The Biff gets number four
I've decided that the way I can instantly improve my mediocre weekly predictions is to forget about the rest of the field and just pick Ryan Newman and all the Hendrick and Roush drivers for my top 10. Bet I'd get at least six or seven "hits" a week. The only hits we saw a lot of Sunday seemed to involve Tony Stewart, who was having one of his angry-Tony afternoons. Jimmie Johnson after the race described him as an angry pit bull, which I think is pretty apt. best to stay out of his way and stay out of trouble. Unfortunatelty, Jeff Gordon wasn't able to stay out of the way and got the raw deal of the afternoon. (More on that in a moment.)
Meanwhile, Greg Biffle did what he's been doing a lot this season -- finding his way to the front and into Victory Lane. My picks were a bit less victorious.
GLENN'S TEN (5-for-10... could have been better):
* Ryan Newman (winner) -- 8th, Ryan's car was good, but never a force to be reckoned with. He probably hurt his chances of a top 5 by not taking tires on his final pit stop. Some of the guys who took two or four tires blew by him in the waning laps. Still, he's fourth in the points and that's not a bad place to be.
* Kasey Kahne -- 35th, Kasey's car stunk all day. It stunk more once he hit the inside wall.
* Mark Martin -- 3rd, Mark drives this place well and did again Sunday, staying out of trouble and making a late run to snag a couple of extra spots.
* Jeff Gordon -- 39th, If you watch the replay and listen to Jeff tell the story, it looks an awful lot like Tony Stewart helped put him into the wall on lap 41. Whatever it was, Jeff wound up with a crumpled car and retired to the garage for his thirs straight DNF. He's fallen out of the top 10 and is getting dangerously close to the 400-point cutoff for the Chase. This is not a good situation.
* Jimmie Johnson -- 4th, Looked good all day, but he only took 2 tires on the last stop and that contributed to his inability to hang on to 2nd place.
* Kyle Busch -- 2nd, The kid is turning it on as the season progresses. He'll be getting his first win much sooner than Kasey Kahne got his, I predict. But let's see how he handles Pocono...
* Greg Biffle -- 1st, Typical Biffle day. He started outside pole thanks to the qualifying rainout Friday, and although he wasn't the early leader the car got better throughout the afternoon. This is his fourth win in 13 tries this season and inches him closer to the points lead.
* Tony Stewart -- 15th, Tony never had the car to run up front, and when he wasn't a lap down he was busily bumping into the likes of Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson or Scott Riggs. Too bad there were no post-race interviews with Smoke. I would have loved to hear his explanation for why he turned today's race into a contact sport.
* Dale Jarrett -- 23rd, Things looked good early, but the car faded about midway.
* Carl Edwards -- 16th, The only one of the Roush drivers to struggle a bit.
REST OF THE TOP 10:
* Rusty Wallace -- 5th, For a while it looked like Rusty might made a bid for the win. He never quite got there.
* Brian Vickers -- 6th, Might be time to start picking him for some top 10s. But like his teammate, let's see how he handles Pocono.
* Matt Kenseth -- 7th, Nice to see the former champ with another good run.
* Kurt Busch -- 9th, KB made an early exit from this race in September. Not the case Sunday, as he ran consistently at the low end of the top 10.
* Elliott Sadler -- 10th, Set a career high for laps led in a single race. The power steering gave up late and he had to settle for this spot.
OTHER NOTABLES:
* Jeremy Mayfield -- 14th, Fastest in practice, but as usual it doesn't get him the win.
* Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- 22nd, New crew chief. Gonna take some time for things to gel. He's running out of time.
* Dave Blaney -- 36th, Provided the harrowing moment of the race when he wrecked and then spun back up the track into the path of Ken Schrader and was spectacularly T-boned. Everyone was OK.
Next week... The track that's sort of a speedway, sort of a road course, sort of a mystery for the car setup guys... Pocono.
