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  • NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Sonoma

    NASCAR Top-10 Power Rankings: Sonoma

    Note: The quotes in this article are fictional.

    1. Kevin Harvick: Harvick started 25th and finished sixth at Sonoma as Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Tony Stewart grabbed the win.

    “Tony is a legend in the garage,” Harvick said, “as well as the kitchen. I’m proud to say I work for Tony. In other words, I’m on his payroll. And that roll is just one of many belonging to Tony.

    “How about that fight after the Camping World Truck series race on Saturday? It was a lot like a fight involving Sprint Cup drivers, just with punches.”

    2. Kurt Busch: Busch finished 10th in the Toyota/Save Mart 350, posting his series-best 13th top 10 of the year. He is second in the Sprint Cup points standings, 30 behind Kevin Harvick.

    “You probably saw a lot of people run over to Tony’s car in Victory Lane,” Busch said. “That wasn’t to congratulate him; it just takes that many people to pull Tony out of his car.”

    3. Carl Edwards: Edwards started on the pole in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 and finished fourth as Joe Gibbs Racing placed three drivers in the top 10.

    “There was an all-out brawl after Saturday night’s Camping World Truck Series race,” Edwards said. “John Wes Townley and Spencer Gallagher wrestled and slugged it out after crashing. I think it’s great for the sport. To those drivers, I say ‘Keep on Truckin’!’”

    4. Brad Keselowski: Keselowski finished 15th at Sonoma and is now fourth in the points standings, 56 out of first.

    “Cheers to Tony Stewart,” Keselowski said. “What a great win for him. He’s a legend in this sport. In fact, you could say Tony puts the ‘ass’ in ‘ambassador.’

    “As you probably heard, Jeff Gordon and I sat down to talk about our recent disagreement. I guess we came to some sort of agreement. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still going to speak my mind. As everyone knows, I’m just as mouthy as I am ‘gummy.’”

    5. Kyle Busch: Busch joined Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards in the top 10 with a seventh-place finish in the Toyota/Save Mart 350.

    “I hit a jackrabbit during Friday’s practice,” Busch said. “That was the worst case of wheel hop I’ve ever seen. Luckily, the collision didn’t cause much damage, at least to my car. Sure, the handling was off a little, but just by a ‘hare.’”

    6. Jimmie Johnson: Johnson finished 13th at Sonoma as 45-year-old Tony Stewart took the win, his first since 2013.

    “I think everybody is happy that Tony won,” Johnson said. “Ironically, the only way that everybody can be happy is if Tony wins, because Tony’s never happy otherwise.”

    7. Joey Logano: Logano finished third at Sonoma, posting his fifth top-five result of the year. He is fifth in the points standings, 71 out of first.

    “I had a great view of the Tony Stewart-Denny Hamlin battle for the win,” Logano said. “I think everyone was pulling for Tony to win, especially Hamlin.

    “But Tony’s win is great for NASCAR. The fans loved it. If there’s one thing Tony does well, it’s fill the stands. If there’s one thing Tony does better, it’s fill a seat.”

    8. Chase Elliott: Elliott struggled in his first Sprint Cup race at Sonoma, finishing 21st.

    “Jeff Gordon says he’s interested in joining ‘Live’ with Kelly Ripa,” Elliott said. “I think it’s a great idea. If he gets the job, I think his first order of business should be doing a sit-down interview with Brad Keselowski. Jeff probably has other ideas; specifically, a ‘sit-down, shut-up’ interview with Keselowski.

    9. Denny Hamlin: Hamlin finished second at Sonoma after battling former teammate Tony Stewart down the stretch. It was Hamlin’s fifth top-five finish of the year.

    “There are those that say I ‘let’ Tony win,” Hamlin said. “That my mistake in the final corner was intentional. People ask me, ‘Did you do that on purpose?’ The only thing I can say to that is, ‘For Christ’s sake, don’t ask Tony that question!’”

    10. Tony Stewart: Stewart passed Denny Hamlin on the final corner, just seconds after Hamlin passed him, to win the Toyota/Save Mart 350.

    “I snapped an 84-race winless drought,” Stewart said. “That a long time to go without a win. It’s the same feeling I get when I step on my bathroom scale because the ‘weight’ is over.”

  • Smoke Beats and Bangs his Way Back to Victory Lane

    Smoke Beats and Bangs his Way Back to Victory Lane

    After about losing the race running wide in turn 7a on the final lap, Tony Stewart capitalized on Denny Hamlin locking up in Turn 11, made contact with him, hit the wall and scored the victory at Sonoma.

    The driver of the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet snapped an 84-race winless streak as he won the Toyota/Save Mart 350.

    When asked if this win is significant because of its timing, he said “They’re all good; it doesn’t matter where you get them. But, we ran close to those guys all day. We just got stuck back in traffic. It’s pretty ironic the last one we got was in a Code 3 car and I’m proud to do it again. I’m proud of Mobil 1 and Bass Pro and everybody. It’s just an awesome job.”

    It’s his 49th career win in 598 Sprint Cup Series starts, first of 2016, first since Dover in June of 2013, third at Sonoma Raceway and first since 2005.

    He currently sits 32nd in points nine points back of the Chase cutoff.

    Hamlin brought his wounded No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota home to a runner-up finish.

    “Tony was doing a good job maintaining his tires, a good job of running consistent laps there,” Hamlin said. “Really he gave me an opportunity to get close. On the second to last lap, he wheel-hopped into (turn) seven, allowed us to get close and I just did a poor job of getting through 11. I was expecting to really drive in deep and I really thought that was going to happen and he did, but I also left the bottom open and that was a bad mistake on my part.”

    It’s his seventh top-10 finish of the season and third in 11 races at Sonoma. He earned the bonus point for leading the most laps at 33. Joey Logano rounded out the podium in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford.

    “We had a hard-fought third-place finish today, which is no easy finish here at Sonoma at any point,” Logano said.

    It’s his fourth top-10 finish in eight races at Sonoma.

    Carl Edwards led 24 laps on his way to a fourth-place finish in his No. 19 JGR Toyota.

    “We had a really fast Stanley Toyota, this was the most fun I’ve had in a long time, really good car,” Edwards said. “It was fun to race. Congrats to Tony, I know he drove his heart out there. It’s pretty neat to see him in victory lane. We just had some fun today, it was a good time.”

    After losing second to Hamlin going into turn 7a with 12 laps to go, Martin Truex Jr. rounded out the top-five in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota.

    “We just burned it up at the end trying to get Smoke (Tony Stewart) and I gave up a couple spots, but I had to try to go for it,” Truex said of the closing laps. “The rear tires were gone at the end. It was a good race and congrats to Tony, it’s good to see and it’s been a long time coming for him.”

    Kevin Harvick led three laps on his way to a sixth-place finish in his No. 4 SHR Chevrolet. Kyle Busch led two laps on his way to a seventh-place finish in his No. 18 JGR Toyota. Ryan Newman finished eighth in his No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet. Kasey Kahne finished ninth in his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. Kurt Busch rounded out the top-10 in his No. 41 SHR Chevrolet.

    Despite leading 20 laps and being a front-runner for most of the afternoon, an uncontrolled tire penalty relegated AJ Allmendinger to the tail-end of the longest line during the fourth caution of the race and he finished 14th. Paul Menard, who led three laps, finished 16th. Danica Patrick, who led three laps, finished 19th.

    Thirty-five cars finished on the lead lap and 37 finished the race. Josh Wise exited the race with 14 laps remaining due to engine failure. Michael McDowell left the race with 18 laps to go for rear gear failure and Clint Bowyer exited the race on lap seven for an electrical fire in the dashboard of his car.

    The race lasted two hours, 42 minutes and 13 seconds at an average speed of 80.966 mph. There were 12 lead changes among eight different drivers and four cautions for 10 laps.

    Harvick leaves with a 35-point lead over Kurt Busch in the points standings.

    The next race for the Sprint Cup Series is the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway this Saturday night.

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  • Edwards Takes the Pole in Sonoma

    Edwards Takes the Pole in Sonoma

    Carl Edwards will lead the field to the green flag tomorrow afternoon after claiming pole position in wine country.

    The driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota scored the pole for the Toyota/Save Mart 350 after posting a time of 1:14.799 and a speed of 95.777 mph.

    “That was good,” Edwards said of his pole lap. “My first lap was amazing, the car was really good and then I wasn’t sure about the second lap. It was good enough and that tells you how good the car is. I just can’t say enough about Stanley and all the things they’re doing for us. We had a dinner last night for us and this will be really exciting for them to have their Stanley Toyota up on the pole for the start of the race and hopefully we can stay there and get another win.”

    It’s his 19th career pole in 425 Sprint Cup Series starts, the third pole of 2016 and his first at Sonoma Raceway.

    AJ Allmendinger will start second in his No. 47 JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet after posting a time of 1:14.878 and a speed of 95.676 mph while Martin Truex Jr. will start third in his No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota after posting a time of 1:14.881 and a speed of 95.672 mph.

    “Honestly, for where we were yesterday; it was a struggle yesterday,” Allmendinger said. “We just never could really find the direction of the car. All my guys did a great job to get to work and get this Kroger/Kingsford Chevy closer to the front. When I saw Carl first lap, I kind of said I don’t care what kind of lap I run. If he runs that again, I’m not going to get close. And then I saw it was less than a tenth. I always nitpick, but it was a big gain from where we were yesterday. We’ve still got to go to work and we’ve still got to figure out what we need for race trim, but a good start at least.”

    “I thought we had it, thought we had a shot at it – I know we had a shot at it obviously being second in the first round,” Truex said of his qualifying run. “Knew a few spots on the track I could do a better job driving. Made a few adjustments on the car and felt like I could make up some time. Really had it all put together going into turn 11 and just missed it by six inches down there and got it a little bit tight and had to wait on the gas. If you don’t get off that corner, you lose a lot of time coming to the start-finish line…All in all, it was my best qualifying effort here and this is typically a place we race well, just don’t qualify well so I’m looking forward to tomorrow.”

    Kurt Busch will start fourth in his No. 41 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet after posting a time of 1:14.895 and a speed of 95.654 mph followed by Kyle Larson who will round out the top-five starters in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet after posting a time of 1:15.124 and a speed of 95.362 mph.

    Denny Hamlin will start sixth in his No. 11 JGR Toyota and Joey Logano will start seventh in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford.

    Logano said afterwards that his run was “better than where we were last year. We were 17thor 18th last year, so we’ve improved. I thought I had a shot after the first round, but lost some grip the second round and tried harder at the same time and all of that just didn’t work out. It’s unfortunate that we lost a little bit from the first round to the second round, but we’re still in good shape. I still think we have a top-five car and we proved that today in qualifying. We were really close to that, so now we’ll just work our way through it and see where we end up. At this race you never know what’s gonna happen. It’s about strategy and the fastest car doesn’t always win. A lot of times if you have a top-5 car you can figure out ways to win and I feel like we have that, so it’s just all about executing the race strategy and getting through the race by keeping your cool and doing all of that right.”

    Kyle Busch will start eighth in his No. 18 JGR Toyota, Paul Menard will start ninth in his No. 27 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet as Tony Stewart rounds out the top-10 starters in his No. 14 SHR Chevrolet.

    Danica Patrick will start 11th in her No. 10 SHR Chevrolet. Brad Keselowski will round out the 12 drivers that made the final round of qualifying in his No. 2 Penske Ford.

    Among the cars that didn’t advance out of the first round included all four cars of Hendrick Motorsports.

    Dale Earnhardt Jr., who was fastest in final practice the day before, said his team “just didn’t see what everybody had yesterday. We ran the same times as we did yesterday. The car drove the same. There were just some guys out there that were faster and they just never really made a mock run or showed that speed yesterday. We do have a good race car as far as race trim speed against everybody else. I still feel like this is the best car I’ve had at this race track. The car drove good. I made a couple of mistakes that cost me enough time to get into the next round. But, I make a mistake every lap I run here and that’s just the way it’s going to be. The guys have done a good job of giving me a good race car to cover me every once in a while and I’m pretty excited about tomorrow. I didn’t think we’d get the pole. I know everybody was excited. All the fans were excited about how we ran yesterday. But, I knew there were some guys that just get around this place no matter what car they’re in. They’re fast and when it came to pole day they were going to show up and they did.”

    Cody Ware is the lone DNQ for this weekend.

    Dylan Lupton will make his first career Sprint Cup Series start tomorrow driving the No. 93 Toyota for BK Racing.

    Twenty Chevrolets, 11 Fords and nine Toyotas will comprise the 40-car field for tomorrow’s race.

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  • Jimmie Johnson says there have been talks about changes to plate package

    Jimmie Johnson says there have been talks about changes to plate package

    Speaking before the media earlier today, Jimmie Johnson says the Driver’s Council has discussed changes desired for the upcoming trip to the “World Center of Racing” next week.

    During his media availability at Sonoma Raceway this afternoon, the driver of the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was asked whether there have been any discussions on making changes to the restrictor plate aerodynamic package ahead of the Coke Zero 400 at Daytona International Speedway.

    “Yeah, I think we had one Driver Council meeting since,” he said. “I don’t remember spending a ton of time talking on it. I know following Talladega there were a lot of suggestions made.”

    He also added that he made some suggestions right after last month’s GEICO 500 at Talladega Superspeedway, in which he was caught in a 21-car wreck in turn 1 with 26 laps to go.

    “I certainly had some opinions of why passing was as difficult as it was and the energy that it created in the pack and the need to kind of bump-draft and slam-draft and then crash, like that whole process that took place. I know that they don’t want to over-react and we’re going to a different track in Daytona that works a little bit differently than Talladega does. So, I feel comfortable with it. I think, ideally, we would love to have the side draft be less impactful. We’d love to have a push from another car be more beneficial. And with the gear and horsepower reduction, I think that took away some of that offensive opportunity that existed. But, we’ll see how Daytona races and take it from there. I know that there’s another Driver Council meeting down in Daytona. It will probably be top of mind for everybody then.”

    The current restrictor plate aero package has been in place with minor changes made to it since the 2013 Daytona 500. For the most part, the only real change to it is usually the size of the holes in the restrictor plates in order to add or reduce horsepower.

    NASCAR has announced that the package as it was used at Talladega in May and the Daytona 500 in February will be used next weekend. This is in spite of three cars getting airborne in the most recent race at Talladega.

    “The one car that got in the air on its own was the 20 car (Matt Kenseth) and we looked at that,” said NASCAR Executive Vice-President and Chief Racing Development Officer Steve O’Donnell earlier today at Sonoma. He added that NASCAR is “satisfied with the race package we have.”

    Despite the lack of major changes, Johnson says the drivers still notice the more minor ones.

    “They don’t change a ton. There’s some sensitivity change to the dynamics and how it works, but the package is still very similar. You just notice or feel like last time you could clear a car more easily, or I could get up and push somebody a little bit harder and give them a run around a car. So, it’s more subtle things that we notice. Certainly, when you’re in the car after 300 or 400 miles, you can’t complete a pass, the little bump turns into a nudge and into a slam and then we have chaos like we did at Talladega. So, I guess it if gets off to a slow start, you can probably bank on a wild finish.”

  • 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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