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Tag: FireKeepers Casino 400

  • Blown Engine Ends Rowdy’s Day

    Blown Engine Ends Rowdy’s Day

    After being beaten in the XFINITY Series race the day before on the final lap, Kyle Busch’s run of poor finishes continued today in the Irish Hills as his engine let go and caught fire early in the race.

    Even after coming down pit road under the first caution of the race, the driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota continued to report that temperatures were still climbing and that the engine was about to blow.

    “At least I had a 30 lap warning that it was coming,” Busch said. “It had been shaking pretty bad and going south for a while and it had been building its own heat.”

    Coming down the backstretch on lap 54, the engine blew up and the underside of his car caught fire. He took the car behind the wall and retired from the race.

    “Just been feeling the motor kind of going south for about 30 laps or so and finally let go,” he said. “At least there was plenty of warning and I knew it was going to get hot in there and it certainly did once it let go and it was on fire. It’s just been a dismal month, just haven’t been able to hit anything and get good finishes going.

    “Our car has been really fast and Adam (Stevens, crew chief) and the guys have been doing a great job getting us good stuff to the race track, but it just wasn’t our day today. Again, this is six in a row here. We started out the season good and strong and had some top-fives and such so it was a good foundation for us to build off of and fortunately we have all that and this is just a continuation of hurting us in the points, but points don’t matter. We’d like to be able to get out luck turned around and get back to finishing races where we know we can.”

    Since scoring his third victory of the season at Kansas Speedway, Busch has had finishes of 30th, 33rd, 31st and 40th.

    “There’s nothing you can do to change it around, you’re not going to go to the luck store and buy any,” he said of his string of bad finishes. “We had a lot of good fortune go our way at the beginning part of the season I guess. We still had blown tires that hurt us, but we’re either top-four or we’re bottom four. There is no absolute in between for us.”

    Busch also finished last in this race one year ago. This makes him the first driver to do so since Mike Bliss at New Hampshire in 2013 and 2014.

    He leaves Michigan ninth in points as NASCAR heads to Sonoma Raceway, the track that was the catalyst to his championship run last season.

  • Earnhardt Jr. Taken out in Early Wreck

    Earnhardt Jr. Taken out in Early Wreck

    Dale Earnhardt Jr. didn’t have the best of days in the Irish Hills after a wreck in the early stages of today’s race.

    Rounding Turn 2, the driver of the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet threaded the needle of AJ Allmendinger and Chris Buescher. Buescher got loose and clipped the left-rear corner of Earnhardt. This got Earnhardt loose and sent him up into the left-front of Allmendinger. Both ended up in the wall. Earnhardt continued to hit the wall down the backstretch before his car spun out down across the track onto the runoff area.

    “Yeah, it wasn’t too bad, actually,” Earnhardt said in response to being told his wreck looked hard. “I knew I was going to hit the wall. The No. 34 just drove into the left front quarter panel. Oh, man. I don’t know; them restarts and all that. You’ve got a responsibility to try and take care of everybody out there even when you’re three-wide. I’m disappointed in that. But, we had a pretty good car and we were just kind of taking our time, there. And the car was great. So, it’s a shame.

    Earnhardt added that he wished Buescher “would have taken better care of us.”

    “He just lost the car and hit the quarter panel,” he said. “It happens, though. I’m angry, but I won’t be too upset about it later. It’s frustrating right now because we had a good car and I was happy with the way the car drove. We had good speed, we just needed to continue to work on getting our track position and we were doing that. We won’t get a chance to get the finish I think we could have got today.”

    When asked about the wreck from his point of view, Allmendinger said he wasn’t “really sure. I think Junior got hit and I was on the outside of him and that was it. It was kind of weird back there. I’m not really sure what kind of car we had. I thought in clean air we weren’t too bad, but I guess a lot of people could say that. Just not a lot of fun racing there.”

    The damage done to both cars was significant and neither continued on in the race. Allmendinger finished 38th and Earnhardt finished 39th.

  • Chase Ellliott: ‘You can’t do dumb stuff and win these races’

    Chase Ellliott: ‘You can’t do dumb stuff and win these races’

    Despite earning his career-best finish today in the Irish Hills, Chase Elliott was unsurprisingly dejected at coming up short once again.

    After leading the most laps in Long Pond, Pennsylvania wasn’t enough to score the victory, the driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet came up short once again after leading 35 of the 200 laps and finished second in the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

    As his track record indicated, he wasn’t too happy about coming up short again and put the blame on his restarts.

    “I just did something dumb. You can’t do dumb stuff and win these races. Completely my fault. The guys gave me a great car today. This whole NAPA group has been working so hard these past few weeks and that one was on me. Like I said, you can’t do dumb stuff and win these things and I did today.”

    His runner-up finish comes just six days after he led 51 of 160 laps in the Axalta “We Paint Winners” 400 at Pocono Raceway where he came home fourth.

    Despite coming up short twice in the last six days, Elliott is having a rookie season not seen in many years. As of today’s race, he’s amassed two poles, six top fives, 11 top 10s, led 118 laps, finished on the lead lap in 12 races, was running at the finish in all but one race – Daytona 500 – and currently sits sixth in points.

    In comparison, Jimmie Johnson after 15 races had three poles, two wins, four top fives, 10 top 10s, led 552 laps, finished on the lead lap in 11 races, was running at the finish in all but one race and was second in points.

    So while Elliott hasn’t won and has one less pole than Johnson, although both took the pole for the Daytona 500, his average finish of 11.3 is equal to Johnson’s 11.3 after 15 races and Elliott has finished in the top-five and top-10 more often than Johnson after 15 races.

    One common denominator to the success of both rookie season’s was Jeff Gordon. A number of the cars Johnson used in 2002 were cars Gordon used in his championship 2001 season. In Elliott’s case, he inherited the crew and team that helped Gordon to a third-place points finish in his final season last year.

    He leaves Michigan still the favorite to win rookie of the year honors. While Ryan Blaney has been running at the finish the same amount as Elliott, he’s had only one top five, six top 10s, finished on the lead lap in 10 races and has yet to lead a single lap.

    When the Sprint Cup Series heads to Sonoma in two weeks, Elliott will be a sentimental favorite racing for a team that’s made Sonoma a playground.

  • Joey Logano Returns to Victory Lane at Michigan

    Joey Logano Returns to Victory Lane at Michigan

    After seven months of going without a win, Joey Logano returned to the victory circle with a dominant performance in the backyard of the American automotive industry.

    The driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford led 139 of the 200 laps on his way to winning the FireKeepers Casino 400.

    “What a great race car,” Logano said. “To win here in Roger’s backyard and Ford’s back yard, this is always a big win for us here. We appreciate the great car. What a crazy race with the low downforce and with more cautions and more opportunity to screw up pretty much. What a fun race, racing with Chase (Elliott) and Kyle Larson. It is fun to see the young guys up there racing. I am not alone up there as a young guy anymore. I have guys up there younger than me racing for a win.”

    It’s his 15th career victory in 271 starts in the Sprint Cup Series, second victory and 10th top 10 in 16 starts at Michigan International Speedway and his first victory and ninth top 10 of the 2016 season.

    Logano’s win is the 100th for Roush-Yates Engines in the Sprint Cup Series.

    Chase Elliott led 35 laps on his way to a runner-up finish in his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

    “I just did something dumb,” Elliott said talking about his final restart. “You can’t do dumb stuff and win these races. Completely my fault. The guys gave me a great car today. This whole NAPA group has been working so hard these past few weeks and that one was on me. Like I said, you can’t do dumb stuff to win these things and I did today.”

    It’s his 11th top-10 finish of the season and his first in two starts at Michigan.

    Kyle Larson led one lap as he rounded out the podium in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet. Asked what he could’ve done differently, he said he wasn’t “sure there was anything I could have done there. It was pretty tight to fire off for two or three laps; sometimes for a full run. My restarts were pretty good. You’ve got to have a good guy behind you if you get a good push. I just had good restarts and kept some track position, it seemed like. It might have been hard to pass. So, just staying out front the whole time was a big key. The Target Chevy was really fast. I think we had a third or fourth-place car. So, thanks to all these guys for working hard at the shop on not having much time to figure out this aero package and bring a nice piece here. I wish we could have gotten a win. But, we’ll keep fighting and hopefully we can run up front more often.”

    “So, just staying out front the whole time was a big key. The Target Chevy was really fast. I think we had a third or fourth-place car. So, thanks to all these guys for working hard at the shop on not having much time to figure out this aero package and bring a nice piece here. I wish we could have gotten a win. But, we’ll keep fighting and hopefully we can run up front more often.”

    It’s his second top 10 finish in six starts at Michigan. His car, however, failed post-race inspection. Any penalties from this will be announced on Wednesday.

    Brad Keselowski, who ran out of gas in the first quarter of the race while leading, led 10 laps on his way to a fourth-place finish in his No. 2 Penske Ford.

    “I am not sure the new package was everything we wanted it to be but it is a step in the right direction as far as putting the drivers in control of the racing but not in reducing the aero stuff we wanted,” Keselowski said. “I guess we have to think about it a little.”

    Kevin Harvick rounded out the top-five in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet.

    Carl Edwards finished sixth in his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

    “Man, I was hoping for a caution there at the end and we got it,” Edwards said. “Then I had a pretty ugly restart. It’s tough out there today and the restarts were really tough. Once the cars got strung out a little bit, we were a little bit free in spots, but overall the guys did a great job. We rallied back from terrible track position and I was really nervous in the middle of the race. I didn’t think we were going to be able to finish in the top-15 so sixth place is a good day.”

    Tony Stewart finished seventh in his No. 14 SHR Chevrolet followed by Austin Dillon who finished eighth in his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Jamie McMurray finished ninth in his No. 1 CGR Chevrolet and Kurt Busch rounded out the top 10 in his No. 41 SHR Chevrolet.

    Ryan Newman, who led one lap, finished 11th. Martin Truex Jr., who led 10 laps and spun out early in the race bringing out the first caution, finished 12th. Jimmie Johnson led four laps and finished 16th. Paul Menard, who led one lap, finished 18th.

    Denny Hamlin wrecked out of the race with 12 laps remaining and finished 33rd. Matt DiBenedetto exited the race with 15 laps to go and was scored 34th as a DNF. Brian Scott wrecked out of the race with less than 50 laps remaining and finished 36th. Jeffrey Earnhardt wrecked out of the race just past halfway and finished 37th. AJ Allmendinger and Dale Earnhardt Jr. wrecked out of the race on lap 61 and finished 38th and 39th. Kyle Busch had an engine let go on lap 51 and finished 40th.

    Twenty-eight cars finished on the lead lap while 33 finished the race.

    The race lasted two hours, 58 minutes and 47 seconds at an average speed of 134.241 mph. There were 14 lead changes among eight different drivers and nine cautions for 46 laps.

    Harvick leaves Michigan with a 30-point lead over Kurt Busch.

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  • Austin Dillon fastest in final practice

    Austin Dillon fastest in final practice

    Austin Dillon topped the chart in final Sprint Cup Series practice at Michigan International Speedway.

    The driver of the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 37.056 and a speed of 194.301 mph. Brad Keselowski was second in his No. 2 Team Penske Ford with a time of 37.111 and a speed of 194.013 mph. Jimmie Johnson was third in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with a time of 37.142 and a speed of 193.851 mph. Trevor Bayne was fourth in his No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford with a time of 37.156 and a speed of 193.778 mph. Kurt Busch rounded out the top-five in his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet with a time of 37.163 and a speed of 193.741 mph.

    Dale Earnhardt Jr. was sixth in his No. 88 HMS Chevrolet. Martin Truex Jr. was seventh in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota. Kyle Larson was eighth in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet. Joey Logano was ninth in his No. 22 Penske Ford. AJ Allmendinger rounded out the top-10 in his No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet.

    Truex posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 191.991 mph. Keselowski was second at an average speed of 191.968 mph. Ryan Blaney, whose fastest single lap was 14th fastest, was third at an average speed of 191.746 mph.

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  • Edwards Fastest at Michigan in Second Practice

    Edwards Fastest at Michigan in Second Practice

    Carl Edwards topped the chart in second Sprint Cup Series practice at Michigan International Speedway.

    The driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was the fastest in the second practice session with a time of 36.406 and a speed of 197.770 mph. Kyle Busch was second in his No. 18 JGR Toyota with a time of 36.412 and a speed of 197.737 mph. Joey Logano was third in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford with a time of 36.466 and a speed of 197.444 mph. Ryan Blaney was fourth in his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford with a time of 36.473 and a speed of 197.406 mph. Brad Keselowski rounded out the top-five in his No. 2 Penske Ford with a time of 36.475 and a speed of 197.395 mph.

    Martin Truex Jr. was sixth in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota. Kyle Larson was seventh in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet. Jimmie Johnson was eighth in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was ninth in his No. 88 HMS Chevrolet. Ryan Newman rounded out the top-10 in his No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

    Johnson posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 195.394 mph. Kevin Harvick, whose fastest single lap was 13th fastest overall, was second at an average speed of 195.256 mph.

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  • Elliott Fastest in First Practice at Michigan

    Elliott Fastest in First Practice at Michigan

    Chase Elliott posted the fastest time in first Sprint Cup Series practice at Michigan International Speedway.

    The driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 35.709 and a speed of 201.630 mph. Martin Truex Jr. was second in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota with a time of 35.765 and a speed of 201.314 mph. Carl Edwards was third in his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with a time of 35.782 and a speed of 201.218 mph. Dale Earnhardt Jr. was fourth in his No. 88 HMS Chevrolet with a time of 35.783 and a speed of 201.213 mph. Kevin Harvick rounded out the top-five in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing with a time of 35.838 and a speed of 200.904 mph.

    Denny Hamlin was sixth in his No. 11 JGR Toyota. Austin Dillon was seventh in his No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Brad Keselowski was eighth in his No. 2 Team Penske Ford. Jimmie Johnson was ninth in his No. 48 HMS Chevrolet. Kurt Busch rounded out the top-10 in his No. 41 SHR Chevrolet.

    Kyle Busch, whose fastest single lap time was 13th fastest, posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 194.145 mph. Ty Dillon, whose fastest single lap time was 33rd fastest, was second at an average speed of 190.122 mph.

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  • Joey Logano Scores the Pole at Michigan

    Joey Logano Scores the Pole at Michigan

    Joey Logano will lead the field to the green flag on Sunday in the Irish Hills of Michigan.

    The driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford scored the pole for the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway after posting a time of 36.080 and a speed of 199.557 mph.

    “It feels good,” Logano said. “Finally, we were able to break through. The last two weeks have stunk for me and my team. We have won the first two rounds the last few weeks and qualified second. Now we figured out how to be second in the first round and first in the last two. That is a good move. I couldn’t be more proud of the team and the effort they put into this new package. This is such an unknown showing up here so it is cool to show what all the engineers and simulation department were able to do to put together a good package off the truck. I am very happy to be driving this car.”

    It’s his 16th career pole in 270 Sprint Cup Series starts, second in 15 at Michigan, second of the 2016 season and 11th top-10 start in 2016.

    Martin Truex Jr. will start second in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota after posting a time of 36.178 and a speed of 199.016 mph.

    “It was definitely an exciting run that third round – we freed the car up quite a bit and it was pretty ‘slideways’ going into turn three so it was a lot of fun out there,” Truex said. “Sunday is going to be a blast – get the tape off and get the race setups in the race cars and get that sun on the track all day. It’s going to get slick and it’s going to be a lot of fun so looking forward to that. All in all, it was a good day for us. We had to work hard on it today and had trouble getting through tech. Our first run was pretty bad, our second run was better and our third run was pretty good so really proud of the guys on the Denver Mattress Furniture Row Toyota. We came out with a good result so it was good. We just keep digging and never give up – front row starting spot is pretty decent.”

    He was late getting to the grid in the first round after his car didn’t pass tech inspection the first time through.

    “I think the biggest thing was just the track conditions changing so much,” Truex said of getting his car through tech. “It got so much hotter, the pace slowed down quite a bit and anytime that happens it changes these cars considerably. That was the biggest factor. I was fine, I figured I knew we would get through eventually and we would get a lap in when it was ready. Just calm, cool, collected and wait my turn.”

    It will be his ninth top-10 start in 2016 and sixth in 21 races at Michigan.

    Tony Stewart will start third in his No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet after posting a time of 36.190 and a speed of 198.950 mph.

    “I’m glad that was the last time I had to do that today,” Stewart said of his lap in the final round. “It felt really good. We were really loose in practice and Mike (Bugarewicz, crew chief) did a great job in the break there of making some big changes to get us caught up. It got my confidence back there and made me feel like I finally had the right-rear (tire) in the track there. Now we can hustle a little bit.”

    It will be his 10th top-10 start at Michigan and second in seven starts this season.

    Denny Hamlin will start fourth in his No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota after posting a time of 36.222 and a speed of 198.774 mph.

    “It’s slippery out there,” Hamlin said. “Even though the speeds are up there, averaging 199, a lot of it is straightaway speed. What we really wanted was slower corners and faster straightaways and that’s definitely been achieved so far.”

    Ryan Blaney will round out the top-five in his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford as the highest starting rookie after posting a time of 36.256 and a speed of 198.588 mph.

    “We were really loose the first run, just really, really free and that hurt us a lot,” Blaney said. “They got it a lot better the second run out. They did a good job of getting us better throughout the day. Unfortunately, we had an extra lap on our tires. Who knows what would have happened with one less lap on the tires in the final round.”

    Ryan Newman will start sixth in his No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Kyle Larson will start seventh in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet. Austin Dillon will start eighth in his No. 3 RCR Chevrolet. Kyle Busch will start ninth in his No. 18 JGR Toyota. Chase Elliott will round out the top-10 in his No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet.

    Carl Edwards will start 11th in his No. 19 JGR Toyota. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will round out the 12 drivers that made the final round of qualifying in his No. 17 Roush Fenway Racing Ford.

    During the session in the first round, David Ragan got loose rounding turn 3, slid up the track and made contact with the wall with the right-rear corner of his car. The session was also red-flagged after a brake duct that came from the No. 1 of Jamie McMurray was found on the track in turn 3. Kevin Harvick was caught out on the track by both and was unable to make a lap that would place him higher than 29th.

    Twenty-two Chevrolet’s, 11 Ford’s and seven Toyota’s make up the 40-car field. No driver was sent home as 40 cars were entered.

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