Kurt Busch dominates Pocono

Busch was fastest in two of the three practice sessions of the weekend, started from the front row and then jumped to the lead at the green flag, staying up front for three-quarters of the distance to take his first win of the season, his second at Pocono.

"Man! It tastes good to be back in Victory Lane at Pocono," said Busch after ending a 52-race winless streak. "The car was fabulous and I think anybody could have drove it today but it just came down to the crew starting to come together.

"Pat Tryson [Busch's crew chief], I can't thank him enough, we're going to name this car the Pat Tryson special. I felt like to get back to the throttle on turn three, right down along the straightaway in front of the grandstands, that was the key."

The 2004 Nextel Cup Champion has moved up one spot in the drivers' standing, pipping Dale Earnhardt Jr from twelfth place, the last position that makes the Chase for the championship, which is now only five weeks away from starting.

Earnhardt Jr, who had started from pole position, led the race briefly to the joy of his fans after overtaking Reed Sorenson - who was out of pit sequence - with 56 laps to go.

However, only eight laps later Busch passed him and disappeared in to the distance, comfortably pulling away again on the last restart with 16 laps remaining.

Earnhardt recovered from a spin early on and also from an unscheduled pit stop to change the left-front shock absorber. After that, he started to move up the field, eventually finishing second nearly four seconds behind Busch.

"When we started the race the car wasn't handling like it was in practice," Earnhardt Jr said. "We were kind of falling back and not gaining any track position.

"But the shock fixed it, Tony Jr and the guys came up with a master plan, we got ourselves back all the track position and gave ourselves a shot at the win, but Kurt obviously had the best car all day."

With Kurt Busch dominating in the way he did, the race was a pretty straightforward affair, with the real battle being for second place. Pocono master Denny Hamlin did not have a chance to fight for it, let alone victory, due to brake issues hampering his run.

"We just couldn't get in the corner the way we needed to," Hamlin said. "It just really affected our handling and I think the No. 2 car was by far the class of the field but we were a little bit off in the set-up and there's a few details that take to win today. We just didn't get them."

Points leader Jeff Gordon scored his 14th top-five of the season coming home fourth and putting pressure on Hamlin in the closing laps. His massive gap in the points remains almost intact and keeps him as the clear favorite to start the Chase up front.

"The No. 2 car was in a league of its own. I don't know what they got figured out," said Gordon. "It was a real good day for us and a top-five, we'll take that. We knew we were not going to win so we started making some adjustments trying to make it better and we actually got a little bit behind and had to go back on those changes."

Jimmie Johnson finished fifth and ended a streak of non-finishes, moving up two spots in the standings. Indianapolis winner Tony Stewart had another solid finish with sixth place behind the reigning Nextel Cup champion.

The race saw seven cautions come out with the only big crash of the day involving Reed Sorenson, who got tapped from behind by Carl Edwards. Also involved was Pepsi 400 winner Jamie McMurray who had already spun twice in the early part of the race.

Juan Pablo Montoya ran in the top ten for most of the first half of the race until falling back on the penultimate pit stop when many drivers took on two tyres and fuel, while he changed all four. He finished 16th and stays in 18th place in the standings.

"It was okay," Montoya said. "The car was okay. We're struggling, needing a little bit of horsepower. That's where we are, we just need to make it better over the next few races."

The Colombian will have a chance to move up in the points and grab a second Nextel Cup win next weekend at Watkins Glen, the final road course event of the year and yet another one with the Car of Tomorrow.

Pos  Driver              Make        Laps
 1.  Kurt Busch          Dodge        200
 2.  Dale Earnhardt Jr   Chevrolet    200
 3.  Denny Hamlin        Chevrolet    200
 4.  Jeff Gordon         Chevrolet    200
 5.  Jimmie Johnson      Chevrolet    200
 6.  Tony Stewart        Chevrolet    200
 7.  Ryan Newman         Dodge        200
 8.  Clint Bowyer        Chevrolet    200
 9.  Mark Martin         Chevrolet    200
10.  Casey Mears         Chevrolet    200
11.  Jeff Burton         Chevrolet    200
12.  Kyle Busch          Chevrolet    200
13.  Ricky Rudd          Ford         200
14.  Matt Kenseth        Ford         200
15.  Tony Raines         Chevrolet    199
16.  Juan Montoya        Dodge        199
17.  Kevin Harvick       Chevrolet    199
18.  Bill Elliott        Ford         199
19.  Jeff Green          Chevrolet    199
20.  Dave Blaney         Toyota       199
21.  Carl Edwards        Ford         199
22.  Greg Biffle         Ford         199
23.  Martin Truex Jr     Chevrolet    199
24.  Scott Riggs         Dodge        199
25.  David Stremme       Dodge        199
26.  Paul Menard         Chevrolet    199
27.  Kasey Kahne         Dodge        199
28.  Reed Sorenson       Dodge        199
29.  Brian Vickers       Toyota       199
30.  Bobby Labonte       Dodge        198
31.  Jeremy Mayfield     Toyota       198
32.  Elliott Sadler      Dodge        198
33.  David Ragan         Ford         197
34.  Kyle Petty          Dodge        197
35.  J.J. Yeley          Chevrolet    197
36.  Johnny Sauter       Chevrolet    197
37.  P.J. Jones          Ford         197
38.  Michael Waltrip     Toyota       194
39.  David Gilliland     Ford         191
40.  Jamie McMurray      Ford         177
41.  David Reutimann     Toyota       159
42.  Dale Jarrett        Toyota       151
43.  Ward Burton         Chevrolet    109