HOT

1.   Kasey Kahne-  The Pocono 500 polesitter led early but looked to be in big trouble after a pit road mistake on lap 57 knocked him back to 38th.  Kahne picked his way through the field, making 88 passes under green flag conditions, until he got the lead back and the victory.  The dominant No. 9 Budweiser Dodge continued the trend as five of the last six races at Pocono have been won from the front row.  Kahne is up three spots to ninth in the Sprint Cup Standings.

2. Team Red Bull - The No. 83 Red Bull team made wholesale changes to their car to get Brian Vickers a second-place finish on Sunday at Pocono, a track where he has three career top five finishes.  Teammate A.J. Allmendinger started eighth and had great pit stops all day from his No. 84 Red Bull crew as he came home a career best 12th.   More evidence Team Toyota has gained across the board.

3.  Denny Hamlin- With two wins at the triangle track, Hamlin came into the race as a favorite.  He, too, had problems on pit road as he ran into the No. 70 car which caved in his right front fender.  The No. 11 FedEx team used the red flag restart to fix the damage sending Denny all the way back to 42nd.  They used good pit strategy to get back up to the lead… but couldn’t quite catch eventual race winner Kasey Kahne.  Hamlin finished third and climbed four spots to fifth in the points.

4.  Half of Hendrick- Dale Earnhardt Jr. accused his cousin and crew chief, Tony Eury, Jr. of using adjustments from the 90’s” as they struggled to get the No. 88 to turn.  With creative pit strategy, Junior climbed to second but had to settle for fourth at the end.  He remains third in the points.  Teammate Jimmie Johnson led at the start and looked strong in the beginning of the race but crew chief, Chad Knaus called for a completely different pit cycle than the rest of the field which would have been brilliant had a late caution not happened.  Nonetheless, the No. 48 Lowe’s team finished a solid sixth and climbed a spot to sixth in the point standings. 

5.   Kurt Busch- On lap 39, KB took a spin and caught some air as he went flying through the grass breaking all the splitter struts. The Pat Tryson led No. 2 Miller Lite crew stayed calm, cool, and collected as they expertly fixed the splitter and Kurt did his job working his way back into the top 10.  He finished eighth and is up to 20th in the points.   Finally, this team gets a good finish despite trouble.

NOT

1.  Kyle Busch – Rowdy wrecked his primary Sprint Cup car and started at rear of the field in a backup car Sunday.  On lap 46, he tried to squeeze into a spot in front of Jamie McMurray but didn’t make it and smacked the wall.  The crew had to take off the entire front nose and rear housing just to get the No. 18 M&M’s machine back out to log laps.  Just like Big Brown, the heavy favorite finished dead last –but Busch at least maintained his points lead by only 21 points.   Perhaps running three races in three states in three days is not such a good idea.

2.  Greg Biffle- The Biff had no cooling box for the second week in a row and a disastrous pit stop where he hit is own crew member and then was hit by the No. 00.   He soldiered on and was looking good as he led late in the race. Unfortunately, he was too fast exiting pit road on his last stop, got black flagged and went one lap down.  He finished 15th but fell two spots in the points to seventh.   The No. 16 team seems hexed.

3.  Tony Stewart- Smoke and Zippy were on a road course pit schedule and had executed it perfectly.  The No. 20 Home Depot Toyota was out front and looking good until the last pit stop.  But, you guessed it, he got caught speeding off pit road.  Stewart went one lap down with the penalty and finished 35th knocking him down to 12th in the points--only ten points ahead of 14th.  Ouch!  I bet those cabinets in his hauler were taking a beating again after the race.

4.  Clint Bowyer- Driving too aggressively, Bowyer got loose under the No. 15 and lost his No. 07 Jack Daniels Chevrolet on lap 80.  He got tagged by Juan Pablo Montoya, who had no where to go, and slammed into the inside wall.   Bowyer finished 39th and fell three spots in the points to 11th.  I have a bad feeling the only thing he is going to be “chasing” this year is Jack Daniel's.

5.  Open Wheelers-  Patrick Carpantier and Sam Hornish, Jr. practiced beautifully choreographed spins together as they took turns knocking each other around, bringing out two separate cautions in the process.  Dario Franchitti, who returned to Cup competition after breaking his ankle at Talladega, fought for “the patch” with David Gilliland, lost and then backed it into the wall on lap 130, racking up his own two cautions.  Too many spins on the triangle left our open wheel friends 32nd, 42nd, 41st respectively. 

Check out the Hot or Not photo gallery here: http://msn.foxsports.com/nascar/pgStory?c
ontentId=8228208

My weekly picks are dedicated to the memory of Cindi Redding who was respected and loved by all who knew her, especially her friends in the FOXSports.com community.