Carl Edwards looked to be the driver to beat this season after earning three wins in seven races. However as he went winless through the next thirteen races and other drivers' names started to fill the headlines, Edwards' early dominance was somewhat forgotten.

Until the Sprint Cup Series returned to the Pocono Raceway, a track where victory slipped through Edwards' fingers after a speeding penalty late earlier this year. However no such penalty held back Edwards this time, as he found himself out front after the final round of pit stops. The only thing Edwards had to do was stretch his fuel to make it to the finish, which he did as he earned his fourth win of the season.

However, Edwards thought he had lost the race about 70 laps earlier, when he pitted from the lead while it started raining.

"Bob and I were really arguing," Edwards said. "I was really nervous that we made the wrong call there. But Bob Osborne is just real smart. I'm really proud of him for the strategy. Bob did a really good job, but I wasn't so sure when we were yelling at each other about halfway through."

Behind Edwards was Tony Stewart, who's second place run allowed him earn some breathing room in the race to the Chase, with 68 points separating himself and 13th place Matt Kenseth, who fell out of the Chase field despite finishing a solid 11th.

Kenseth now sits where Kevin Harvick was in points entering the Pocono race, as Harvick had fallen to 13th after an early wreck at Indianapolis. It seemed as though that luck had followed him to Pocono as he spun after contact with Joe Nemechek on lap 1, but Harvick fought back all day to finish a strong fourth, climbing back to 11th in points.

With just five more races remaining until the Chase starts, it appears as though there are now just fourteen drivers fighting for the twelve spots, as Brian Vickers fell 203 points behind 12th place Clint Bowyer to 16th after finishing a disappointing 28th. Ryan Newman was able to take advantage and climb to 15th in points, but he's 173 points behind Bowyer. 14th place David Ragan is still within striking distance though, as he's just 46 points outside of the Chase.

Meanwhile after last weeks' race that was filled with tire issues, Goodyear made plans for a new tire, one that would perform better for Nascar's new, larger car.

"We had some discussion about a larger tire... several years ago with NASCAR when we started this whole discussion about the [new car],'' said Stu Grant, general manager of worldwide racing for Goodyear. "We are working on a larger contain-air volume, a bigger section width, taller tire, larger bead diameter. Right now, it's all modeling. We're trying to figure out what the right size would be."

While Goodyear believes this new tire will help prevent issues like the ones that arose at Indianapolis from occuring, the new tire won't be ready for at least two years.

Steve Letarte, crew chief for four time Cup series champion Jeff Gordon, is commonly called "Poptart." However, Letarte is no poptart.

You see, a poptart is delicious and never fails to satisfy, where as Steve Letarte, well, you see where this is going.

Letarte became Jeff Gordon's crew chief when Robbie Loomis, who was Gordon's crew chief during his 2001 championship season, left to manage at Petty Enterprises at the start of the 2005 Chase for the championship. Gordon had missed the Chase after a miserable season that was highlighted by struggles on 1.5 mile tracks.

Just six races into this new relationship Gordon and Letarte were in victory lane together at Martinsville, but honestly, was that Letarte, or was it Gordon, who had won three of the last five races heading into that event at Martinsville, including coming from three laps behind to win in the first race of that year. And of course there is the fact that Loomis had come up with great setups for Martinsville in the past few years, and those notes were at Letarte's disposal.

Now, in my mind Letarte hasn't proven himself at this point, but to his credit when he came on board the 1.5 mile program did improve, though before he came on board Gordon had made strong runs at those tracks that ended with wrecks and mechanical issues that were out of his control. Nonetheless, the performance improved greatly.

In 2006, Letarte managed to get Gordon to victory lane at Infineon, though again that's a track he's dominated in years past. But my hopes soared when Gordon ran up front all day at Chicagoland, a track that just one year earlier had plagued him, and captured the victory.

Though the team went winless throughout the rest of the season, the team ran well at several tracks and made the Chase, though bad luck plagued them and left them with a 6th place finish in points.

Now until this point in time Letarte has done a pretty good job, and in 2007 he led Gordon's team to great finishes week in and week out. This was thanks to great set-ups at the 1.5 mile tracks, something Gordon lacked for years. Gordon would finish 2nd in points after a great season, but it could have been more if Letarte had some common sense on top of the box during the race.

Now, before I continue, I will admit Letarte has brought Gordon great cars, but I think that he is incompetent during the race.

Right now you're probably saying, "But wait, didn't Letarte earn Gordon some wins with good strategy in 2007?"

Yes he did, to the naked eye....

The Phoenix race Gordon had a car that was good on a long run, but didn't have the track postition to contend for the win, until that final round of pit stops when the caution came out during green flag pit stops. Letarte was praised for making the call to finish the pit stop, but the team was already in the middle of the stop, and Letarte just made a call that any crew chief that hadn't inhaled too many exhaust fumes would make.

Then there was the Darlington race, where Gordon was able to win despite a geyser of water escaping his car. Letarte is praised for leaving Gordon on the track, but again, what else would you do? At that point in the season, Gordon is running away from the rest of the field in the points, and can gamble if he wants. When with 30 laps to go Gordon's car is overheating and is losing water you have two choices if you're Letarte: bring Gordon in the pits, raise the hood and pump more water into the car and lose a bunch of time and finish 20-somethingith, or leave the car on the track and hope for the best. No brainer.

Now Pocono was actually a well thought out race, and they played that fuel strategy perfectly and the weather came at the right time. I'll give credit to Letarte on that one, he made the right call.

Gordon went on to win races at Talladega through sheer driving ability, and won at Lowe's in the fall thanks to issues by Ryan Newman.

So overall, 2007 was a good season, but Letarte didn't do anything fantastic while calling the races. And if this were January 2008 and I were writing this, I might say that Letarte was a crew chief that could lead Gordon to a 5th championship, but now I highly doubt that will happen after the miserable season I've witnessed.

Of course, Gordon has been in a few crashes and had some mechanical woes, but when he hasn't Letarte has let him down.

And right now I'm disregarding the fact that Letarte can't provide a car better than 15th to save his life, that is just ridiculous, and until now that's the only thing Letarte has been good for, and now he can't even do that.

On top of the bad cars, Letarte has made horrible calls that have put Gordon way behind the pack when track position is vital or left him out to be a sitting duck after a long run. There was no exception to this at Sunday's race at Pocono.

Until the second round of pit stops, Gordon had made his way up to 13th without pit strategy after starting 38th. Gordon actually had a good car, but never had the opportunity to show it because of Letarte.

On that second round of pit stops, Letarte gave the order to take two tires, and considering at that point not too many people behind Gordon were doing that, that wasn't that great a decision. However, easy to make that decision after the fact. Gordon would fall back to about 11th during the before the next pit stops, so it still wasn't that bad, but Gordon's car fell off at the end of that run.

Apparently, the fact they fell back behind a bit on that run told Letarte he should never ever ever ever ever ever ever ever take two tires no matter how far back in the pack he may be. Throughout the race Letarte took four tires, four tires, four tires, even after short runs of just 10 or 12 laps. Others would take two, while Gordon had four. While tires are nice, passing ain't easy at Pocono, and Gordon was left in the low 20's for most of the race. Hard to make up all that lost ground.

However, by using fuel strategy, Gordon was 3rd in line with a group that was on a different pit sequence, one that saw them able to make it to the end on fuel after having made pit stops just 10 or so laps earlier. Everyone else had to pit, and at this point I'm thinking, "All right, at least Gordon's going to be 3rd when this all shakes out, so we should get a solid finish out of this."

Then to my dismay I see a flamed car coming to the attention of it's pit crew, getting four tires and fuel......

Why?

Instead of restarting that race in 3rd place with 20 laps to go and a few cars behind you with older tires between you and the guys who just took four, you're now 27th with about 20 cars on the same tires as you on a track that is known for being hard to pass at, let alone with the COT.

All I can do is sit as I watch Gordon make up as much ground as possible, shockingly coming in 14th, good for the circumstances, but not what it could have been.

This isn't the only time Letarte's done this either, he did it last year at Atlanta,Texas and Phoenix, taking four when everyone else took two on late pit stops and getting crappy finishes and losing points toJimmie Johnson. Maybe if he had taken a little chance and taken two tires (which I was screaming back then just like I was Sunday at Pocono) he would have had a top-5 finish and been closer to Johnson headed into that final race. Heck, he lost around 70 points because of it.

So now I'm complaining about the problem. I've said this before and I'll say it again, it's easy to complain about a problem, but it's hard to come up with a solution. Well, my solution is only half complete, unfortuanately.

Of course the first part is to get sack Letarte from the role of crew chief, but Letarte can still be valuable as a car chief, so you put him there. That's the easy part, the hard part is finding who to replace him with, and I think I've found my guy: Brian Whitesell.

Never heard of him? Whitesell was the first guy to replace Ray Evernham as Gordon's crew chief when Evernham left to work with Dodge, and in his first two races as Gordon's crew chief he got Gordon into victory lane. Whitesell's role was only temporary, as in 2000 Loomis filled the role as Gordon's crew chief. However, 9 years later, I think it is time for Whitesell to return to the top of Gordon's pit box.

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Aside from an early wreck at Dover, Kasey Kahne has been on top of the Nascar world since his victory in the Sprint All-Star Race. He would go on to win the Coca-Cola 600 a week later, and he found victory lane again at Pocono for his 2nd win in three races.

Kahne won the race from the pole, but had to come back from an early miscue on pit road. During a stop on lap 58, Kahne's crew intended to change four tires, but in the middle of the stop decided to only take two. Kahne left the pits, but he had loose lugs on the left-front tire, and he had to come back to the pits to tighten them up.

That wouldn't stop Kahne from dominating the race though. On lap 129 he made his way back to the front, passing Jimmie Johnson for the top spot. Kahne spent 69 laps in front of the pack, including the last one.

"Never. I've never had a car that dominant before," Kahne said. "This one stayed the same all day long. It was so good all day long."

Following Kahne was Brian Vickers, who finished 2nd at Pocono for the second time in his career, Denny Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Burton. While Kahne celebrated in victory lane, Roush Fenway drivers Greg Biffle and Carl Edwards were left wondering what could have been.

Biffle had run in the top-5 all race long and was leading when he came to the pits under green on lap 157. However, Biffle sped exiting pit road, and had to come back down pit road for a pass-through penalty.

Edwards' problems came with 20 laps to go. After having pit under caution and being in line as one of the first cars with four tires, Edwards was forced to come back to pit road because of a flat left rear tire.

Edwards would recover to finish 9th and Biffle finished 15th, a disappointing run considering how good their cars had been all race long.

They weren't the only drivers to be bitten on pit road though. Tony Stewart was also a victim to a speeding penalty just a handful of laps after Biffle. Unlike Biffle, when Stewart came back to to serve his penalty he fell off the lead lap, and after having spent 139 laps in the top-10 and leading 14 laps Stewart had to settle for a 35th place finish.

The latest poor finish for Stewart dropped him to 12th in points, the last cutoff spot for the Chase, just 7 points ahead of David Ragan and 10 ahead of Ryan Newman, who are 13th and 14th, respectively.

His teammate Kyle Busch had early troubles as the point leader made contact with Jamie McMurray off turn 3, sending the point leader's car into the wall. Busch would return to the race several laps down, finishing 43rd.

"We broke the mirror trying to adjust it there before the race and couldn't see anything out my right rear quarter panel. So I couldn't clear myself. The spotter didn't say anything, so I apologize to McMurray for wrecking their day," Busch said after the incident.

This allowed Burton to close within 21 points of the championship lead.

After having to survive the Monster, the Sprint Cup Series heads to the Pocono Raceway, nestled in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. This track presents it's own challenge, with three distinct corners with different bankings and angles, which the drivers will have to negotiate for 500 miles.

1. Kyle Busch



Busch earned his fourth win of the year at Dover, spanking the field during the second half of the race and running away with the victory. Busch's point lead is now 142 points over Jeff Burton, almost a full race. Busch's average finish is only 16.2 at Pocono, but it's almost certain that Busch will be a driver to beat.

2. Greg Biffle

Biffle continues to be one of the only drivers who can challenge Busch, as he led the most laps at Dover before experiencing electrical issues. Biffle still managed to come home 3rd, his second consecutive top-3 finish, allowing him to climb from 11th to 5th in points. However, Biffle hasn't been able to get his hands around Pocono in the past, with only two top-10's in ten career starts, and a best finish of 23rd in the past three races.

3. Carl Edwards

Carl Edwards ran up front most of the day at Dover, but lost the lead on the final round of pit stops and had to settle for a second place finish. However, Edwards should again contend for the win at Pocono. In 2005, Edwards earned Jack Roush's first win at the track. However, Edwards hasn't finished in the top-10 at Pocono since his rookie season.

4. Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Earnhardt Jr.'s chances of winning were over less than 20 miles into the race when he got involved in the big crash on lap 18. Earnhardt rode around the track for the remainder of the race, finishing 13 laps down. Last year Jr. started from the pole and finished 2nd in the second race here.

5. Jeff Burton



Burton continues to reel off top-10 after top-10, coming from 38th to finish 8th. Burton finished the race a lap down though, the first time he failed to complete every lap of a race this year. Regardless, Burton and his crew are finding ways to get top-10's every week, and you can count on him doing just that again this weekend at Pocono.

6. Jeff Gordon

Gordon started in the top-10 and kept it there most of the day, finishing the day in a solid 5th, his third consecutive top-5. Gordon's recent recovery from early season woes has allowed him to advance to 6th in points, and he may continue to improve at Pocono, where he finished 1st and 4th last year.

7. Matt Kenseth

Kenseth is also recovering from early struggles, as he earned his 3rd straight finish of 6th or better, finishing the race 4th. Kenseth is now just 95 points out of 12th in the standings with 13 races left. The key to making the chase for Kenseth is consistency, and at Pocono he has an average finish of 14.8.

8. Tony Stewart



Stewart was also involved in that big crash on lap 18, and after a long day finished a miserable 41st, and is now just 11th in points. Pocono is a good place for Stewart to get things back on track though, where he won in 2003 and has 13 top-10's in 18 starts.

9. David Ragan



Ragan has been solid recently, as he earned his 4th top-15 in the past five races at Dover. He now sits just 8 points outside the top-12, and if he keeps running as well as he has he'll pass the drivers in front of him who are struggling. Pocono is going to be a challenge for Ragan, however, where he finished outside the top-20 in both starts last year.

10. Jimmie Johnson



Johnson bounced back from his blown engine at Charlotte to finish 7th at Dover, recovering from an early speeding penalty. Johnson now sits 7th in points heading to Pocono, a track that he won both races at in 2004.



Other Notables:


11. Juan Pablo Montoya- Juan ran a good race at Dover and finished in the top-dozen, finishing 12th.

12. Martin Truex Jr.- Martin fought the car all day and was able to wrestle his way to a sixth place finish, his 4th top-10 this season. Truex is another driver just outside the top-12.

13. Dave Blaney- Blaney ran well all day long and was rewarded with a 9th place finish. With a little bit of improvement at Bill Davis Racing, Blaney could find himself contending for wins.

14. Ryan Newman- Newman had a solid finish at Dover, ending the day in the 14th position. The Daytona 500 winner is just 29 points behind 12th place.

15. Denny Hamlin- Hamlin left many witnesses wondering what he was thinking when he piled into the lap 18 crash at full speed. He'll have to put that behind him though when he returns to the track where he earned his first two victories.