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Was the lightning strike at Pocono that claimed Brian Zimmerman’s life and sent nine others to area hospitals a fluke? From personal experience, I don’t think so.

It was 2005. My much adored and abused travel trailer was parked inside the exit of Turn 3 at Pocono. And the clouds were building behind the empty grandstand. The black, purple-green kind that taught me I should hide under the stairs when I was a child. I looked around as the wind started to pick up and the scent of rain blew across the track. We scurried around our camping spot throwing as much stuff inside as possible, taking up the awning and then it hit.

Johnson’s Bobble Brings Gordon Unlikely Pocono Victory Jimmie Johnson, for much of the day at Pocono looked primed for a second straight victory. Jeff Gordon? …

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When one thinks of a juggernaut in any form of sport, be it Alabama in college football, Michigan State in college basketball, or Hendrick Motorsports in NASCAR racing, the last thoughts to cross one’s mind are often about failures and mistakes. That begs a question: when a race team suffers through failures, makes countless mistakes, and still emerges as the one entity to make a cohesive statement at the Pocono Raceway this weekend, how should they be described?

Hendrick Motorsports was already the headliner entering this weekend, with fan-favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. enjoying his first points lead in nearly a decade. In addition, the team was on-message.

As I write this introductory sentence, AJ Allmendinger is less than 24 hours removed from the conclusion to his career with Penske Racing. So let’s not waste any time getting to what all of you, including *James Stenton* from _Manassas, VA_ are asking this Thursday:

*So what does AJ do now? Who’s going to sign him for 2013, if anyone? And will we ever know what he tested positive for?*

James, it’s a little early to place AJ with somebody else. But what I can tell you is on the NASCAR side, based on the Road To Recovery program’s timeline the earliest we’ll see him eligible for competition is February’s 2013 Daytona 500. In between will be a rough summer and fall, filled with the sport’s step-by-step rehabilitation and personal transition as the driver also goes through a divorce.

It was a Hendrick Motorsports kind of day last weekend in Indianapolis. Jimmie Johnson stole the show to win his fourth Brickyard 400, putting him in elite company at America’s most famous speedway. Meanwhile, looking at the “big picture” teammate Dale Earnhardt, Jr. took the series point lead for the first time since the Fall of 2004. Is the apocalypse, supposedly predicted by the Mayans this year finally upon us? Or are Steve Letarte and Earnhardt just really, really good together — better than anyone could have ever imagined once they were joined at the hip by Rick Hendrick?

James Hurd puts his hands on almost every impact gun used on pit road during NASCAR National Touring races. Whether it’s Cup, Nationwide or Truck, almost every tire changer on pit lane uses an Ingersoll-Rand Thunder Gun. The familiar high-pitched whine that fans hear during pit stops, while the lug nuts are flying off and being driven on the five studs on each corner of the car comes from the yellow and black impact gun that has been produced by IR since the ’60s. Hurd travels the circuit and tunes up the Thunder Guns for everyone, assuring their effectiveness on race day. While it varies from every week to three or four times a season, each and every time that a tire changer wants to have his gun looked over or rebuilt Hurd brings it to the IR hauler and he disassembles, inspects and tunes up each gun.

I think they’ll get more than 40,000 at IMS, but with more than 200,000 seats they’re going to look like 5,000. I just think some loyalty was owed to NHRA and IRP for proving, from 1982 on, that NASCAR would sell in Indianapolis. So many people said it wouldn’t.