With the running order so mixed up when the checkered flag flew, the series standings jumbled headed into Michigan. The biggest gainer of the afternoon was the No. 99 of Carl Edwards. The Roush Fenway Racing driver went into Pocono eleventh in the standings and looking for a great run. Leading a race-high 103 laps, Edwards chose to conserve fuel at the end and wound up second. Disappointed he couldn’t race Stewart for the victory, Edwards was happy he jumped five spots in the standings to sixth.

"We ran up front all day," Edwards said after the race. "I think we led the most laps, I’m not sure. But, that’s good. That’s a good step. I’d really like to be out there with the trophy, but it’s good for points."

While Edwards was the biggest mover in the right direction, the usual favorite at Pocono was the biggest loser on the day. After posting the fastest time in Saturday’s final practice, Denny Hamlin appeared to be one of the favorites heading into Sunday’s race. With only one finish outside the top-10 in each of his six attempts at the 2.5-mile triangle-shaped facility, Hamlin once again looked to be a threat.

Starting from the seventh-spot, Hamlin’s day never had a chance. Heading into the first corner the fuel pump seized on the No. 11 FedEx Ground Toyota, slowing him on the track. The two-time Pocono winner completed his first lap with the help of a wrecker truck and took his ride behind the wall.

Hamlin reemerged from the garage on Lap 11, but the repairs were not sufficient enough as the No. 11 once again stopped on the backstretch, bringing out the caution. The Joe Gibbs Racing crew was finally able to make the repairs, but Hamlin ended the day in 38th, twenty-two laps down.

"It was just unacceptable," crew chief Mike Ford pointed out. "It’s not the first time we’ve had fuel issues – across all three cars. It’s just plain unacceptable and it should never happen. We had a fuel pump lock up and that broke a couple other pieces in the system. It’s one of those things that’s difficult to troubleshoot in a short amount of time. What started it was have the fuel pump lock up. It was just a parts failure."

That parts failure cost Hamlin five spots in the series standings, dropping him from seventh to twelfth. Hamlin’s continued bad luck has now put him just one point ahead of being outside the top-12.

Kyle Busch’s lackluster runs continued on Sunday. The driver of the No. 18 M&M’s Toyota ran the first half of the race in the top-10, but lost the handle on the car late in the going. Running around the fifteenth-spot as the final laps approached, Busch was forced to pit road for fuel with just five laps to go and wound up the day in the 22nd spot.

"We just never really got the car right today," Busch admitted. "It would start off the run tight and then go to loose by the end of the run. We’ve got a lot of work to do for next time, that’s for sure. A lot of those guys made it on fuel and we couldn’t. We didn’t think that everyone else could. But the fact of the matter is that we were off. It’s disappointing."

The disappointing finish knocked Busch down three spots in the standings to ninth.

Perhaps Roush Fenway Racing’s Matt Kenseth had the most frustrating day. After running in the top-5 for much of the afternoon, contending for the lead on a number of occasions, the No. 17 DeWalt Ford was forced to hit pit road for fuel on Lap 187. When Stewart took the checkers at the end of the day, Kenseth was sixteenth.

"We ran third all day and finished 16th," Kenseth said. "I don’t know what else to say about it."

Some of those that benefited from great fuel gambles were David Reutimann, Marcos Ambrose and Sam Hornish Jr.

Reutimann pitted with the leaders on Lap 159 and thanks to great coaching from crew chief Rodney Childers and excellent fuel mileage in his No. 00 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota, the Charlotte-winner was able to coast home in the third-spot.

"I asked Rodney, ‘Do I need to race or do I need to ride?’ He just said so the best you can," Reutimann explained. "I’m like, ‘That is not exactly an answer.’ I knew what he meant, just go as fast as you can, just roll out of the gas early and roll back in late, let it roll and we did all that."

With his second top-5 in three races, Reutimann was able to move up two spots and back into the top-12 in points. Heading into Michigan in eleventh, the driver of the No. 00 has a twenty-two point cushion over Hamlin in twelfth.

Both Ambrose and Hornish Jr. took advantage of a late race caution to ensure their cars had enough fuel in the tank to make it to the end. When the field got the one to go signal for the final restart of the day, Ambrose, Hornish Jr. and others – including fifth-place finisher Ryan Newman – hit pit road to top off the tank.

As others ahead of them began peeling off the racing surface for gas, Ambrose and Hornish Jr. took advantage. Both were top-15, top-20 cars for much of the afternoon, but thanks to the great call by their respective crew chiefs, they were able to score top-10 finishes at the end of the day.

"This place is insane how hard it is," Ambrose said of his first attempt at Pocono, "like no place I’ve ever been in my life. Great day for our team we had a fast car regardless of fuel strategy – it’s the first time I’ve had to save fuel at this level so I didn’t know what to do so I was very conservative."

With his sixth-place finish, Ambrose moved to eighteenth in the standings, up two spots from last week.

Hornish’s tenth was good enough to bump the former open-wheel driver up three spots, putting him 23rd in points.

"We weren’t really good at the beginning of the race, but got our race car better and were probably a top-15 car at the end of the race," crew chief Travis Geisler said of Hornish’s day. "Pocono is just a crazy race. You just never know how this race is going to pan out. I never thought Stewart and those guys could have made it that long without pitting. I wasn’t ready to gamble that much. We gambled a little bit and definitely gained some spots and had another top-10 run for the Mobil 1 Dodge. We’ll just go on to next week and just keep moving our way up in owner points."

Whenever a race comes down fuel mileage it is almost given that the points at the end of day will be shuffled. Sunday’s race at Pocono was no different, there were winners and losers throughout the field and looking forward to next week at Michigan the possibility for another fuel mileage race is very real. Who will play their cards right and move up in the standings and who will bust and backslide?

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