Testing SpeedwayMedia.com

Tag: Michigan International Speedway

  • Kahne and Suarez taken out in late wreck at Michigan

    Kahne and Suarez taken out in late wreck at Michigan

    Kasey Kahne and Daniel Suarez’s day ended on Lap 140 of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Pure Michigan 400 when the two collided in Turn 2 at Michigan International Speedway.

    Kahne was making a pass underneath Suarez in Turn 1 when he drifted up into Suarez’s path. Because he hadn’t cleared Suarez, he came across his nose, slid up the track and slammed the outside wall in Turn 2. Suarez, who was pushed up the track from the contact, partially submarined underneath the left-rear side of Kahne’s car, dealing terminal damage to his car.

    His car about spun out, before stabilizing and drifted down towards the apron. Kahne’s car, meanwhile, clung near the wall for a few more seconds, before the back-end came out from underneath him and sent him down onto the apron, where he came to rest.

    “We had to fight from the back and had a good Liftmaster Chevrolet. We kept working to get up there. Daniel (Suarez) was going backwards and I was going by and I ran the bottom,” Kahne said. “I expected we could be close off the corner, and I was just coming off and then we hit. So, I don’t know. I expected to run side-by-side down the backstretch, but not give a lot of room, because you don’t. Nobody does. But I was making the pass and I don’t know how we hit. Ruined it. It’s over.”

    “I was very, very tight. I was trying to hold my line. I think the 5 was passing me (and) went up a little bit too soon for me. I was trying to leave him some room. I (got) out of the throttle at that point, but I don’t know if he was told it was already time to go up. I don’t know. It’s just unfortunate because we came from a streak of top-fives and now this is going to be the end of it. We’re going to regroup and come back stronger next week.”

    While the wreck doesn’t affect Kahne’s playoff chances, as he has a win at Indianapolis to fallback on, it doesn’t help Suarez, who’s now 17th in points and 139 behind Matt Kenseth in the cutoff spot.

  • Dominant Keselowski drive ends in disappointing finish

    Dominant Keselowski drive ends in disappointing finish

    Brad Keselowski led a race-high of 105 laps, but got shuffled back on the final restart and wound up with a mediocre finish in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

    Starting from pole position, Keselowski led all but three laps that fell during a cycle of green flag stops, and won the first stage.

    He continued his dominant run through the second stage, only ceding the race lead on Lap 111 to hit pit road. This time, however, Martin Truex Jr., who pitted a few laps earlier, cycled ahead of him in the running order. This lead to Truex taking over the race lead when the pit cycle concluded and winning the second stage, with Keselowski finishing second.

    On the ensuing restart on Lap 128, Keselowski raced side-by-side with Truex for 75 percent of the lap, before edging ahead of Truex exiting Turn 4 to take the race lead. But Truex powered by him to retake the lead the next lap, and Keselowski didn’t return to the lead again.

    He took just right-side tires on, what was originally, the final round of stops with 39 laps to go to regain lost track position. Truex still cycled ahead of him, but he found himself in position to end the day with a solid finish. A flurry of late cautions, however, pushed him down the running order.

    Keselowski restarted 11th on the overtime restart, but was swallowed up on the bottom lane and wound up finishing 17th.

    “It just didn’t come together there at the end, but it was nice to lead a bunch of laps,” Keselowski said. “That was good and something I was really proud of, but I just didn’t have enough to really run with the 77 and the 78. We tried a little strategy to kind of get something out of it, but the way it all played out I ended up getting the bottom lane on the restarts and getting absolutely swallowed. We tried. We put in as much effort as we could. We knew we didn’t have as much as those two, but we gave it 100 percent effort and I was really proud of my team for that.”

    Keselowski leaves Michigan fifth in points, 213 back of Truex.

  • Larson splits Furniture Row duo in overtime to win at Michigan

    Larson splits Furniture Row duo in overtime to win at Michigan

    Kyle Larson extended his Michigan International Speedway win streak to three by passing the Furniture Row Racing drivers in overtime of the Pure Michigan 400.

    Restarting fourth, Larson gave a shove to race leader Martin Truex Jr., then dove under him, splitting him from teammate Erik Jones in second, and took the lead heading into Turn 1. The race was all Larson’s from there, as he drove on to his fourth career victory in 134 career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series starts.

    “I was running a few options through my head of what to do if I got a good jump, and that was one of them and it worked out perfect. I can’t believe that happened. We were struggling all day. We were definitely not as good as the last two times we won here, but we preserved and had a great restart at the end.”

    Truex and Jones round out the podium.

    Ryan Newman and Trevor Bayne round out the top-five.

    “Oh, it was just a good run for the Velveeta Shells & Cheese Chevrolet,” Newman said. “Luke (Lambert, crew chief) did a great job making the call for us to stay out and caught the break there with the No. 22’s (Joey Logano) tire. We got a couple of good restarts and make it a little bit out of nothing. We were challenged all day and struggled a little bit, but it seems like whenever we’ve got this Velveeta name on the car we end up in the top 5.”

    “It’s refreshing. We’ve had a tough couple of months not getting the results we thought that we deserved. Today, to get a result feels really good,” Bayne said. “We had fast car early on. We had fuel strategy at the end. Probably gonna have a shot to beat the 78 if it stayed green. Got a caution and I was like, ‘Oh man, here goes Indy again.’ We had a good first restart. The second restart was even better. We were able to push the 42 up to the lead and getting into (Turn) 3 I tried to go for it from the top and hit the Speedy Dry, got loose, and came home fifth. Cost us a couple spots. Man, when you’re in that position you have to go for it. I wouldn’t have slept good at night if I didn’t stuff it in there and try something. It just didn’t stick. It feels really good for our team.”

    Chris Buescher, Austin Dillon, Chase Elliott, Jamie McMurray and Kyle Busch round out the top-10.

    RACE SUMMARY

    Brad Keselowski led the field to the green flag at 3:19 p.m. He led all but three laps (Erik Jones led those three during a cycle of green flag stops) on his way to winning the first stage.

    It was the mostly the same story through the second stage. Only this time, Truex, who pitted a few laps earlier than Keselowski, cycled ahead of him in the running order, took over the race lead when Kyle Busch pitted on Lap 114 and drove on to win the second stage.

    Keselowski regained the lead for a lap on the Lap 129 restart, edging out Truex exiting Turn 4, but Truex took it back going into Turn 1.

    Everyone started hitting pit road for the final cycle of green flag stops with 41 laps to go, with Truex doing so a lap later. Jones pitted from the lead with 39 to go, as did Keselowski, handing the lead to Denny Hamlin. He hit pit road with 23 to go, giving the lead to Busch.

    Joey Logano suffered a right-front flat running down the backstretch with 15 to go, and debris from said flat brought out a caution with 14 to go. Busch pitted under the caution, handing the lead back to Truex.

    He got an excellent restart with nine to go, diving down in front of Jones heading into Turn 1. But as he was pulling away from the field, caution flew for a two-car wreck in Turn 2, setting up the overtime finish.

    CAUTION SUMMARY

    The first caution flew on Lap 61 for the end of the first stage. The second caution flew on Lap 121 for the end of the second stage. The third caution flew when Kasey Kahne came across the nose of Daniel Suarez, sending them both into the outside wall in Turn 2 on Lap 139. The fourth caution flew with 14 laps to go for debris on the backstretch. The fifth and final caution flew for a wreck involving Michael McDowell and Paul Menard.

    NUTS & BOLTS

    The race lasted two hours, 40 minutes and 38 seconds, at an average speed of 150.903 mph. There were 14 lead changes among seven different drivers and five cautions for 28 laps.

    Truex leaves with a 129-point lead over Larson. Elliott, McMurray and Matt Kenseth leave maintaining the final three playoff spots.

    [pdf-embedder url=”http://www.speedwaymedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/C1723_UNOFFRES.pdf”]

  • Larson Takes Lead on Late Restart to Win at Michigan

    Larson Takes Lead on Late Restart to Win at Michigan

    While he dominated the day and led the most laps, despite failing to win a single stage, Kyle Larson took the lead on a late restart in the closing laps of the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway and held off challengers to score the victory.

    Restarting with 15 laps to go, Larson — in second — passed Kyle Busch to retake the lead going into Turn 1. He held off Chase Elliott and Denny Hamlin in the final two restarts to collect his third career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory in 127 starts.

    “Yeah, thankfully, Michigan has got some decent grip where you don’t spin your tires too bad,” Larson said. “We were able to just have good pushers every restart there and sucked down on their door into (Turn) 1 and get them loose underneath me. I was a little bit nervous, but I thought with the people behind me, I would be okay. The Cars 3 Chevy was good all day. I thought we were probably a third to fifth place car. The No. 78 and No. 18 were definitely better than I was, but we kept working on it and had good restarts there when it mattered.

    “I just had a hell of a push from Ryan Blaney behind me,” he added. “I can’t thank him enough for shoving me like that. It was cool to see him get his win last week and then he helped me a ton today to get this win. He stayed committed to me all the way down the frontstretch and got me past the No. 18 which was key.”

    Elliott finished second, while Joey Logano rounded out the podium.

    When asked what made the difference on the final restarts, Elliott said he didn’t know.

    “Man, I don’t know. It was all just about how your push went,” he said. “I am really proud of our effort today. I thought we way improved from where we were last year as far as those late-race restarts go and was able to hang with them and really just kind of rely on the guy behind you. Kyle (Busch) gave me a great push. I didn’t give him a very good push that time before. He went a little sooner than I thought he was going to. He gave me a good push and I think somebody pulled out on him. He had to go block them and it just ends up kind of disrupting the whole situation when that happens. But, a great day from our NAPA Chevy group. I think we overachieved today with where we started this weekend, which is always nice when you are here at the racetrack. Happy to do that and ready to get on down the road and get through these summer months and try to tune everything in.”

    Hamlin and Jamie McMurray rounded out the top-five.

    Martin Truex Jr., Kyle Busch, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jimmie Johnson rounded out the top-10.

    Larson led the field to the green flag at 3:20 p.m. and held the lead the first 33 laps before Truex passed him going into Turn 3 on lap 34 and drove on to win the first stage.

    Larson emerged with the lead under the stage break and held it through a cycle of green-flag stops. Four laps prior to the end of the second stage, however, Truex passed him exiting Turn 4 on lap 116 and won the stage.

    From that point, Truex was in control of the event. But then Ryan Sieg brought out a caution for a solo spin with 50 to go, and Busch exited pit road the race leader. He also had the race in check until debris in Turn 2 with 21 to go set up the run to the finish.

    Clint Bowyer brought out a caution with 14 to go when he tagged the wall in Turn 2, as did teammate Danica Patrick when she was taken out by a chain reaction backup on the ensuing restart and slammed the inside backstretch wall.

    The race lasted two hours, 47 minutes and 24 seconds at an average speed of 143.369 mph. There were 10 lead changes among four different drivers and eight cautions for 34 laps.

    Larson leaves Michigan with a five-point lead.

    [pdf-embedder url=”http://www.speedwaymedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/C1715_UNOFFRES.pdf”]

  • Truex Finishes Sixth After Sweeping Stages

    Truex Finishes Sixth After Sweeping Stages

    Martin Truex Jr.’s quest to sweep a second race this season came up short when he faltered on a late restart in the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

    He took the lead for the first time on lap 34 and drove on to win the first stage. He found himself without the lead, however, when Kyle Larson exited pit road with it under the stage break caution.

    It took him roughly 50 laps to return to the lead when he passed Larson exiting Turn 4 on lap 116 and took the second stage victory. This time around, he left pit road retaining the lead.

    Truex had the race in check, but then caution flew with 50 laps to go when Ryan Sieg spun out in Turn 4, and right in front of Truex.

    He left pit road fifth, behind Kyle Busch, Erik Jones, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Ryan Blaney, who all took two tires.

    On the ensuing restart, Truex stumbled and fell back to ninth in the running order.

    When the checkered flag flew, he was sixth.

    “We had the best car out there without a doubt – just inside lane restarts at the end killed us, so just stinks when you have to race like that, you know? You get just in a bad spot and there’s nothing you can do about it,” Truex said. “We seen it the last couple restarts, so just wrong place. Probably should have took two tires that last time we pitted – we took four. That killed us. Just wrong lane on the restart every single time all day long and couldn’t use the best car to win.”

    He leaves Michigan second in points, five back of Larson. He’s led 938 laps, the most of any driver this season and halfway to matching his 2016 total. His two stage wins puts him at 10 on the season, the most of any driver.

  • Keselowski Fastest in Final Practice at Michigan

    Keselowski Fastest in Final Practice at Michigan

    Brad Keselowski topped the chart in final Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Michigan International Speedway.

    The driver of the No. 2 Team Penske Ford was the fastest with a time of 36.474 and a speed of 197.401 mph. Kyle Busch was second in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with a time of 36.512 and a speed of 197.195 mph. Kyle Larson was third in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet with a time of 36.537 and a speed of 197.061 mph. Joey Logano was fourth in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford with a time of 36.554 and a speed of 196.969 mph. Erik Jones rounded out the top-five in his No. 77 Furniture Row Racing Toyota with a time of 36.557 and a speed of 196.953 mph.

    Daniel Suarez, Martin Truex Jr., Clint Bowyer, Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin rounded out the top-10.

    Larson posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 195.416 mph.

    AJ Allmendinger got loose going into Turn 1 and made contact with the outside wall. The team will run a backup car for tomorrow’s race.

    Related Links: 
    First Practice Results
    Second Practice Results

    [pdf-embedder url=”http://www.speedwaymedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/C1715_PRACFINAL.pdf”]

  • Truex Fastest in Second Practice at Michigan

    Truex Fastest in Second Practice at Michigan

    Martin Truex Jr. topped the chart in second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Michigan International Speedway.

    The driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota was the fastest with a time of 36.293 and a speed of 198.385 mph. Kyle Busch was second in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with a time of 36.375 and a speed of 197.938 mph. Jimmie Johnson was third in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with a time of 36.485 and a speed of 197.320 mph. Ryan Blaney was fourth in his No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford with a time of 36.489 and a speed of 197.320 mph. Kevin Harvick rounded out the top-five in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford with a time of 36.495 and a speed of 197.287 mph.

    Brad Keselowski, Kyle Larson, Erik Jones, Joey Logano and Dale Earnhardt Jr. rounded out the top-10.

    Busch posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 196.876 mph.

    With just over 20 minutes remaining in the session, Johnson got loose in Turn 4, spun down the track and clipped the grass. The only damage sustained was a caved-in left-front fender. The team elected to repair the damage, rather than roll out their backup car.*

    *UPDATE: After this piece was published, Johnson’s team elected to swap to their backup car.

    [pdf-embedder url=”http://www.speedwaymedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/C1715_PRAC2.pdf”]

  • Kyle Larson Wins Coors Light Pole at Michigan

    Kyle Larson Wins Coors Light Pole at Michigan

    By Reid Spencer|NASCAR.com

    BROOKLYN, Mich. — Martin Truex Jr. thought he had the pole for Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 — until Kyle Larson made the last run in the final round of Friday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series knockout qualifying at Michigan International Speedway.

    Driving the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, Larson, who won the first Cup race of his career last August at MIS, covered the two-mile distance in 35.616 seconds (202.156 mph), edging Truex (202.117 mph) for the top starting spot by a scant .007 seconds.

    “We made some good adjustments there for that final round,” said Larson, who earned his first Coors Light Pole Award at Michigan, his second of the season and the third of his career. “I was pretty good in the first round and a little bit tight in the second round. They went a step further on freeing it up for the final round and the ‘Cars 3’ Chevy drove good.

    “I could tell by the RPM and the engine it was going to be a pretty good lap, so I was happy about that to get the pole after winning here last year. So, hopefully, we can keep it going. So far, it’s been a really good weekend leading in (opening) practice and then getting the quick time here. So, yeah, it’s an exciting weekend, and hopefully we can keep it going.”

    Truex went all-out on his lap in the money round, with his car bottoming out and trailing a stream of sparks though the corners at each end of the track.

    “You’re just hoping the tires stick enough that it doesn’t turn you sideways or make you get tight or whatever,” Truex said of the lap. “It really feels like the car rides really rough. That’s really all it is. It doesn’t upset the car too much, if it’s just light contact.

    “You’ve got to get it down to go fast, and the guys did a good job of getting it down — that’s for sure.”

    As fast as his final lap was, Truex will start second for the third consecutive race, having lost poles at Dover and Pocono to Kyle Busch.

    “It’s a little disappointing,” Truex said. “I thought we had it there, but Kyle went out late and beat us. But, really, you’re never shocked. It’s really hard to put a perfect lap together. There’s always something you could do a little bit better, and our lap in the third round was the same way… We picked up a good chunk in the third round, but, obviously, Larson picked up a tiny bit more.”

    Clint Bowyer matched his best qualifying effort of the season and will start third on Sunday. Kyle Busch qualified fourth, followed by Denny Hamlin, Pocono winner Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano and Jamie McMurray.

    Kevin Harvick, who was fastest in each of the first two rounds of Friday’s time trials, fell off the pace in the third round and will start 11th.

    “We just got really loose there in the last round,” Harvick said. “We were really good the first two, but something changed. I like the speed in race trim. We have some work to do for Sunday.”

    Chase Elliott, who will start 10th, was the only Hendrick Motorsports driver to make the final round, as seven-time champion Jimmie Johnson was bumped out of the top 12 by Matt Kenseth on the last run of the second round.

    Johnson qualified 13th, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. earned the 17th starting spot.

    In his second race in the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Ford as a substitute driver for injured Aric Almirola, Darrell “Bubba” Wallace Jr. will start 26th.

    Ty Dillon will start from the rear on Sunday after his time was disallowed because of unapproved modifications to the body of his No. 13 Chevrolet during qualifying.

    RELATED: Starting lineup for Sunday’s race 

     

  • Logano’s Season to Date and Ongoing Slump

    Logano’s Season to Date and Ongoing Slump

    Joey Logano started the season strong with top-five finishes in all but three of the first nine races. But following his win at Richmond International Raceway, his season turned south fast.

    Logano opened the season with a victory in The Clash exhibition race at Daytona International Speedway. He followed it up with finishes of sixth in the Daytona 500 and a week later at Atlanta Motor Speedway. When the sport went west, he finished fourth at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, 31st at Phoenix International Raceway after a late wreck and fifth at Auto Club Speedway.

    Back east, Logano finished fourth at Martinsville Speedway, third at Texas Motor Speedway and fifth at Bristol Motor Speedway.

    It was at Richmond where he scored his first points-paying victory of the season with a win in the Toyota Owners 400. But a few days later, his victory was declared “encumbered” when, upon further inspection at the NASCAR R&D Center, his car didn’t meet up to NASCAR rules, specifically regarding the truck trailing arm. This meant he has docked 25 points, dropped to fifth in points and the win couldn’t be used to qualify him for the playoffs.

    The following week at Talladega Superspeedway began his present five-race slump. He was part of a multi-car pileup on the backstretch with 20 laps to go and walked away with a 32nd-place finish. At Kansas Speedway six days later, he suffered a right-front tire blowout, hooked Danica Patrick into the wall and rear-ended the wall himself, walking away with a 37th-place finish.

    Logano’s last three races have included lackluster performances of 21st at Charlotte Motor Speedway, 25th at Dover International Speedway and 23rd at Pocono Raceway.

    This slump and the encumbered finish at Richmond has dropped him from fourth in points to 11th heading into Michigan International Speedway. It’s also taken him from a 7.2 finishing average in the first nine races to a 27.6 in the last five.

    Logano says this last month has not been fun.

    “You have to keep life in perspective a lot of times with what you are doing out there,” Logano said. “One of funniest comments, maybe not the truth but, someone said, ‘We aren’t curing cancer out there, we are just trying to make circles really fast.’ It is something we can fix. This team is strong. We have been through this stuff before. Really if you look at the speed, last week in Pocono we made a step. We had a good second run in qualifying and were ninth. We had a good start, we were running sixth and had a flat tire. Those things have been happening to us. It isn’t just the speed. We have had other issues. We had an issue at Dover where we had a top-10 car.

    “We aren’t the winning car like we are used to being or want to be but we have made some progress on our cars to where we have gotten faster since Charlotte. We just haven’t had a chance to show it because we are trying to overcome things. Our car isn’t fast enough to overcome issues that happen in the race right now. If we get faster we can overcome having a flat tire last week.”

     

  • Larson Fastest in First Cup Practice at Michigan

    Larson Fastest in First Cup Practice at Michigan

    Kyle Larson topped the chart in first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice at Michigan International Speedway.

    The driver of the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet was the fastest with a time of 35.857 and a speed of 200.798 mph. Kyle Busch was second in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota with a time of 35.889 and a speed of 200.619 mph. Joey Logano was third in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford with a time of 35.914 and a speed of 200.479 mph. Martin Truex Jr. was fourth in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota with a time of 35.983 and a speed of 200.094 mph. Jimmie Johnson rounded out the top-five in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with a time of 36.003 and a speed of 199.983 mph.

    Jamie McMurray, Chase Elliott, Clint Bowyer, Ryan Blaney and Kevin Harvick rounded out the top-10.

    Busch posted the fastest 10 consecutive lap average at a speed of 196.591 mph.

    With under two minutes remaining in the session, Landon Cassill rear-ended the wall, forcing him to roll out a backup car.

    [pdf-embedder url=”http://www.speedwaymedia.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/06/C1715_PRAC1.pdf”]