By Sam Atwell

Rain, wrecks and pit strategy all combined to give Greg Biffle, Roush-Fenway Racing and Ford a trip to victory lane on Sunday in Pocono. Biffle took the lead after a couple of red flags for a wreck and rain, and then just checked out to pick up the victory.  The win was even more meaningful for Biffle because his owner, Jack Roush, was recovering from a plane crash earlier this week and was not at the track.   Tony Stewart was second, Carl Edwards third, Kevin Harvick fourth and Denny Hamlin was fifth.  Harvick maintained his point lead over second place Jeff Gordon, who finished sixth. 

Get a wrap-up of all the racing action from Sunday on todays edition of The Race Report Update

By Sam Atwell

What a difference an off season makes for some teams.  Last season Richard Childress Racing had four teams in the Sprint Cup Series.  After placing all of the RCR teams in the Chase the previous two seasons no one expected what happened to the RCR Teams.  Not one of those teams made the Chase last season.  They even struggled to stay in the top twenty in points.  Fast Forward to 2010 and two races into the season RCR has scaled back to three teams and all three teams are in the top five in the point standings.  Now two races doesn’t make a season, but it is a vast improvement over last season.  Kevin Harvick, who was rumored to be leaving RCR, talks about the changes and improvements on todays edition of The Race Report Update.

By Sam Atwell

It comes as no surprise to me or anyone who listens to The Race Report that Danica will be racing in the Nationwide Series race on Saturday.  I stated on the show several weeks ago that she would be in the NNS race in Daytona, even after they said her debut would be in California the following week.  There was no way the PR machine named Danica was not going to be on the biggest stage of the NASCAR season.  The fact that she did a good job in the ARCA race is just a bonus and makes the decision for her to race on Saturday in the Nationwide race look like a performanced based decision.  The ARCA race was a good start for Danica and I think she will be fine in the Nationwide race, a top ten?  Not so much, but if she finishes in the top twenty I think that will be a fantastic NNS debut. 

Kevin Harvick picks up his second straight BudweiserShootout win and starts the 2010 season off on a positive note.  He joins a list of Neil Bonnett, Ken Schrader and Tony Stewart as consecutive winners of the race.  Kasey Kahne had his best career finish of the Shootout and Jamie McMurray picked up his second consecutive top-five finish.  Pretty good racing for the first time out with the new aero package.  There were five leaders and 12 lead changes, Carl Edwards led the most laps with 42.  Overall a great way to get the season started.

Can someone tell me again why Derrick Cope was in the Budweiser Shootout?  Does the Budweiser Shootout really need start and parkers?  15 laps was all Cope could manage to complete?  I do understand the desire of NASCAR to open the field to more drivers but can they at least have done something in the sport in the last 5 years.  In the last five years Cope has 11 starts.  In those 11 starts he had an average finish of 38.7, at least Saturday nights 24th place finish will help Cope’s average finish.