Tag: Michigan International Speedway

Logano to start on pole at Michigan on Saturday

For the second time since this season amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, Joey Logano will start on pole position after his name was randomly drawn to lead the field for Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway on August 8, the first of two Cup races of the weekend at the Irish Hills.

Logano, a three-time Cup Michigan winner and a two-time winner this season, is one of 10 Cup competitors to be guaranteed a spot in the 2020 Playoffs by virtue of his regular-season victories. Through the first 20 races of this year’s Cup season and his first with crew chief Paul Wolfe, he has also recorded five stage victories, five top-five results and nine top-10 results, including a fourth-place result last weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway.

Denny Hamlin, a two-time Michigan winner who finished in the runner-up spot last weekend at New Hampshire, will start on the front row alongside Logano and for the fourth time this season. Kevin Harvick, the regular-season points leader and a three-time Michigan winner, will start third alongside teammate Aric Almirola, who has started on pole position by virtue of a random draw three times this season.

Brad Keselowski, winner of last weekend’s Cup race at New Hampshire who is fresh off a one-year contract extension to remain with Team Penske and a Michigan native who has yet to win a Cup race at his home track, will start in fifth place followed by Alex Bowman, Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Clint Bowyer and Kurt Busch. Ryan Blaney will start 11th alongside Martin Truex Jr.

Starting in positions 13-26 are Ryan Newman, rookie Tyler Reddick, Matt DiBenedetto, rookie Cole Custer, Jimmie Johnson, Austin Dillon, William Byron, Matt Kenseth, Michael McDowell, Chris Buescher, Erik Jones, Bubba Wallace, rookie Quin Houff and J.J. Yeley.

Starting in positions 27-39 are rookie Brennan Poole, James Davison, rookie Christopher Bell, Reed Sorenson, rookie John Hunter Nemechek, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Garrett Smithley, Ty Dillon, Ryan Preece, Corey LaJoie, Daniel Suarez, Timmy Hill and Joey Gase.

The starting lineup for the second Michigan race on Sunday, August 9, will be determined based on the finishing result from Saturday, where the top-20 finishers on Saturday will be inverted for Sunday’s race while the bottom-20 finishers will start on Sunday as finished on Saturday.

The first Cup Michigan race on August 8 will occur at 4 p.m. ET on NBCSN while the second Michigan race on August 9 will occur at 4:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

August 6, 2020
Weekend schedule for Michigan and Road America

The Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series will kick off the weekend’s events at Michigan International Speedway Friday evening while the NASCAR Cup Series participates in a doubleheader, competing both Saturday and Sunday.

Michigan will also host the ARCA Menards Series race Sunday at 1 p.m., preceding the Cup Series Consumers Energy 400.

The Xfinity Series heads to Road America Saturday for the Henry 180.

All times are Eastern.

Friday, Aug. 7

Michigan – 6 p.m.: Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series Henry Ford Health System 200 (Stages 20/40/100 Laps = 200 Miles) FS1/MRN/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio – 2019 Winner: Austin Hill

Saturday, Aug. 8

Road America – 12 p.m.: Xfinity Series Henry 180 (Stages 14/29/45 Laps = 182.16 Miles) NBCSN/MRN/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio – 2019 Winner: Christopher Bell

Michigan – 4 p.m.: Cup Series FireKeepers Casino 400 – (Stages 40/85/156 Laps = 312 Miles) NBCSN/MRN/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio – 2019 Winner: Joey Logano

Sunday, Aug. 9

Michigan – 11:30 a.m.: ARCA Final Practice – No TV

Michigan – 1 p.m.: ARCA VizCom 200 – (100 Laps, 200 Miles) – MAVTV/Trackpass/MRN – 2019 Winner: Michael Self

Michigan – 4:30 p.m.: Cup Series Consumers Energy 400 – (Stages 40/85/156 Laps = 312 Miles) NBCSN/MRN/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio – 2019 Winner: Kevin Harvick

August 6, 2020
Phil Surgen named crew chief for Chip Ganassi Racing’s No. 42 Cup team

Chip Ganassi Racing released a statement, naming Phil Surgen as crew chief for the No. 42 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 1LE team driven by Matt Kenseth for the upcoming NASCAR Cup Series doubleheader races at Michigan International Speedway.

Surgen, who works as a race engineer for CGR and has been part of the team since 2016, will also be atop the No. 42 pit box as crew chief for the 2003 Cup champion for the balance of this year’s Cup season, replacing veteran Chad Johnston, who has also been with the team since 2016 and won six races as the No. 42 crew chief from 2016 to 2019.

Surgen served as an interim crew chief for the No. 42 team driven by former CGR driver Kyle Larson at Michigan in June 2016 when Johnston was suspended for one race and fined $20,000 following a post-race infraction the previous race at Pocono Raceway, where the No. 42 Chevrolet was discovered with a missing lug nut during the post-race inspection process. In Surgen’s one-race term as crew chief at Michigan, Larson finished in third place.

The No. 42 team originally led by Johnston started this year with Larson behind the wheel. Through the first four races, the driver and the team notched three top-10 results, including a best result of fourth place at Phoenix Raceway in March. In April, during the COVID-19 pandemic and lockdown, Larson was suspended by NASCAR and released from his ride with Chip Ganassi Racing for using a racial slur during a live iRacing event. When the season resumed in May at Darlington Raceway, Kenseth was named as driver of the No. 42 Chevrolet for the remainder of the 2020 season. Through 16 races, Kenseth has recorded two top-10 results, a best result of second place at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in July, five top-15 results and two DNFs. He has also led a total of 12 laps and has recorded an average result of 20.63. The driver and the team sit in 28th place in the regular-season standings and are 210 points below the top-16 cutline to qualify for the 2020 Cup Playoffs with six regular-season races remaining until the postseason field is determined.

The upcoming NASCAR Cup Series doubleheader races at Michigan International Speedway will occur on August 8-9. The race on August 8 will occur at 4 p.m. ET on NBCSN while the race on August 9 will occur at 4:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN.

August 4, 2020
NASCAR features more Cup doubleheaders for 2020

It has been more than a week since the NASCAR Cup Series ran its first doubleheader weekend at Pocono Raceway, a move that received high praise from many competitors amid a hectic weekend schedule and the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Now, there are two reasons for the Cup competitors to set their sights and enthusiasm for August.

In NASCAR’s fourth installment of the 2020 schedule, the Cup competitors are scheduled to compete in two additional series races on the same weekend at Michigan International Speedway on August 8-9 and at Dover International Speedway on August 22-23. The four Cup races between the two weekends are slated as four of six remaining regular season races in August until the Cup Series postseason field is determined and the series enters the 2020 Playoffs, beginning in September.

On June 27-28, NASCAR hosted its first Cup doubleheader weekend at Pocono. With no practice or qualifying sessions held and no fans in attendance, the lineup for the first race was determined based on a random draw while the lineup for the second race was based on the results from the first race, where the top-20 finishers were inverted and the remaining 20 finishers were left as finished. It was a weekend that made it challenging for the teams to prepare or repair the car run on Saturday in time for the second race on Sunday. The competitors enjoyed the process of exiting and returning to their cars between the two events with opportunities of repeating or improving their results for additional points and positions. Among the competitors who expressed positive reviews toward the doubleheader weekend were former Cup champions Brad Keselowski and Kevin Harvick, who won the first Pocono doubleheader event on Saturday over Denny Hamlin before Hamlin overtook Harvick following a late pit strategy the following day.

Even before the inaugural Cup doubleheader weekend at Pocono, NASCAR was no stranger to running two series races at the same racetrack on consecutive dates. On June 13-14, the first NASCAR Xfinity Series doubleheader weekend at the same track occurred at Homestead-Miami Speedway. Both races in Miami came down to a late shootout, where rookie Harrison Burton won on Saturday and Chase Briscoe won on Sunday. The Xfinity Series is set to run its next pair of doubleheader races at Kentucky Speedway on July 9-10 before running back-to-back races at Dover International Speedway on August 22-23. The NASCAR Gander Rv & Outdoors Truck Series will run its first doubleheader at Kansas Speedway on July 24-25.

The series doubleheaders scheduled throughout this season, except for the Pocono doubleheader, were part of the sanctioning body’s efforts in rescheduling, realigning and postponing the remaining NASCAR national division series races for 2020 amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, which expanded to include midweek races and four to five division races per weekend.

Future plans regarding more doubleheader weekends for a single series along with the 2021 NASCAR schedule have not been determined and are in progress. The rest of the 2020 NASCAR schedule will be determined at a later date.

July 8, 2020
Four Takeaways from the NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series Race at Michigan
It’s hard to believe that the regular season has come and gone in the Truck Series in 2019. Not too long ago, we were just opening up the season at Daytona in February. Now, the playoff grid is set and we have eight races left to decide the 2019 Truck Series champion.

Before we get there, let’s take a look at this week’s four takeaways from the Corrigan Oil 200 at Michigan International Speedway this past Saturday.
1. Hill Proves Doubters Wrong – Austin Hill opened up the regular season at Daytona with a win and closed the regular season with a win. There may have been some doubts among the fans that Hill is not championship ready or doesn’t deserve to be in the Playoffs. Part of that is because his win was at Daytona where anything and any driver can win that race. But really, the Georgia native has been solid for the most part this season. The Hattori Racing driver has recorded four top fives and eight top-10 finishes with 121 laps led. However, he’s going to have to work on his average finish and limit his DNFs that sit at five, if Hill wants to fight for the championship at Homestead in November.
2. Grant Enfinger Earns Regular Season Title – This shouldn’t come to a shock to many fans, but Enfinger was able to collect the regular season title based on his consistency throughout the season. The ThorSport Racing driver finished seventh and had already wrapped the title after Stage 1 was over. Now, Enfinger gets to take 15 additional points with him into the Playoffs which will come in very handy down the road when points start to get tighter.
3. Dippel Gets Career-Best Finish – Youngs Motorsports driver Dippel was among the drivers that were fighting to get into the Playoffs and needed a win to be eligible. He just about pulled it off late in the going with the overtime restart. However, Dippel fell short and ran out of time to get the win, but it wasn’t without valiant effort.
4. Currey Scores Top-10 Finish – Overlooked in the running order may very well have been Niece Motorsports driver Bayley Currey, who was making his second outing with the team. The Driftwood, Texas native started 11th and wound up sixth, earning his career-best finish Saturday afternoon. His previous best finish was with Copp Motorsports in 2017 when he finished 10th at Phoenix. Currey has competed in pretty much everything in the past few years, including the Cup and the Xfinity Series. The Texas native even competed for the late Mike Mittler for three races in his career.
August 13, 2019
NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series Power Rankings- Michigan
The NASCAR Gander Outdoors Truck Series rolled into Michigan International Speedway for race No. 16 of the 2019 season. It wasn’t just another race for the truckers, rather it was the last regular-season race of the season before the Playoffs begin at Bristol Motor Speedway Thursday night.

The Corrigan Oil 200 featured exciting action throughout the race especially at one point when the top four were fighting for a spot in the Playoffs.

Driver Matt Crafton was hoping there would be no new winner at Michigan or he’d be facing elimination for the championship. And thankfully for him, there was not, which means Crafton will have the opportunity to fight another day for the championship. But he will have some work to do and must improve his performance if he wants to be at Homestead for the finale.

With that said, here is a look at this week’s power rankings.
1. Grant Enfinger – To no one’s surprise, Enfinger was able to lock up the regular-season title after Stage 1 was finished. Winning the title was definitely given to the right driver after he has been so consistent all season long, only having one DNF and an average finish of 7.6 and 236 laps led. Saturday’s race at Michigan was no different for Enfinger and the No. 98 ThorSport Racing team. The Alabama native qualified ninth for the first time since Charlotte in May and consistently finished inside the top-10 during both stages. Enfinger finished sixth and third in both stages, respectively, to ultimately finish seventh. With the title, the ThorSport driver earned an additional 15 points for the Playoffs.
  
  Previous Week Ranking – Second
2. Sheldon Creed – It was oh so close for Creed and his No. 2 GMS Racing team. The California native fell one spot short in hopes of making the Playoffs. He had to win in order to fight for the championship and will have to wait another year for the opportunity. Still, it wasn’t without effort by the No. 2 GMS team. Creed started 18th, finished ninth in Stage 2, led three times for nine laps and was contending for the win late in the race. Unfortunately, Creed wound up second and will not be able to compete for the championship.
  
  Previous Week Ranking- Third
3. Tyler Dippel – What a run it was for Dippel and his No. 02 Youngs Motorsports team. You don’t normally see this team run up front and challenge for the win, but you did on Saturday. Dippel qualified 17th, did not record any stage finishes but found himself in contention to win late in the race. However, despite the strong run, Dippel ran out of time and wound up third. What a story it would have been if the New York native would have won and made the Playoffs.
  
  Previous Week Ranking – Fifth
4. Brett Moffitt – It was a great turnaround for Moffitt and his No. 24 GMS Racing team after a difficult Eldora outing where he finished 29th. The Grimes, Iowa native started eighth, finished fourth in Stage 1 and won Stage 2. Moffitt only led twice for nine laps but still salvaged a fourth place finish.
  
  Previous Week Ranking- Not Ranked
5. Stewart Friesen – It was a dismal day for the most part for Friesen and his No. 52 Halmar Racing team after scoring a big win at Eldora the week before. The Canadian had a disappointing effort of 20th with no top-10 stage finishes. But with the help of cautions toward the end, Friesen was able to bring the truck home in seventh place. Otherwise, the Canadian was really nowhere to be seen in the race. The Halmar Racing driver is going to have to work on his qualifying game in the Playoffs if he wants to win and advance with the races being so short.
  
  Previous Week Ranking – First
  
  Fell Out
  
  1. Todd Gilliland – Championship hopes ended when Gilliland got caught up in a wreck with four to go and ran out of time to even have a chance to win the race. The Kyle Busch Motorsports driver had a strong run going, leading 14 laps, finishing fifth and eighth in both stages. Ultimately, Gilliland wound up not finishing the race and was 24th in the final running order.
  
  Previous Week Ranking – Fourth
  
  Honorable Mention
  
  1. Ray Ciccarelli – A job well done to the Ellicott City, Maryland native who finished ninth which gave him his career-best finish to date in his own equipment. Ciccarelli was able to miss all the carnage throughout the race.
August 12, 2019
Harvick takes second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup win of 2019 at Michigan

Kevin Harvick was able to overcome a flat-right front tire early in the race and would later stretch the fuel in his No. 4 Mobil 1 Mustang on Sunday on the way to his second win of the 2019 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup season in the Consumers Energy 400 at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday.

Harvick led 22 laps en route to victory, taking the checkered by 1.054 seconds over runner-up Denny Hamlin. Kyle Larson finished third, while Martin Truex Jr. and Daniel Suarez rounded out the top-five finishers.

“It was a day of a little bit of adversity that we were able to overcome,” Harvick said. “We had a really fast car all weekend. Our car handled really well today, and with the multiple lanes (due to the PJ1 traction compound), we were able to run all three lanes pretty well and make our way through traffic.

“They (the team) put a really fast race car on the track, and we were able to capitalize on it, so that’s always fun.”

Although the Playoffs are steadily looming closer, Harvick’s Crew Chief Rodney Childers still feels like there’s plenty of time for their Stewart-Haas crew to hit their stride, especially with two wins in the last four races.

“I still feel like it’s a long time before the Playoffs,” said Childers in the Media Center. “We have a lot that we need to get better. You know, we’ve just – we started the year off, and our cars weren’t where we needed to be, and we’ve continually got better and better. I think to be able to get a win on a 550 track and get a win on a 750 track, that says a lot about the race team right now, to sit on the pole at Pocono and have speed there.

“We’ve definitely made gains on it. We’re not perfect by any means, and we’ve still got to get a lot better. But we’re definitely in a lot better shape than we were at the beginning of the year.”

Kyle Busch, Ryan Preece, William Byron, Chase Elliott, and Alex Bowman rounded out the top-10. Playoff bubble drivers Clint Bowyer and Jimmie Johnson both faced issues in the race, as both drivers made hard contact with the wall during the race. Bowyer would be faced with a 37th-place DNF while Johnson would finish 34th, eight laps down.

Six cautions slowed the race for 24 laps, while eight drivers swapped the lead 19 times. The next race on the schedule will be at the Bristol Motor Speedway for Saturday night’s annual event at 7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN/PRN/SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

August 11, 2019
Ankrum’s strong run ends in wreck

The No. 17 of Tyler Ankrum was having a great run going at Michigan International Speedway until he was involved in a wreck with four laps to go after a push gone wrong.

Matt Crafton and Ankrum had been pushing each other all day, helping each other on the restarts that are so tricky at Michigan. On the restart with four to go, Crafton misjudged his push to Ankrum, which sent him spinning in front of the field and he collected his DGR-Crosley teammate.

Despite being caught up in a wreck Ankrum was not disappointed by the outcome.

“Final restart, things got a little bit hairy,” Ankrum told MRN Radio. “I was trying to control some of my tire spin with the clutch, just modulating on the throttle, brakes and the clutch. Just got a really big shove from the 88 (Crafton), felt like he kind of got in my right rear. Just got sideways there, chasing it from there and ended up getting hit from the side.”

“It was a really good effort by my Toyota DGR-Crosley team. We had a really fast truck. I think we could have won if I would have just got a better launch on that restart and not spun my tires so much. Really great effort, just one mistake at the beginning and then we were able to recover and we all saw the speed we had there at the end. Unfortunate it happened but we’re going to go to Bristol and try to go get one there.”

Ankrum’s day started out rough being penalized for a start violation by NASCAR. He would have to serve a pass-through penalty in order to serve the violation. As a result, Ankrum did not get any stage points in Stage 1 as he finished 25th. In stage 2 he had a much better finishing position of 12th.

Before being caught up in the crash with four to go, the California native was slated to restart on the front row with a shot at the win. However, with the crash, Ankrum had to settle for a 25th place finish after starting third.

Ankrum and his No. 17 DGR-Crosley team will now shift their focus to the Playoffs where they are seeded eighth in the standings, 17 points behind first place.

August 10, 2019

Playoffs – Who’s in, who’s out, with 4 to go

The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series heads to Michigan International Speedway this weekend with only four races remaining in the regular season.

There are currently nine contenders who have won this year and are locked into the Playoffs which will consist of 16 drivers. They include Kyle Busch (4 wins), Joey Logano (2 wins), Kevin Harvick (1 win), Denny Hamlin (3 wins), Martin Truex Jr. (4 wins), Brad Keselowski (3 wins), Kurt Busch (1 win), Chase Elliott (2 wins) and Alex Bowman (1 win).

This leaves seven spots up for grabs. In the unlikely event that the final four races are won by drivers who have not already been to victory lane, that will leave a minimum of three drivers who can advance to the Playoffs based on points.

The drivers who are in the most precarious positions include Stewart-Haas Racing’s Clint Bowyer, Hendrick Motorsports’ Jimmie Johnson and Roush-Fenway Racing’s Ryan Newman.

Johnson and Newman are tied in the standings with 544 points each after last week’s race at Watkins Glen. Johnson, however, wins the tiebreaker for the final spot in the Playoffs with a best finish of third this year while Newman’s best finish was fifth.

Clint Bowyer is ranked 15th, only 12 points ahead of Johnson and Newman.

Bowyer won at Michigan in June 2018 but it was the only top-10 he has earned in his last eight starts. He is, however, off to a good start this week after qualifying fifth for Sunday’s race, and says it’s “go time.”

“There’s pressure in everything you do in this sport and that’s kind of the way we like it. That’s what makes it fun. We are getting to the point in the season when the pay window is starting to open and it’s go time. That’s when it’s fun for the drivers, teams and especially the fans. As the tension goes up, the sport gets more and more interesting.”

Johnson won at Michigan in 2014 and also has five top-five and 13 top-10 finishes at the 2-mile track with a sixth-best driver rating of 94.3. He qualified 10th for the Consumers Energy 400.

As each week passes, the pressure mounts for the seven-time champ who has never missed the postseason playoffs since the format was implemented in 2004.

“Our season is on the line right now with these next four weeks,” Johnson said.

Newman has been to victory lane twice at Michigan, in 2003 and 2004, and he finished eighth in the June race at Michigan this season. After qualifying 20th, he will face a tough battle this weekend but he has no intention of giving up.

“If I thought that I wasn’t capable of winning at each race track I go to, I wouldn’t show up,” Newman told NASCAR.com.

As time runs out each position earned and each stage point gained will become more crucial as they battle for the chance to compete for the coveted Cup Series championship title. Be sure to tune in as the action intensifies with one goal – win and you’re in.

Follow @angiecampbell_ for the latest NASCAR news and feature stories.

Playoff Outlook – Top 20

1) Kyle Busch	851 points	In on wins
2) Joey Logano	838 points	In on wins
3) Kevin Harvick	777 points	In on wins
4) Denny Hamlin	771 points	In on wins
5) Martin Truex Jr.	753 points	In on wins
6) Brad Keselowski	728 points	In on wins
7) Kurt Busch	679 points	In on wins
8) Chase Elliott	676 points	In on wins
9) Alex Bowman	623 points	In on wins
10) Aric Almirola	640 points	96 above cutline
11) Ryan Blaney	633 points	89 over cutline
12) William Byton	604 points	60 over cutline
13) Erik Jones	598 points	54 over cutline
14) Kyle Larson	590 points	46 over cutline
15) Clint Bowyer	556 points	12 over cutline
16) Jimmie Johnson	544 points	0
17) Ryan Newman	544 points	0
18) Daniel Suarez	521 points	23 below cutline
19) Paul Menard	483 points	61 below cutline
20) Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	466 points	78 below cutline

August 10, 2019

Creed falls short of making the Playoffs

It was win or bust for Sheldon Creed and his No. 2 GMS Racing coming into the regular-season finale.

Creed has been on a roll the past couple of weeks, however, his regular crew chief was suspended after Eldora due to a safety violation described as a loss or separation of added ballast to the vehicle. Jeff Stankiewicz (Creed’s Crew Chief), Austin Pollak (Truck Chief) and Jonathan Stewart (Engineer) were all suspended for three races including the Michigan race.

With the added pressure to perform well, Creed did not have a very good starting after he qualified 18th early Saturday morning, which left him a lot of work to do in order to get to the front where track position means so much at Michigan.

It didn’t take Creed long though to move up to the front in hopes of a playoff spot. In Stage 1, he finished 14th while he had a much better finishing position in Stage 2, finishing ninth and earning stage points. The California native even led a few times during the two stages for nine laps.

Despite leading a few laps and being in contention to win on the final restart in overtime, Creed fell .125 seconds short of his first win and the possibly making the Playoffs. He will have to wait for another chance to compete for a championship.

“I don’t know if he (Austin Hill) doesn’t pass tech, but he’s pretty good at passing tech,” Creed said to MRN Radio regarding the second-place finish. “I did everything I could there, the guys gave me a good car. I started 18th and just plugged away at it. Really, that’s the most patient race of the year. Just did what I could to save the car all day.”

“I finally lined up on the outside and outsides are huge on restarts. I was damn near wide open those last two laps. I think I was starting to lose a little bit of grip in Turns 1 and 2 but I was really good in Turns 3 and 4. I just needed to be that much closer. I needed the 02 (Tyler Dippel) to be behind me, a little bit closer to give that push, but so close, two seconds in a row for our season.”

The second-place finish was Creed’s second top-five this season.

August 10, 2019

Tag: Michigan International Speedway

Friday, Aug. 7

Saturday, Aug. 8