Pocono Mountain Way

It's time for NASCAR to take a trip to the Pocono Mountains and Pocono Raceway in Pennsylvania this week for the annual Pocono 500. Pocono is one of those tracks where a race can either become very exciting or very boring very fast. With any luck, this year we won't be seeing one of those boring races. Here are my picks to win this week's race.

Ryan Newman, No. 12 ALLTEL Dodge (Penske Racing)
Last Week: 14th place finish in the Best Buy 400
Career at Pocono: 13.6 Avg. Finish, 1 win, 5 top 5's, 6 top 10's
Why he could win: Remember, last year Newman was the man to beat in this race until the rains came. He was right in the middle of passing Jeff Gordon for the lead when the caution came out that ended the race. I'll bet money Newman hasn't forgotten.

Denny Hamlin, No. 11 FedEx Toyota (Joe Gibbs Racing)
Last Week: 43rd place finish in the Best Buy 400
Career at Pocono: 2.8 Avg. Finish, 2 wins, 3 top 5's, 4 top 10's
Why he could win: No folks, that average finish is not a typo. In four career starts at Pocono Denny Hamlin has NEVER finished outside the top 10 and he has an average finish of 2.8. Best part? He'd never actually seen the track until the weekend that he won his first race there. Frankly, that's scary.

Jeff Gordon, No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet (Hendrick Motorsports)
Last Week: 5th place finish in the Best Buy 400
Career at Pocono: 10.2 Avg. Finish, 4 wins, 15 top 5's, 21 top 10's
Why he could win: Gordon has consistently been one of the men to beat at Pocono throughout his career. If he starts the race at Pocono he is a serious threat to win, no matter if he starts 43rd or 1st.

In terms of underdogs, i'm picking someone who's got a pretty good record at Pocono but just hasn't been able to continue being consistent everyone on the circuit.

Brian Vickers, No. 83 Red Bull Toyota (Red Bull Racing)
Last Week: 13th place finish in the Best Buy 400
Career at Pocono: 14.4 Avg. Finish, 3 top 5's, 3 top 10's
Why he could win: Vickers has an off and on sort of team. One week they will be really good (Talladega) and the next the team will end up at the back of the pack (Charlotte). If Vickers can nail down some consistency I suspect he might be tough to beat.