MIS

NASCAR – Biffle Takes the Checkered and the Points Lead at MIS – Hendrick Motor Failures Cause Concern

August 21, 2012 by Jay Tomchuk 1 Comment

Greg Biffle performs his celebration burnout at MIS after winning the Pure Michigan 400

Ford has not seen the checkered flag at MIS in 7 consecutive races. In real life terms that means 3 and a half years. The last time a Ford had been to winners circle was back in 2008, in the Michigan race after Dale Jr. started his winless streak. Greg Biffle decided that it was time for change. Running int he top 10 for most of the day the #16 Roush Ford car looked strong. As the final laps wore down it was beginning to look like another good day for the Chevy crowd. Then on lap 195 Jimmie Johnson lost his engine in spectacular fashion in a cloud of smoke. The restart had a Dodge (Kesolowski) , 2 Chevy’s (Dale Jr and Kasey Kahne) and a lone Ford filling the front 2 rows. All 4 cars had been fast all day, Kahne had recovered from an early spin in the Mark Martin wreck and everyone was itching for the win. When the checkered flag dropped and the cars roared across the line, the crowd actually fell silent for a moment as they waited for the outcome. It was the Ford of Biffle that took off into the clean air and no one could catch him. Biffle may not have led the most laps throughout the day, but he led the one that means the most as he crossed the line taking the checkered flag in the Pure Michigan 400, and ending the drought for Ford in their own back yard.

Biffle credits the jump he got on the restart to Dale Earnhardt Jr who started behind him in row 2 on the final restart that allowed him to earn his 18th career win.

“Junior gave me a huge push for that win,” Biffle said. “I have to thank him for that. I saw Brad laying back [on the restart] like always, and he got a little jump on me.”

“We’re going to make a run at the title,” Biffle promised. “I know they don’t talk about us a lot, but they will when we get to Vegas.”

Brad Kesolowski gave it everything he had but just could not catch the 16, especially since he was in a heated battle for 2nd with a hard charging Kasey Kahne. Finishing .417 seconds behind the leader Kesolowski was disappointed with his result at his home track.

“This is my home track,” said Keselowski, who has finished second in two consecutive Cup races. “I want to win here just as bad as I want to win a race in the Chase — probably more. There was a stretch where I felt like we were going to win it. I had some goosebumps going on.

“But it wasn’t meant to be, and I’m still very proud of the effort. … I just want to get that one more spot. I want to win races, and we’ve been running solid — and I’m proud of that — but we want that one more spot, too.”

Kasey Kahne, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Marcos Ambrose rounded out the top 5.

———————————————————————————————————————

Jimmie Johnson looking concerned after his engine failure in the final laps of the Pure Michigan 400

Hendrick Motorsport engine builders will be doing a lot of head scratching this week as they try to figure out how they lost 4 engines over the weekend. Two of those engines belonged to Jimmie Johnson in the #48. Having issues on Saturday they opted to swap their engine out and start from the rear of the field for Sunday’s start. They looked fast as they moved through the field and were in the top 10 by lap 97.

Then early in the race the #14 Stewart Haas entry driven by Tony Stewart started sounding rough, later to be determined that he lost a cylinder due to a valve spring breaking. With 4 of the Hendrick engine builders looking at the engine they patched it up and sent him back out for points but he was no longer a contender.

45 laps later it was the #24 car that suffered the same issue ending Jeff Gordon’s chances for a win and continuing the 4 time champion’s streak of bad luck that has been following him around throughout the season.

The last and final straw was right at the end of the race as the #48 lost their second engine of the weekend with only 5 laps to go in the race. In a cloud of smoke the 48 fell back through the field before pulling behind the wall in a rare DNF for their team.

“[I was] just running along there and, all of a sudden, dropped a cylinder,” Gordon said. “The No. 14 [Stewart] had that same issue. This is a tough place on engines. We rarely have these issues. … When you come to Michigan and you turn these kinds of sustained RPMs on this fast of a track, it’s always of concern here.”

“It’s just a bad day, not the norm, for sure,” said Stewart, who radioed that it felt like his car was running on seven cylinders early in the race. “We have the best engine department in the world, in my opinion. We had three engine tuners down there [in the garage] trying to get it fixed for us. [Sunday’s result] wasn’t for lack of effort.”

The failures were also a cause for concern in the 88 camp of Dale Earnhardt Jr. Crew chief Steve Letarte waited patiently for word on what the cause of the failure was as he watched his driver moving forward through the field.

“Without a doubt [I was worried],” Letarte said. “One doesn’t bother you. That’s part of racing. But when the 24 had their issue, the concern went up.

“I’m disappointed for the motor guys. I know they work tremendously hard. This is one of those places where, as fast as we’re running, it’s just hard on equipment. We’ll get back to the shop, look into them all, and I’m sure we’ll have good direction coming to the Chase.”

NASCAR – Mark Martin Takes The Pole for the Pure Michigan 400- Late Practice Troubles for Hendrick Cars

August 19, 2012 by Jay Tomchuk 1 Comment

Mark Martin signs autographs as he walks the red carpet at MIS before the June race

At 5’6″ and 135 lbs Mark Martin does not strike an imposing figure. But when you listen to the drivers in the garage talk about him you would think he was 8 feet tall and had wings. With the years of experience behind him, the reverence you see in the eyes of the drivers when they talk about him is well earned. Mark Martin may be the oldest active driver on the track, but yesterday he was also the fastest. Carl Edwards said that he thought he had left maybe a little bit of speed out there, well he did, and Mark Martin found it.

“The one thing that you’ll get from me is every ounce that I can find,” Martin said. “You get that no matter what the result may be.”

It’s the experience that counts, and Martin has earned more than anyone else in the garage.

“Gosh, I’ve had a few years of practice,” Martin said. “I don’t need a whole bunch of practice. I just need a race car like what I drove [Friday]. I need fast race cars, and that’s what [crew chief] Rodney Childers is giving me.

“All it is is driving the car — I’ve been doing that since I was 15.”

With a speed of 199.706 MPH Martin came close to breaking the 200mph mark that was seen here at MIS back in June.

“It was obscene. It was crazy,” he said. “To be able to get that lap is a nice thing [but] the fastest car does not always win the race.”

“I believe this race team is up to the challenge of contending and winning a race somewhere along the way,” he says. “I can’t know if it could possibly be this one. All I know is we’re probably not going to have to take a middle-of-the-pack race car and try to win with it. That is a feather in our cap.”

Carl Edwards will start on the outside of Martin in the 2nd position with his qualifying effort of 198.626 MPH. Edwards was all smiles as he talked about seeing his time fall to Martin right at the end of the knockout qualifying session.

“There are generations of people who have all had little Mark Martin toys,” Edwards said. “Who knows? My kids some day might be racing against the guy. … And they will probably be just as frustrated.”

“He is living the dream,” Edwards said. “He has had a successful career and [now] he’s able to pick and choose which races he’s going to run — and he performs well at them. I think that is pretty amazing, especially at his age. … He can probably bench press more than all of us.”

_______________________________________________________________________________

Dale Earnhardt return to the track where he earned his last 2 wins, 4 years apart. In June he dominated here and although he had handling issues in the early stages of the race he made his way to the front and led the field to the checkered flag with ease. He may have a little bit more of a struggle this time. The car he won with in June was what he was prepared to run until a late crash in the 3rd and final practice. Although the backup car he will be using has never turned a racing lap at MIS it has been here before for testing.

Carl Edwards, Dale Jr., and Matt Kenseth answer questions in a Q&A session Friday after qualifying.

“We tested it here when we first came, so we know a lot about the car here at this particular track, where in most cases you don’t,” said Earnhardt. “We have that going for us. We have a lot of information, and I feel like we should be able to put a car out there that’s relatively in the ballpark. … Other than just starting at the back, I don’t think it’s hurt our chances too much. I mean, you hate to wreck the primary car, but the consequences and the situation really couldn’t be more favorable with the backup than it is here for us.”

“We were making some changes on the car, and got the car too loose, and it just came out from under me in the corner,” he said. “A little bit of being too free, and probably running harder than I should have been in practice.”

Jr. is confident that chances can be taken early in the race to move forward, and if not he is prepared to drive his way to the front.

“We can take no tires, two tires, whatever, and gain a lot of track position throughout the first part of the race if we get the opportunity under yellows,” he said. “If we don’t have yellows, we’re going to have our work cut out for us.”

“When we won here in [June], we fell all the way to the back having some trouble with the balance of the car, and made some changes. So we’ve come out of a hole before here and won the race, so I feel pretty good about our chances still. We’ve just got to make sure we do all our homework up in the front of the hauler here, and when they put it out on the starting grid, it’s close. It needs to be close. We don’t want to have to deal with the car being way off balance-wise at the start of the race. Because that could make it tough for us to finish well.”

Jr. will not be alone starting from the rear of the field as his teammate Jimmie Johnson replaced an engine Saturday, a change which requires vacating his 3rd place qualifying position on the grid and move to the rear of the field.

NASCAR – Biffle Takes The Pole in Michigan for the Pure Michigan 400

August 20, 2011 by Jay Tomchuk Leave a Comment

Greg Biffle turning laps duing the Saturday morning practice session - Image courtesy of JDTImages

With the race sponsor on his car, Greg Biffle could not have chosen a better time to break his 3 year long pole drought.Ã‚Â It was certainly a morale booster after last weeks 31st place finish at The Glen and the ensuing drama with Boris Said.Ã‚Â In Biffle’s own words however, it has been dealt with, and it is behind him.Ã‚Â For his sakes I hope he has so that he can concentrate on the race before him.

”Our deal is over with,” Biffle said. ”We had our differences on the race track, that one instance, I told him I wasn’t happy with it on the race track and then I didn’t go around him the rest of the day. We talked about that on the phone and it is over.”

Said agreed in an interview in Montreal before the start of the Nationwide Race.

”We’ve settled our differences,” Said explained. ”I won’t be going to Christmas dinner with him, that’s for sure.”

Biffle is currently in 13th in points and a win would go a long way to gaining one of two Wild Card spots for the chase.

”We have to have a win to get in the Chase, that is obvious,” Biffle said. ”Here, Bristol and Atlanta are good tracks for us. I think this is probably our best, and this may be our best opportunity – here or Atlanta. This is a huge deal for us and huge momentum for us going into Sunday.”

Other drivers close to the bubble are also feeling the pressure of clawing for the finalÃ‚Â secured spots, or getting wins to take a wild card spot away from another driver.

Dale Jr - Image courtesy of JDTImages

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Tony Stewart sit 9th and 10th in points at the moment and both of them know how precarious a position that is.Ã‚Â Dropping out of the top 10 now, with only 4 races to go, would be disastrous, as Hamlin and Kesolowski sit waiting in the wings, and Marcos Ambrose sneaking up behind them with a good finish this weekend.Ã‚Â The chase field is tenuous from about 7th back, as a poor finish by any of them could eliminate their hopes of running in the chase for the Sprint Cup Championship.

Dale Jr qualified 8th and is ready to run for a win.Ã‚Â After a few bad weeks in a row and a drop from third to 10 in the points, Jr. knows that he needs to perform well for the next 4 races.

“We’re not in the Chase yet, but we had a good week last week where some other guys had bad weeks,” Earnhardt said. “We got some fortune there when it came to the points. Hopefully, that can help us maintain our position, if not improve it. I think we can even improve our position if we do well enough.”

“We thought our setup was pretty good the last time we raced here,” said Earnhardt. “We were really, really, really fast on the first two or three laps of a run and we weren’t that good after 10 laps. We tried to talk ourselves into believing that we were better than we were.”

Stewart feels that consistancy will be his key to success.

Tony Stewart talking to the Media at MIS - Image courtesy of JDTImages

“There’s days we’ve got a great race car and there’s days we’re off a little bit,” Stewart said. “So we’ve got to figure out how to be more consistent first, then worry about getting better.”

Carl Edwards, who is tied in points for first in the Chase but sits behind Kyle Busch because of wins, is ready to take on all comers tomorrow.Ã‚Â He’s ready to win at all costs and take no prisoners.Ã‚Â what has made him adopt this strategy here and not at Richmond or Bristol?

“This weekend I feel like is one of the last races where we can go all-out, go for the win and not worry about the consequences,” Edwards said Friday. “This one and Atlanta are the ones where I feel like we can just go for it. I feel good about our mile-and-a-half programs.

“At Bristol and Richmond, we’re going to be focusing on really learning and building our short-track program, trying to be better for [Chase races at] Martinsville and Loudon. So I’m going to look at the races differently. This one — 100 percent go for the win. Atlanta — 100 percent go for the win.

“Bristol and Richmond will be more gearing up for the Chase and all the things that can happen at the shorter tracks.”

Related posts:

Related posts:

Related posts: