The Speeding Bullets: Pocono 500

• Congratulations to Tony Stewart for getting his first ever "points win" for Stewart-Haas Racing. What makes it even sweeter is that he had all odds stacked against him. Stewart made his march to the front from dead last as a result of crashing in final practice. He even managed to save four laps of fuel on a 2.5 mile track which still amazes me. Tony made us realize in victory lane after the race that magicians never reveal their secrets and that drivers also never reveal their fuel-saving techniques. Once again, I am going to say that "Smoke" has it in him to win the championship this year. He made the most brilliant decision possible when he chose to depart from Joe Gibbs Racing and start his very own team. I even had my doubts when all of this began...

• Ryan Newman moved up to fourth place in the points with his fifth place finish this week. It doesn't matter if he is running 29th at the halfway point of a race; he will still finish stoutly. The man just got his sixth consecutive top ten finish. He is getting closer and closer to his first victory since the 2008 Daytona 500. This move not only turned around Stewart's career; it also turned around Newman's...

• Too bad for Carl Edwards. He had the best car all afternoon but lost the race on the final pit stop when Tony Stewart beat him out. Edwards has had his share of bad luck this season, but he claims, and I believe, that a turnaround has started happening to his team in the past couple of weeks. Carl will be ready when the NASCAR postseason rolls around in 2009. I feel like he learned a lot from getting beat by Jimmie Johnson for last year's championship. I won't be surprised if he has a noticeably better grasp on this year's Chase...

• The Mistake of the Week award for Pocono goes to Kasey Kahne plus all of the other teams who came down pit road instead of gambling on fuel mileage. Kahne gave up a much-needed second place finish and instead ended up in 16th. I know it may have seemed like a safe move at the time, but I hope all of these guys learn something from Tony Stewart and Carl Edwards. It may have been the fact that the Dodges just didn't have as many miles to the gallon as the Chevys and the Fords had...

• After one week of the double-file restarts, I have to say that I think that NASCAR truly made a good move by implementing them when they did. Pocono is still Pocono, but at least these restarts made it a little more interesting. The most exciting part of the race, though, was the fuel-mileage finish...

• 2009 continues to be a disappointing year for Denny Hamlin. Troubles haunt him race after race. Something always happens to him when he is in a position to win that hard-earned victory, whether it is a little bump from Jimmie Johnson at Martinsville, a pit crew flaw at Richmond, or even a blown tire at Dover. This week at Pocono, all eyes were on him to dominate the race as he usually does. He had the fastest time in final practice and swept the races in his rookie season. From the drop of the green flag, his car was struggling and he ended up having to go to the garage for a while. At the end of the day, he finished 22 laps down. I really feel sorry for him; he could just about cry, especially after these last two weeks (and I could cry about the fantasy finish he gave me this week... just kidding).
  

• Dale Earnhardt, Jr. had a typical Junior race, a nonfactor who finished in 28th position. I know, Junior Nation, your new excuse is that he is having to adjust to the crew chief change. Just realize at some point it all comes down to evaluating the driver himself. In a couple of months, I will be laughing at all of those fans who are ignorant enough to believe that a simple crew chief change is all it will take to turn around this man's career. At the rate Junior's going, his next points win isn't going to come until July of 2010 (He wins one every 25 months)...