I had decided to wait to write a blog until people could actually comment if they wanted to without getting an error. It appears that that is now fixed. Please let me know if you have any issues going forward by jotting me an e-mail.

I really like how they raced the Nationwide race with rain tires. I don't understand why they didn't do it with the Sprint Cup race at Pocono. I didn't watch the race in it's entirety because I was stuffing my face with lobster. (On Friday, I blogged that we were doing a lobster feed during the race.)

I am pleased that Clint Bowyer is still in the Top 12 in the point standings. My pick, Denny Hamlin, finished 23rd. I'm not sure what happened to him. A couple of the times that I checked in on the race, he was leading. Was it pit strategy? Can someone tell me?

What did you think of the racing this past weekend?

All for now...

If you read yesterday's entry, you know that I'm not fond of Pocono racing. So I found something to do while the race was going ... a lobster bake.

Isn't it a requirement that if you live in Maine, you have to have at least one day during the summer where you pig out on lobster, steamers and bacon-wrapped scollops? I think so. It's a distraction that I am looking forward to. I will still peak in on the race every now and then...

My pick to win is Denny Hamlin. He's raced here five times. All of those five races have resulted in top-10 finishes, including two wins. Obviously, this is his type of racetrack. Let's hope Denny can snap my 0-for-20 streak so far this season.

Here's the broadcast schedule for the weekend.

Here are the top-15 in point standings going into the race:

Who are you picking to win?

As if it wasn't bad enough that last weekend's race at the Brickyard was poor, we are now heading to Pocono. A real snoozer. I will likely get in a well-needed nap during the racing but will set the DVR to record the race so if by chance anything exciting happens, I can rewind.

Even though I'm not fond of the racing at Pocono, I still like to share the NASCAR Newscast. It does a pretty good job of getting you excited about the racing there.

So here it is, the NASCAR Newscast: Pocono Preview:

On another note, you may already have heard that Indycar Series announced it's 2009 schedule earlier this week and New Hampshire Motor Speedway wasn't on it. Here's the complete press release statement from New Hampshire Motor Speedway Executive Vice President and General Manager Jerry Gappens:

"I'm extremely disappointed for our fans, who have given us very positive feedback about the possible return of IndyCar racing to New Hampshire Motor Speedway. In fact, in a recent poll on our website, nhms.com, nearly 80-percent of our fans said they wanted to see this exciting form of motorsports return. That's a strong endorsement, and I don't understand the decision not to include our facility on next year's schedule.

I think it's a slap in the face to Burton Smith, our Chairman, and to our company who have both been very supportive of the Indy Racing League since its inception. From a historical perspective, Bob Bahre, the former owner of New Hampshire Motor Speedway, was one of the first to agree to go with the Indy Racing League (IRL) when they split from Championship Auto Racing Teams (CART) in 1995.

I sat in a meeting and watched Bruton ask them for a race here, which they seemed extremely interested in doing, pending scheduling conflicts with Japan. In addition, in that same meeting, they asked him to host the series finale in Las Vegas, which Mr. Smith agreed to and even offered the speedway and financial support for it to happen this year. Having attended that meeting in early June, it's hard to believe that neither facility is on the new schedule.

The feedback that has been conveyed to me is that they don't want to add an additional race to the schedule because of the increased cost to the teams. However, I believe that the purse and the strength of adding the seventh largest media market in the country would offset those costs and concerns. I think this market and facility have a lot to offer the team and series sponsors.

I would like to thank Texas Motor Speedway President and General Manager, Eddie Gossage, who on behalf of Speedway Motorsports, made an excellent proposal to the league which included Las Vegas and New Hampshire.

I don't want to burn any bridges, but I am upset to be excluded. I am a big fan of open-wheel racing, and I strongly admire what the Hulman-George family has done for this sport. I hope that they know they would get an excellent effort from our team here at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in promoting a race in this market. History has proven that this venue provided exciting races. Now, we'll see what happens down the road."

All for now. I'll be back tomorrow with my pick for Pocono.

A weekend away and I felt too discombobulated yesterday to get a blog published. I got back from my camping weekend in time to watch the race on Sunday but was really tired. I managed to keep my lids open for the majority of the Cup race but missed the last 90 laps or so. So last night I watched what I had missed.

Here are my thoughts on the race at Pocono:

Congrats to Kasey Kahne once again. I'm still shaking my head in disbelief at his turnaround this year. I was glad to see that he did a much better job at opening that Budweiser in victory lane.

Kyle Busch finally had some bad luck. He tried to squeeze into a spot where there wasn’t any room and ran right into Jamie McMurray. While a driver is passing a car, there's only two things a spotter needs to know to say: "clear" and "not clear," that's it folks. A spotter does not need to say anything else. It's that simple. Busch's spotter really screwed up.

On lap 71 there was a red flag for rain. I like a man who can multitask. Under the red flag Jimmie Johnson got out of his car, took a bathroom break, grabbed a snack and a drink and then got back into his car to finish the race. I loved it.

I'm glad we got clarification on why the two safety workers who had fire extinguishers in hand did not assist in putting out the fire on Juan Pablo Montoya's car. It did look ridiculous with them just standing there.

As funny as Kyle Petty and Wally Dallenbach were when they were ragging on the safety workers, it was explained that they were there for driver safety only. And since Montoya got out of the car so quickly, they didn't need to do anything else. The other safety workers that showed up a bit later were there to put the fire out. I do think they needed quicker response time for the fire though.

I'm starting to get a bit frantic about my man Clint Bowyer being 11th in the point standings.

There were a lot of cautions for a race at Pocono.

What did you think of the race?

I missed the action in the Nationwide race (if there was any).

I've yet to watch the race at Eldora. Maybe tonight. I'll let you know what I think. All for now...

I am giving you my pick today because I am heading out this morning to go camping.

I’ve got to go with Jeff Gordon for the win here at Pocono. Last year, he won the June race and in August he came in 4th. He’s bound to get a win this year folks and I think this is the weekend.

There are a couple other drivers that I considered picking as the race winner. Ryan Newman. He’s had some solid finishes here. He’s sitting 14th in the point standings right now and I think anyone who’s a stone’s throw to that top-twelve will not be dilly dallying.

Denny Hamlin was the other driver I considered. He’s had great success here, including a Pocono victory sweep in 2006. He wasn’t too shabby last year either with two top tens.

I’m not sure I will be back in time to watch the entire race and to be honest, of all the races to miss, I think this one is the best one. This track is known to be a snoozer. Even still, I will have someone at home set the DVR to tape the race in case something major happens, like Kyle Busch falling asleep at the wheel… Just kidding, sort of.

As much as I am not a Busch fan, I will completely say that I am just amazed that he is trying to pull off racing in three different series at three different racetracks this weekend. Here’s his racing itinerary for this weekend:

Friday
Noon - Sprint Cup Series Practice
3:40 p.m. - NSCS Qualifying
6 p.m. - Fly to Texas
9 p.m. - Craftsman Truck Series race
Midnight - Fly to Pocono

Saturday
10 a.m. - NSCS Practice
11:20 a.m. - NSCS Final practice
12:30 p.m. - Fly to Nashville
7:30 p.m. - Nationwide race at Nashville Superspeedway
11 p.m. - Fly to Pocono

Sunday
2 p.m. - Sprint Cup race at Pocono

That’s a whole lot of traveling. I’m starting to think that there’s a big red S under his shirt.

Who do you think will win?

My pick this week is the obvious, Denny Hamlin. He won both races here in 2006 and finished sixth in June of this year. In that June race, he led most of the laps but it was pit strategy and weather that prevented him from winning.

Hopefully if my pick is correct, we will see a similar picture to this one.

Qualifying is at 3:30 this afternoon and will be aired on ESPN2.

Who's your pick for the weekend?