Halfway Next Time By: Race To The Chase, Week 5
Sunday’s Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500 is the fifth event in the 10-event “Race to the Chase” which leads into NASCAR’s “playoffs,” the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

The top 12 drivers in the series standings will qualify for the Chase. Coming into Pocono, the “bubble” spot is occupied by 12th-place Matt Kenseth, the 2003 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion who now is 68 points ahead of 13th-place David Reutimann.

Points Leader Tony Stewart Going For Pocono Season Sweep
Tony Stewart, the leader of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings and winner of the Pocono 500 last month, is chasing a season sweep at the 2.5-mile triangular track. There have been six season sweeps at Pocono: Bobby Allison in 1982, Bill Elliott in ’85, Tim Richmond in ’86, Bobby Labonte in ’99, Jimmie Johnson in 2004 and Denny Hamlin in ’06.

Stewart’s victory last month was his first in a points race as a driver-owner and the first for a driver-owner in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series since Ricky Rudd in 1998.

Stewart has a 192-point lead in the standings over second-place Jimmie Johnson, the series’ three-time defending champion.