At first, it looked like Kurt Busch's wild ride would be the worst crash of the day at Pocono, but then — so almost out of nowhere that ESPN barely caught it on camera — Elliott Sadler went and upstaged him.

Man, that just hurts watching it. Thankfully, Sadler was OK and just had the wind knocked out of him. Extra credit goes to the HANS Device and the CoT. Just look at where the left-front wheel ended up!

For the second straight race, Pocono's safety was tested along the Long Pond straightaway. After Kasey Kahne almost went flying out of the track in the June race, clipping the bushes outside the track in the process, many called for the installment of a catchfence in the area. (And oddly enough, the common denominator in both incidents is Kahne and Sadler's RPM teammate AJ Allmendinger. Allmendinger got into the back of Kahne in June, and was the one that clipped Sadler on Sunday.)

Pennsylvania 500 winner Greg Biffle was one of those most critical of the track, saying "they're going

With his win at Pocono Saturday in the Camping World Truck Series, Elliott Sadler became the 21st driver to record wins in the Truck, Nationwide and Sprint Cup Series.

Sadler had the best truck all day, but was challenged late by fellow Cup drivers Kasey Kahne (hint: he's one of them) and Denny Hamlin, but held off Kahne on a second green-white-checker restart.

It was Sadler's first victory since 2004 in any NASCAR Series and could be a nice boost given that Sadler is a likely free agent at the end of the season.

And to answer the question posed in the headline, besides Sadler and Kahne, the other drivers to win a race in all three series are Johnny Benson, Greg Biffle, Clint Bowyer, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Ricky Craven, Carl Edwards, Bobby Hamilton, Kevin Harvick, Bobby Labonte, Terry Labonte, Jamie McMurray, Mark Martin, Ryan Newman, Steve Park, David Reutimann, Ken Schrader, Jimmy Spencer and Tony Stewart.

Pocono could go a long way in deciding who's going to be a group winner as seven of our eight groups in The Marbles' NASCAR World Cup feature matchups between the top two cars.

The best of the six should be Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart in Group B. Busch won the pole for the June race and finished second while Stewart finished third in June and has the pole for Sunday's race.

Robby Gordon will not be at the track this week -- as he's testing for Watkins Glen -- so whatever PJ Jones does in Gordon's car will count towards Gordon's statistics.

Group A: Kurt Busch (1-0) v. Brad Keselowski (1-0), Mark Martin (0-1) v. Juan Pablo Montoya (0-1)

Group B: Kyle Busch (1-0) v. Tony Stewart (1-0), Joey Logano (0-1) v. Sam Hornish Jr. (0-1)

Group C: AJ Allmendinger (1-0) v. Jimmie Johnson (1-0), Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (0-1) v. Robby Gordon (0-1)

Group D: Jeff Burton (1-0) v. Ryan Newman (1-0), Martin Truex Jr. (0-1) v. Bobby Labonte (0-1)

Group E: Matt Kenseth (1-0) v. Regan Smith (0-1), Carl Edwards

The Camping World Truck Series is racing for the first time at Pocono this weekend and Saturday morning's qualifying session took about an hour despite Elliott Sadler's pole lap being just over 55 seconds.

In what was called by many as a "modified European" format, the slowest truck from Friday's practice went out first while the fastest truck, Sadler, went out last. The trucks went out in 25 second intervals, so at any given point there were three or four trucks out on the track at the same time. (Drafting wasn't allowed, and if Truck Series officials deemed that drafting took place, the times of the offending trucks would be disallowed.)

Plus, with Sadler going out last, it added some drama to the end of the qualifying session. Most qualifying sessions in NASCAR are anti-climactic when it comes to the pole award at the end of the session because the cars who aren't locked in qualify last.

Qualifying at Pocono and larger tracks can be tedious, and while Pocono's busy schedule had a

During his media session on Friday, Denny Hamlin gave some reasons for why he thinks he got secretly fined by NASCAR. Hamlin said that it wasn't the comments at Michigan, but surmised that it was what he said on his Twitter account.

"I don't really know what it was … more than likely, it was the Twitter comments that kind of got me in trouble with them. I guess, Chicago weekend, talking about some of the Nationwide stuff, but most of those conversations were all direct messages to one person. It wasn't really sent out to all the followers. So I understand it, but whether you agree with it or not, we've all got to work together and make the sport better."

Hamlin said that he didn't understand why the fine was secret, but wouldn't say how much the fine was.

"That, I don't know. Without getting into word-for-word, what I asked was, 'What was the point of fining me if you're not going to tell anyone?' And they said, 'Well, hopefully it'll keep anyone from badmouthing us.' Well, no one

When the martians arrive — or maybe they already have? — they'll have a new target to land at from outer space.

Pocono Raceway is building a 25-acre solar panel just outside the short chute between turns two and three that will be visible from space. It will contain 40,000 photovoltaic modules to catch energy from the sun and will be the track's primary electric-energy source as well as provide additional energy to the local power grid around the track.

“This is an important milestone for Pocono Raceway and our sport,” Brandon Igdalsky, President of Pocono Raceway, said in a release. “Pocono Raceway strongly believes in the NASCAR industry’s commitment to operate in a more environmentally responsible way and is proud to be the first race track to power our sport with clean, renewable sunlight as the world’s largest solar-powered sports facility. This solar power system, built with timber, steel and solar panels made in the U.S., satisfies all our Raceway’s energy needs, while helping

You may feel a bit like Chicken Little given what we've talked about in the NASCAR world over the last week, and while you also may feel that everything is right in NASCAR, I think we all can agree that we're reaching a critical point in NASCAR's history. What happens over the course of the next few months could shape the sport's future, for better or for worse.

Brant James wrote about NASCAR's slumping attendance and television ratings (By the way, kudos to ESPN for mentioning the vast swaths of empty aluminum bleachers on Sunday at Indianapolis) and it seems that NASCAR and team owners also realize that we're at a very important juncture.

There was a town-hall style meeting at Hendrick Motorsports on Tuesday, where the owners talked about various measures to cut costs and improve the racing industry. (Speaking of NASCAR owners, according to a release, Jack Roush is still in serious but stable condition and was transferred to Mayo Clinic for recovery from surgery for the facial

According to David Newton at ESPN.com, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman are the two drivers NASCAR secretly fined.

It was reported earlier this week by The Associated Press that two star Cup drivers were fined, one as much as $50,000, for critical comments about the sport. NASCAR officials declined to name the drivers, but defended their right to maintain some sense of control for the sake of the brand.

"It is the sanctioning body's obligation on behalf of the industry and our fans to protect the sport's brand," spokesman Ramsey Poston said in a statement. "Any action taken by NASCAR has nothing to do with the drivers expressing an opinion -- it's focused on actions or comments that materially damage the sport.

We don't know for certain which comments got the drivers penalized, but Newman's most egregious quote was after he crashed for the third race in a row at Talladega.

"It is a lottery, racing for a championship shouldn't be a lottery," Newman said. "Harvick deserves a lot of credit