The Biggest NASCAR Storylines to Watch Ahead of the Windows 10 400
Drivers don’t need a degree in trigonometry to get around Pocono Raceway’s Tricky Triangle. Pythagoras be damned.
It’s the second time around at Pocono, the site of Martin Truex Jr.’s emphatic spring win. Back when he won this race, he had endured a stretch of races where he led the most laps yet couldn’t park his No. 78 Chevy on Victory Lane. That all changed back on June 5.
"We finally got it," said Truex in Seth Livingstone’s NASCAR.com story. "We've had a great season. We have had everything it has taken to win races (and) we just hadn't got it done.”
Also on the docket is Jimmie Johnson’s contract talks, another installment of the Kyle Busch’s race for 30th place and the championship chances of Sliced Bread.
That’s it, my friends. Read on for some storylines picked straight from Pennsylvania’s Pocono Mountains.
Jimmie Johnson Close to Contract Extension with Hendrick Motorsports
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With the Jimmie Johnson contract talks, it’s a good time to broach what could be a great competitive balance rule: Cap teams at three cars.
Think for a second what that could possibly mean for other teams. Maybe Martin Truex Jr. has a Kasey Kahne to share information with, or Michael Waltrip will never have to enter a car again because he corralled Denny Hamlin.
What good is that fourth driver on the team anyway besides ensuring that said driver doesn’t burn you? They're basically a research assistant. Does Stewart-Haas Racing really need four cars? Does Hendrick Motorsports? More cars, more data, I suppose.
So much would have to be restructured, with some degree of revenue sharing I imagine, to ensure competitive balance. HMS’s pockets are so deep that it can afford to peel away top drivers from other teams.
Capping the team at three could put a borderline star on an otherwise obscure team. It would provide greater visibility for other garages. Even Richard Petty Motorsports could be bolstered. Instead of the King hanging his 10-gallon hat on Aric Almirola and Sam Hornish Jr., Johnson would look good in 43 (Sorry, Almirola).
As for Johnson, he’ll be getting a deal done with HMS, a team who can afford the biggest names in the game.
"We have been getting things buttoned up with Lowe's, with Hendrick, with Chad and myself, all of that,” Johnson said in Holly Cain’s NASCAR.com story. “Like I said, I think last week, I'm home, it's just a formality at this point to get everything kind of finished up and done."
An even better move would be to cap teams at two drivers apiece and see the depth of the field and the number of successful teams double.
Just a thought.
Can Martin Truex Jr. Make It a Clean Sweep?
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Martin Truex Jr. finally earned his way to Victory Lane on June 5 when he dominated the Tricky Triangle. He led the most laps (97) and finally propelled himself into the Chase.
The win gave him more of a reality to contend for the Sprint Cup than he would have had before. On some level, it’s not enough to accrue top 10s and points. A driver needs to know the meaning of finishing a race on the front end.
"This team deserves to win and I've known that all year long,” Truex said in Scott Livingstone’s NASCAR.com story. “Throughout my career I've kind of gotten used to disappointment, honestly, and I've learned to deal with those days where it didn't go your way, even though you didn’t do anything wrong."
This quote is deeply reflective of a typical loser mentality. When you’re down, sometimes it’s easy to think you belong down and that those at the top are somehow anointed.
That win nearly two months ago proved, if nothing else, that Truex belongs among the tenured elite in 2015.
Will Kyle Busch Make It Four Wins in a Row?
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You may have heard that Kyle Busch has won three races in a row and is now tied with Jimmie Johnson for the most in 2015 with four.
The versatility may be the most impressive feat. He has won on road courses, long courses and short courses. Now he’s 32nd in the Sprint Cup standings and ascending with aplomb.
In his last five starts, he’s led 294 laps and garnered 216 points.
ESPN.com’s Thomas McKean wrote, "Busch is 23 points shy of 30th place with six events to go before the Chase. That means he needs to gain 3.8 points per start on the 30th position. In his nine starts this season, he has made up an average of 17.3 points per start on the 30th position."
He’s never won at Pocono, but he drives well there. He has four top fives and stands to gain a few more points and get that much closer to the Chase Grid. That is not welcome news for Clint Bowyer who just cracked the top 16 or for Kasey Kahne who sits in 15th on the Grid.
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Can Joey Logano Break Through with a Summer Win?
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There’s a strong likelihood that Joey Logano, the driver of the No. 22 Ford, reaches the Championship Four at Homestead for a second straight year, but he needs to get another win, preferably at a non-restrictor plate race.
He’s No. 2 in top fives (12) and top 10s (15) behind only Kevin Harvick, but his only win came at the Daytona 500. Many would take that win and call it a season.
You get the sense in listening to Logano after his recent races that he, along with crew chief Todd Gordon, are frustrated by getting close to a second win.
Last year this team won five races, but with the recent dominance of Kyle Busch, the pre-Busch dominance of Jimmie Johnson and the pre-Busch-Johnson dominance of Harvick, there was little Logano could do except rack up top fives.
Larry McReynolds, a Fox Sports NASCAR analyst, wrote:
"I just get a feeling that if this is a championship you are going to win, you better be finding Victory Lane. That's something the No. 22 bunch needs to do. Don't get me wrong; top fives are great, but they are going to need to pull off some wins, too. Joey hasn't won a race this year since the Daytona 500. Joey hasn't won a non-restrictor plate race since the fall of last year.
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Logano needs to reach Victory Lane soon to prove to the No. 22 team that it hasn’t already peaked and what better place than Pocono, where he has one win and three top fives?
Streaky Dale Earnhardt Jr. Looks for Third Win in Four Tries at Pocono
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Dale Earnhardt Jr. has had a bit of a streaky summer.
After winning the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona, he placed 21st at Kentucky. He earned a top five at Loudon, then finished 22nd at the Brickyard. He’s a dogged competitor, but even Junior was frustrated by his team’s latest performance.
"We had a lot of problems,” Earnhardt said in Jared Turner’s FoxSports.com story. “Overall, though, the car ran OK, but we had a lot of issues—just problems in the pits, we had an air gun go bad, a jack dropped and a couple other things happened.”
In 2014, Earnhardt broke out the broom at Pocono after middling results throughout his career at the tri-oval. Given recent form, he looks primed for a top five to carry him into the final five races of the regular season.
“We're going to Pocono that has some small similarities to Indy, but we run good at Pocono, so we're not too worried about it,” Earnhardt said.
Say hi on Twitter: @BrendanOMeara.
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