Pure Michigan 400

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.

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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.”

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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 – Kyle Busch Get His First Win at MIS and First to Lock in For The Chase

August 21, 2011 by Jay Tomchuk 1 Comment

Kyle Busch climbs from his car in Victory Lane at MIS - Image courtesy of JDTImages

On a day where the weather threatened surprises, Kyle Busch was building a surprise of his own.Ã‚Â With a car that was nowhere to be seen for the first half of the race, Busch more than made up for it in the second half.Ã‚Â When Johnson took the lead on lap 168 ,after fortune smiled on him during a routine pit stop, allowing him to come out ahead of the pace car and stay out while everyone else came in to pit, Kyle Busch did what he does best, out drove everyone near him to the finish line.

“It’s awesome,” Busch said. “That’s what we wanted. We wanted to make sure that we could come out here and win races and have the opportunity to go for broke.”

“Yesterday we practiced, we struggled a bit, and I kind of got down on things, and Dave was right there to help me out and pick it up,” Busch said. “We went over things last night and talked a lot about what we could do to the car to make it better, thought smartly about our changes for today, and we came out here strong.”

Jimmie Johnson - Image courtesy of JDTImages

Johnson fought building an almost 1 full second lead before Busch began to over take him.Ã‚Â It did not take long for Busch to take the lead and hold it until the final caution flew at Lap 193 setting the stage for a Green White Checkered finish.Ã‚Â Johnson, who also has not yet won at MIS tried everything he could but not hold off the hard charging Busch.

“[The car] was just really loose at the start of the race, and I drove up through the field, and Chad [Knaus] made a great call to get me to pit road before that caution came out,” Johnson said. “It gave us the shot at the win, but once I was up front in the clean air the balance of the car was a bit too loose.”

“I got away from Kyle but I was loose, and I knew he was going to come at some point and he showed up. Disappointed that I didn’t win, but a very good effort for the Lowe’s team especially when you look at where we started the race [19th] and where we finished.”

The win also clinched Kyle Busch’s spot in the chase by manor of wins.Ã‚Â With 4 wins under his belt this season, he could in theory, not show up for the next 3 races and still make the chase via the wins and a wild card spot.Ã‚Â He is currently in first place in points however and shows no sign of wanted to lay back and let someone else go for the win.

Carl Edwards day went about as bad as his worst nightmares.Ã‚Â Finishing ahead of only the start and park teams in 36th position and 29 laps down, Edwards lost 2 spots in the standings moving from a tie for first back to fourth.Ã‚Â After losing a cylinder and losing valuable time in the garage trying to diagnose the problem, Edwards finally returned to the track 23 laps down and off the pace, losing ground right until the checkered flag.

Greg Biffle on the track at MIS - Image courtesy of JDTImages

Greg Biffle dominated the first half of the race, taking off like a rocket when the green flag flew and leading the most laps all day, when the caution came out on lap 107.Ã‚Â Biffle’s team opted for a 4 tire change while other teams only took 2.Ã‚Â Biffle then had to fight something he hadn’t seen all day.Ã‚Â Traffic and dirty air.Ã‚Â He did his best and fought his way back up to 10th but faded after that and fell back to a final finishing position of 20th place.

“I don’t know what happened,” Biffle said. “I am not sure. I have a feeling we kind of got a bum set of tires and then we got off on our adjustments.

“It was really, really tight and we adjusted on it. And then I think I was too loose the rest of the day. But I really don’t know what happened to be honest with you. I really don’t know right now.”

Dale Jr and Tony Stewart managed to hold on to their positions for chase contention.Ã‚Â Dale Jr ran well in the beginning and was looking like a shoe in for a top 10 finish, but with Jr complaining about the tires from the pit stop before it was decided he would come in for a new set of 4 and fuel after Kurt Busch slammed the wall on lap 197, which dropped him back to 15th on the track.Ã‚Â He managed to race back one position in the Green, White Checkered finish and ended up in 14th.Ã‚Â He also remains in 9th place in Chase contention as well as padding his position over the 11th spot, held by Clint Bowyer now, up to 30 points.

Tony Stewart held on to a top 10 finish, landing himself in 9th, which was good enough to hold on to 10th a to gain 5 points on Dale Jr ending up 105 out of first in Chase contention.

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