Dale Earnhardt Jr. is having a rather pleasant season thus far. On Sunday, he swept the season series at Pocono, upped his count to three wins this term, tops the standings, and is second only to Jeff Gordon in accumulated points. No bad at all.
Gordon actually had the car to beat on the day, leading the most laps, but with 39 to go he stayed out while Junior hit the pits. That allowed his teammate to gas and go with 10 remaining, while Gordon required full service, and that was that. Gordon finished sixth, leaving Kevin Harvick to fill up Junior’s rear view as they ticked down to the end, with Harvick claiming the runner-up spot.
Three years ago at Sonoma, Brian Vickers had enough of Tony Stewart and wound up parking Smoke atop a stack of tires. On Sunday, Vickers again caused Stewart to end up jacked up, though not intentionally. Denny Hamlin lost traction, almost spun, causing Vickers to ponder evasive action. That was enough to send his car into Matt Kenseth, which caused one heck of a mess behind them, including Stewart parked atop Paul Menard’s ride.
That meant Stewart failed to get his much needed win. Kenseth remains the points leader amongst the winless. Menard needs a win, not another car. Jimmie Johnson has his three wins, but tire woes meant wall woes as he was done in 39th. Kyle Busch does not smoke, but his car did after 20-odd laps to leave him 42nd. As for Ms. Patrick, she failed to make it over the Danica-line as she came home 30th. She was a solid Top-10 early but smacked the wall, which caused her tire to blow a lap later, which pretty much shot the handling after that. Just another day in paradise.
This Sunday, Watkins Glen provides the test, where Patrick finished 20th in her first attempt. Marcos Ambrose won there in 2011, and he sure could another one this weekend. Same goes for Stewart, who has claimed it five times. Both usually do quite well turning left and right, while a win would turn one of them right into a place in the Chase.
THE SWEET SIXTEEN
1 – Dale Earnhardt, Jr. – 3 Wins – 740 Points
2 – Brad Keselowski – 3 – 687
3 – Jimmie Johnson – 3 – 633
4 – Jeff Gordon – 2 – 757
5 – Joey Logano – 2 – 633
6 – Carl Edwards – 2 – 618
7 – Kevin Harvick – 2 – 608
8 – Kyle Busch – 1 – 611
9 – Denny Hamlin – 1 – 532
10 – Aric Almirola – 1 – 506
11 – Kurt Busch – 1 – 488
12 – Matt Kenseth – 0 – 668
13 – Ryan Newman – 0 – 642
14 – Clint Bowyer – 0 – 617
15 – Kyle Larson – 0 – 595
16 – Greg Biffle – 0 – 590
CONTENDERS & PRETENDERS
17 – Kasey Kahne – 0 Wins – 589 Points
18 – Austin Dillon – 0 – 588
19 – Paul Menard – 0 – 562
20 – Marcos Ambrose – 0 – 541
21 – Brian Vickers – 0 – 539
22 – Tony Stewart – 0 – 537
23 – Jamie McMurray – 0 – 536
24 – Casey Mears – 0 – 487
25 – A.J. Allmendinger – 0 – 477
26 – Martin Truex, Jr. – 0 – 477
27 – Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. – 0 – 423
28 – Danica Patrick – 0 – 396
29 – Justin Allgaier – 0 – 371
30 – Michael Annett – 0 – 347
31 – David Gilliland – 0 – 312
32 – Cole Whitt – 0 – 305
