It all came around for Jeff Gordon Sunday at Pocono. The four-time champ scored Sprint Cup win number 84 and is inching closer to a Chase berth with a pair of 2011 victories. Even though he will celebrate his 40th birthday in a few short weeks Gordon is full of fire and focused on his race season. He and crew chief Alan Gustafson are jelling and that could mean trouble for the competition. Don’t count them out.

VICTORY LANE
Jeff Gordon – Wins his second race of the season to get closer to securing a Chase spot.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. – Going into the race his average finish at Pocono over the last 12 races was 21.1, he finished 6th.
Kurt Busch – Leads the most laps last week in Kansas comes back and has a strong 2nd place finish.

THE GARAGE
Ford Racing – Only 1 car in the Top 16.
Pocono – They had a great crowd but could we shorten this race up at all?
Storyline that we will remember: Jeff Gordon wins his 84th career race.
Storyline that we will forget: Carl Edwards finishing 36th after a bad engine took him out early.

POWER RANKINGS
(Rankings will be based off of who is running the best, with an emphasis on the last several races but having respect for the duration of the 36 race schedule. Last Week’s Rankings can be found in parenthesis.)
1. (1)Carl Edwards – Still leads the points after a bad week.
2. (2) Kevin Harvick – 3 wins and now only 11 points out of the lead.
3. (3) Jimmie Johnson – Consistency is coming around and climbing up the standings.
4. (4) Dale Earnhardt Jr. – No wins out of the Top 5 in points and now has reached the same Top 10’s that he had all of last season.
5. (5)Kurt Busch – Will get a win sooner than later I believe, Penske is coming along nicely this season.
6. (6)Kyle Busch – 3 DNF’s this season, only 4 other drivers have 3 in the Top 35 and they are all below 30th.
7. (7) Matt Kenseth – 2 wins but his 2 DNF’s has him in 7th.
8. (10)Ryan Newman – The reason he is ahead of Stewart and Bowyer is his 4 Top 5’s.
9.  (8) Tony Stewart – The reason he is ahead of Bowyer is his 0 DNF’s.
10. (9)Clint Bowyer – Half the Top 5’s of Newman and 2 more DNF’s than Stewart.
11.  (12) Jeff Gordon – Picks up his 2nd win of the season.
12.  (11) Denny Hamlin– Is now in the last wild card spot, has 13 point lead over Juan Pablo Montoya.

Driver of Week: Jeff Gordon – 84th career win that ties him with Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip.

Stat of the Week: Closers - Most Cars passed in the last 10 percent of laps of each race – 40 by Mark Martin – Kevin Harvick tied with 7th with 26.

Last Week’s Prediction Results: Denny Hamlin leads the most laps but finishes 19th.

Prediction for Michigan: Dale Earnhardt Jr.

Question of the Week: Was the 6 point penalty for Kyle Busch a fair penalty?

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