Luck??

Steve Latarte's call to have Gordon top off his fuel on lap 64 was a long shot, but a gamble that paid off. As a witness I can certainly say it was by no means anything but luck, but the decision was clever. I watched as Ryan gained ground and the rain crept ever so closer to the back stretch. It was a very slow moving shower and mere seconds would have made the difference.

This is the North and the people are mostly Newman, Stewart, and of course Jr. fans. I heard everything from "It's a fixed race" to "It's because of Hendrick". What I saw was NASCAR officials throwing the caution when rooster tails were shooting up from the tires. It's only coincidence that Newman was about to blow by Gordon at that moment.

It was Ryan's race as far as I am concerned. He had the car and the skill and his performance brought him up 5 spots in the point standings. He is now sitting just outside the top 12 and if the #12 Team keeps on their current roll they'll be in contention for the Chase.

As for our Pocono experience... OK. In a word. The rain didn't help and the fact that we were told at 3:00 by a track employee it was cancelled until Mon. at noon almost caused us to miss the race. We left the track!! As did thousands of others. We took a back road and stopped at a store for coffee and were told by another fan who left to GO BACK!! It's starting in 10 minutes. We got back in time for the start of the race.

The seats are horrible unless you pay $250 plus for the suites on top. We were about as high up as you could get and right on the start finish line, but it was hard to see the track below and forget about turns 1,2 and 3 but we could see them coming out of turn 4. We will never return to Pocono Raceway unless they rebuild the stands.

The pit experience was cool. Pattyjo got up close and personal with Smoke's crew and just seeing all the pit boxes and crew members was worth it. I had several converstaions with crew members and track Officials. Pattyjo got me some used lugnuts from the # "1" tirechanger... she could get those guys to give her almost anything!! Too funny and it's a good thing I'm not the jealous type.

It was worth the trip, but I don't recommend Pocono as a track to travel to from any long distance.