Chevy gets much-needed win on heels of bad news

Thank you, Mark Martin.

Capping a wild weekend that was in some ways unpredictable and in others all too much so, Martin won the LifeLock 400 at Michigan International Speedway in a Chevrolet. The No. 5 Chevy he drove for Hendrick Motorsports inherited the victory when Greg Biffle, who had inherited the lead when Jimmie Johnson ran out of gas, also ran short on fuel on the final lap.

MIS surprise

Who says Chevrolet can't win in Michigan? Thanks to Mark Martin the manufacturer has taken two of the last three.

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• Race Rewind: Michigan
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• Press Pass: M. Martin

No offense to Toyota, the newest manufacturer to grace the Cup Series, but this was a day when the sport really needed Chevy to make a strong showing and win a race.

Even with Johnson fading to 22nd after he ran out of gas while leading on Lap 199 of the 200-lap event, the top-two finishers ended up being behind the wheels of Chevys -- including not only the surprising race winner in Martin, but also the surprised second-place finisher in Jeff Gordon, another of Martin's Hendrick Motorsports teammates.

Only two days prior to the race, General Motors announced it was scaling back big-time on its funding in NASCAR. The parent company of Chevrolet overnight went from dominant player in the sport to a huge question mark, getting out of the Camping World Truck Series and the Nationwide Series altogether while leaving a cloud of suspicion that large cuts on the Sprint Cup side are forthcoming next.

Martin's victory at a track long regarded as the home field for all the Detroit-based American manufacturers helping fund Cup organizations -- currently Ford and Dodge in addition to Chevrolet -- appeared to stop the bleeding, if only for a day. No one is saying Martin's win can or will put off the inevitable, which apparently will be more cuts in NASCAR funding by the new GM, 60 percent of which supposedly is now owned by you and me and the rest of the American taxpayers.

But at least on the mental side of the ledger, it certainly didn't hurt.

What's next?

Eleven of the top-12 finishers last Sunday at Michigan drove cars that at least had their origins in Detroit. In fact, 14 of the top 16 finishers did so in a Chevy, Ford or Dodge machine.

Denny Hamlin piloted the top-finishing Toyota, with his No. 11 ride fielded by Joe Gibbs Racing taking advantage of the others' fuel misfortunes to finish third. And lest anyone misread this to think Chevy's apparent demise as a racing giant makes this the proper time to bash Toyota for coming into the sport, think again.

Where would NASCAR be right now without Toyota's involvement?

The fact of the matter is that now, with Chevy's future status in the sport so shaky, Toyota is almost certain to become stronger than ever. Joe Gibbs Racing, which made the then-controversial switch from Chevys to Toyotas two years ago, is poised to benefit from it over the long haul in ways we, and they, can only now begin to imagine.

Restructuring

General Motors is cutting factory support for Chevrolet teams competing in the Nationwide Series and Camping World Truck Series

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And who's next to come into the sport? Honda? Renault? BMW?

Brian France, chairman of NASCAR, alluded to being open to involvement by other automobile manufacturers in the near future in an interview before Sunday's race in Michigan. He didn't name names but said some had expressed interest -- particularly those looking to break into the North American market in a bigger way.

In other words, NASCAR is hanging onto its long-held belief that wins on the track on Sunday still sell cars on Monday. So, apparently, are some automobile manufacturers not currently being fueled by American taxpayer dollars.

Meanwhile ...

Don't expect a big, sudden dropoff in performance from the Chevy teams who have excelled this season or over the long haul, even if more bad news from GM comes after a meeting this Wednesday when GM officials reportedly will discuss the possibility of further financial cuts in support with several Cup teams.

Hendrick Motorsports, for instance, gets enough of an influx of sponsorship cash to continue to be a major player in the sport for years to come. But then again, who knows what happens there if those sponsorship dollars subsequently dry up?

Who knows anything for certain in this sport anymore?

It will survive. It always has.

But the face of the sport is changing dramatically and rapidly. With GM having filed for bankruptcy recently, it's not like the announcements made last Friday were met with total shock. Everyone knew this day was coming. The only questions were when and how bad would the news be.

Even now, it's not like this is over. The familiar bow tie logo of Chevrolet will be greatly missed in the Truck and Nationwide Series, the feeder series to Cup that arguably needed GM's funding a whole lot more than the bigger boys do.

Like Biffle and Johnson on those final two laps Sunday at Michigan, Chevy's racing program appears to be out of gas. The finish line for the manufacturer's involvement in the sport as we have known it may be in sight, and although it is hard to believe Chevy won't remain involved in NASCAR's premier series on at least some significant level, compared to its glorious past it is now running on fumes at best.

Then again, that was all Martin needed to earn his latest trip to Victory Lane. He ran out of fuel himself exiting Turn 4 on the final lap. The timing of it all made the 50-year-old Martin's old-school win seem all the more special Sunday.

The opinions expressed are solely those of the writer.

Joe Menzer is the author of "The Great American Gamble: How the 1979 Daytona 500 Gave Birth to a NASCAR Nation." Click here to purchase.