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This was progress?
Two days after NASCAR president Mike Helton promised that the same sort of yellow-flag debacle that marred the Dover race a week ago would not happen again, confusion ruled at Pocono on Sunday as a Nextel Cup race ended under caution for the third time in the past six events. That the incident involved a driver very much in a chase for a championship, Jimmie Johnson, only heightened the concern that the problem will be harder to fix than expected.
Problems started Sunday when the pace car missed picking up the leader, Johnson, during a caution on Lap 156 and an on-track official erred in opening pit road too soon, while Johnson was denied access. If Johnson had run out of fuel while waiting for pit road to open, a bad situation would have worsened.
Though the exclusive use of transponders to discern scoring order might have simplified matters during some of the 11 yellows, the human element Helton sought to reduce was largely to blame for a blunder that nearly cost Johnson his third win of the season. Following the rules, Johnson made two laps past pit road under caution before stopping while most cars behind him were allowed to pit.
The mistake was minimized only because Johnson's dominant No. 48 Chevrolet was able to quickly overtake the field at the restart. The win pulled him within 58 points of leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the standings.
"I was very upset at the time that things weren't corrected to give us the track position back or what we lost as a result of that," Johnson said. "It just wasn't fair. Here we do what we're supposed to do. Because 40 cars do the wrong thing and I'm the minority now, it's like we'll solve it after the race.
"I was able to get through a few cars and win the race. You do the right thing, you do what you're told and end up getting burned for it."
Johnson's crew chief, Chad Knaus, said the discomforting thought is such a gaffe happening during the final "regular season" race in Richmond on Sept. 11 or in the 10-race postseason.
"It's petrifying," he said.
PENALTIES: Matt Kenseth and Kevin Harvick were penalized for bumping each other at the end of the Pocono 500. Harvick spun Kenseth into the infield in Turn 3 on Lap 197. Kenseth then did the same to Harvick. Both were interviewed after the race by NASCAR officials, who dropped them to 20th and 21st. Kenseth would not comment, but Harvick said of Kenseth: "I don't know what his deal is. He needs to check his ego because it's getting too big."
SNEAKY: In the shadow of the latest caution controversy was another solid performance by Earnhardt. Twice saved from going a lap down by caution flags, he advanced through the field to finish sixth and maintain his points lead. Though such results are not ultimately as important under the new points system, Earnhardt is blending the kind of consistency and luck Kenseth used to win the title last season. "That was a good finish for us," he said.
Under the new system, after 26 races the top 10 and any within 400 points of the leader qualify for the "Chase for the Championship."
DONE: Mark Martin entered Sunday's race with a boost of momentum and a chipper attitude after winning at Dover and qualifying fourth at Pocono. He was running in the top 10 until he suffered another engine failure after 112 laps, relegating him to a 36th-place finish. At 14th in the standings, 532 points behind Earnhardt with 12 races until the cutoff, Martin declared his playoff hopes over.
"I just wanted to be in the points thing," he said. "We were already too far back but might have had a chance, but that's the last one there. We couldn't afford to have that happen in the last 14 before the cutoff."
PIT STOPS: NASCAR on Monday announced a new partnership with TSN sports television to create NASCAR Canada. The venture, which will open a Toronto office, will primarily focus on expanding NASCAR's fan base in that country. ... Nextel Cup rookie Casey Mears will play himself in an upcoming episode of the soap opera Days of Our Lives. ... Zephyrhills native David Reutimann moved up five spots to seventh - 201 out of first - in the NASCAR truck series standings with a third-place place finish at Texas on Friday night in the No.17 Toyota. Frank Williams and his Formula One team have begun discussions that could bring 33-year-old Canadian Jacques Villeneuve out of retirement.
- Times wires contributed to this report.