NASCAR Cup Series

From the impact of crew chief suspensions inspired by the No. 11 Denny Hamlin penalty to the forecasted rain that never reared its ugly head, here is what else was surprising and not surprising in the 41st Annual GoBowling.com 400 at Pocono Raceway.

The opportunity for drivers to earn spots in NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup by winning races continues to dwindle as just three races remain before the Labor Day Weekend event at Atlanta Motor Speedway

Having recently solidified the sport’s domestic television future as part of record-breaking media rights partnerships with the FOX Sports and NBC Sports groups, NASCAR® announced today that it has selected IMG to assist the sanctioning body in establishing a long-term and sustainable global commercial broadcast media distribution strategy.

I felt we were on the right strategy and then that caution came out and quite a few cars pitted there, and then they pitted at the same time a few laps later as we did, but they were able to put two tires on or fuel only and gain a lot of track position that way, so we lost quite a bit when that change-up happened.

In 2006 it was Denny Hamlin. This time around, it was Dale Earnhardt Jr. who won for the second time this year at Pocono Raceway, effectively sweeping the season. Earnhardt picked up his third win of the season and his 22nd career victory in NASCAR’s most elite series. The last time he was able to take the credit for sweeping a race, was in 2002 at Talladega Superspeedway.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. realized that it took a bit of luck for him to win at Pocono Raceway in June. But he knew his team was firing on all cylinders Sunday when he completed the season sweep.

On the final restart with only three laps remaining, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. took the lead in his No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet SS to win the GoBowling.com 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup race, and complete a season sweep at Pocono Raceway.

Whatever chance Martin Truex Jr. had to get his No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet into the top-10 came to a halt when he got collected in a 13-car wreck in Sunday’s GoBowling.com 400 Sprint Cup Series rac

CLINT BOWYER, No. 15 RK Motors Charlotte Toyota Camry, Michael Waltrip Racing - Finishing Position: 4th - How did your car handle during today's race?"We had a good car all weekend long and we unloaded good."

ARIC ALMIROLA – No. 43 Go Bowling.com Ford Fusion – “Honestly, I don’t know. I watched the replay to see. I saw smoke and I saw one car make a hard right into the fence and I knew that they were wrecking. I just tried to aim for the middle and hope for best. I was behind Keselowski and there were cars inside of us, so I couldn’t turn left."