Pocono latest on schedule to test drivers' endurance

It seems odd to have watched the Coca-Cola 600 last weekend and now, to either be on a flight or fixing to watch the events at Pocono Raceway this weekend, doesn't it?

Admit it, Dover had followed the 600 for so many years it had just become the natural progression of things -- or so it seemed.

But this season Dover's 400-miler was placed out front of two race weekend's at the re-christened Charlotte Motor Speedway.

By the way -- good to have you back, Charlotte -- almost like ya never went away ...

And, of course, the funniest aspect of that was to see the various talking heads who should have had plenty of time to get used to the concept mumble and stumble over the "other" name.

And obviously it has a lot more to do with an ongoing wrestling match with a spoiler than any connection you could make to Jimmie Johnson's car sponsor no longer holding naming rights to a facility JJ had seemingly held title to -- but it's a definite Johnson had less than his usually stellar results at Charlotte the past two weekends.

But to get back on track -- and for some reason I never thought of it until a day or so before I embarked for Pennsylvania -- but there's one thing this schedule shuffle didn't change about an aspect of the Cup schedule that's been in place since Darlington's storied Southern 500 was "migrated" to the spring.

That is, this four-race clip of the schedule -- separated only by the helter-skelter Sprint All-Star Race -- contains four of the most endurance-worthy events on the Cup Series' schedule.

Despite the attention-grabbing speed of the laps on its rickety race track, 500 miles at Darlington takes some time to complete, thank you very much; and some intestinal fortitude. (Continued)