NASCAR Sprint Cup Pocono Qualifying Rained Out

NASCAR Sprint Cup points leader Tony Stewart will be on the pole for Sunday's Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway. Qualifying for the race was rained out Friday.

Being the points leader in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series has its advantages. During the 2009 season, there has been more to this than usual.

Sunday's Pennsylvania 500 at Pocono Raceway is the 21st race on the 36-race slate this year. On Friday, the scheduled qualifying runs were called off by rain for the fifth time this season. It can be quite the annoying theme, unless you're the points leader.

Because of the washout, points leader Tony Stewart will sit on the pole for Sunday afternoon's race. It's the fourth time this year Stewart will start from the pole without running a qualifying lap. Since he took the points lead, qualifying has been rained out at Pocono's first race, as well as the June race at New Hampshire, and the July 4 Coke Zero 400.

The rest of the front of the field for the start of Sunday's race will be Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch, and Carl Edwards fifth. Because there were only 43 cars entered for the race, there were no "go or go home" drivers for qualifying. Sterling Marlin, Scott Speed, David Gilliland, Joe Nemechek, Dave Blaney, Patrick Carpentier, Mike Wallace, and Tony Raines will bring up the rear.

Saturday's Nationwide Series race at Iowa Speedway -- the first time the series has run at that track -- should not have any weather issues. There is a chance of rain late Friday night, but skies should be mostly sunny by the time cars hit the track for qualifying Saturday. Points leader Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, and Kevin Harvick are the only Cup drivers pulling double duty for the weekend.

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

7-31-2009 @ 5:58PM

GramaFan said...

I do enjoy your write-ups but why do you only "hero-worship" the big names. My favorite. Tony Raines is doing double duty this week - you ignore that and secondly, on your list of drivers he is also missed. WHY?

8-01-2009 @ 12:32AM

nzcr14 said...

only the bugs and the rats would be interested in a TONY RAINES BLOG.............THAT'S WHY there is not 1.lol.

8-01-2009 @ 7:03AM

illsell4u said...

Actually some reporting would have been interesting on Tony Raines being lucky enough to make the race. There were only 43 entries into the race which made it easy for his team this time but why werethere only 43 entries? Is that all that actually showed up or was it even worse? Did Nascar have to go beg for a full field in other words. Maybe it was only 41 or 42 planning on showing up. Out of the 6 teams that have managed to slide in with either 7 or 8 races under their belt, Tony Raines is the lowest in points. He has an average finish of 38th place for the year. Can you say "field filler"?
Only 33 teams have made it in to all 20 races so far this year. Without having the actual qualifying lineups in front of me, it looks like only 37 teams have actually tried to make in to each race. So, the question does arise, "is Nascar having to beg teams to show up at the tracks?" Is there currently such a lack of money and interest that there are not even 43 teams any longer willing to even try to field a car each week? Is this the first time this year that only 43 cars were entered or is this just the first time I have noticed? In the past, it was not unusual for 48 cars or so t give it a go. Lately it seems that has shrunk to 45 or 46. But are we now down to less than a full field even willing to try forcing Nascar to ask field fillers to show up since they will be guaranteed a spot on Sunday?
mbl

8-01-2009 @ 3:17PM

Mark said...

Someone PLEASE tell me why Pocono has two race dates? SERIOUSLY, there are other, more exciting tracks that I'm sure would draw a crowd and provide some more interesting racing then the three drag strips attached by three corners!

8-01-2009 @ 3:55PM

The same reason Talledega and Daytona have two race dates each. So you will have plenty of Sundays during race season to spend the afternoon with the family or go on vacation and not have to worry about missing some good racing. Just pray they do not decide they need restrictor plates at Pocono as well.
mbl