LONG POND, Pa. -- For all the attention paid to finding the perfect setup or that last bit of horsepower, the 15 or so seconds when a Sprint Cup car is sitting nearly motionless may have more bearing on who wins and loses on a weekly basis.

As the Wood Brothers learned some four decades ago and Juan Montoya proved at Indianapolis one week ago, the hard-earned advantage gained on the track can be eliminated by a mistake entering, exiting or sitting on pit road. And as the competition on the track has gotten more balanced and aerodynamic effects have made it more difficult to run side-by-side, making up positions during pit stops becomes paramount.

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Right now, pit stops are more important than they've been in my five years that I've been doing this.

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CARL EDWARDS

It's imperative, particularly at a track like Pocono Raceway, to use green-flag stops and fuel mileage calculations to your advantage. Tony Stewart's victory in June was a direct result of that. Despite starting last and going to a backup car -- as he did after wrecking in Saturday's first practice session -- Stewart was able to use pit strategy to work his way to the front and eventually win.

"Right now, pit stops are more important than they've been in my five years that I've been doing this," Carl Edwards said. "It's so competitive on the race track that a couple of spots gained or lost in the pits can really define your race, especially if you multiply that over the six pit stops you have in a race, or eight of them."

Jeff Gordon echoed those sentiments.

"This is a track where you can gain quite a bit of time or lose a lot of time on pit road," Gordon said. "Tony Stewart proved that last time we were here how good their team and car was. They came from all the way in the back and won the race. You don't see that happening very often but it shows you how important it is to get the car right."

But all the speed won't do you any good if you use up fuel at a faster rate than the competition, especially if the caution flags don't match your strategy. That's an issue Greg Biffle knows all too well from his last trip to Pocono.

"We ran second most of the day, third, led some of it, and then didn't have good enough fuel mileage to make it to the end, so we had to make an extra stop," Biffle said. "We finished 11th still, but we had to make an extra pit stop and give up that precious track position. So we've been working hard on mileage. There's nothing you can do if your car doesn't get the fuel mileage it needs."

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Because Pocono's three corners are different, in both radius and banking, and the track is bumpy and rough, teams have to use a compromise setup, hoping to strike a balance that makes the car driveable.

"Turn 1 [is tough] because of how rough it is and the bumps that are in the lower section of the race track," Kurt Busch said. "[Turns] 2 and 3 seem to be a bit more similar to each other, but Turn 1 is surrounded by the two longest straightaways. It's really a unique challenge to try and find the right combination."

Even though most Pocono races wind up having at least one long green-flag run, Busch suggests having a car that turns well in Turn 1 could be the key.

"With double-file restarts, I feel that Turn 1 is a little bit more important now because that can help you get a run down the Long Pond straightaway to try and gain more positions when everyone is bunched up together," Busch said. "It's not necessarily working on the long run any more. You have to have that short run balance as well with double-file restarts."

But in order to be in a position to take advantage of double-file restarts, you can't give away positions on pit road. That's where Edwards is somewhat helpless.

"I know there have been a number of races earlier in the year where I feel like we lost a lot of ground on pit stops, and I'm really proud of my guys for working on it," Edwards said. "But during those pit stops, when that jack's sitting up there, and you're just waiting for it to drop, those are the longest few seconds of my life.

"... That's what makes this a real team sport on race day. Those guys are just as much of a part of your success or your failure than the driver or the crew chief, and they've got a big responsibility."