Pocono post race

Here's a little summary of what happend with Sterling during the race. I know we all watch all the post race shows hoping to hear them talk about Sterling, but they never do (even after Talladega where he was dominant), so this'll give those who aren't blessed with Track Pass a basic idea of what was going on with Sterling:

Well, that just sucked. The race only went 107 laps, and our boy finished 31st, dropping him to 27th (well, really a tie for 26th) in points. He started out pretty strong, going from 41st to in the 20s. As the laps went on, the car got better. But then the caution came, and after they pitted the car was terrible, WAY too tight, quote Marlin, "Tight tight tight tight," the tires were terrible. They lost a few spots, but it seemed like a blessing when the next caution came out, because they could fix the car, but instead this is what happend:

Slugger is talking to Sterling, and they're wondering if they should take 2 or four tires. Sterling says whatever Slugger wants is fine. Slugger syas they should probably take 2 for track position, and Sterling says after thinking says, "Yea, that'll be good," then, however, on pit road Slugger makes the last minuet decision to take 4 tires when almost everyone else took 2, and it was a long stop because I guess the crew didn't hear him when he said 4 tires. This cuases Sterling to start towards to back.

After the restart the car sucks. Probably because the fender got screwed up, which I'll explain later, but basically between that caution and the next round of pit stops, the car is doing bad.

But then another round of green flag pit stops and Slugger calls for 4 tires. This is a BAD call, because they KNEW it was going to rain, not even like a possibility, they knew it was going to rain. And they take 4 tires. Even if the car wasn't great, it was all right, and at this point when the race is going to probably be cut short, they need TRACK POSITION!!!! TJ was saying the rain was really, really close, so even if they did lose some spots, they've got a better chance of finishing well that way then trying to make thier way through the field with only a few laps left. So then the race is over and Sterling ends up a weak 31st.

It can't all be blamed on pit strategy though. Sometime between the the last caution and the green flag stop, the fender got real screwed up. They figgure it's when Sterling hit the curb once when Juan Pablo Montoya and Scott Riggs were battling hard for position. They got it fixed during their last stop and the car was a lot better then, so if it had gone green a little longer or they had started it again, Sterling would've defenetly picked up more positions.

So I think the theme to this race was strategy. Jeff Gordon won, he wasn't dominant throughout the race, but he had a good pit strategy. He took a risk for track position and stayed out under the last caution, Denny Hamlin, one of the most dominant cars, took 4 tires under the last caution, and consequently wasn't in the right place to win.

If you ask me Slugger needs to take more risks, but this whole week was lousy if you ask me. First qualifying problems, then a shortened race with poor strategy and aerodynamics. He was doing so good at the beggining, moving up so far, you wouldn't expect him to end up 31st, but I think that it all came down to strategy, although the fender didn't help at all. Or maybe the Pep Boys are just cursed!?!?