Testing SpeedwayMedia.com

Tag: Pure Michigan 400

  • Dale Jr. out for Michigan and Darlington

    Dale Jr. out for Michigan and Darlington

    Dale Earnhardt Jr. will be out for another two weeks as he continues to battle with the effects of his latest concussion.

    Hendrick Motorsports announced today that the driver of the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet will be out of the car for this weekend’s Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway and the Bojangles’ Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway after undergoing further evaluations today at the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center Sports Medicine Concussion Program.

    Alex Bowman will drive in his place this weekend at Michigan and Jeff Gordon will drive in his place next weekend at Darlington.

    Earnhardt has been out of the car in the days following the Quaker State 400 at Kentucky Speedway when he was diagnosed with symptoms of a concussion. Since then, he’s reported trouble with balance and severe headaches.

    “We know how hard Dale is working to get back,” said Rick Hendrick, owner of Hendrick Motorsports. “He’s following what the doctors are saying, to the letter, and doing exactly what he needs to do. Everyone wants to see him in a race car, but his health is first and foremost. We’re behind him.”

    In the time he’s sat out, Earnhardt has dropped from 12th to 21st in points.

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Pure Michigan 400

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Pure Michigan 400

    With the new high drag package creating some high anxiety, here is what was surprising and not surprising in the Pure Michigan 400 from the speedway nestled in the Irish Hills.

    Surprising:  With Matt Kenseth’s win in the No. 20 Dollar General Toyota, his manufacturer reigned supreme in Michigan. And with the trip to Victory Circle, Toyota received the Michigan Heritage trophy, initiated in 2013 to celebrate the winning vehicle manufacturer.

    Toyota gets to hang onto that coveted trophy until the next race at Michigan International Speedway in June 2016. This was Toyota’s fifth Cup win at Michigan and the manufacturer’s ninth win of the season.

    Winning Coach Joe Gibbs summed it up best as far as the partnership he has enjoyed with the manufacturer, with his Toyota team winning five out of the last six races.

    “Well, the first thing is it’s a team sport all the way,” Gibbs said after the race. “We’ve got great partners, thanks to Toyota, all the hard work they’ve done over the last year and a half.”

    “You really need to enjoy it because about 10 races back, we were struggling trying to get there, and you just hope now that we’ll be able to hold some momentum here and head into the Chase.”

    Not Surprising:  To tinker or not to tinker, that has been NASCAR’s question and the sanctioning body provided some answers after the Michigan race.

    As for the high drag rules package used at MIS for race day, Steve O’Donnell, Executive Vice President and Chief Racing Development Officer, acknowledged that it did not achieve the passing at the front goal as evidenced by the dominance of the No. 20 car.

    NASCAR, however, decided not to do any further tinkering, especially with any rules package changes during the Chase for the Championship.

    “We’re going to stay with the 2015 package,” O’Donnell said. “We’ve seen some good things with that package.  A lot of work has been done by the race teams already leading up to the final 10 races and feel like that’s the best decision for the sport.”

    “Excited about the Chase, excited about the package and what’s to come in the Chase, especially when you look back to last year.”

    Surprising:  Kyle Busch not only overcame having to start in the rear due to a practice crash in his No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota but also demonstrated his best ‘Carnac the Magnificent’ skills with his prediction that there would be a crash in the first lap of the race.

    Busch was so convinced of his prediction that he hung back almost half a lap from the field during the start of the race, only to have David Ragan spin, fulfilling Busch’s prediction.

    Busch went on to finish 11th, moving himself up to 29th in the point standings.

    Not Surprising:  For the driver who came in runner up, yet again, the Pure Michigan 400 was a one-off in his opinion.

    “I would say we didn’t really learn anything today,” Kevin Harvick, the driver of the No. 4 Jimmy John’s/Budweiser Chevrolet, said. “Not only is this racetrack nothing like what we race on in the Chase, it’s just kind of a unique animal, and then you have the rules package.”

    “Today was really just about trying to win a race, and it’s really not going to lend itself towards anything that we do in the last 10 weeks.”

    Surprising:  Martin Truex Jr. is not only locked into the Chase but he continues to break records in his quest for the Championship. The driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row/Visser Precision Chevrolet finished third, scoring his 16th top-10 finish in the first 23 races of the 2015 season.

    This tied a team season record, set in 2013 when Kurt Busch piloted the No. 78 for the Colorado-based race team.

    “It was a good day for everybody on the Furniture Row team,” Truex said. “We had a good car from the get go.  We made some adjustments throughout the race, but overall the No. 78 was a fast hot rod.”

    Not Surprising:  Team Penske drivers may have had a rocky start with their splitters being confiscated by NASCAR prior to the race, but both Joey Logano and Brad Keselowski recovered to both finish in the top-10.

    “My team did a good job and we executed fairly well,” Logano said after finishing seventh. “We had a couple bad restarts but a good one there at the end to make up for it. I would say we finished about where we deserved.”

    “We made the most of our day in every way we could,” Keselowski said after his ninth place finish. “We just needed to be faster, for sure, especially down the straightaways.”

    Surprising:  Dale Earnhardt Jr. was the best of the Hendrick Motorsports drivers, finishing in the 10th position. Teammates Kasey Kahne, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson finished 15th, 17th and 39th respectively.

    In fact, the driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet had a miserable day, cutting a tire down early in the race, overshooting his pit stall, and spinning through the grass which destroyed the front end of his race car.

    Johnson finished an uncharacteristic 10 laps down.

    Not Surprising:  There was no doubt that Aric Almirola felt like a winner with his top-15 finish. The driver of the No. 43 Armour Ford overcame a stomach virus as well as a 30th place qualifying position to take the checkered flag in the 14th spot.

    Almirola also won in the point standings and now sits just 23 points behind competitor Clint Bowyer in the battle for the final playoff spot.

    “We may have finished 14th today, but it felt like a win after the weekend we had,” Almirola said. “Everyone worked really hard to get the car where we needed it.”

    “We made the best out of our situation and made up some good ground in points. We started the year with a goal to be consistent and just scored our 12th Top-15.”

    Surprising:  One young gun showed the field that having fun and performing can indeed go hand in hand. Austin Dillon, in his No. 3 Dow Chevrolet, had a career best finish in fourth place and yes, also had a little fun along the way moving from the back to the front.

    “We had some circumstances where we had to start at the back and had to figure out a way to get our track position back,” Dillon said. “Slugger (Labbe, crew chief) and the engineers did a good job coming up with a plan.”

    “The first 20 laps was no fun for us because we had to ride around and try and stay in front of the leader, but we saved gas and decided to not come down pit road on that first competition caution for fuel, and it worked out,” Dillon continued. “It showed that our car was fast enough to stay up there.”

    “We pitted, drove back up to where we needed to be, and it was a fun day for us, the Dow Chevrolet was fast, and I felt like I passed a lot of cars, also, getting into fourth.”

    Not Surprising: With his mentor Buddy Baker being laid to rest after losing his battle to cancer, Ryan Newman did him proud, scoring his eleventh top-10 finish, in spite of some damage incurred after a collision with the race car of Clint Bowyer. The finish was essential to the driver’s championship hopes and he moved up to the 12th spot in the standings.

    “I am so pleased with this top-10 finish,” Newman said. “It was an awesome team effort. It was a good day for us and a good points day for us.”

    “I’m looking forward to Bristol and I just found out that it will be my 500th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series start. I had no idea, so I’m hoping it will be another good weekend for us.”

     

  • Kenseth Wins Coors Light Pole at Michigan

    Kenseth Wins Coors Light Pole at Michigan

    By Reid Spencer | NASCAR Wire Service

    BROOKLYN, Mich. — Matt Kenseth’s No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota crew woke a sleeping giant just in time for qualifying for Sunday’s Pure Michigan 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race (2:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN) at Michigan International Speedway.

    But Kenseth jokingly credited a sleepless night — brought on by worry over teammate Denny Hamlin’s lack of punctuality — for his pole-winning effort in Friday’s time trials at the two-mile track.

    Getting the most out of the high-drag aerodynamic package in force at the event at Michigan, Kenseth covered the distance in 36.458 seconds (197.488 mph) to win his third Coors Light Pole Award of the season, his first at MIS and the 16th of his career.

    Hamlin (196.990 mph) was second fastest, and Carl Edwards (196.276 mph) claimed the third starting spot, as Joe Gibbs Racing swept the top three positions on the grid for the 23rd Sprint Cup race of the season.

    Austin Dillon (195.918 mph) qualified fourth as the top Chevrolet in the field, followed by Tony Stewart (195.477 mph) in a Chevrolet and Kyle Busch (195.450 mph) in the fourth JGR Toyota. Joey Logano, last week’s winner at Watkins Glen, qualified 10th as the only Ford driver to crack the top 12.

    Based on practice speed, Edwards was a favorite to win the pole, but Kenseth, who was 10th on the speed chart in the opening practice session, closed the gap in time from qualifying.

    “We were a long ways off Carl in practice, and I don’t even know what changes they made, but they changed a lot of stuff that really woke this thing up and had some speed,” Kenseth said. “I knew I got through (Turns) 1 and 2 good, but Denny put up such a fast lap, and I got into (Turn) 3, and I was bound and determined that I was going to make it wide open.

    “I had the first half of the corner. It was the second half that was starting to get exciting. I got sliding up the track and bogged down a little bit. I wasn’t sure that we were going have it, but I have to say thanks to those guys (the crew). They gave me a car with a lot of speed.”

    In Hamlin’s view, Busch’s return from an injury has achieved a critical mass of four talented, veteran drivers at JGR who can benefit from each other’s expertise.

    “When you have drivers that you can feed off of, like the three teammates that I have, it makes a difference, and so that’s where you’re seeing the results,” Hamlin said.

    That didn’t prevent the driver of the No. 11 Toyota Camry from throwing a barb toward the 43-year-old teammate who beat him for the pole.

    “Matt was probably too old to remember to lift there,” Hamlin said of Kenseth’s qualifying run.

    Kenseth provided a different perspective.

    “I could say it’s because I didn’t get enough sleep,” Kenseth said. “I flew up with Denny today, and he likes to come to everything at the last minute. I didn’t sleep last night thinking that we weren’t going to make it up here, so it’s really just for lack of sleep. I get to credit Denny for the pole.”

    Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Logano completed the top 10. Reed Sorenson failed to make the 43-car field.

    Complete Starting Lineup:

    Michigan Pure 400 starting lineup August 2015

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Pure Michigan 400

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Pure Michigan 400

    With an impassioned driver’s meeting speech by Carl Edwards urging safety and throttling back during cautions at such a high-speed track, here is what else was surprising and not surprising from the 45th annual Pure Michigan 400.

    Surprising: Drivers were apparently in full throttle preparation for Bristol, with tempers surprisingly abounding at the two-mile track in the Irish hills. Six time champion Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman exchanged words after the race, as did Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Denny Hamlin.

    “Just old Ryan Newman stuff,” Johnson said after his heated conversation with the driver of the No. 31 WIX Filters Chevrolet. “Anybody that has watched the sport long enough or has been in a race car out there understands the frustration of racing Ryan.”

    Racing frustrations also abounded between the drivers of the No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota and the No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet.

    “I felt like he crowded me off of (Turn) 4 in the middle part of the race,” Hamlin said. “We’re trying to make the best we can do down 50 horsepower.”

    “I’m going to eventually let him go, but I’m not some lapped car that you can just shove to the high side and I’m going to back off.”

    “I ran him up the track a little bit early in the race,” Earnhardt said. “He didn’t like it too much. I’ve been run up the track, too. I don’t like it either, but I didn’t want him hanging on my quarter panel all the way down the front straightaway and ended up three- or four-wide.”

    “I just wanted to get on by him because I was flying. We were hauling.”

    Not Surprising: Jeff Gordon went three for three for three, with his third win of the season, his third win at Michigan and a now three-win season, his first since 2011.

    “Well, I like to go fast. This place is really, really fast,” the driver of the No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet said. “Michigan has always been one of my favorites.”

    “Today I was able to drive this place the way I like to drive it, have success here again.”

    Surprising: It was a surprisingly rough weekend for Martin Truex, Jr., with his girlfriend Sherry Pollex undergoing surgery for ovarian cancer, his brother Ryan suffering a concussion in Michigan practice and his involvement a nine car pile-up that relegated him to a 36th place finish.

    “These two Michigan races turned out to be very long days,” the driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevrolet said. “It was hard to learn anything about this place back in June and it was the same story today.”

    “I just wish we could have finished one of these Michigan races with a clean car,” stated Truex. “You’re always curious to see how things would have played out and where you could have potentially finished.”

    Not Surprising: He may have been a bridesmaid yet again, in fact for the fourth time at Michigan, but Kevin Harvick deemed his second place run a success, especially in light of the upcoming Chase.

    “Yeah, I mean, we had a solid day,” Harvick said. “Just the 24 had more speed than we did all day. I felt like when Joey was out front, he could get away at the short run, we’d kind of even out.”

    “But all in all, it was a good day,” the driver of the No. 4 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet said. “The main focus for our team has been consistency heading into the Chase to make sure we can scramble and do the things we’ve done over the last month.”

    “Obviously you want to win, but all in all we had some different goals that are as important leading into the Chase.”

    Surprising: While Joey Logano joked in the media center after the race that he really did not want to relive his last few laps, he too like Harvick had the championship on his mind, laying down the gauntlet after his third place finish.

    “We can win a championship. I really feel we can do that,” the driver of the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford said. “That’s the message I want to put out there. I want to put out for my team that we’re strong enough to do that. I think we showed that today.”

    Not Surprising: It was indeed a ‘hard week’ as Jeff Burton put it after being tapped to substitute for Tony Stewart, who decided to miss another race, grieving the contact with Kevin Ward Jr. which cost the young driver his life.

    “This was a hard week,” Burton said. “This was honestly one of the hardest weeks I’ve ever spent, coming here on Friday not knowing what to expect.”

    Burton’s No. 14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet finished 37th after an electrical issue and a burning smell in the cockpit sent him to the garage.

    Surprising: It was a surprisingly bad day if your name was Kyle. Both Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson crashed, the first on lap four and the latter on lap 98.

    “I felt so good about my car those first few laps running the bottom, but then I was getting hung out on the straightaways,” Busch said “Then I just tried going to the top in (turns) three and four right away, and I got loose all the way through three and four. Every time I touched the gas it wanted to spin out, and finally it was too much gas and not enough save, and I wrecked.”

    Larson’s incident was far more frightening, however, as his No. 42 Target Chevrolet went up in flames after his hard impact.

    “I had no warning the right-front was going to blow,” Larson said. “Michigan is a fast track and into turn three is fast too. We are turning some really high speeds here so the hit was definitely a hard one.”

    “Yeah anytime you see flames you want to get out,” Larson continued, explaining his bailing out of his car in spite of NASCAR’s new ruling. “I have had fires and stuff, but that is the first time I have ever had fumes or smoke and stuff in the cockpit. That is the main reason why I wanted to get out.”

    Not Surprising: Once you get a win under your belt, as AJ Allmendinger did at Watkins Glen, those good finishes just seem to roll along. The Dinger finished top-15 at Michigan and officially clinched his spot in the Chase.

    “It’s really cool,” the driver of the No. 47 Kingsford Charcoal Chevrolet said of his Chase berth. “I thought we had a really good shot, but you never know until it’s official. So to have that is really good.”

    “More than anything I felt like this weekend made some gains so that gets a little excitement going into the next couple of race tracks to see if we can keep getting better. Overall the last few weeks has been really cool to share with the guys and come here and have a little energy and confidence. To come out here all weekend and show some speed has been really good.”

    Surprising: In spite of burning up a test session at Michigan International Speedway prior to the race weekend, Roush Fenway Racing continued to struggle at a track they once owned. Greg Biffle did manage a tenth place finish and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished 15th, however, Carl Edwards had a disappointing end to his day, taking the checkered flag in 23rd.

    “You know, I guess it was a good day,” Biffle said. “We got a top-10. Really we wanted to run up in the top-five. We had a car to do that and that track position we would get loose around other cars. We still have to work on that with our race cars.”

    “It was a good solid top-15,” Stenhouse Jr. said. “We qualified 10th and finished 15th and ran right around 15th the whole time which is kind of a goal. Obviously we want to run top-10 and pass as many cars as we can but all in all we accomplished what we were looking to do.”

    “We were so loose I just couldn’t drive it,” Edwards said. “It looked like Greg (Biffle) had a good run and we had speed in qualifying so that gives us something to look forward to but we were just too loose today to be able to do anything.”

    Not Surprising: After some difficult runs recently, it was not surprising that Paul Menard scored a fourth place finish at an intermediate track where he tends to run well. The driver of the No. 27 Certainteed/Menards Chevrolet did in fact run well, finishing fourth.

    “Our cars are really good,” Menard said. “The RCR fab shop, the ECR engine shop they make really good race cars. This track kind of suits my driving style I guess. Sluggar (Labbe, crew chief) and I, Justin and James and everybody on the No. 27 car have a good baseline intermediate track package that seems to work good at these fast tracks.”

    “Definitely needed a good run the last three or four weeks have been pretty brutal,” Menard continued. “We definitely needed this.”

    As a result of the Michigan race and assuming that they all attempt to qualify for the remaining three races of the regular season, AJ Allmendinger, Aric Almirola, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin all scored their spot in the championship Chase.

     

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Pure Michigan 400

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Pure Michigan 400

    Sporting some of the fastest speeds at any track this season, here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 44th running of the Pure Michigan 400 in the Irish hills.

    Surprising:  While the driver of the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford did his job in qualifying, scoring the pole position for the race start, it was all about team Penske when the 23 year old Joey Logano took the checkered flag and found his way to Victory Lane at Michigan International Speedway.

    “This was a hard-fought win throughout this whole Penske team,” Logano said. “This 22 team gave me a great Shell Pennzoil Ford that was capable of winning.”

    “This race team did a fabulous job,” Todd Gordon, crew chief, said. “Really proud of this whole team.”

    “As I go back probably 30 years here at the track, this is probably one of the biggest wins,” Roger Penske, team owner, said. “It’s clearly a team effort.”

    This was Logano’s first victory of the 2013 season, his first victory at Michigan International Speedway and his first victory with team Penske Ford.

    Not Surprising:  Because the race was at Michigan, it was not surprising that fuel mileage, tires and track position played critical roles in how the race unfolded.

    In fact, fuel mileage bit one of the sports veterans, who was racing all out for the ‘W’.

    “We were just hoping for one more yellow,” Mark Martin, driver of the No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota said, after running out of gas while leading to finish 27th.

    “Just stayed ahead of Joey there, but if he would have slowed down, I could have maybe saved enough,” Martin said. “I had to go that fast just trying to stay in the lead.”

    Tires also played a significant role in the Pure Michigan 400, to which Dale Earnhardt, Jr. could definitely attest.

    “It’s just the tire; we’ve had a lot of problems with,” the driver of the No. 88 National Guard Youth Foundation Chevrolet said after experiencing a right-front tire problem on lap 135. “I think this is the same tire we struggled with the last race.”

    Because of his tire troubles, Junior finished the race in the 36th position and fell one position to seventh in the point standings.

    Track position was also key as is so often the case at Michigan, a point driven home for young substitute driver Austin Dillon, behind the wheel of the No. 14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet for the recuperating Tony Stewart.

    Dillon wrecked early in the race and had to work diligently with crew chief Steve Addington to garner the track position that led to their respectable 14th place finish.

    “Definitely scared myself at the beginning as it was too early to be wrecking out there,” Dillon said. “Luckily we had saved enough car where we could work on it and get some track position.”

    “Steve made some great calls on track position and them guys did a great job.”

    Surprising:  In addition to Austin Dillon’s comeback, Clint Bowyer made a surprisingly good comeback to finish 5th in his No. 15 5-hour Energy Toyota after a first lap spin. Bowyer was the highest finishing Toyota and the only Toyota in the top ten at the finish of the Pure Michigan 400. And while Bowyer struggled, he took great pride in his ability to bounce back from the adversity.

    “Man, what a long day,” Bowyer said. “Beats the hell out of me how I recovered to finish fifth.”

    “Spinning out on the first lap I’m like – I couldn’t figure it out,” Bowyer continued. “Hard fought battle.”

    “Those days are what wins championships.”

    Bowyer took over second in the point standing and is 41 points behind leader Jimmie Johnson.

    Not Surprising:  But for a tricky restart, the driver known as the ‘Closer’ almost closed the deal in the Irish hills of Michigan. Kevin Harvick, piloting the No. 29 Rheem Chevrolet, finished second, his 10th top-10 finish at MIS and his 12th top-10 finish in 2013.

    “I just mistimed the last restart there,” Harvick said. “I had to check up and that allowed the No. 22 to kind of make it three-wide and get under me and then we had to fight back from there.”

    “But all in all it was a good day.”

    Surprising:  The points leader and five-time champ had a surprisingly challenging day at Michigan, having to drive through the field in his back up car due to a practice lap wreck. Although he looked strong and even led two laps, Jimmie Johnson experienced engine failure and ended up his day finishing 40th in his No. 48 Lowes Chevrolet.

    “The engine broke there,” Johnson said. “When we came in for a green flag pit stop, something started then it definitely dropped a cylinder.”

    “This track is hard on engines,” Johnson continued. “Days like today am thankful for the big points lead and the bonus points in the Chase.”

    “We’ll dust ourselves off and go on to next week.”

    Not Surprising:   Kurt Busch, who after the race reportedly received an offer to driver for Stewart-Haas Racing in 2014, proved the caliber of his driving abilities and the value of his team with a third place finish. This was Busch’s ninth top-10 finish in 26 races at MIS and the good finish moved him up two spots to ninth in the point standings.

    “To be in position and run well, to post a top-three finish, just got to thank the guys,” the driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet said after the race. “Furniture Row is acting like a big-time player right now.”

    “We had a little bit of weaknesses here and there but overall, we keep positing good results and it’s very satisfying.”

    Surprising:  Paul Menard, driver of the No. 27 NIBCO/Menards Chevrolet, surprisingly scored his first top five of the season.

    “We really needed a good run,” Menard said. “We have been crashing a lot.”

    “We had a good car all weekend.”

    Not Surprising:  Jeff Burton, who has been running better and better as the season progresses, finished top-10 in his No. 31 Cheerios Chevrolet. And even with that, Burton ended up both happy and disappointed.

    “It’s good to be disappointed with eighth,” Burton said. “That is a good thing.”

    “That’s a step in the right direction, no drama, got what we deserved and we will go on.”

    Surprising:  Marcos Ambrose had a surprising bump up into the top-10 finishing order after a tough run at Watkins Glen, finishing sixth in his No. 9 Dewalt Ford.

    “We ran in the top-10 for a lot of the day and it was a better day for us,” Ambrose said. “I am proud of Drew (Blickensderfer, crew chief) for calling a great race.”

    “He got us up there with track position and we were able to hold on.”

    Not Surprising:  There was no surprise in seeing Greg Biffle, who is usually strong at Michigan, finish in the ninth position in his No. 16 3M Ford. And according to the Biff, he would have done even better had it not been for some problems in the pits.

    “We bumped the No. 2 coming out of the pits in that scramble at the end and hurt the left front fender,” Biffle said. “That was really tough for us.”

    The next race will be tough for all of the drivers as they head to the beating and banging at Bristol Motor Speedway under the Saturday night lights.

  • Pure Michigan 400 Review: Bizzare Day at Michigan

    Pure Michigan 400 Review: Bizzare Day at Michigan

    [media-credit name=”Dan Sanger” align=”alignright” width=”232″][/media-credit]As the 43rd Annual Pure Michigan 400 came to a close, the race was anyone’s game with some of the top names in the sport racing for the lead position. Brad Keselowski held the lead with 10 laps to go, as five-time champion Jimmie Johnson was putting the pressure on him. Keselowski’s No. 2 Miller Light Dodge got loose one lap later and Johnson was able to sneak by him to take over the lead. Greg Biffle, who was running third with ten to go, was able to pass Keselowski for second as Johnson took over the lead.

    It looked as if Johnson would drive on to win his fourth race of the season, until his engine expired with 6 laps remaining – making that the third Hendrick Motorsports engine with problems this weekend. The race would finish under green-white-checkered as Biffle held off a hard-charging Keselowski to win for the second time this season and third time at MIS.  Kasey Kahne finished in third position, with Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Marcos Ambrose rounding out the top five.

    “It was a wild race. We struggled with our car throughout the weekend, worked real hard on it overnight,” said Biffle after the race. “My car was super good at the beginning of the race when the track was green. Once I got on restarts and in traffic, I wasn’t that good.

    “We just kept working on it, trying different things. But, we were so good out front. I knew once we got out front we’d be tough to beat. I know that a lot of people don’t expect us to win the championship, and don’t think we can compete for the title. But, we will be a factor when it comes down to Homestead.”

    This moves the No. 16 team to the points lead, with 20 points over Roush Fenway Racing teammate Matt Kenseth. Earnhardt moves to third position in standings, with his teammate Johnson dropping three positions to fourth. Keselowski rounds out the top five, 47 points behind the leader.

    Cautions Breed Cautions

    First caution of the day occurred on Lap 6 when Aric Almirola and David Gilliland got together on the front stretch. Unfortunately for the rest of the field, this was just the start of the cautions for the day.

    [media-credit name=”Wesley Hitt/Getty Images” align=”alignright” width=”221″][/media-credit]Mark Martin started the race from the pole position and ended his day with a bizarre crash on Lap 64. Juan Pablo Montoya and Bobby Labonte were racing in front of Martin in an attempt to stay on the lead lap, when the two got together coming out of Turn 4. Martin dove low to try and avoid the incident, but sent his car spinning down pit road. His car then crashed into an opening of the pit wall just in front of the No. 5 team’s pit stall. Crew members dove to safety as debris flew from the pit stall and the No. 55 Toyota.

    “That was a pretty freak angle that I got at that,” Martin said. “I’m not sure what you could do. It could have been really bad if I would have got in that hole a little deeper where it caught me in the door instead of in the crush area back there. It’s hard to keep up with what exactly is going to be happening there. I was hoping that I was going to miss the pit wall completely and not tear the car up, but then I saw that the angle I was going that I was going to hit the end of pit wall.”

    Luckily, Martin was able to walk away from the incident safely, along with the crews on pit road. If the car would have hit any closer to the driver’s door than it did, Martin may not have been so lucky. Martin will continue driving part-time for Michael Waltrip Racing in 2013, with 22 Sprint Cup races on his schedule.

    Drivers were having a tough time getting their cars to stick to the track in Turn 4 on Sunday, including Watkins Glen winner, Marcos Ambrose. On Lap 77 his Stanley Tools Ford got loose and slid up the track and tapped the No. 78 sending him into the Turn 4 wall. Regan Smith was able to continue, but finished the race in 29th position, 47 laps down.

    The numerous amounts of cautions continue on Lap 90 when Joey Logano blew a right front tire due to a fender rub he sustained a few laps earlier. Two laps earlier the No. 42 of Juan Pablo Montoya got into Logano and forced him into the outside wall, causing the fender rub. Montoya finished in 26th position, Logano in 31st place.

    On Lap 135 Kurt Busch’s bad luck continued as he appeared to break something in the right front of his No. 51 Toyota and slammed into the wall. This brought out a caution and changed up pit strategy as 11 cars did not pit, including Earnhardt who assumed the race lead. Earnhardt led the field for a total of 25 laps after starting in the back of the field due to wrecking his car in final practice on Saturday.

    The last crash-induced caution occurred when Trevor Bayne blew his right front tire on Lap 182, causing him to finish in 24th position.

    Chase for the Sprint Cup

    With only three races left until the Chase for the Sprint Cup, all eyes are on drivers like Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin who are riding the line for falling out of the top ten in points. Kahne is only 33 points away from jumping into the top ten and continues to hold one of the wild cards that will allow him access into the Chase. If he races his way into the Chase and Hamlin or Stewart were to drop out of the top ten, this would give the wild card slot to one of them. As of now, Kahne and Ryan Newman hold these cards.

    Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon, Marcos Ambrose, and Joey Logano still have a shot to steal the wild card away from Newman, as they all hold one win this season. The wild card option goes to the drivers outside of the top ten who have the most wins this season; so far the only driver with more than one win outside of the top ten is Kahne.

  • Matty’s Picks 2012 – Vol. 21 – Michigan International Speedway – Pure Michigan 400 – August 19, 2012

    Matty’s Picks 2012 – Vol. 21 – Michigan International Speedway – Pure Michigan 400 – August 19, 2012

    The summer tour continues this week in the rolling hills of Michigan for the 43rd Annual Pure Michigan 400. The new racing surface at Michigan International Speedway, produced speeds upwards of 210 mph and sent Goodyear’s engineers back to the drawing board. NASCAR was forced to circle the wagons and have a fleet of new Goodyear tires caravanned up to MIS from Charlotte as a result of the blistering speeds. The tires held up and the race at MIS nine weeks ago turned out to be a far cry from the traditional strung out boring-ness that races at Michigan tended to produce.

    Drivers are loving the new surface at Michigan, and with a two-groove racing surface coming into play this weekend, side-by-side racing is surely on the menu this week.

    Watkins Glen Recap

    It was a wild one last week at Watkins Glen, but in the end I was proved wrong by the recent ‘Master of The Glen’, Marcos Ambrose.

    I went out on a limb last week and said it would not be one of the two ‘Road Course Specialists’ in Victory Lane last week, and had that statement shoved in my face on the final lap of the Finger Lakes 355 at The Glen. My Winner Pick, Brad Kesolowski fought hard all day last week and fell victim to the bold driving of Marcos Ambrose on the final lap last week.

    The oil down on the track at the conclusion of the race on Sunday was the main story.

    “Well the 18, (who was leading the race at the start of the final lap) was oil. Look like he had something wrong there and had the whole track slick as hell. You couldn’t drive it; it was undriveable…Then it came down to just running a whole lap against Marcos. I got in the oil and we’d slip up. He’d get by me and then he’d get in the oil and I’d get by him. Just really good, hard racing; some beating and banging. I think its the way racing should be.” Brad Keselowski said about the situation.

    My Dark Horse pick last week considers Watkins Glen International to be one of his ‘Hometown Tracks’. The Mayetta, NJ native started ninth and finished tenth in Sunday’s 90-lap NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Watkins Glen International. Quickly climbing through the top-10, Martin Truex Jr. made his way all the way up to third by lap 27. A mid-race mishap for the No. 56 NAPA Auto Parts Toyota (an empty fuel tank), put the kibosh on Truex’s bid for the victory at the 2.45-mile road course.

    Truex commented after the race “We dodged a big bullet there with a 10th-place finish. We had a good car. The NAPA Toyota was fast. We were running third and one lap from pitting and we ran out of gas and the caution came out. So, when we pitted we had to go to the tail end of the longest line and I think there were only 25 laps to go and we were in the tail end of the longest line. We had to pass a lot of cars to get back to 10th.”

    Michigan Picks

    I’m very glad I’m finishing this week’s column today rather than yesterday. With the drama of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice this morning, my picks would have been far different had I written my column yesterday, rather than today.

    Winner Pick

    Dale Jr. was the guy I was looking at for the win before this morning’s practice session, but with Jr. forced to a backup car following a spin in practice, it would be a true underdog victory tomorrow afternoon for the No. 88 team. To make things worse for the Steve Latarte and Dale Jr., the wreck happened with less than ten minutes remaining in Final Practice, leaving no time for adjustments to the Hendrick Motorsports backup car.

    With the Dale Jr. drama unfolding this morning, I have no choice but to turn to a guy with two wins under his belt at Michigan International Speedway. He’s currently second in points, and has just one win this season. He’s had an up and down last few weeks, and needs a win for seeding purposes for this year’s Chase for the Sprint Cup. Greg Biffle was fastest in each of the two final practice sessions this weekend at MIS, and has a great looking car for tomorrow’s Pure Michigan 400.

    Dark Horse Pick

    Reagan Smith is riding a great looking Furniture Row/Farm American Chevrolet this week into Michigan, and is coming off back-to-back top tens at the two tracks closest to his hometown of Cato, NY. Michigan International Speedway has not been the kindest of racetracks for Reagan Smith, but that’s not to say he can not change that this week. He boasts a best finish of thirteenth at the two-miler, but was shown eighth fastest on the speed charts this morning in Final Practice. Smith will start the Pure Michigan 400 from the eighteenth starting spot, so he’s got some work to do on Sunday to leave Michigan with a solid finish.

    That’s all for this week, so until next time….You Stay Classy NASCAR NATION!