NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Pennsylvania 500 | Pocono Raceway Open Race Thread

Updated - 1:37pm ET - Rain has delayed the start of the Pennsylvania 500. The green flag will now drop at 1:50 ET.

Updated - 6:07am ET - Rain may delay the start of Sunday's Pennsylvania 500. Current forecasts predict thunderstorms with a 60% chance of rain. Pocono Raceway does not have lights and we could be looking at a Monday start.

 

With just six races left before the Chase for the Championship, Pocono could be the deciding race for many in 2010.

There are currently five drivers who are within 156 points of the Chase cutoff and each of them are digging deep to find victory lane today in Long Pond. The best bet of this group has to be Jamie McMurray who is coming off his second win of 2010 at Indianapolis and is riding a season-high wave of momentum.

Mark Martin is currently 13th in points, just 62 markers out of the Chase, and after winning six races in 2009, the #5 is due.

Dale Earnhardt Jr (-93), Ryan Newman (-147) and Kasey Khane (-156) round out the Playoff hopefuls.

News, notes and a starting lineup can be found after the jump!

Called the 'Tricky Triangle' for it's odd shape and difficult corners, Pocono Raceway will actually drive a lot like last week's Brickyard 400. Expect several Indy contenders to again fight for the lead in today's race.

Leading the charge has to be Denny Hamlin. No driver has Pocono figured out more than Hamlin who in nine races, has four wins, six top-fives and an 8.6 average finish. The last stat leads all Sprint Cup as does his Pocono driver rating of 119.1. Hamlin will start today's race in third and should immediately find himself in a position to lead laps.

Juan Pablo Montoya captured his second consecutive front row start on Friday and should top the shortlist of possible winners for today's race. For the second straight year Juan Pablo led the most laps at Indianapolis and was cost another Indy win by choosing four fresh tires rather than two.

Montoya was mired in traffic over the course of the final run and brought out the last caution after making contact with Dale Earnhardt Jr. Montoya came to Pocono with something to prove and that chip could net his second career Cup Series victory.

Expect the usual suspects of Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Tony Stewart to secure the rest of the top-five with Carl Edwards (98.5 driver rating) a possible dark horse.

Pre-race coverage will be provided by ESPN2 Countdown (11ET) and SPEED Raceday (10ET). Live race coverage will air on ESPN starting at 1 p.m./ET. Green flag is set for 1:15 with Marty Reid, Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree providing the call.

Row	Pos	Car	Driver	Team	Time	Speed
1	1	14	Tony Stewart	Office Depot / Old Spice Chevrolet	52.511	171.393
	2	42	Juan Pablo Montoya	Target Chevrolet	52.602	171.096
2	3	11	Denny Hamlin	FedEx Office Toyota	52.826	170.371
	4	24	Jeff Gordon	DuPont Chevrolet	52.872	170.222
3	5	39	Ryan Newman	U.S.Army Chevrolet	52.961	169.936
	6	48	Jimmie Johnson	Lowe's Chevrolet	52.972	169.901
4	7	43	A J Allmendinger	Insignia HDTV Ford	52.979	169.879
	8	31	Jeff Burton	Caterpillar Chevrolet	53.013	169.770
5	9	1	Jamie McMurray	AXE Twist Chevrolet	53.036	169.696
	10	5	Mark Martin	Hendrickcars.com / GoDaddy.com Chevrolet	53.062	169.613
6	11	12	Brad Keselowski	Penske Dodge	53.084	169.543
	12	16	Greg Biffle	3M Ford	53.114	169.447
7	13	2	Kurt Busch	Miller Lite / Vortex Dodge	53.116	169.440
	14	29	Kevin Harvick	Shell / Pennzoil Chevrolet	53.203	169.163
8	15	77	Sam Hornish Jr.	PPG / Olympic Dodge	53.216	169.122
	16	9	Kasey Kahne	Budweiser Ford	53.223	169.100
9	17	20	Joey Logano	Home Depot Toyota	53.247	169.024
	18	6	David Ragan	UPS Ford	53.256	168.995
10	19	47	Marcos Ambrose	Clorox / Kleenex Toyota	53.349	168.700
	20	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	AMP Energy / National Guard Chevrolet	53.358	168.672
11	21	18	Kyle Busch	M&M's Toyota	53.359	168.669
	22	71	Bobby Labonte	TaxSlayer.com Chevrolet	53.380	168.602
12	23	98	Paul Menard	CertainTeed / Menards Ford	53.440	168.413
	24	00	David Reutimann	Aaron's Dream Machine Toyota	53.455	168.366
13	25	99	Carl Edwards	Aflac Ford	53.461	168.347
	26	17	Matt Kenseth	Crown Royal Ford	53.478	168.294
14	27	82	Scott Speed	Red Bull Toyota	53.545	168.083
	28	56	Martin Truex Jr.	NAPA Auto Parts Toyota	53.587	167.951
15	29	19	Elliott Sadler	Air Force Ford	53.631	167.813
	30	46	J J Yeley	Cash America Dodge	53.690	167.629
16	31	83	Reed Sorenson	Red Bull Toyota	53.773	167.370
	32	38	Travis Kvapil	Long John Silver's Ford	53.786	167.330
17	33	87	Joe Nemechek	NEMCO Motorsports Toyota	53.842	167.156
	34	78	Regan Smith	Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet	53.896	166.988
18	35	09	Landon Cassill	Phoenix Construction Chevrolet	53.896	166.988
	36	55	Michael McDowell	PRISM Motorsports Toyota	53.899	166.979
19	37	37	David Gilliland	Gander Mountain Ford	54.068	166.457
	38	66	Dave Blaney	PRISM Motorsports Toyota	54.089	166.392
20	39	36	Casey Mears	Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet	54.112	166.322
	40	33	Clint Bowyer	The Hartford Chevrolet	54.377	165.511
21	41	34	Kevin Conway #	Extenze Ford	Owner Points
	42	7	P J Jones	SpeedFactory.TV Toyota	Owner Points
22	43	64	Todd Bodine	FRED's Hometown Discount Store Toyota	54.127	166.276

 

Did Not Qualify: # 26 David Stremme; # 13 Max Papis.
Manufacturer Starting Lineup DNQs Manufacturer Starting Lineup DNQs
Chevrolet 15 0 Ford 11 1