iNSIDE SCOOP: Wild-Cards, Wild Weather and Pocono

It’s that time of year again, race fans.

Now that we’ve reached 13 races in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, we turn our attention to the Chase for the Chase…however you want to put it.

The top 10 is what it is. The usual suspects inhabit the automatic qualifying slots. Three of the four Hendrick cars, led by point leader Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. (6th) and Kasey Kahne (7th) are in, as are two Joe Gibbs Racing machines (Matt Kenseth fourth and Kyle Busch eighth). Carl Edwards is second currently, followed by Clint Bowyer in third. Kevin Harvick is fifth, Paul Menard ninth and Brad Keselowski 10th.

The Wild Cards, drivers ranked 11th through 20th with the most wins, fill out the field of 12. By points margins, the current top 10 is unsettled. From eighth-place Kyle Busch to 13th-place Greg Biffle, the spread is just 21 points. A year ago, nine of the 10 drivers qualifying for the Chase by points occupied a top-10 position entering the regular season's final 13 races. So it's not too early to consider the Wild Card scenarios.

Tony Stewart, until recently outside the top 20, is the current Wild Card leader (16th) following Sunday's victory at Dover. Jeff Gordon, 11th in the standings, holds the second Wild Card based upon his points position.

David Ragan won at Talladega but ranks 27th and is 113 points outside top-20 eligibility.

Only 33 points outside the top 10, Stewart may not be a Wild Card hopeful for long. He finished third in Pocono's first race a year ago, fifth in the second. Stewart counts two victories at the track and a fifth-best Driver Rating of 98.6. Of Stewart's 48 career victories, 42 have come after June 1. Gordon, likewise, is trending upward. A trio of accident-caused DNFs has offset three third-place finishes, the most recent coming last Sunday. He's gained 10 positions in the points since Bristol, where Gordon suffered one of three finishes of 34th or worse. Gordon won last August's weather-shortened Pocono event, his second victory in the last four races and sixth overall at the 2.5-mile track. Gordon enjoys a third-best Pocono Driver Rating (100.9) and series-best top-five (18) and top-10 (28) finishes.

Pocono is a bad place to start your Chase run. It’s big, fast and tricky. The straightaways do justice to any major airport, and they twist the engine way up into the danger zone. It’s just been repaved, and that means the grip levels are up, so you can torque the rear end right out of it without half trying. 

For so big a place, it can get very narrow, very quickly, too, especially as you enter the Tunnel Turn, the kink-like corner at the end of the Long Pond straight. You can get two cars through it, but only if nobody does anything particularly stupid. 

If you have a problem there and are forced to limp around, it’s a loooong way back to the pits.

Of course, that’s if the weather cooperates, which it hardly ever does up there on the mountain. I’ve been there a fair number of times, and the weather could always turn on a dime. It would be sun-splashed and fair one minute, and you’d be running for the media center or the hauler looking for an umbrella the next.

We’ll see how all this goes this weekend, the Good Lord willing and the creek don’t rise. Remember, it’s only a few months to Sept. 7…when we’ll know who is in, who is out and who is just running for money and glory.