Speedway Digest Staff - Results from #57200

To attack is to take action with purpose and vigor, and it perfectly describes Tony Stewart’s plan for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race Sunday at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway where he will pilot the No. 14 GoDaddy Chevrolet SS for Stewart-Haas Racing (SHR) in the GoBowling.com 400.

With six races remaining before the start of the 12-driver Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Stewart and Co. find themselves in control of the wild-card race thanks to their June 2 victory at Dover (Del.) International Speedway and their 11^th-place point standing. But giving them even more control of their championship aspirations would be to ascend into the top-10 points, for those drivers among the top-10 are locked into the 10-race Chase following the Sept. 7 cutoff race at Richmond (Va.) International Raceway. Positions 11 and 12 in the Chase are wild cards, awarded to the two drivers between 11^th and 20^th in points with the most wins. Stewart, Martin Truex Jr., and Ryan Newman are the only drivers between 11^th and 20^th in points with a victory. Since Stewart and Truex Jr., sit 11^th and 12^th, respectively, in the standings, they hold the first and second wild-card spots.

Stewart comes into Pocono only one point behind 10^th-place Jeff Gordon and a mere seven points behind eighth-place Greg Biffle. A win at Pocono would not only boost Stewart’s point standing, it would solidify his wild-card standing, as he would become the only driver between eighth and 20^th in points with two victories.

Pocono is a relatively flat track, but Stewart’s statistics at the quirky, 2.5-mile triangle are anything but flat. In 29 career Sprint Cup starts at Pocono, Stewart has two poles, two wins, eight top-threes, 12 top-fives, 21 top-10s and a total of 156 laps led. He has finished among the top-10 in 13 of his last 17 races at Pocono, and in his last three trips to Pocono, he’s finished among the top-five.

Stewart last visited Pocono on June 9. He started 19^th after rain washed out qualifying and the 43-car field was set by owner points. One-hundred-and-sixty laps later, Stewart crossed the stripe in fourth. A little more than a month later at another flat track – New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon – Stewart started 16^th and drove his way to the front, leading 84 laps. He entered the final lap in second place, but his fuel cell ran dry before he could take the checkered flag. The resulting 26^th-place finish was not indicative of the team’s performance. And last Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway – a vast 2.5-mile oval with scant amounts of banking – Stewart qualified fifth and finished fourth.

With the Sprint Cup Series’ return to Pocono, it’s another opportunity for Stewart and the No. 14 team to take advantage of their flat-track prowess. Their fourth-place runs at Pocono in June and Indy last Sunday indicate another strong performance is in store for the team’s return to Pocono. 

Stewart has regularly transferred success between Indy and Pocono, scoring back-to-back top-10 finishes at the two tracks on seven different occasions (1999, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2010 and 2012). When Stewart won at Indianapolis in 2005 and 2007, he finished among the top-10 in three of the four Pocono races those two years. (His lone finish outside the top-10 was 29^th in June 2005, when three flat tires doomed Stewart’s chances.)

Buoyed by a strong run at Indy that was bolstered by SHR teammate Newman’s even stronger run – a victory in the 20^th annual Brickyard 400 – Stewart intends for his flat-track attack to keep on rolling at Pocono, where his purpose is making the Chase and vigorously pursuing a fourth Sprint Cup championship.

TSC PR

Daryl Harr returns to the cockpit of the iWorld Connect-sponsored JD Motorsports with Gary Keller Chevrolet at Iowa Speedway this weekend.

Harr finished 24^th in the iWorld Chevy in the first Nationwide race of the season at Iowa June 9. He started 39^th.

Saturday’s U.S. Cellular 250 will be Harr’s fifth run in the 4 car this season.

 “We’re looking to have a better car for Daryl as we go back to Iowa for a second time,” team owner Johnny Davis said. “It’s always good to have the notes and everything from being at a track already in the season, so we should benefit from that. And Daryl has raced there a good bit, so we should be in shape to have a good run.”

The seven-eighths-mile track will be hosting the 20^th race of the 33-race Nationwide season.

iWorld Connect (iworldconnect.com) is an Apple premium reseller of computer equipment with four locations in western Canada.

JD Motorsports PR

Joey Coulter, driver of the No.18 FOX Sports 1 Toyota Tundra, heads into this weekend's Pocono Mountains 125 at Pocono (Pa.) Raceway riding a wave of momentum. Not only is Coulter the 2012 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) defending race winner, the 23-year-old driver is coming off a fourth-place finish in the historic Mudsummer Classic at Eldora Speedway in Rossburg, Ohio, where he was the highest-finishing Truck Series regular in the inaugural event at the .5-mile clay oval.

In addition to his success at the "Tricky Triangle," Coulter will debut a new partner at Pocono on his Toyota Tundra - FOX Sports 1, America's new sports network launching Saturday, Aug. 17, that will serve as the new home of the NCWTS. Pocono will mark the first of two consecutive appearances onboard the No. 18 Tundra for the network and will incorporate a unique concept to count down the days until its official launch the weekend of the Truck Series race at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn.

This weekend's race marks the 11th event on the 2013 NCWTS schedule and the official "half-way" mark of the season. Historically, the second-half of the season has proven to be Coulter's strongest half. In 2012, he scored his first series win, two poles, seven of his eight top-five's and 10 of his 15 top-10 finishes between Pocono and Homestead-Miami (Fla.) Speedway. Coulter, who has had an uncharacteristically slow start to the 2013 season, hopes to continue his momentum and ride the wave all the way to Homestead. 

KBM PR

Nick Igdalsky, Pocono Raceway Executive Vice President/COO, will pilot the No. 86 DBi Services/Camelbeach Mountain Waterpark Chevrolet in the ModSpace 125 ARCA Racing Series Presented by Menards race on Friday, August 2 at Pocono Raceway. Additional partners on the Fox Motorsports entry, a Pennsylvania-owned race team, include Pennsylvania-based companies ModSpace and Metz Culinary Management.

“I’m excited for the opportunity to race again at Pocono Raceway,” said Igdalsky. “It is an honor to represent these prestigious Pennsylvania-based companies on our #86 Chevrolet. I am so grateful for all the support from the folks at DBi Services, Camelbeach, ModSpace and Metz Culinary Management. Without their assistance, and all the assets from Fox Motorsports, none of this would have been possible. I consider everyone involved on board for the race more than just partners, I’m proud to call them all dear friends.”

Igdalsky, whose family owns and operates Pocono Raceway, will make his sixth career ARCA Racing Series start at “The Tricky Triangle.” In June, Igdalsky drove for Fox Motorsports in the Pocono 200, but a late-race accident put an early end to a potential top-five finish.

DBi Services, headquarter in Hazleton (PA), maintains transportation assets for owners in North America, Europe and the Middle East. Camelbeach Mountain Waterpark, located in Tannersville (PA), has over 37 slides and attractions and is the largest waterpark in Pennsylvania. ModSpace, headquarted in Berwyn (PA), offers a full line of temporary and permanent modular buildings and storage containers. Metz Culinary Management, based in Dallas (PA), owns and operates several restaurants including a Ruth Chris Steakhouse, a Wolf Gang Puck Express, Lucky’s SportHouse, 13 T.G.I. Friday’s locations and two Krispy Kreme Doughnuts locations, among others.

Pocono Raceway PR

Nationwide Series driver, Eric McClure, and his wife, Miranda, welcomed their fifth daughter at 3:44 p.m. this afternoon.  Myanna Brookleigh McClure weighed 6 pounds 3 ounces and measured 18 inches long.  She joins older sisters Mabreigh, Maryleigh, Mirabella, and Merritt McClure. Both mother and baby are doing well. 

Mike Wallace returns to Iowa Speedway this weekend for the second Nationwide Series visit of the season to the seven-eighths-mile track.

On June 9, Wallace drove the JD Motorsports with Gary Keller Chevrolet to a 20^th-place finish in the DuPont Pioneer 250 at Iowa.

He’s looking for a better finish in the 20^th race of the Nationwide season.

 “I like the track,” said Wallace, whose brother, former Sprint Cup champion Rusty Wallace, designed the racing surface. “We haven’t been able to lay good numbers down there for some reason or other. We’ve changed the engine package around a little to try some different things.”

Practice is scheduled at the track at 4:30 p.m. (ET) and 7 p.m. Friday.

Qualifying is set for 5:05 p.m. Saturday, with the race set for the green flag at 8 p.m.

JD Motorsports PR

With both driver Parker Kligerman and crew chief Eric Phillips competing in their first full-time season in the Nationwide Series and Kyle Busch Motorsports' (KBM) Nationwide Series program in just its sophomore campaign, the first half of the 2013 season was spent trying to improve the teams fleet of Camrys while building a notebook that will help the team excel in the second half of the season. Now that the NASCAR Nationwide Series will be heading to many tracks for the second time, including Iowa Speedway in Newton this weekend, Kligerman and Phillips will be looking to use the notes that they have compiled over the first half of the season to have a better direction for preparing the No. 77 Camry during practice for what they will experience during the race in an effort to begin competing for wins on a regular basis.

Despite having a limited notebook and basically being rookies in the Nationwide Series, Kilgerman and Phillips have held their own over the first 19 races of the season. In KBM's inaugural season with Kyle and Kurt Busch sharing the driving duties and crew chief Mike Beam - who had led Carl Edwards to eight Nationwide Series wins in 2011 - calling the shots, the team had posted an average finish of 13.3, an average starting position of 12.7 and ranked 11^th in owner's points with 597 after 19 races. This year's numbers practically mirror those of last year, with Kligerman posting an average finish of 13.2, an average starting spot of 12.0 and the team currently ranks 12^th in owner's points with 589.

In their first trip to Iowa together, Kligerman and Phillips had a fast Toyota Camry in final practice - finishing the session third quick. After qualifying 12^th on Saturday afternoon, the rain set in and forced the postponement of the race until Sunday morning. During the race the talented youngster had an average running position of ninth, spent 247 of the 250 laps in the top 15 and was scored in the 10^th position with 25 laps to go before running out of gas on the final lap and finishing 14^th.

Now, with a notebook in place and 19 races of experience working together under their belts, Kligerman and Phillips head to the Hawkeye State looking to improve upon their run in the first race. The duo is confident that they can continue to make improvements to KBM's Nationwide Series program and climb their way back up both the driver's and owner's point standings. There would be no better way to start that climb then by adding a win to their notebook on Saturday.

KBM PR

Johnny Sauter's got a lot of tracks on the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series circuit at which he's consistently very, very good -- but Pocono Raceway, site of Saturday's Pocono Mountains 125 -- hasn't been one of them for the driver of the No. 98 Carolina Nut Co. / Curb Records Toyota.

"Last year we broke a driveshaft on the parade lap and spent 25 laps behind the wall, so that race was over before we ever got going," Sauter said with a shrug. "The year before that I crashed the primary truck in qualifying, started last in the backup truck and finished fourth.

"So that worked out well for us and it proved we know what we need to do to get around that place. But honestly, the year before that (2010) I don't even remember what happened except we finished around where we started -- so unlike a lot of the places we go, Pocono's just been one of those deals, for me."

Sauter's average finish at Pocono, which has held only three Truck Series races, is a maddening 15th, based in large part on his 27th-place last season. That's actually sixth-best of the 11 drivers that have raced at Pocono three times, but that's no consolation to Sauter, who started 12th and finished 14th in the series' 2010 inaugural.

With its long straightaways and corners that range from the moderately-banked Turn 1, to the slightly banked "Tunnel Turn" to the virtually flat Turn 3, which leads onto the longest straightaway on any oval track at which major-league stock cars race, Pocono requires a compromise in racecar setup that emphasizes getting off the third turn to maximize top speed at the end of the frontstretch.

"I think you have to have something that's stable through the Tunnel Turn, but I think the whole key to that racetrack is the Tunnel Turn, number one and number two is getting off Turn 3," Sauter said. "If you don't get off Turn 3 -- if you get a little bit tight or a little bit loose -- it kills your momentum down that (front) straightaway and it just kills your lap time.

"So Turn 3 is super-critical but being comfortable over the tunnel is equally important. Turn 1 is pretty simple -- pretty self-explanatory. I mean, nothing's ever simple but it's your basic corner. Then you go down that long straightaway and you see a flat, sweeping corner -- that's the tunnel and you're like, 'man, I hope it sticks.'

"And then you run down to Turn 3 and you've got to get back to the throttle as soon as you can for that long straightaway. In that corner, whatever you have is what you have to deal with, and last year we were loose there the whole time. The year before that we had tremendous grip because we came from the back to the front, so it's whatever you're fighting that day."

Sauter's coming to the second race in his second stint this season with former truck chiefs Jesse Saunders and Dan LeMasters serving as co-crew chiefs. The team comes to Pocono fifth in the championship, but 73 points behind ThorSport Racing teammate Matt Crafton, the championship leader.

The lone Truck Series practice of the weekend runs from 9-11:20 a.m. ET on Friday. Coors Light Pole Qualifying is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday to set the 36-truck starting lineup for the season's 11th of 22 races.

Saturday's 50-lap, 125-mile event will be telecast live on the SPEED Channel at 1 p.m. ET, preceded at 12:30 p.m. by The Setup pre-race show. MRN Radio's live broadcast also begins at 12:30.

Pre-race and the race telecast are scheduled to replay on SPEED Saturday at 11 p.m. ET.

Thorsport PR

For years, Matt Crafton's been the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series' "Mr. Consistency," and despite Pocono Raceway's short, three-year history with NASCAR trucks, the "Tricky Triangle" epitomizes Crafton's level of performance with ThorSport Racing.

Crafton, who's the only NCWTS driver with 10 top-10 finishes in this season's first 10 races, has a series-best average finish at Pocono of fifth among competitors who've raced all three events. Those kinds of numbers enable Crafton to come into Saturday afternoon's Pocono Mountains 125 in his No. 88 Rip it Energy Fuel / Menards Toyota with a full-race advantage in the standings -- 48 points ahead of leading rookie of the year candidate Jeb Burton.

"Flat racetracks really suit my driving style, because you can move around and find speed," Crafton said. "And even though Pocono has three distinctly different corners and you have to compromise what you're doing to the truck to suit it all the way around the racetrack, the flattest corner is the most critical."

With its long straightaways and corners that range from the moderately-banked Turn 1, to the slightly banked "Tunnel Turn" to the virtually flat Turn 3, which leads onto the longest straightaway on any oval track at which major-league stock cars race, Pocono requires a compromise in racecar setup that emphasizes getting off the third turn to maximize top speed at the end of the frontstretch.

"Turn 1 is really a typical oval-track corner, though you really have to have your truck working well because you carry so much speed off that long frontstretch," Crafton said. "The Tunnel Turn is important because you carry a lot of speed through there and it can get your attention in a hurry -- especially running in traffic.

Crafton hasn't had many issues with racing at Pocono. His average starting position is only 13.3, but his ThorSport trucks have worked well enough that Crafton leads all of NASCAR's new-era statistics for passing, including green-flag passes and "quality passes," or passes made against trucks running higher in the standings.

That's the kind of effort by Crafton, his crew chief Carl "Junior" Joiner and their crew that's enabled Crafton to thrive at Pocono specifically and this season in general. His championship status hasn't been much of a focus because Crafton's been racing week-to-week and letting the points fall in line as they should.

"The championship and the points are in the back of your mind a little bit, but that's not what we need to be concentrating on," Crafton said. "We've got a decent lead, but it's not comfortable because you can lose all that in a heartbeat if we don't take care of business like we have been."

The lone Truck Series practice of the weekend runs from 9-11:20 a.m. ET on Friday. Coors Light Pole Qualifying is scheduled for 10 a.m. Saturday to set the 36-truck starting lineup for the season's 11th of 22 races.

Saturday's 50-lap, 125-mile event will be telecast live on the SPEED Channel at 1 p.m. ET, preceded at 12:30 p.m. by The Setup pre-race show. MRN Radio's live broadcast also begins at 12:30.

Thorsport PR

Jimmie Johnson and Team Lowe’s Racing have been flying high since their visit to Pocono (Pa.) Raceway in June. Johnson dominated that day, leading a race-high 128 laps on his way to winning from the pole.

Except for a tire that went down during the final lap as he was running down the leader at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn the following weekend, leading to a 28^th-place finish, Johnson has placed no worse than ninth in every race since Pocono in June. He arguably has seen a pair of wins slip away at Kentucky and Indianapolis, but was able to find victory lane at Daytona (Fla.) International Speedway, pulling off a season sweep at the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series’ “home” track.

His lead in the series’ driver standings continues to grow, now 75 points over second-place Clint Bowyer and 182 ahead of 11^th. His four wins this season currently make him the top seed for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Matt Kenseth also has four wins, but Johnson wins the tiebreaker with a next-best finish of second to Kenseth’s next-best finish of fifth.

Johnson sports a special paint scheme on his No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet SS for this weekend’s return visit to Pocono featuring the characters from Disney’s Planes. His convincing showing at the “Tricky Triangle” in June, coupled with a runner-up and nearly victorious run Sunday at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which is often an indicator of good runs to come at Pocono, Johnson could be flying high once again this weekend.

TSC PR