It's Like Deja Vu All Over Again | The DawgHouse

On June 5th of this year, the NASCAR Cup Series traveled to Pocono Raceway for the first of two races the Series runs at the Pennslyvania track. Rain led NASCAR to cancel qualifying, putting points leader Tony Stewart on the pole. Stewart then crashed his primary car in practice, forcing him to move from the 1st starting spot to 43rd. He didn't stay there long, and that Sunday afternoon ended with Smoke winning his first race as co-owner and driver of Stewart-Haas Racing. Stewart has won only once since the first Pocono race, the July 4th race at Daytona, and if he wants to sweep both Pocono races, he'll have to do the exact same thing he did the first time.

So, let's fast forward from the June race to yesterday. The Cup Series is back at Pocono, and once again qualifying was rained out. And once again Tony Stewart was awarded the pole due to the fact he is still leading the points. Then today on the first lap of practice, Smoke hit the wall and spun out. Stewart has now went to a backup car, meaning that he'll go from first to forty-third again. The primary car he wrecked today was actually the backup car in June that he won with, so they can only hope that the backup car here now is just as good. He has a long way to go, as his team tried to tune the backup car in Happy Hour. However, there will be a lot of work ahead of him, as he finished 26th in the final practice.

Will Stewart win at Pocono tomorrow, just like he did two months ago? I don't think so. You see, a big part of Tony being able to win in June was fuel mileage. Stewart was able to stretch his gas tank just enough to make it to the finish line, and the race might not come down to that again. And even if it did, things could end up completely opposite as it did before. My bet for this race will be a darkhorse candidate. Denny Hamlin has owned this track in his previous races. I say he breaks his bad races streak and wins for the first time in 2009.

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August 2, 2009 03:16 PM ET

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If Smoke wins.. you might as well hand him the championship. I see the 48 car of Jimmie Johnson prevailing today.. he's been good all week in practice and he's on a little roll himself