NASCAR Invades The Poconos

NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series comes closer to our area this weekend with the running of the Pocono 400 at the track known as the tricky triangle in Pennsylvania.

In qualifying on Friday, Virginia native Denny Hamlin won the pole starting position. Hamlin edged Kurt Busch for the number one spot by .007 mph. Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick, Jeff Gordon and Kyle Busch all qualified at over 180 mph and will be starting in positions three through six. Here is the complete starting lineup for Sunday's race. Harvick was fastest in this morning's first practice session and the Happy Hour final practice but experienced an oil leak which was repaired.

In local racing last night, Brett Hearn continued his domination of the Albany-Saratoga Speedway picking up his fifth modified feature win in a row this season. Marc Johnson, Keith Flach, Brett Wright and Jeremy Wilder completed the top five. Other winners included Rocky Warner in the Mark K. Hughes memorial Sportsman feature and Rob Yetman in the pro stock feature.

Some other local drivers are also traveling to do their racing this week. Ed Pompa from Ballston Spa is at Pocono Raceway for today's ARCA 200 event. Kyle Larson starts on the pole. Also, last year's Sportsman champion at Lebanon Valley Speedway, Tyler Dippel from Walkill is headed to South Boston Speedway in Virginia for tonight's PASS Super Late Model Series event.