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Rising star Denny Hamlin is the honorary Mayor of Long Pond. After earning the first two wins of his career at Pocono as a rookie in 2006, Hamlin finished with a third and a sixth last season.

In four starts at the 2.5-mile triangle, Hamlin has two wins, four top 10s and 283 laps led. In fact, his worst finish (sixth) was a rain-shortened run in which only 106 of 200 total laps were completed. Hamlin may not be on Tony Stewart’s level yet, but he is Gibbs’ go-to guy at Pocono.

In the previously mentioned June rainstorm, Jeff Gordon snuck in his fourth career win at Pocono and his first at the track in nearly a decade — having last taken the checkers in July 1998.

In August, Kurt Busch earned his second win in his last five races in the Keystone State, leading 175 of 200 laps, decimating the field and runner-up Dale Earnhardt Jr., who had the best day of his career at the track. Junior started from the pole, then fell behind with suspect equipment before making a late run to finish second.

Jimmie Johnson has not won since taking back-to-back titles at the three-cornered track in the summer of 2004. But Johnson has recorded four top-10 finishes in his last six races.

With only six career races at Pocono, Carl Edwards has two top-5 finishes, including a win and a fourth-place run as a rookie in ’05. Edwards has not recorded a finish higher than 14th since then. Call him a bounce back-flip candidate.

FANTASY STALL

Looking at Checkers
It’s hard to ignore the whooping Kurt Busch put on the field last year.
Pretty Solid Pick
Denny Hamlin
Good Sleeper Pick
Brian Vickers
Runs on Seven Cylinders
Jamie McMurray

Insider Tip
Penske has something figured out here. Whether its CoTs are as strong remains to be seen.

KEEP AN EYE ON...
Clint Bowyer After taking a year to get himself acclimated, Bowyer recorded a pair of top-10 finishes at Pocono in 2007.

Bobby Labonte Don’t expect a win out of the 43, but Labonte is a three-time Pocono winner who, if his Petty CoT is feeling frisky enough, could sneak in a solid top-10 finish.

Ryan Newman It was shades of 2003 last year for Newman at Pocono. The July ’03 winner ran second in the rain-shortened event in June — a race he came within car lengths of winning — and followed it up with a seventh in August.

Brian Vickers Although the struggles of Team Red Bull left Vickers with 29th- and 35th-place runs last season, he ripped off three top 5s in six starts while in Hendrick sheet metal, never finishing outside of the top 15.


RACE RESULTS FOR Pennsylvania 500 (Aug 3rd, 2008)
DRIVER MANUFACTURER START FINISH POINTS EARNINGS
Carl Edwards (#99) Ford 15 1 190 $241,875
Tony Stewart (#20) Toyota 20 2 170 $196,536
Jimmie Johnson (#48) Chevrolet 1 3 170 $188,086
Kevin Harvick (#29) Chevrolet 21 4 160 $153,936
David Ragan (#6) Ford 16 5 160 $111,725
Clint Bowyer (#07) Chevrolet 30 6 150 $111,950
Kasey Kahne (#9) Dodge 7 7 151 $122,316
Mark Martin (#8) Chevrolet 2 8 152 $126,933
Jamie McMurray (#26) Ford 41 9 143 $93,675
Jeff Gordon (#24) Chevrolet 4 10 134 $126,311
Matt Kenseth (#17) Ford 5 11 135 $120,591
Dale Earnhardt Jr. (#88) Chevrolet 12 12 132 $83,500
Greg Biffle (#16) Ford 9 13 129 $83,475
Ryan Newman (#12) Dodge 6 14 121 $115,850
Martin Truex Jr. (#1) Chevrolet 17 15 118 $103,308
Travis Kvapil (#28) Ford 19 16 115 $99,589
Chad McCumbee (#45) Dodge 34 17 112 $89,133
Tony Raines (#70) Chevrolet 18 18 109 $66,975
A.J. Allmendinger (#10) Dodge 31 19 106 $70,425
Bill Elliott (#21) Ford 37 20 108 $86,645
Jeff Burton (#31) Chevrolet 39 21 100 $112,208
Casey Mears (#5) Chevrolet 33 22 97 $84,050
Denny Hamlin (#11) Toyota 14 23 94 $105,341
Michael McDowell (#47) Toyota 35 24 91 $86,833
Regan Smith (#01) Chevrolet 36 25 88 $76,850
Sam Hornish Jr (#77) Dodge 26 26 85 $110,875
Elliott Sadler (#19) Dodge 29 27 82 $95,295
Brian Vickers (#84) Toyota 8 28 79 $76,200
Scott Riggs (#66) Chevrolet 40 29 81 $82,108
David Reutimann (#44) Toyota 28 30 73 $68,200
Dave Blaney (#22) Toyota 24 31 70 $79,208
Terry Labonte (#45) Dodge 25 32 67 $64,375
Bobby Labonte (#43) Dodge 11 33 64 $103,611
David Gilliland (#38) Ford 3 34 61 $74,472
Reed Sorenson (#41) Dodge 32 35 58 $91,039
Kyle Busch (#18) Toyota 27 36 55 $81,600
Robby Gordon (#7) Dodge 38 37 52 $71,425
Kurt Busch (#2) Dodge 10 38 54 $63,300
J.J. Yeley (#96) Toyota 43 39 46 $71,175
Juan Pablo Montoya (#42) Dodge 13 40 43 $90,933
Joe Nemechek (#78) Chevrolet 23 41 40 $62,880
Paul Menard (#15) Chevrolet 22 42 37 $70,730
Michael Waltrip (#55) Toyota 42 43 39 $62,999

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