Moffitt edges out Sauter for Michigan Camping World Truck Series win

Posted on August 11, 2018August 11, 2018 by Reid Spencer

BROOKLYN, Mich. – Talk about perfect timing.

With a huge run through the final two corners, Brett Moffitt surged past Johnny Sauter right before the finish line at Michigan International Speedway to win Saturday’s Corrigan Oil 200 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race by .025 seconds.

Trailing Sauter at the white flag, Moffitt backed off in Turn 1 to create a gap between his No. 16 Hattori Racing Enterprises Toyota and the No. 21 GMS Racing Chevrolet of Sauter. Moffitt charged into Turn 3, pulled even to the inside of Sauter’s truck as they rolled the corner and won a drag race to the finish line.

Moffitt picked up his second victory at Michigan, his fourth of the season—tying Sauter for the series lead—and the fifth of his career.

“Pretty amazing this little team’s gone to Victory Lane four times this year,” Moffitt said. “The whole last however many laps I was behind (Sauter), I would get to him, but I would push him with that air bubble between our bumpers.

“So I tried to back up (Turn) 1, let him get out there a little bit, and I knew the 8 (Polesitter and third-place finisher John Hunter Nemechek) was behind us—I was hoping he would actually get to us and be able to push us. But we were able to play it right and time it right, and, man, it’s just great to get here.”

Sauter had taken the lead on Lap 88 of 100 when he surged past both Moffitt and eventual fifth-place finisher Todd Gilliland. The disappointing finish left Sauter second-guessing himself.

“They said ‘Clear by three (car-lengths)’ coming off (Turn) 2, and I kept watching the mirror,” Sauter said. “I just felt like, if I ran the middle, I’d keep momentum up. I felt like when I went to the bottom, I was bogging a little bit.

“But I screwed up. No ‘ifs,’ ‘ands’ or ‘buts’ about it. I should have run the bottom, but I do feel like maybe he would have squirted to the top. Sitting duck, kind of—for sure. You know he’s planning a run, but you just don’t know when… Pretty ticked at myself for giving away a win.”

Sauter wasn’t the only one. Stewart Friesen led 12 laps in a strong No. 52 Chevrolet, but his fueler drew a penalty for pushing the truck after handling the fuel can during the final pit stop under caution on Lap 80, sending Friesen to the rear for a Lap 84 restart.

Friesen fought his way back to eighth at the finish.

Noah Gragson ran fourth, followed by Gilliland. Ben Rhodes, Grant Enfinger, Friesen, Justin Haley and Matt Crafton completed the top 10. Sauter retained the series lead by 56 points over Gragson.

Moffitt’s victory ensures that at least two drivers will qualify for the NCTWS Playoffs on points—good news for Enfinger and Friesen, who are third and fourth in the standings, respectively. Crafton, who is sixth, will clinch a Playoff berth if no one outside the top eight in the standings wins next Thursday at Bristol.

Given his 53-point edge over Crafton, Enfinger can clinch a Playoff spot simply by starting the race at Bristol.

Notes: The No. 4 KBM truck of Gilliland had one lug nut found to be unsecure in post-race inspection.

Posted on August 11, 2018 by Reid Spencer

BROOKLYN, Mich. — Based on testing during successive weeks in July, Goodyear has opted to bring a slightly different tire for September’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Playoff race at the Charlotte Motor Speedway road course.

Goodyear is treating the Bank of America Roval 400 as a typical road course race, although the track configuration that includes the majority of the banked oval (with chicanes) and an infield portion will be raced for the first time.

“When we got to the organizational test (in July), we started seeing some heat that we didn’t really expect, to be quite honest with you,” said Greg Stucker, Goodyear’s director of race tire sales. “I think it’s like anything — as you go from test to test to test, everybody gets a little faster.

“We saw enough signs in the first week of the organizational test that we decided to bring some of the controls (control tires) from our March test back and evaluate that as well, which we did in the second week (July 17).

“We felt like that was going to be a better choice for the race. The difference between the two is really a minor formulation change in the tread compound. It might have a little less grip, although when we did back-to-backs, nobody could really tell any difference. It’s just a slight change, back to where we were in March, and we felt like that was the right choice.”

MORE: Tricky spots abound at road course | Take a lap around the course

Goodyear will also bring rain tires to Charlotte — just in case. The rain tires are no different from those used at other road courses on the Cup circuit.

Posted on August 11, 2018August 11, 2018 by Staff Report

Joey Logano topped Saturday’s final practice session for the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series prior to Sunday’s Consumers Energy 400 (2:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Michigan International Speedway. The two-time Michigan winner put down a fast lap of 197.580 mph in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford to pace the 65-minute session.

Kyle Busch (No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota) came home second in practice with a fast lap of 197.520 mph while Alex Bowman (No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet) took third with a speed of 197.320 mph. Kevin Harvick (No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, 197.212 mph) and Kyle Larson (No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, 197.179 mph) rounded out the top five. Harvick was the runner-up at Michigan in June, while Larson has won three of the past four races at the 2-mile track.

Martin Truex Jr. was the only member of the “Big 3” to finish practice outside the top five as he posted the 17th-fastest speed.

Chase Elliott, who was last weekend’s winner at Watkins Glen, went for a spin off of Turn 4 in the opening minutes of practice. The Hendrick Motorsports driver has three runner-up finishes at Michigan in five starts there. He finished the session 18th-fastest.

WATCH: Elliott goes for a spin

The No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford of Michael McDowell served a 15-minute practice hold in final practice for failing pre-qualifying inspection twice at Michigan.

Practice was moved up 15 minutes to give drivers extra track time after the day’s first practice was only 15 minutes because of heavy fog in the area this morning.

Erik Jones leads Saturday’s early practice

Erik Jones topped Saturday’s fog-shortened, early morning Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series practice session at Michigan International Speedway. The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led the way with a fast lap of 200.150 mph around the 2-mile track ahead of Sunday’s Consumers Energy 400 (2:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

William Byron (No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet) came in second with a speed of 199.678 mph followed by Brad Keselowski (No. 2 Team Penske Ford) in third with a speed of 199.358 mph. June Michigan winner Clint Bowyer (No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford, 199.242 mph) and Joey Logano (No. 22 Team Penske Ford, 198.999 mph) rounded out the top five.

The morning fog delayed the start of practice by 40 minutes. The session was initially scheduled to start at 8:35 a.m. ET.

Pole sitter Denny Hamlin came in ninth in the session, while defending race winner Kyle Larson placed 12th.

Several teams were assessed 15-minute practice holds for this practice, but the fog delay gave the teams the option to serve the penalty in either of Saturday’s sessions. The No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota team of Martin Truex Jr. (late to pre-race inspection at Watkins Glen), the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team of Kyle Busch (didn’t come to complete stop at the inner loop in practice at Watkins Glen), the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota team of Daniel Suarez (didn’t come to complete stop at the inner loop in practice at Watkins Glen) and the No. 31 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet team of Ryan Newman (didn’t come to complete stop at the inner loop in practice at Watkins Glen) were all assessed holds.

Both the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports Chevrolet team of Bubba Wallace and the No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Ford team of B.J. McLeod were also assessed 15-minute practice penalties for being late to pre-qualifying inspection at Michigan. All teams elected to serve their penalties in this session.

Suarez hit the wall in qualifying — not recording a lap and he will start 40th in Sunday’s field — and the team has worked to repair the primary car.

Posted on August 11, 2018 by Staff Report

See where your favorite driver will pit for Sunday’s Consumers Energy 400 at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday afternoon (2:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on August 10, 2018August 13, 2018 by Chase Wilhelm

BROOKLYN, Mich. – Kurt Busch addressed reports Friday that he may leave Stewart-Haas Racing for Chip Ganassi Racing following the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season.

The report by Motorsport.com claims that Busch, 40, is expected to leave SHR and replace Jamie McMurray beginning in 2019.

A spokesperson for Chip Ganassi Racing said that the organization does not publicly discuss driver contract discussions. A spokesperson from SHR said that “Stewart-Haas Racing does not comment on the status of its contracts, be it driver or partner related. We appreciate your understanding.”

Busch did not confirm nor deny the reports after Friday’s Busch Pole qualifying session at Michigan International Speedway.

“I’m talking to a bunch of teams out there,” Busch said. “There’s nothing that’s been signed and whatever has been reported is all hearsay.”

In 163 starts since 2014 with SHR, Busch has earned five wins, 34 top fives and 81 top-10 finishes, including a Daytona 500 victory in 2017. The team signed him to a one-year extension for this season late in 2017.

MORE: Michigan schedule | Lineup

McMurray is reported to be in the final year of his contract with Chip Ganassi Racing. Currently in his 16th full-time season, the 42-year-old has earned four wins with CGR since 2010, including the Daytona 500 and Brickyard 400 in 2010. His most recent victory came at Talladega Superspeedway in 2013.

Posted on August 10, 2018August 10, 2018 by Reid Spencer

BROOKLYN, Mich. – The racing world took notice when Chase Elliott won his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race at Watkins Glen International.

In particular, so did Kyle Larson.

To the driver of the No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet, Elliott’s victory was emblematic of the progress Hendrick Motorsports has made in recent weeks.

Though he started the season with a clear speed advantage, Larson has seen the Hendrick organization close the gap. With the playoffs just around the corner, that gives Larson pause.

“I’d like to be making as big gains as what, say, the Hendrick guys have,” Larson acknowledged on Friday at Michigan International Speedway, venue for Sunday’s Consumers Energy 400 (2:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio). “But I feel like we started off way better than they did. So, they’ve had more room to get better.

“But I feel like they’ve kind of surpassed us maybe a little bit the last few weeks. And there are obviously other teams that are better than we are, too. I feel like we’re getting our stuff better every week.”

MORE: Practice recap, results | Full schedule for Michigan, Mid-Ohio

Larson swept both Michigan races last year. This week, he’s commuting between MIS and the Knoxville (Iowa) Nationals for winged sprint cars. Larson was pleased with the speed his No. 42 Chevy showed in opening practice at Michigan on Friday.

“We just keep getting better, and there are some good tracks for us in the playoffs,” said Larson, who was eighth fastest in the session. “If we could just get some luck one of these times in the playoffs, maybe we can make a run at the championship. So we’ve just got to keep working hard and thinking about what it takes to get better and better every week.

“I feel like we have the right group of people at the race track and the race shop that we can do that. It’s all about just progressing and getting better. I feel like we are definitely doing that, but there are other teams that maybe have made a bigger step than we have.”

Posted on August 10, 2018August 10, 2018 by Reid Spencer

BROOKLYN, Mich. — The math is as simple as 5-3-2.

The are five drivers who have qualified for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Playoffs by winning races — defending series champion Johnny Sauter, Brett Moffitt, Noah Gragson, Justin Haley and Ben Rhodes.

MORE: Full Michigan schedule | How to watch Saturday’s race

There are currently three playoff spots available on points, with Grant Enfinger, Stewart Friesen and two-time series champion Matt Crafton poised to claim them.

There are two races left in the NCWTS regular season. That means there are two more chances for a new winner to make the playoffs with a victory — and potentially to knock out one of the drivers planning to earn a berth on points.

Enfinger is in the most enviable position. He’s third overall in the standings, nine points ahead of Friesen and 39 ahead of Crafton. Accordingly, the driver of the No. 98 ThorSport Racing Ford isn’t planning to drive defensively in the final two regular-season races at Michigan and Bristol.

Nor is Enfinger taking anything for granted.

“I’m definitely not comfortable with our situation,” Enfinger said after opening practice for Saturday’s Corrigan Oil 200 at Michigan (1 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). “I wish we were locked in… to breeze through these next two weeks and focus on the Playoffs.

“We can’t really do that, but we’re not in a bad spot either. At the end of the day, we just need to keep doing what we’ve been doing to get us to this point, and I think we’ll be all right. Really, it’s kind of business as usual for us.”

With two races left before the Playoffs begin, Enfinger will secure a playoff spot if he stays ahead of both Friesen and Crafton in the standings — no matter what else happens.

Posted on August 10, 2018August 10, 2018 by Reid Spencer

BROOKLYN, Mich. — With a blistering lap at 202.794 mph (35.504 seconds) on Friday, Denny Hamlin won his second straight pole position in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series.

This time, he left no doubt as to who had the fastest car. Hamlin’s No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was fastest in opening practice—and fastest in all three rounds of knockout qualifying at Michigan International Speedway.

RELATED: Starting lineup | Weekend schedule

For the second straight week, Hamlin and JGR teammate Kyle Busch (202.731 mph) will start 1-2. Hamlin edged Busch by .011 seconds to earn his second Busch Pole Award of the season, his first at Michigan and the 28^th of his career.

A victory from the pole would continue Hamlin’s streak of at least one victory per year, starting with his 2006 rookie season.

“It is a very important streak,” Hamlin asserted. “I think about it… I thought it was all over in 2013, the year that I broke my back (in a wreck at Auto Club Speedway), and we won in the final race of the season to keep the streak alive.

“You look back at the really great drivers of NASCAR, and they had long streaks, 10 years and above, of winning in a row, and you want to keep that going for sure. It’s important.”

Busch was on pace for the pole before losing time through Turns 3 and 4 in the money round.

“I thought 3 and 4 went OK,” Busch said. “Certainly, I don’t think it was my best time through there. The first couple of runs, we’d been fighting ‘loose,’ so you kind of drive a little differently to be ready for the loose situation, and then on the final run, we were tight.

“You guard your entry or guard your center or whatever you do for the loose, and that doesn’t happen, and you’re tight, and then you’re too tight because you guarded for the loose. Just ever so slightly just missed it, I guess. Overall, I didn’t think we were going to qualify there, so we’re certainly pleased with that.

“Denny’s been fast so far from unload, so good for them to capitalize on that.”

MORE: Top fantasy sleepers for Michigan | What retro shirt is Dale rocking?

Kevin Harvick, like Busch a six-time winner this season, qualified third at 202.100 mph. Erik Jones was fourth at 201.805 mph, putting three Gibbs Toyotas in the top four on the grid.

The Richard Childress Racing duo of 2018 Daytona 500 winner Austin Dillon and Ryan Newman will start from the third row after qualifying fifth and sixth, respectively. Martin Truex Jr., Ryan Blaney, Joey Logano and Alex Bowman completed the top 10.

The No. 19 Toyota of Daniel Suarez, who had posted the third fastest lap in opening practice, twitched out of control in Turn 2 in the opening round and tapped the outside wall. Suarez posted no time for the session and will start from the back of the field.

“I just got loose,” said Suarez, who had asked for adjustment after his car felt slightly tight in practice. “We just crossed the line. Once we got in the gray (out of the preferred groove), it was like being on ice.”

Suarez was optimistic his team could fix the cosmetic damage and get it ready for Saturday’s two practice sessions and Sunday’s race.

“I think we’ll see the 19 passing a lot of cars on Sunday,” Suarez said.

Posted on August 10, 2018 by Holly Cain

A few days removed from an excursion to the famous Sturgis Motorcycle Festival in South Dakota, Clint Bowyer showed up at Michigan International Speedway invigorated and ready to repeat his work at the fast two-miler this summer – ready to win again.

He arrives for Sunday’s Consumers Energy 400 (2:30 ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) joining six-time race winners Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick and four-time winner Martin Truex Jr. as the only competitors with multiple Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series wins this season.

MORE: Full Michigan schedule | Which drivers are on the bubble?

Bowyer, 39, collected his second trophy at Michigan in the rain-shortened race this past June – the win a product of his fast No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford and also some quick strategic thinking by his crew chief Mike Bugarewicz. Bowyer also won at Martinsville Speedway in March – his first win since October 2012 at Charlotte Motor Speedway.

In the last six months especially, Bowyer has revitalized his career and established a strong presence in the 2018 Cup championship race with his wins. It is reminiscent of that 2012 title-contending season (he finished runner-up to Brad Keselowski) and marks the third time in his career he’s hoisted more than one trophy in a season.

With only four races remaining to set the 16-driver playoff field and make a run at the title, Bowyer is currently fourth in the rankings. But he is also mindful that that his team must raise its game to be a part of that elite conversation.

What will it take? More wins, he explained. It’s simple.

“You have to elevate your game and rise to their capabilities and expectations,” Bowyer told the media Friday morning. “Those guys, not only do they have the wins, they are dominant cars that have led a lot of laps when they get those wins and all the stage points and all that stuff. You have to be able to do that more consistently.

“On our team, that is what we have to do. We have touched on that and made some mistakes and know we have to get those mistakes behind us to capitalize on every possible situation. Every stage. Every lap. That is what we have to do better. We have to smooth out the highs and lows. You have to stay on top of the mountain. You can’t fall off the damn mountain. That’s what it boils down to.”

With the playoff push really starting to be felt, Bowyer’s wins give his team the opportunity to begin sizing up the 10 tracks and races that will ultimately decide the championship. A fast, big track, Michigan is a reasonable reference point for some of the other venues the series visits – both to close out the regular season and also in the playoffs.

“We were obviously really fast here last time and finished 1-2-3 with our Stewart-Haas camp,’’ Bowyer allowed. “Kevin [Harvick] was the class of the field and I think we ran third for most of the race. We were right there. All of our cars were really, really fast. That is the last race. That is so last week. You think about racing and whoever won last week, it doesn’t mean anything. Everybody gets better each week.

“You don’t go back after a win and sit on your hands and not do anything and talk about how good you were. You go to work on trying to get better. Doesn’t matter if you dominated the race and destroyed the field, you go back and go to work on getting better.

“That being said, everybody has had time to get better here and I know they will. I also know we have, too. It is always exciting to go to any race track for the second time, especially when you have had some success to see how you will stack up when you unload again.”

Bowyer’s performance in June at Michigan was certainly a welcome deviation from his recent results here. Before that win, he hadn’t had a top-20 since 2015 – a 10th-place that was the cap to a nine-race top-10 streak.

His Stewart-Haas team, however, has been the class of the field more often than not. They swept the podium at Michigan in June – a first for the organization. It’s been a similar showing in recent weeks.

The team had all four cars among the top eight at Sonoma Raceway. It had two in the top five at Chicago, three in the top eight at Kentucky. It had three among the top-10 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and three in the top 11 at both Pocono and last week at Watkins Glen.

That momentum and keeping his eye on the 2018 prize is what Bowyer insists is most vital at the moment.

This week, his Ford team helped roll out the new Mustang that will compete in 2019. And as impressed as he is with the prospects, Bowyer would sure like to hoist a trophy driving this season’s Ford Fusion.

“I am looking forward to next year with the Mustang but I am looking forward to capitalizing on the program we have with the Fusion this year and getting the most out of that,’’ he explained. “Slowly but surely here the window is opening.

“The playoffs are fixin’ to start and it is time to unleash the beast.”

Posted on August 10, 2018 by Chase Wilhelm

BROOKLYN, Mich. — The driving story of the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season has been the dominance of the ‘Big 3’ of Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick and Martin Truex Jr. But a first career win by Erik Jones at Daytona may have marked the beginning of a plot twist.

Taking the No. 9 to Victory Lane at Watkins Glen, Chase Elliott became the second driver behind Jones to earn his maiden premier-series victory this year. Add that to a strong second-place run by Daniel Suarez, who nearly beat out Busch at Pocono Raceway, and it appears the youth movement may gradually come to fruition with four races remaining in the regular season.

“I think we (young drivers) all knew what (we) had to do,” Jones told NASCAR.com and NBC Sports following a tour of the Toyota Motor North America Research and Development facility on Thursday in York Township, Michigan. “I think there was just work, not only for the young guys, but the whole field, to catch up to the three who have been winning the majority of the races. It wasn’t just the young guys that needed to get there, it was everyone except them.”

Before his Daytona triumph, Jones only had one top-five finish to his credit. In the four races since then, Jones has scored two fifth-places results in as many races and hasn’t finished worse than 16th in that span.

Jones said they’ve been working hard to contend and win races, an effort that has shown in the recent performance.

“It does feel good to be one of the young guys who have won along with Chase,” Jones said. “I think it’s been good to see some variety here in the last month of guys who’ve been contending for wins and who have won some races. You can see that everyone has closed in a little bit.”

For the most part, the upswing in performance spans across all of Joe Gibbs Racing. Two straight top-five finishes by Suarez bode well for him to potentially squeak out a must-have victory to qualify for the postseason. Although Denny Hamlin has recorded one top-10 result in the past five races, he’s in solid position to make the playoffs without a win, sitting 189 points above the cutline heading into Sunday’s Consumers Energy 400 at Michigan (2:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

But according to Jones, it’s been an uphill climb since February to get the organization’s Toyota Camrys to where they are now.

“I feel like we at JGR had some catch-up to play at the beginning of the year compared to some other teams,” Jones said. “I think we’ve done a good job of getting there. Kyle was really taking advantage of good execution to win some races early this year. I think he’d agree if you’d ask him that he didn’t have the best car. But now, I think we’re at the point where we can win some races based on having some of the best cars.”

With that said, is the No. 20 team peaking as the playoffs loom heading into Jones’ home track ?

“For right now, yeah,” said Jones. “We’re in a stretch of good tracks, at least for me and I think for JGR in general. If you look back in years past, JGR and Toyota have done a good job of continuously getting their cars better as the years go on, especially around playoff time. You’re seeing it again this year.”