The entire race recap is as follows�

POCONO REVIEW

NASCAR attempted to get a jump on starting the race, as skies were still threatening after morning showers. A couple extra pace laps were run to make sure that the entire track was fine. When the green flag did fall, Ricky Rudd quickly got the jump and passed polesitter Bill Elliott in Turn 1 as the field started to head up the Long Pond straightaway. It was there that trouble occurred with some of the qualifiers at 9 through 16th. Steve Park (14th), squeezes into Rusty Wallace (9th) � who ends up making contact with the outside wall. Wallace ricochets back into Park, who at this point is also tapped from behind by Ricky Craven (16th). That sends Steve-O sideways, where he is plowed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. (11th). From there Dale Jr. rides Park off the track and through the wet grass infield, heading straights towards a guardrail. The guardrail does its job and gives in upon impact, but sends Park airborne and then flipping 2 � times before coming to rest upside down in a mangled heap. In an eerie scene Dale Jr. climbs from his car (also badly damaged) and races to the Park car, with helmet and visor still on. After several anxious moments, track workers pull Park out and he and Dale Jr. walk away arm-in-arm. Wallace also suffers significant damage in the mishap and would not be a factor for the rest of the day. Ricky Craven sustains minimal frontal damage, but is able to continue while Sterling Marlin (who qualified 13th) was somehow able to squeeze by the whole situation. In the end 110 feet worth of guardrail along with 16 posts were taken out, and over an hour was needed to repair the damage while the race is red flagged. Look for a different set up in the backstretch come next season, perhaps with concrete replacing much of the grass as well as a more secure barrier a little farther away from the infield fans.

During the hour delay, we got to find out all too much about Robby Gordon�s motorcross mishap from the day before, which left the #31 driver with two badly swollen ankles. Green flag racing finally resumes on Lap 9, and Elliott quickly gets Rudd on the shortchute. Rudd would slowly fall back and not be a serious contender for the rest of the afternoon. TV telemetry has Ryan Newman doing nearly 9500 RPM�s going into Turn 1, perhaps that�s how he�s been blowing motors all year. It must be noted though that Newman elected to skip Happy Hour yesterday. It must also be noted that Ryan fishes whenever possible, a lot safer than Robby�s motocross excursions. Jeff Gordon did not qualify well (28th) and is still in 25th when rain causes the yellow to fall on Lap 25. . Everyone pits at this point. Stewart 15.1, Newman 15.8, Elliott 17.4 (tire trouble). Rain intensifies. Red flag, but the crowd gets something to roar about as Dale Jr. pulls out from the garage, and will be back in the race when it resumes. Morgan Shepherd does not pit before the delay, and thus leads his first Cup lap since 1997.

An additional two-hour delay follows, and the race finally gets back to green on Lap 38 at about 5:00 PM local time � leaving perhaps just enough daylight to get the entire distance in provided that there are no other delays. That prospect gets off to a good start with a long green flag run that sees the race turn into a Dodge show (as opposed to the normal Robert Yates Ford show at this venue), or more specifically, a Sterling Marlin show. Marlin grabs the lead from Joe Nemechek on the tunnel turn on Lap 39, and eventually builds an eight second lead over Elliott, as the #40 appears to be thriving in what are now sunny and warm conditions. Robby Gordon and his bad ankles are mired down in 33rd, a far cry from what was a top-15 car for most of the last Pocono race. Nemechek makes an unscheduled stop on Lap 49 with a tire possibly going down. John Andretti is hanging around in the top 10 while newly anointed #44 driver Jerry Nadeau is sitting in 14th. Green flag stops begin with Bill Elliott pulling a 14.1 according to TV (13.1 according to MRN). Jimmie Johnson 14.8 with some adjustments, Martin 16.5, Marlin 15.1, Rudd 14.7 with an air-pressure adjustment � but not a full tank. Elliot Sadler, Ken Schrader, and R. Gordon are the last to pit. Sadler 17.1, Gordon is the last to pit, thanks to topping off before the restart. Turns out that Elliot Sadler will have to pit early next time, since one of his crewman forgot to take tape off the overflow valve after the rain delay. Jeff Burton, who started 33rd, moves into the top five by Lap 90, and is running just as fast as the #40, Burton moves into third by Lap 95, passing Dale Jarrett who is having his usual strong Pocono run. Kurt Busch is having a great day after starting 28th and is heading towards the top ten, while Matt Kenseth is running a strong seventh. 28 cars are left on the lead lap by lap 100, the scheduled halfway distance. Second round of green flag stops ensue, J. Burton 17.0, Kenseth 15.0, Busch 15.2 (w/tract bar and air pressure adjustments), Blaney 15.8. Marlin has a hiccup going out and nearly stalls on the gears. Jimmy Spencer provides comic relief by going down pit road two fast, and on the ensuing drive-thru penalty, going too fast again. That double-dose of mistakes would be inexcusable even by a rookie. Noteworthy is the fact that the Rosch cars are doing great on gas mileage and may be able to make it on one more stop, should the race stay green and go its scheduled distance. Mike Skinner�s car runs out of fuel on the Long Pond straight � finally bringing out the yellow, and a huge break for Bobby Hamilton who has just had a tire go down. Also a good break for Mark Martin, whose car is having power trouble and is now able to get a new battery during the yellow. The flag is also much needed for Michael Waltrip, who is apparently under the weather, and needs some fluids. Only passing thought is given to finding a relief driver for the #15. Ricky Craven also makes several trips to pit road to fix the damage from back in the Lap 1 mishap.

With the weather clouding up again, Elliott�s car comes back to him and is very competitive with Marlin on the restart, but Sterling ultimately hangs on to his lead. Kurt Busch gets fourth from Jarrett at Lap 123. At that time NASCAR makes it�s call, announcing that the race will end after 175 laps (437.5 miles). The decision doesn�t seem to be meant with much resistance among the teams or drivers. Kevin Harvick and Terry LaBonte are making moves into the top ten while Ricky Rudd thinks that he may have a blistered tire, and is just trying to make it to his pit window. Rudd and Newman both come in for 15.2 stops while #40 pit crew coach Al Shuman (who has whipped the Marlin crew into shape all year) is giving pep talks for the crucial final stop. Elliott and Marlin come in together, and have virtually equal stops (16.0 for Marlin), so Sterling holds serve. Meanwhile Jeremy Mayfield gets tapped by Jerry Nadeau in the tunnel turn, goes out of control � with the front end eventually making hard contact with the concrete infield barriers, bringing out the yellow. Jimmie Spencer was also brushed by Mayfield, bringing one of his tires down. With Pocono being such a large track the yellow comes with no penalty to those who already pitted. Johnson 14.5 (but car setup way off), Hamilton 16.3, Sadler 21.3

Marlin gets another great restart with 30 laps to go. Jeff Burton appears to have Elliott tracked down the backstretch for second, but has a tire clearly going down, a horrible break there. Burton goes past the start-finish line and limps around for another lap with the bad tire. Ahead of the #99, Nadeau appears to have a tire go down and ends up making hard rear-end contact with the retaining wall, bringing out the final caution of the day. On his way to the infield care center, Nadeau runs into Mayfield � who reminds him that he has now wrecked him two weeks in a row. Mayfield says in a TV interview that he bets �it doesn�t happen again next week�. Busch makes a run at second place Elliott on the restart with 24 laps to go. But Elliott has bigger ideas, and finally makes the elusive race winning pace on Marlin with 19 to go, Busch gets Marlin for second a lap later. Jimmy Spencer�s engine expires with 11 laps to go, race officials are trying to get to turn him towards the garage on the tunnel turn. Jimmy being Jimmy of course doesn�t obey, but Spencer manages to limp his way to the frontstretch so we finish the race under green with Elliott becoming the first driver to win from the pole since Bill turned the trick last November at Homestead. Elliott is followed by Busch, Marlin, Dale Jarrett and Ryan Newman (no happy hour pays off). Rounding out the top ten is Kevin Harvick (his fifth straight strong finish), Tony Stewart (who was never a huge factor), Matt Kenseth, Terry LaBonte, and Ricky Rudd. Other notables include Jeff Gordon (12th), Mark Martin (13th), Jimmie Johnson (15th), Jeff Burton (16th, after falling to 28th with the bad tire), Ricky Craven (17th), Michael Waltrip (18th), Dale Jr. (37th), and Rusty Wallace (40th). There were no failed inspections � or anything else resulting in loss of points afterwards. Win by Elliott makes him Pocono's first five-time winner, but his first win here since 1989. Even though Marlin didn�t win, he still gains much needed breathing room in the points race and now has a 106 point cushion over Mark Martin. Jimmie Johnson is in third (-144) followed by Jeff Gordon (-188), Kurt Busch (-239), Ricky Rudd (-254), Tony Stewart (-256), and Rusty Wallace (-259, a huge four position drop).

GARAGE NOTES

Fans at Pocono had to settle for 175 laps on Sunday, that would still be 15 more than they could get in the future, as speculation centers on the Pocono events to he shortened to 400 miles. In recent years events at Rockingham and Dover have been shortened from 500 to 400 miles. It seems like NASCAR has an agenda to trying to get as many races as possible done in a three-hour time window. Hopefully, this will be the next-to-last time anything will be written in this column on Ricky Rudd�s future. The latest has Rudd, Texaco, and the #28 going to the Chip Ganassi stable, that would turn the #28 from a Ford to a Dodge as a third Ganassi car. An announcement could be coming this weekend in Indianapolis. Two driver changes occurred this week, with Jerry Nadeau taking over the #44 for the rest of the season while Mike Wallace landed with the #14 A.J. Foyt owned-Pontiac, with Stacy Compton getting a pink slip. Here�s all you need to know about NASCAR parity, 21 drivers have finished first or second in at least one race this year. That accounts for over half the regular drivers on the circuit. Dodge�s success this weekend was not limited to the Cup race. Hank Parker Jr. came out on the right end of a fuel-mileage gamble to win the Pikes Peak (CO) Busch race while Robert Pressley won the Truck event in Michigan. Also, another member of the Everham stable, Casey Atwood, was entered in the Pocono ARCA race � which he won.

BRICKYARD 400 PREVIEW

There will be no problem getting 43 cars together this weekend, for this the second most lucrative race on the schedule. Many teams have been testing at IMS for several weeks now, so there are definitely drivers who have been earmarking this event. Since IMS, like Pocono, is a flat track, many teams will be bringing the same cars as this past week. Since this is a relatively short 400 mile race, expect the big dogs to run up front. The list of contenders are as follows�

Jeff Gordon � Definitely the king here in the eight year history of the event with three wins. The subpar runs as the past two races are of some concern though.

Tony Stewart � Not much previous success (one top five), but his IRL experience here should pay dividends one of these years.

Rusty Wallace � A pair of top fives the past two years. Look for a nice bounce back after this past weeks disaster.

Sterling Marlin � Second place finisher in �01, looking comfortable again as the hunted all of a sudden.

Dale Jarrett � Two time Brickyard winner, 1996 and �99.

Kurt Busch � Had one of his best rookie finishes here last year, placing fifth.

Mark Martin � Not much the past two times here, but top fives in both 1998 and �99.

Ryan Newman � A home game for Ryan, expect another strong finish.

Jimmie Johnson � Another car capable of domination this week.

Bill Elliott � White-hot, qualified seventh and finished third with the old #94 in 2000, and followed that up by starting second and finishing eighth last year. Good bet to win a third consecutive pole, which would be his fifth overall this year.

Ricky Rudd � 1997 winner, not much success since.

Bobby LaBonte � Think he�s due??? Followed up a runner-up finish in �99 with a win in 2000.

Kevin Harvick � Qualified and finished 11th last year. Has been as strong as anyone over the past month with a 14th, 11th, 1st, 9th, and 6th�

SLEEPERS

Matt Kenseth - 400 miles may not be enough time for the pit warriors to bring the 17 to the front, not to mention he hasn't had a successful track record here. Still don't ever count him out.

Jimmy Spencer � Likes this track, and actually finished on the pole last year.

Jerry Nadeau � A fourth place finish just two years ago.

Ricky Craven � Qualified seventh and finished ninth last year.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. � Still the year�s biggest disappointment, but qualified sixth and finished 13th last year.

Robby Gordon/John Andretti � A couple other open-wheel Indy stars who should fare well here. Be aware though that further examination revealed that Robby Gordon now has a broken heel, as well as the sprained ankles - so Robby's value takes a hit.

Look for the race to finish as follows�

1. Newman, 2. J. Gordon, 3. Stewart, 4. Elliott, 5. Marlin, 6. Busch, 7. Johnson, 8. Jarrett, 9. Harvick, 10. Wallace

The NASCARODDS line is as follows...

J. Gordon 3-1, Marlin 4-1, Johnson 9-2, Martin 5-1, Jarret 6-1, R. Wallace 7-1, Rudd 8-1, Busch 9-1, Stewart 10-1, Elliott 11-1, J. Burton 12-1, Kenseth 13-1, Newman 14-1, Dale Jr. 15-1, B. LaBonte 16-1, Waltrip 17-1, Harvick 18-1, T. Bodine 19-1, W. Burton 20-1, Craven 22-1, Andretti 24-1, Mayfield 26-1, Park 28-1, Blaney 30-1, Hamilton 32-1, Sadler 34-1, T. LaBonte 36-1, Benson 38-1, Schrader 40-1, Nemechek 42-1, R. Gordon 44-1, Spencer 46-1, J. Green 48-1, Atwood 50-1, Nadeau 55-1, Skinner 60-1, Stricklin 65-1, Petty 70-1, B. Bodine 75-1, Wallace 80-1

ANDY HOUSTON AWARD

As cruel as it sounds, Steve Park is the recipient of this weeks award, as it was first lap exits which Andy Houston was all about...