You know what's odd? Maybe even downright strange?

Here we are at the midway point of the season, and I don't remember spending too much of my blog space talking about the Hendrick Motorsports drivers. Considering they have a five-time champ, a four-time champ and NASCAR's fan favorite, it stood out a little bit.

But I'm a stats guy at heart, so, when their performance tailed off slightly, I had other things to write about. At New Hampshire, however, I think the three Hendrick drivers currently in Chase position will solidify their spots for the playoff run, maybe even take that precious checkered flag.

Let's break down this three-pronged attack, driver by driver:

• Jimmie Johnson -- Johnson has three career New Hampshire wins, but only one of those has come in the past 14 races at Loudon, that being last spring's race. However, his finishes haven't matched how well he's run, especially in the spring races.

In the past three spring races, nobody's run more fastest laps than Johnson, who has ranked first, first and second in fastest laps run in those races. But his finishes in those three races are first, second and ninth.

• Dale Earnhardt Jr. -- Junior has never won at New Hampshire, but it doesn't mean he hasn't been fast. Last year, despite his struggles, he finished eighth and fourth in the two Loudon races.

So, ignore Earnhardt's finishes and instead focus on the fact that at the midrace point, he's been running in the top 11 in the past nine races there, and in the top three in four of those events.

• Jeff Gordon -- Like Johnson, Gordon has won thrice at New Hampshire, but those wins came in 1995, '97 and '98. But don't let that get you thinking he won't be a strong contender Sunday.

Gordon has finished sixth or better in six of the past nine New Hampshire races, taking second in three of those. Plus, his loop data marks are strong -- check out the chart:

So, don't focus just on the wins, and look beyond the numbers for Hendrick Motorsports' strength.

Eliminator: New Hampshire edition

Most people just pick winners -- some by hunches, some by stats, and some by just picking names off the top of their heads.

I don't pick winners -- I pick losers. I'll make my race pick by telling you why all but one driver in the field just can't win.

And while my winless streak is at nine races, the Eliminator's picks have finished eighth or better in five of the past six races. But it's time to get a winner. And I just need two steps:

1. Twelve of the past 13 New Hampshire winners finished 19th or better in the race leading into Loudon (29 eliminated, 19 remaining).

2. The past three New Hampshire winners had a top-10 finish in the most recent Richmond, Martinsville and Phoenix races (18 eliminated, one remaining).

Your winner: Kyle Busch.

"Variety is the spice of life," you might've heard your grandmother or me remark on occasion. In NASCAR, it certainly holds true.

Say what you will about the style of racing, or the ability to get in or out of Kentucky Speedway this weekend, it was pretty nice to see a new track on the Cup series schedule.

But I was actually disappointed to hear that the Nationwide Series would be adding Indianapolis Motor Speedway to its schedule next season; because it actually took off a classic short track from the schedule.

Call it whatever you prefer -- Indy Raceway Park, O'Reilly Raceway Park, Lucas Oil Raceway (I just like IRP) -- but it has been on the schedule since the first Nationwide Series season in 1982.

Now, it's another lost track from the days of NASCAR past, along with other tracks such as Hickory, South Boston and Langley. These tracks may be open in some form, and I always encourage you to support your local tracks, but the biggest names no longer race there.

It's really unfortunate, but I understand the business side, that NASCAR has outgrown some of its past. However, it seems like every week we gets fans waxing poetic on the ESPN.com chats about North Wilkesboro or Rockingham.

Cash money aside, I'd like to see some NASCAR National Touring Series races return to some of these past tracks. Although maybe they don't need to visit Hickory six times a season like they did in the inaugural Nationwide Series season.

On with stats!

The debate begins

You know what I love? NASCAR debates. Old versus new. Petty versus Pearson. And the newest one is how should Kyle Busch's wins across NASCAR's top three series be regarded against previous legends.

I won't tell you what to think, but I will provide an argument for each side.

Busch has 99 wins, which is the third most across the top three series, but just 22 of them are Cup wins. The two drivers in front of him are Richard Petty (200 wins, all in Cup) and David Pearson (106 wins, 105 in Cup).

Petty won 200 of his 1,184 Cup starts, or 16.9 percent. Busch, on the other hand, has 22 wins in his first 240 starts, just 9.2 percent.

On the flip side. Petty made 1,184 NASCAR starts, all in the Cup series (not including the defunct Convertible series). He once ran 61 races in a single season, and often took advantage of fields that had little depth and star power beyond the 43. Examples: winning by five laps (and you think today's races are boring?) at Nashville, or winning in an 18-car field at Bowman Gray.

Trivia break! Busch has won two national series races in a weekend 16 times, but who's second on the list?

A debut to remember

Insert second traffic joke. Anyways, it is nice to see another new track on the schedule. It's the first time the Cup series has added a track to the schedule since 2001. I hope that trend continues, given the attendance the race drew.

Obviously, it was Kyle Busch's first Cup win in an inaugural race. He had just turned 16 when the Cup series made its first stops in Chicago (won by Kevin Harvick) and Kansas (won by Jeff Gordon) in 2001.

Trivia break! Who was the last Joe Gibbs Racing driver to win an inaugural Cup race?

Odds and ends

You know I like to recognize some notable performances over the past weekend.

Shout-out to David Reutimann, who got his first top-5 of the year, finishing second. He has only one other top-10 this year, ninth at Charlotte. It's his best finish since running second last August at Bristol.

Or how about Ryan Newman in fourth? It's his fifth top-5 this year, after having only four last season. He's also led twice as many laps already this year as he did last year.

Trivia break! Who was the last driver not from Hendrick, Roush or Gibbs to win a Cup title?

Trivia break answers

1. Carl Edwards has won two races in a weekend five times.

2. Tony Stewart won the first Cup race at Homestead in 1999.

3. Dale Jarrett won the title for Yates Racing in 1999, and before that, Dale Earnhardt for Richard Childress Racing in 1994.

OK, I'm willing to admit when I am beat. This is one of those times.

There's not a whole lot I can do to preview the Kentucky race specifically. You know, that whole thing about their not having previously run there.

I could use Nationwide Series stats, maybe throw some Trucks in there, but we're talking completely different cars and levels of competition. And I respect you, my beloved readers, far too much to jerk you around like that.

So, wouldn't this be a nice time to take a look ahead at the rest of the season, both leading up to the Chase and the Chase itself? That's two things for the price of one. However, that price, as always, is free.

I know there are quite a few Tony Stewart fans out there, and he's been surlier than normal lately, talking of spinning all those who dare block "Smoke." Well, he does find himself squarely on the bubble heading down the stretch.

But, stress not, Smoke fans. This is the time of year when he tends to make a charge, so I think he can make a run to get back into the top 10.

Let's talk title picture. Kevin Harvick is the new points leader following Daytona, but I'm not going to give him the favorite label. Harvick ranks seventh in both driver rating and overall green-flag speed. His consistency and ability to pop up late in the race might have earned him a few wins, but given the raw numbers of his performance throughout the year, I expect that pace to fall off shortly.

What about the previous leader, Carl Edwards? Edwards has had the best car late in green-flag runs this year, but there's a driver who bests him in just about every other category.

That man is Kyle Busch.

He's a quiet third in points, but digging deeper shows his strength. He leads the series in average speed in traffic, on restarts, early in runs and overall.

His driver rating is a 109.9; only one other driver has a rating better than 100 on the year. It's a 9.2-point drop to second-place Edwards, more than the spread from the second- to seventh-place drivers.

Average running position is the most dominant indicator of strength. Busch's average position this season on a lap-by-lap basis is a 9.24, and from there it's 3.33 down to second-place Kurt Busch.

The 3.33 spread is more than the spread from second to 15th-place Paul Menard. Impressive stuff, if you ask me.

Eliminator: Kentucky Edition

Most people just pick winners, some by hunches, some by stats, and some by just picking a name off the top of their head.

I don't pick winners; I pick losers. I'll make my race pick by telling you why all but one driver in the field just can't win.

1) The past 20 winners on 1.5-mile tracks all had a previous Sprint Cup Series win (18 eliminated, 30 remaining).
2)The past seven and 10 of the past 11 winners on 1.5-mile tracks had a top-20 finish in the previous 1.5-mile race (11 eliminated, 19 remaining).
3) The past four winners this season had a previous top-two finish on the season (six eliminated, 13 remaining).
4) In five of the past six inaugural races at a track, the winner had a top-5 finish in the previous Cup race (10 eliminated, three remaining).
5) The past five and eight of the past nine winners this season came from outside the top five in points (two eliminated, one remaining).

Your winner: David Ragan

Who needed to go out to see a summer blockbuster when you have Daytona?

What didn't Saturday night's race have? It was a tale of redemption, as David Ragan came back from disappointing 2009 and 2010 seasons and the heartbreak of this year's Daytona 500. I'm definitely rooting for the protagonist.

Maybe you want a little more action? The two-car drafts again caused that, and if you weren't on the edge of your seat during the two green-white-checkered finishes, then you might not have a pulse.

Want a love story? I was loving that pizza I was chowing down on throughout the race.

What about some of the other staples of the summer blockbuster? Car chase scene? Check plus. Stunning starlet? If the Victory Lane girls want to reach me, my e-mail address is in my bio. Explosions and special effects? Um, maybe it's best we didn't have those, unless you count the postrace fireworks.

One thing the summer blockbusters do lack is a sweet statistical analysis. Luckily for my dedicated readers, I'm all over that, and here we go.

Feels Like the First Time

After not having a single first-time winner all of last season, we've already had three this season, with Trevor Bayne and Regan Smith joining Ragan.

Ragan took 163 Cup starts to reach Victory Lane. That's the most for a driver before his first win since Johnny Benson won in his 226th in 2002 at Rockingham.

Ragan also became the seventh driver to get his first Cup win in the July race at Daytona and the first since his teammate Greg Biffle did so in 2003.

Among the previous six, two never won again, and two won only one more race at the Cup level. The others were Biffle, with 16 career wins, and A.J. Foyt, with seven career wins.

Trivia break: The last time a track had two first-time winners in a year was Daytona in 1994. Who were the drivers?

When It Baynes, It Pours

Call it the curse of the Daytona 500 winner.

But with Trevor Bayne's 41st-place finish at Daytona, five of the past six Daytona 500 winners have now finished outside the top 30 in the July race at Daytona that same season.

The only exception was in 2009, when Matt Kenseth followed his 500 win with an eighth-place finish.

Trivia break: Who was the most recent driver to sweep both Cup races at Daytona in a season?

The Big One Times Two

Thanks to ESPN Stats & Information's Trevor Ebaugh for this note.

Since the start of 2008, there have been almost 37,000 laps run in 125 points-paying Cup races. Over that span, 994 cars were involved in multi-car accidents, 189 of those coming at Daytona (19.0 percent).

Saturday's race saw two wrecks on green-white-checkered attempts that each collected 15 cars, the second-highest total in a single accident. Of the past 125 races, only last July's race at Daytona had a larger wreck, a 19-car wreck late in the race.

The average track on the Cup schedule sees a multi-car collision every 154.6 laps, compared to one every 34.8 laps at Daytona. To put that into perspective, Las Vegas has averaged 534.0 laps per multi-car accident over the past three years.

Trivia break: Mark Martin became the eighth driver to win 50 poles. What track has he won the most at, with nine?

Trivia Break Answers

(1) Sterling Marlin and Jimmy Spencer both got their first wins at Daytona in 1994.
(2) Bobby Allison swept at Daytona in 1982.
(3) Martin has won nine poles at Bristol.

For us NASCAR statistical bloggers, of which I believe I'm the only one, there are certain nightmare situations.

Like having all your notes written, and then an engine failure or a late-race caution completely destroys your race recap. Or when your calculator overheats, since I don't keep an abacus at my desk anymore.

But, the ones that keep popping up are these darn restrictor-plate races.

Don't get me wrong, I love the wildness and the anyone-can-win style of racing. It's just that trying to break down these races and giving you, my adoring fans, some fine statistical preview is just a lot more difficult than the typical week.

But I've done my best, combing through the numbers, and while I might not know what's going to happen Saturday night at Daytona, there are a number of things that I think I know.

First of all, there's a pretty level playing field. At the Daytona 500, out of the 43-car starting field, 40 drivers ran the fastest lap on at least one circuit. At Talladega, 37 of the 43 drivers had at least one fastest lap run.

The only driver who ran both races but didn't run a fastest lap in either one was Joe Nemechek. So if Front Row Joe makes the field, don't expect great things out of him.

I do know one thing, in both of the prior restrictor-plate races this year, Clint Bowyer topped the field in average running position (just the driver's average position by lap) in both races. He finished 17th at Daytona and second at Talladega.

In fact, expect the whole Richard Childress Racing team to run up front and be in the mix. Jeff Burton was second in average running position at Talladega, and Paul Menard fourth in both prior restrictor-plate races. On top of that, Childress-powered Regan Smith was fifth-highest in both races, and he showed he was among the best pushers in February at Daytona.

Two more? Kurt Busch was third in that category in both races, and nobody ran more fastest laps in the two races combined than Kyle Busch. He had 18; nobody else had more than 14.

But, that's just what I think I know.

The Eliminator: Daytona

Most people just pick winners, some by hunches, some by stats, and some by just picking a name off the top of their head.

I don't pick winners, I pick losers. I'll make my race pick by telling you why all but one driver in the field just can't win.

Last week, my pick was Jeff Gordon, and he finished second. I'm just saying.

1) The last 14 and 25 of the last 26 Daytona winners who had raced there before had a previous top-5 finish there (17 drivers eliminated, 28 left).
2) The last three July Daytona winners had a previous win at Talladega (17 eliminated, 11 left).
3) Six of the last seven July Daytona winners finished eighth or better in that year's Daytona 500 (nine out, two left).
4) The last five Sprint Cup Series winners this season finished in the top 20 in each of the previous three races (one out, one left).

Your winner: Kyle Busch

Driving in to work Monday morning, I was listening to some NASCAR talk radio, and they made the thought-provoking point that road-course racing is the new Bristol.

They have a point. Bristol used to be about one-lane racing, and if you were in the preferred lane, you could be just seconds away from a quarter-panel ramming and a trip to the high side of the track, where driver after driver would go by you.

Except, now, at a place such as Infineon Raceway, the preferred line changes sides of the track on a turn-by-turn basis, and you don't get shoved to the high side as much as you find yourself forced into the grass or a gravel pit.

Hey, at least it's not quicksand. Although watching drivers try to get out of them at Road America does make me wonder.

And where does that leave us? With some old-school, Bristol-style fussin' and a-feudin'. What would you like? Brian Vickers versus Tony Stewart? Juan Pablo Montoya versus Brad Keselowski/Kasey Kahne? Robby Gordon versus Joey Logano? Jacques Villeneuve versus Max Papis/Brian Scott?

There's no wrong choice, but Kahne did have the best post-wreck interview, implying that Montoya was mad at himself for his inability to win on an oval.

But, for now, let's focus on the winner, since there was actually a race or two run through all the carnage.

A Decade Of Wins

Kurt Busch's win at Sonoma was his first of the season, marking the 10th straight season in which he's won at least one Cup race.

Busch is the 16th driver in Cup series history to win at least one race for 10 consecutive seasons. His streak is also tied for the second-longest active streak with Jimmie Johnson. The only longer active streak belongs to Tony Stewart at 12 straight.

He has a ways to go to reach the record, though. Like most records, this one belongs to Richard Petty, with 18 straight, while David Pearson is second at 17.

Trivia break: Which two drivers are tied with wins in 16 straight seasons?

Even Road?

With so many road-course ringers in the field and Cup regulars who excel at that style of racing, you might have been surprised to watch Kurt Busch win.

But it shouldn't have been a shocker, as Busch marked the fifth straight Sonoma winner to get his first career road-course win.

It just goes to show the skill level of the drivers who are out there each and every week, for our entertainment's sake.

Trivia break: Who is the last "road-course ringer" to win a Cup race?

Carl's Choice

In order to get his Cup car dialed in, Carl Edwards decided to skip Saturday's Nationwide Series race at Road America.

Hey, it worked, he rebounded to finish third at Sonoma. But, thinking of Edwards as a Cup driver, you don't realize the run he's had in the Nationwide Series.

The race snapped Edwards' streak of 210 straight Nationwide Series starts, the fourth-longest streak in series history. Check out that chart.

So, to summarize, Edwards has more than four times more career Cup starts than the three guys ahead of him combined.

Trivia break: Who now has the longest active Nationwide starts streak?

Trivia Break Answers

1) Rusty Wallace and Ricky Rudd both won in 16 straight seasons.
2) Mark Donohue won at Riverside in 1973.
3) Jason Leffler has made 202 straight Nationwide starts, fifth-longest all-time.

If there's been one prevailing theme to this season so far, it has to be the semisuccessful return of my weekly Eliminator pick.

Wait, no, that isn't it, but if that's what you've taken out of this season so far, then bless you.

No, what I'll remember, at least from the first 15 races, is the "out of nowhere" winners. I'm talking way beyond the unpredictable wins from Trevor Bayne, Regan Smith and Brad Keselowski.

No, it's a matter of drivers coming out of nowhere during the course of the race, the beneficiary of late-race shuffling due to accidents, pit stops, natural disasters or some sort of alien invasion.

It's a developing trend. In the first nine races of the season, the winner ranked among the top three in the race in overall green-flag speed. There were only two exceptions. The first was when Jimmie Johnson won at Talladega, a race where you can usually throw out the stats, since everyone's on a level playing field, more or less.

The other was Kevin Harvick's Martinsville win, when he was 13th in the field in overall speed. Harvick's victory was also the only race where the winner did not have a "top-10" car, meaning that the driver's average running position in the race was among the top 10 in that race.

But lately, the only criteria for a winner has just been an ability to stay on the lead lap. In half of the last six races, the winner has not been among the top 10 for a race in either green-flag speed or average running position. Take a look at that chart.

In five of the first nine races of the year, the winner had the top overall green-flag speed in the race. But it hasn't happened in any of the last six races.

Could we see the same late-race unpredictability at Sonoma? It sure does keep me glued to my TV.

The Eliminator -- Sonoma Edition

Most people just pick winners -- some by hunches, some by stats and some by just picking a name off the top of their head.

I don't pick winners, I pick losers. I'll make my race pick by telling you why all but one driver in the field just can't win.

And if you doubt the mighty Eliminator power, check out the U.S. Open Golf Eliminator I did early last week before the tournament. McIlroy!!!

1) Since 1987, every road course winner had a top-5 finish earlier that season. (18 drivers eliminated, 26 remaining).
2) There's only been one first-time race winner in 22 all time Sonoma races. (Five eliminated, 21 remaining).
3) Of the last 13 Sonoma winners, 12 who had previously raced at Watkins Glen finished in the top 14 in the last race there. (12 eliminated, nine remaining).
4) Of the last 18 Sonoma winners, 16 who had previously raced there had a top-15 finish in the last race (five eliminated, four remaining).
5) Each of the last four Sprint Cup Series race winners finished in the top 20 in each of the last three races (two eliminated, two remaining).
6) Of the last 12 Sonoma winners, 11 entered the race fifth or worse in the points. (one eliminated, one remaining).

Your winner: Jeff Gordon

Call it the Curse of Jimmie Johnson. Do it because I told you to!

Jeff Gordon finished second to Johnson in points in 2007. The next year, he went winless. Carl Edwards was second in 2008 and Mark Martin in 2009, and both failed to visit Victory Lane the next season.

Last year, Denny Hamlin was the man to finish runner-up to Johnson, and the way his 2011 started off, it looked like he'd fall right in line with Gordon, Edwards and Martin. With a blown engine in the fifth race of the season, Hamlin fell outside the top 20 in points.

But Hamlin's a driver who can get on a roll, and that's exactly what's happened over the past 10 races. Last year, he went winless for the first five races of the year. In fact, he didn't have a finish better than 17th in those races.

However, Hamlin pulled himself out of the hole on the strength of five wins over the next 10 races. Maybe he needs to tear another ACL; that really did the trick last season.

Me? I need two ACLs and maybe even a third to write this blog. So let's move on to some post-Michigan goodness.

Eight Was Enough

Hamlin led only the final eight laps at Michigan. It was the first time in his Cup career he's won a race leading 10 or fewer laps, but it's becoming a downright regular occurrence in the series.

It's already the sixth time this season we've had a race winner who has led fewer than 10 laps in the race. Last year, there were only four, same as in 2009.

Back in 2007 there were eight such races, but it's definitely a recent trend. In the entire decade of the 1990s, there were only 17 such races. In the 1980s, just 14.

Trivia break: Who has won the five other races this season leading fewer than 10 laps?

This One Goes to 11

Lost amidst all the excitement of Hamlin's win was just how important of a win this was for fans of the No. 11.

It was the 197th win for drivers in the 11 car, leaving the 11 just one win back of the 43 for the most in Cup series history by a car number.

What makes this even more impressive is that no other car number has even reached the 100-win mark. The next best is the 21 with 91 victories.

Trivia break: Who has the most wins in the No. 11 car?

Kings of the Cassill

Some quick hits before I run out of words.

• Landon Cassill: He earned a career-best 12th-place finish. He had never previously finished better than 24th in a race.

• Martin: He made his 809th career start, tying him with Darrell Waltrip for seventh all time.

• Edwards: His fifth-place finish gave him a 6.2 career average finish at Michigan. No one else with more than two starts at the track has an average finish better than 9.5

Trivia break: Who's second to Carl Edwards with that 9.5 average finish?

Trivia Break Answers

1) Kevin Harvick's won three. Trevor Bayne and Brad Keselowski have recorded one apiece.
2) Cale Yarborough won 55 races in the 11. Ned Jarrett had 49 and Darrell Waltrip had 43.
3) Edwards' teammate Matt Kenseth has an average finish of 9.5 at Michigan.

Let me start throwing some numbers at you, since that's sort of my thing.

How about 0-for-18 … well, I guess that's a couple of numbers. But that's Jimmie Johnson's career record at Michigan, with just a pair of top-5 finishes in that time.

Here's another: 524. That's Johnson's career laps led at Michigan; of course, none of those have come on the final lap. However, in 2009, he led each race. In the spring race, he ran out of fuel with two laps to go. In the fall race, he led with three to go and also ran out of gas.

The second-most laps led at Michigan by a driver without a win there is 318 by Terry Labonte, but Labonte has done something Johnson never has at Michigan -- finish second. The third-most laps led there without a win is Donnie Allison's 155.

Being without a top-two finish at a track is even more rare for Johnson. The only two tracks he's run a Cup race at without a top-two are Michigan and Watkins Glen.

Dating back to 2005, Johnson's performance at Michigan is indicative of somebody with a little better winning percentage. Nobody has run more fastest laps or has a better average running position than Johnson, and his 110.3 driver rating is only 0.2 behind the leader, Carl Edwards -- who's won twice at Michigan in that time.

But wait, I have more! Check out his speed ranks since 2005 at Michigan in that chart. Do it!

So, don't let that zero in the wins column fool you. Jimmie Johnson is a man to be reckoned with at Michigan.

The Eliminator: Michigan

Most people just pick winners, some by hunches, some by stats and some by picking a name off the top of their head.

I don't pick winners; I pick losers. I'll make my race pick by telling you why all but one driver in the field just can't win.

Oh, and by the way, this little number has picked two winners this year, and six of its past eight picks have finished seventh or better.

1. Since the first Michigan race, 81 of the 82 winners had a previous top-5 at Michigan (25 drivers eliminated, 22 remaining).
2. In 83 all-time Michigan races, there's been only one first-time winner (two eliminated, 20 remaining).
3. There have been 12 different winners in the past 12 spring Michigan races (11 eliminated, nine remaining).
4. The past 11 Michigan winners finished 19th or better in the previous Pocono races (five eliminated, four remaining).
5. Eight of the past nine Michigan winners finished in the top 12 in the previous Darlington race (two eliminated, two remaining).
6. Four of the past five Michigan winners had a top-10 in the previous Michigan races (one eliminated, one remaining).

Your winner: Martin Truex Jr.

In my sleep-deprived Sunday night state (never go to a late Saturday movie and then work a 12-hour day starting at 5 a.m.), I got to think about what I would've written about Jeff Gordon had I had this blog as a teenager back in the 1990s.

Back in that time, Jeff Gordon flat out owned the NASCAR world, putting up win totals never before seen in the modern era.

Although he didn't keep up the 10-wins-a-year pace, he still was a threat to win week in and week out for nearly a decade and a half. Suddenly, the magic was gone.

You can blame the hard wreck he had at Vegas, him having a family, or even the increased level of competition, but from 2008-10, Gordon had just a single win.

This year, Gordon has multiple wins for the first time in four seasons, and while he's not yet in the top 10 in points, his ability to get back in Victory Lane has nudged him back into the championship discussion.

But, before we look forward, let's take time to look back to Sunday.

Joining greatness

The win gave Gordon a mere 84 for his Cup series career, breaking a tie with Cale Yarborough for fifth, and moving into a tie for third with Bobby Allison and Darrell Waltrip.

Just don't ask Allison how many wins he has. Let's just say he can make a case for 85.

Sure, David Pearson may still be 21 wins away, which at this point could be an unattainable goal for Gordon, but he's making history with each victory.

Consider this, my literary friends: With the win, Gordon tied Bill Elliott for the most Pocono wins with five. It's the fourth track where Gordon has at least a share of the wins record, along with Sonoma, Indianapolis and Kansas.

Trivia break! Who is Gordon tied with for the most Kansas wins?

Pole climbing

Kurt Busch finished second, but winning the pole almost assured him of a great finish.

Of the past 11 pole-sitters at Pocono, 10 of them finished third or better in the race. The only exception was Tony Stewart, who finished a horrific 10th in 2009.

Second seemed to be the best a Penske driver could do from the pole. Sunday marked the 44th straight race in which a Penske driver won the pole, but not the race.

Trivia break! Who was the last Penske driver to win from the pole?

Triangle master

Denny Hamlin owns Pocono. Unfortunately, his ownership was overridden by his run of poor luck this season. He led a race-high 76 laps Sunday but finished 19th after tire and brake issues.

Hamlin now has led 574 laps in his 11-race Pocono career, already good for fifth in the track's history, passing Dale Jarrett and Jimmie Johnson on Sunday.

More impressively, Hamlin has led 52.2 laps per Pocono start, behind only David Pearson's 54.3. Third most? Jimmie Johnson with 27.3. Quite a gap.

Trivia break! Who holds the record for most career laps led at Pocono?

Trivia break answers

1. Gordon is tied with Greg Biffle and Tony Stewart.

2. Ryan Newman won from the pole at New Hampshire in 2002.

3. Jeff Gordon is the all-time leader with 957.