Kyle Busch is on the pole, but will this Pocono 500 be another Denny Hamlin game?

   Denny Hamlin: Focused (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
   

   By Mike Mulhern
   mikemulhern.net

   POCONO, Pa.
   A couple of weeks ago, when he was surging, with wins at Martinsville, Texas and Darlington, and running strong just about everywhere, following NASCAR's switch from the wing-spoiler to the old flat-blade, Denny Hamlin was figured the man to beat by the time the stock car tour hit this tricky triangular track.
   Hamlin still may well be. He's got three wins here in his brief time on the NASCAR trail, plus a couple of thirds. And he's showed championship maturity this season.
   But that Charlotte All-Star run-in with his teammate, rowdy Kyle Busch, and a few snippy words the two exchanged, and then Busch's run-in in the 600 with typically mild-mannered Jeff Burton, may have changed the dynamic here.
   Kyle Busch is clearly fired up now, and already hot – with wins at Dover and Richmond and a third at Charlotte, which has him second in the Sprint Cup standings, just 29 points from the lead – and he's on the pole for the 1 p.m. ET start.
    Sunday's Pocono 500 will be his 200th career start, making him the youngest driver in NASCAR history to hit that mark. He just turned 25, but he's been a tour regular since 2004.
   However this hasn't been a great track for Kyle Busch....while it's been a great track for Hamlin.
    "It's either really good or really bad for us here," Hamlin says. "When we do finish, we finish well. But I've broke on the first lap before. 
   "It's just a track we just always perform well at. I don't know exactly what it is --  Mostly it's got to be car, because when you've got a good car at this track you can just make up a lot of time.
  "Some tracks just suit the driver's style, and this one in particular really lends itself to the way I drive."
  Joey Logano, the third and newest teammate in the Joe Gibbs camp, has been trying to learn some things this weekend from Hamlin: "This is a tough race track...I can't say I like it at all, to be honest with you. 
    "Someday I might, when I figure it out.
    "Denny is awesome here. I'm able to pick his brain. We just have to have some patience with it."
   But patience may be in short supply Sunday, drivers say, pointing to two key elements in this race: the double-file restarts, on that long frontstraight, and the draggy flat-blade rear spoiler.
   Hamlin says the double-file restarts, which were first introduced to the tour here a year ago, changed things "dramatically" here.
   "The last race here everyone was, like, 'What is going on with this race track?'
   "We were used to single-file, spread-out racing at this track, and next thing you know we were four-wide in turn three.
    "With the spoiler you're going to see even more of that. 
    "The draft is so big with the spoilers on these cars down the straightaway...and if you run side-by-side you lose a ton of time to the guy in front or behind you....mostly the guy behind, because he's going to suck up and draft right by you. 
    "So the guy in second almost has a bigger advantage now."
    Jeff Gordon agrees the spoiler may play a big role on the frontstretch. "You have a lot more drag down the straight, so I'm not seeing the increase in speed.  It seems the car gets to a certain point and just stalls out. 
    "That's pretty much what we saw in the wind tunnel."
   
   

   Jeff Gordon: a busy man these testing, racing and testing and awaiting the the birth of his second child. Here with wife Ingrid and daughter Ella. (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
   

    So does a crew chief try to 'hide' the rear spoiler, to gain speed on the straight, or use the spoiler to help getting through the corners?
    Interesting debating point, Gordon considers: "Some are going to do the opposite of what we normally do for a track like Charlotte, where we go to maximize the downforce.
    "Everybody has a different theory.
    "My car felt really good -- it could get deep in the braking zones." 
   
   It's midway through the regular season of 26 races, and if the championship playoffs started today, the 12 men would be Kevin Harvick, Kyle Busch, Matt Kenseth, Jeff Gordon, Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Burton, Greg Biffle, Mark Martin, Carl Edwards and Ryan Newman.
    On the outside looking in: Clint Bowyer, Martin Truex Jr., Jamie McMurray, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Joey Logano, and Juan Pablo Montoya. One or two of those 'outsiders' might crack the top-12, but probably not any more.
    The title favorites, in Hamlin's eyes, are Johnson, Gordon, Burton, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, and himself: "They are consistent, week-in and week-out."
    What, no Kurt Busch, the king of Charlotte, the guy who dominated Atlanta?
    Apparently there are mixed feelings about Kurt's title chances.
    And Gordon, considering the latest hit in the sport's TV ratings, says he compares ratings sometimes to the surprises in the stock market, where a stock's price may go up or down without regard to the intrinsic strength of that company.
   "You can compare the little bit of what I know about the stock market to NASCAR," Gordon says: "I feel we've got the best package, the best racing -- with the green-white-checkereds, the double-file restarts – and the overall competition being the closest I've probably ever seen it. 
    "We've seen some great racing this year....and has that impacted the attendance and the TV ratings? 
    "I don't know. 
    "Sometimes a company will go perform just the way it's supposed to, but an analyst may say 'You know, this isn't a good stock,' and it goes down. 
   
   

   Jamie McMurray: a great season so far. What can he do from here on? Can he catch up in points and make the playoffs? (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)
   

     "That's where we've been. 
     "We've been in the perception of where the sport is heading....and we're still battling some of that with our fans...(even though) there are some fantastic things NASCAR has taken in reaching out to the fans. 
     "We've lost a little bit of momentum.
     "I'm hoping we can get it back.
    "And if you continue to put good racing out there, that's going to bring that momentum back to us. 
     "I still think we're the most fan-friendly sport...and in the last couple years we've become more fan-friendly. 
    "I still think we have great marketing to companies. But if their budgets get cut back, then they have to look at where they are going to cut back. 
     "Right now it's a pretty good deal in NASCAR...because it's hard for the teams to ask for as much money that they used to ask for. 
     "That's the toughest part --- that costs have not gone down for us.  We've been trying really hard to find ways to reduce costs, and unfortunately that happens in our staff and our employees. But to be competitive, you have to spend the money. 
     "We need the sponsorship. And when the sponsors are cutting back, that's the biggest challenge I see."
  
 

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  Dale Earnhardt Jr.: starting up front in the Pocono 500. Will he finish up front? (Photo: Getty Images for NASCAR)