NASCAR At Pocono Raceway: Jeff Gordon Wins 500-Mile Marathon In Pennsylvania

Hendrick Motorsports: 1st, 4th, 6th, 18th

Hendrick Motorsports once again had a strong showing Sunday at Pocono Raceway, putting three cars in the top 10 at the time of the checkered flag. Jeff Gordon led the way for the Hendrick team, scoring the win Sunday over Kurt and Kyle Busch. Gordon had to fend off a late charge by teammate Jimmie Johnson to secure the victory.

Carl Edwards’ engine woes Sunday at Pocono Raceway allowed competitors Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. to close within 10 points each of his Sprint Cup Series points lead.

Johnson (six points behind) and Earnhardt Jr. (10 back) led the way among the drivers threatening to knock Edwards from the top spot. Kevin Harvick (11 points behind) and Kyle Busch (-25) are also within one good race of possibly capturing the points lead.

Sunday’s 5-Hour Energy 500 at Pocono Raceway saw Jeff Gordon score his second victory of the season and 84th overall career win, tying him for third on NASCAR’s all-time win list with Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip.

The race also saw driver’s shifting multiple times a lap for the first time in years, causing a few failures late in the race.

As Kevin Harvick raced Kyle Busch with unmistakable aggression during the early stages of Sunday’s NASCAR race at Pocono, it became obvious that the rivalry between the two drivers is far from over.

Well, at least in Harvick’s mind.

Coming into the weekend searching for his first win of the season, Denny Hamlin looked dominant for much of the early stages of Sunday’s 5-Hour Energy 500 at Pocono Raceway. Starting fourth, Hamlin quickly made his way to the front to lead the first lap and would lead four times for a total of 76 laps.

Setting the pace for the first 100 laps, Hamlin struggled on pit road as his Mike Ford-led crew had an uncharacteristically slow day. Despite losing spots and time on pit road, Hamlin was able to stay in the fight and contend for the win until the final caution of the day brought the field to pit road.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. continued his 2011 career revival on Sunday, recording a sixth-place finish at Pocono Raceway that marked his best performance at the “Tricky Triangle” since a fourth-place result in 2008.

“I’m real happy with where I finished,” Earnhardt Jr. said afterward. “On the last restart of the race, we were 18th with 30 to go. And we drove back up to sixth, so I’m real happy about that.”

Kyle Busch failed post-race inspection on Sunday after NASCAR inspectors discovered his No. 18 car was too low on the left front following the 5-Hour Energy 500 at Pocono Raceway.

Busch, who is fifth in the Sprint Cup Series point standings, stands to be the first driver to be penalized under NASCAR’s new points system.

Denny Hamlin dominated the early stages of Sunday’s 5-Hour Energy 500 at Pocono Raceway, but it was Jeff Gordon that was able to capitalize late and find victory lane. Scoring the win, Gordon now has 84 career victories, tying Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip on the NASCAR all-time win list.

The win was also Gordon’s second of the season, giving him a strong chance of making the 2011 Chase. Saying he feels much more comfortable about his chances at making the Chase, Gordon was not willing to say Sunday’s win was a guarantee for a Chase spot.

We all know Pocono races can feel like a marathon – even more so, in some years, than the Coca-Cola 600.

That said, the SB Nation chat thread is great for days like this. We’ll hang out and have a good racing discussion as the 500 miles of the 5-Hour Energy 500 slowly tick away, hopefully providing some entertainment in the process.

Carl Edwards flew to New York on last-minute notice this week to make an appearance on the popular Live With Regis and Kelly program – and represented NASCAR well in the process.

Edwards, who co-host Regis Philbin introduced as a “backflipping, crowd-pleasing, no-nonsense driver,” joked with Philbin and Kelly Ripa about tearing up his race car after the All-Star Race.

Team owner Richard Childress has caught a lot of flak for his actions last weekend at Kansas Speedway. Many believe his actions were not an appropriate way a NASCAR team owner should act, yet Richard Childress Racing drivers Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick are glad to have Childress in their corner.

Here is what they had to say about Childress:

Like all of us, there are some days when Dale Earnhardt Jr. is in a better, more talkative mood than others. And on Friday at Pocono, NASCAR’s most popular driver had a bunch of interesting/funny things to say.

Here’s a sampling of his comments:

Ryan Newman wouldn’t elaborate on the report from PRN/Sirius Radio’s Jim Noble that Newman was fined $50,000 for punching Juan Pablo Montoya in the NASCAR hauler at Darlington – but he didn’t deny it when asked for comment on Friday at Pocono Raceway.

Asked specifically whether he was fined by NASCAR, Newman responded vaguely.

Shortly after team owner Richard Childress issued a statement on his fine handed down by NASCAR earlier this week, Kyle Busch explained there was no intent to damage Joey Coulter’s truck and he was never warned by Childress.

Calling his post-race incident on the cool-down lap with Coulter a “congratulatory bump,” Busch said had he not rolled out of the throttle racing in the fourth turn, both he and Coulter would have wrecked. Childress took issue with the bump and went after Busch in the garage.

Richard Childress finally made his first public comments on the Kyle Busch fight and his penalty, speaking to reporters on Friday at Pocono Raceway.

Childress offered only a brief statement and took no questions before sliding the No. 31 hauler door open and slipping back inside.

This weekend the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series makes its first trip to the ‘tricky triangle’ at Pocono Raceway nestled in the mountains of Pennsylvania. The Sprint Cup Series has a standalone weekend at Pocono, as the Nationwide Series has the weekend off and the Camping World Truck Series is running at Texas Motor Speedwway.

Starting with this weekend’s race, the qualifying procedure will change slightly for the Sprint Cup Series. The qualifying order will be set according to the first practice speeds, with the slowest cars going first and the fastest cars going at the end of the session. In addition, those cars outside the top 35 in owner points will no longer qualify at the end of the session, separate of the teams locked into the race.