Pocono Round Two Nascar Preview

Sprint Cup and Trucks are at Pocono this weekend, Nationwide is at Iowa. Can you believe Jeff Gordon is 40? The four-time Cup champion celebrated his birthday yesterday and there'd be no greater gift than winning at Pocono again.

Gordon won there in June, tying Bill Elliott for most victories at Pocono with five and also picked up his 84th career win matching him with Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip for third place on the series' all-time race winners list.

Gordon sat 13th in points when he came to Pocono two months ago, but he's moved up to seventh in the standings since then. He has two wins so far this season and almost claimed his third last Sunday at Indy finishing just behind Paul Menard.

His teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr., meanwhile is going the other way in the standings going from third to 10th after finishing outside the top-10 in the last six races. He's winless now in 113 straight races.

The top 10 drivers make the Chase for the Sprint Cup plus the next two wild card drivers based on wins. Denny Hamlin has the first wild card spot with his win in June at Michigan. And he's coming to a track where he's done very well - winning a total of four races and two of the last four.

Menard meanwhile with his win at Indy took over the second wild card spot from David Ragan.

Brad Kesolowski was hospitalized after he crashed into a wall at Atlanta while practicing for the road course race at Watkins Glen. He was going an estimated 100 miles an hour when he slammed into a wall that was not protected by a safer barrier. He tweeted from the hospital that he looks good to go to race this week at Pocono.

Filed Under: Brad Keselowski, jeff gordon, NASCAR, pocono

Categories: Sports