an incredible start, and this track will always mean something special to me and this team because of that. At the time, because the car was so good and I felt really comfortable here, I probably took those wins for granted a little. I was still new and didn't have a good sense of how hard it is to win in the Cup Series so as more and more time passes, just how cool it was to win both those races, and do it from the pole both times, has really sunk in."

Bobby Labonte: "The front straightaway there, you come off the corner which is pretty slow but you pick up so much speed down the front straightaway that it is just forever, forever, forever. And then you just say, 'Oh my gosh, I've got to let off here, I'm probably going about 205 [mph]. And it's hard on the brakes getting it to turn and everything. You've got a lot of time to think about Turn 1. Best thing to do is probably to not think about it, but it's a long enough straightaway that you can't ignore that you're going to be hauling butt when you get down there."