by Darrell Waltrip

Updated: June 10, 2008, 7:28 PM EST 52 comments

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I think TNT did a nice job of covering the Pocono race. That race isn't the easiest to do or the most exciting on the schedule. Having worked with Kyle Petty during Tony Stewart's Prelude to the Dream the last couple years, Kyle certainly does a nice job of adding his expertise. Wally is in the mix and Larry McReynolds is part of that too. We all know what Larry can do when it comes to strategy and those types of things. There isn't anyone better to figure that all out than Larry. So they have a nice balance there.

I am anxious to see the race from Michigan this weekend, which will be Father's Day. Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's out there. It will be nice for me to spend my Father's Day at home for once with my girls. For so many years I was at Michigan, so it's good to have a weekend home with the girls.

The name of this week's column is Kahne's crabby car is King and the reason I say that is what I believe has turned the No. 9 car around was that everyone finally wised up to what Carl Edward's team was doing to the No. 99 car earlier in the year. The car was kind of running out of line with the right rear kicked out. Other teams were seeing that but maybe didn't know how they were doing it or how to do it themselves.

Once most teams figured out how to do it — which just coincided with the Charlotte test — they had time to experiment during the test and I think that's where the No. 9 car really came to life. It might be a Dodge team thing because the Penske cars and the Gillett Evernham cars seemed to be running cock-eyed down the straight-away. Following Charlotte, it then forced NASCAR to come up with a rule to limit how much you can do with it.

I noticed Sunday at Pocono Raceway that Kasey's car seemed to be maxed out as far as it could be. It definitely had a pretty good angle to it as it was going down those Long Pond straightaways. So I believe that's what helped turn that team on. It's helped a lot of teams. It's funny how this car continues to evolve and these teams continue to find things. Like I said earlier, Carl crapped his car all out, then Kyle Busch got hot for awhile and now here comes Kasey and the No. 9 team.

I think we will see that all season long. The Hendrick camp has to get going. Tony Stewart hasn't hit his stride yet. So I think this will continue all the way until everyone has gotten everything out of the car they can. But that's what we have said about this car all along. There isn't a notebook. No notes or prior experience. So every time they go to the track they try some new experiment, new geometry, whatever it might be to hopefully gain an edge.

And if you can go down those long straight-aways at Pocono, then you can go down those long straight-aways at Indianapolis which is coming up pretty soon. So this "Monkey See, Monkey Do" will continue. Folks see one team doing something, so they will go home and try to do it themselves. I think that will let us see different guys dominate at different times throughout the season.

Oh, by the way

I don't know what kind of owner Tony Stewart is going to make, but I believe he'll be a good one. If you happened to see the Prelude to the Dream, the man knows how to put a race on, I can tell you that. He knows how to run a dirt track and that takes organization, that takes people and it takes a pretty smart guy to do what he's done.

It's been the most exciting race I have been to for the last couple of years so congratulations to him. Again, if how he runs that racetrack is any indication of how he will run his race team, then I think he will be very successful.

So thanks to Tony for doing what he does at Eldora because the money goes to great causes like the Victory Junction Gang camp and my favorite charity, Motor Racing Outreach. Thanks to you fans that came to the race and you fans the bought the pay per view package, you are making a positive difference in people's lives.

Oh, by the way too

Kyle Busch didn't have a very good weekend. Started off great at Texas, but wasn't too good at Nashville and was disastrous at Pocono. Some folks may say that all he did last weekend didn't have an affect on what happened on Sunday, but I might disagree with that. If you look at the finishes of his three races, they got progressively worse.

So if I were the Gibbs bunch, I might consider sitting down with Kyle and discussing not doing that kind of weekend again. It's not the actual racing as it is all the logistics. All that running around, flights here, flights there, it just wears you down, whether you are 23 years old or not. It's just hard to stay pumped up for three races like that in the same weekend.

If he is going to win the Sprint Cup championship, he really needs to put all his eggs in one basket. Focus on that and run the companion events at the same tracks when you can. It would be a wise decision to let someone else drive his stuff when he can't be there. That would be a wise decision on his and Gibbs' part.