Well, Pocono has come and gone (please tell me it's gone, pretty please) and as predicted by anyone with a few brain cells to bash together it was very boring, but for a very boring race there were a lot of talking points.

Tony Stewart won the first race as an owner/driver since before NASCAR got popular, which is good considering he's been annoyingly close for most of the season.

However, it was something else about the finish that caught my eye (or ear to be precise). While Tony was bouncing of all the insides of his car as Kasey Kahne decided to spin there was the call of "trouble off of four" from the booth. Fine, good brilliant.

At anywhere other than Pocono. The place known as the Tricky Triangle.

Not the Squalid Square. Or the Retched Rhombus. Or even the Hellish Hexagon.

So, how many corners do you think it has? Here's a clue - not four!

Also, a quick call out to Dexter Bean, who not only surprised all (or at least me) by turning out not to be a start-and-park team, thus beating every single one of that collective. He also managed to claim the scalps of Denny Hamlin and Kurt Busch, who are the recipients of the first two (unfortunately hypothetical) "beaten by The Bean" bumper stickers.

And with all these stories the 7 most boring drivers from a boring race fall into my lap.

Tony Raines - Another easy one as the Pennsylvania rains put a very early end to Tony's quest for glory, as he was the lowest ranked driver on the entry list. On the good side, it saved the team money and gave Tony a chance to explore the tourist-a-list-ic nature of the Poconos.................10/10

Mike Skinner - Mike mysteriously morphed into Patrick Carpentier for this week, as the Truck Series was racing somewhere vaguely interesting. However, not even putting a Canadian in the car could improve results for the flagging Tommy Baldwin team. They were the first victims of a mysterious set of vibrations that also claimed Blaney and Nemechek. Local police at investigating a smash and grab raid on a nearby adult store. However, they have declined to say whether they believe the events are connected......................10/10

David Gilliand - Another one of the fabulous formation start-and-parkers, bringing the car in after 34 laps. However, he and his team at least showed some originality with an ignition problem, rather than the alledged adult toy vibration related problem. Further investigation shows that this may be another case of the AFNK curse as only the week after I was linguistically patting TRG on the back, they decide to go and be start and parkers. Typical. Friggin' Typical..........10/10

Scott Speed - Oh, was Scott Speed actually racing, I didn't notice. While the world is following the spotty kid with the orange car like a bloodhound on the trail of a murderer, Scott Speed's rookie season continues to fly below the radar. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing on weeks like this when something like his 32nd place finish is an almost perfect barometer for Scott's weekend. If Red Bull are looking for better exposure they need to follow the Paul Menard/Robby Gordon model of putting mediocrity in something bright yellow.......................8/10

Kevin Harvick - Actually to that bright-yellow-and-rubbish category you can almost add Kevin Harvick, who's picture could easily be the dictionary definition of "mediocre" this year (of course my dictionary doesn't have pictures, honest). And Pocono was another chapter in Kevin's year of anonymity (aside from having commentators point out that he's not doing very well). If nothing else he was consistent, taking his car from a 24th place start to a 24th place finish, which in the standings (logically enough) dropped him two spots to 26th, where he is actually being beaten by the before mentioned spotty kid...................7/10

Elliott Sadler - More anonymity! Sadler led. Briefly. For two laps. When everyone else was pitting. And when you need everyone else to stop for you to be winning you know that's a bad state of affairs. He finished one place below Harvick (admittedly having started a whooping 3 places behind him) and now sits in the same place in the overall standings, one ahead of Bobby Labonte in an area of the standings that rather professes to faded glory....................6/10

Carl Edwards - At last someone worthwhile! Carl is Tony's replacement at the front of the queue of drivers who are due a win, and this week fuel mileage conspired to rob him of a chance of a win. He spent the whole race bothering the point position, led just over half the race at 103 laps (or 309 corners) and even managed not to disappoint me by even finding time to try and crash into his team mates, with he and Matt Kenseth getting a little over friendly...............................1/10

And the Brikkie goes to..................

Denny "can't last 50 yards" Hamlin! Remembering Denny's rookie heroics Denny was the first name into my fantasy team this week, having saved him for Pocono for just that reason. And after he topped the only practice I excused myself feeling rather smug and pleased with myself (as no doubt did many others). So I settled into watch the race  - with duvet, mug of cocoa, cuddly toy, hot water bottle and all the normal things prepare for Pocono with only for my shot at genius to last about as long as a substandard biscuit being dunked in the Pocono Cocoa! The Brikke gets hurled at Denny, which is easy as he's not a moving target, for building my hopes up worse than a blind-folded, surprise trip to Walmart.

Next week

There is not Dave Blaney!!. Or Dexter Bean!! Instead we get something close to a dream AFNK. Well, firstly there is the garbage of Patrick Carpentier, David Gilliand and Joe Nemechek to get through. But then we have Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Jr and Michael Waltrip to balance it out.