The Rundown: Michigan Driver Grades

Posted on June 13, 2016 by

Breaking down the full field for the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway:

1. Joey Logano, No. 22 Ford, Team Penske. Won the pole … led the most laps (138) … won the race, his first of the season. “Perfect execution. Awesome job, guys,” Logano said after taking the checkered flag. Yes it was. Grade: A+

2. Chase Elliott, No. 24 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. If it wasn’t for his trouble with restarts, the rookie might have had his first victory. Instead he “settles” for setting a Cup record for the most top fives (six) in a driver’s first 15 starts. Grade: A-

3. Kyle Larson, No. 42 Chevrolet, Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. Are we witnessing some kind of trend here? Last week Kurt Busch won with an interim crew chief. This week Kyle Larson finished third with interim Phil Surgen atop the pit box. Who knew the penalty for loose lug nuts at the end of a race could be so beneficial??? Grade: A

4. Brad Keselowski, No. 2 Ford, Team Penske. Great day for Penske as Keselowski posts his sixth straight top-10 finish. Grade: A

5. Kevin Harvick, No. 4 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. Harvick rolled off the grid 29th because of misfortune during qualifying and methodically moved through the field to snag his seventh top five of the season. Grade: A

6. Carl Edwards, No. 19 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. You know this is going to be your day when you have a miscommunication with your crew chief and stay out during a caution, which results in you improving from 29th to 17th and then gaining seven spots to 10th after the restart — despite being on old tires. Grade: A

7. Tony Stewart, No. 14 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. Stewart ran more laps in the top five Sunday than in his previous six races this season combined. Grade: A

8. Austin Dillon, No. 3 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing. Dillon marked his 100th Cup start with his seventh top 10 of the season. In his first 85 starts he had nine top 10s. Grade: A

9. Jamie McMurray, No. 1 Chevrolet, Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates. McMurray’s third top 10 of the season almost never was when Trevor Bayne slid up into McMurray with 17 laps to go. Grade: A

10. Kurt Busch, No. 41 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. The highlight of Bucsh’s series-leading 13th top 10 came when he squeezed through a four-wide after the restart on Lap 154. It was a huge move. Great theater, too. Grade: A

11. Ryan Newman, No. 31 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing. Newman was a top-10 presence all afternoon but couldn’t close the deal when he drifted back after restarting seventh on Lap 194. Grade: B+

12. Martin Truex Jr., No. 78 Toyota, Furniture Row Racing. Let’s see … Truex spun out on Lap 46, had déjà vu on the Lap 154 restart when he restarted fourth behind Chase Elliott who had trouble with restarts all day (remember Jimmie Johnson at Dover?) and then ran into trouble on the back straight with five laps to go and lost a handful of spots … and he still had a solid finish. Sounds like a typical Truex race this season. Grade: B

13. Kasey Kahne, No. 5 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. Kahne inched closer to 16th in the standings — he’s 11 points behind Ryan Blaney — with Sonoma looming. Kahne has three straight top 10s on the road course. Blaney has yet to make a Cup start on a road course. Grade: B

14. Matt Kenseth, No. 20 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. We didn’t hear much Sunday from Kenseth, whose season-high streak of finishes in the top 10 ended at four. Grade: B

15. Trevor Bayne, No. 6 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing. Bayne had his hands full Sunday: He got loose and sent Jimmie Johnson into the wall with 38 laps to go and 20 laps later slid up into Jamie McMurray. Grade: B-

16. Jimmie Johnson, No. 48 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. The No. 48 needed its right rear fixed after the contact with Trevor Bayne. Its nose, though, was OK after JJ tracked down Bayne before the pits opened for a little “bam-bam” on Bayne’s rear bumper. Grade: B

17. Ryan Blaney, No. 21 Ford, Wood Brothers Racing. Bayne was running 12th, just ahead of Jimmie Johnson and Trevor Bayne (see above), when Ricky Stenhouse Jr. got loose underneath Bayne and the No. 21 hit the wall. Grade: B

18. Paul Menard, No. 27 Chevrolet, Richard Childress Racing. Menard started 32nd and was 10th with 10 laps to go. His second top 10 of the season was not to be, though. Grade: C

19. Greg Biffle, No. 16 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing. Yeah, Biffle’s finish was mediocre. But that move with 32 laps to go was awesome. Biffle shot down to the grass to pass two cars. Oh … and he was going 215 mph at the time. Grade: B

20. Chris Buescher, No. 34 Ford, Front Row Motorsports. Buescher got his second-best finish of the season (he finished 18th at Dover last month) despite being party to the third caution (see AJ Allmendinger below). Grade: B

21. Danica Patrick, No. 10 Chevrolet, Stewart-Haas Racing. Patrick was one of a number of drivers in the race to be running a high line and fall victim to loose cars coming up the track. Her moment came on Lap 155 and sent her for a spin. (For details, see Brian Scott.) Grade: C

22. David Ragan, No. 23 Toyota, BK Racing. Nice finish after starting at the tail end of the field in his backup car. Grade: B-

23. Clint Bowyer, No. 15 Chevrolet, HScott Motorsports. Bowyer ran to form. He started 34th and finished 23rd. His average start this season is 32.1; his average finish 23.0. Grade: C

24. Ty Dillon, No. 95 Chevrolet, Circle Sport-Leavine Family Racing. Dillon knows how to take care of his car as he learns on the job. He has finished in the top 25 in each of his seven starts this season (eight if you count his filling-in mid-race at Talladega for Tony Stewart). Grade: B

25. Landon Cassill, No. 38 Ford, Front Row Motorsports. Contact from Aric Almirola with four laps to go couldn’t keep Cassill from his eighth top-25 finish of the season. Grade: C

26. Aric Almirola, No. 43 Ford, Richard Petty Motorsports. Almirola’s career-worst start continues. He is still without a top-10 finish. Grade: C-

27. Cole Whitt, No. 55 Chevrolet, Premium Motorsports. Whitt finished 27th for the 11th time in his 99-race Cup career, one fewer than 28th, his most-frequent finish. Grade: C

28. Michael Annett, No. 46 Chevrolet, HScott Motorsports. Final car on the lead lap. Grade: C

29. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 17 Ford, Roush Fenway Racing. Stenhouse lined up 12th for the final restart on Lap 194, but his right rear tire went down and with it a decent finish. Grade: C

30. Josh Wise, No. 30 Chevrolet, The Motorsports Group. Wise posted his second-best finish of the season. He finished 27th last week at Pocono. Grade: C

31. Reed Sorenson, No. 98 Chevrolet, Premium Motorsports. Ditto Sorenson. Last week (28th) was his best finish of the season, too. Grade: C

32. Casey Mears, No. 13 Chevrolet, Germain Racing. Mears found trouble early (oil cooler) and late (accident) and finished 11 laps back. Grade: D

33. Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. Hamlin was “awful” on restarts (his word) but stayed among the leaders because he picked up spots on pit road all afternoon. His day came to an unceremonious end while running 12th when he cut his left rear tire at the completion of Lap 189 and went sliding through the grass before hitting the inside wall. Grade: D

34. Matt DiBenedetto, No. 83 Toyota, BK Racing. DiBenedetto had an issue midway through the race and needed a push to the pits. He was running at the end, 15 laps down. Grade: F

35. Regan Smith, No. 7 Chevrolet, Tommy Baldwin Racing. Smith was 28th when his right front tire went down and he slapped the wall. He was running at the finish, 21 laps down. Grade: F

36. Brian Scott, No. 44 Ford, Richard Petty Motorsports. Scott’s day ended with 46 laps to go when he got loose and drifted into Casey Mears, who got loose and collected Danica Patrick. Danica spun and clipped Scott, and the No. 44 suffered big damage. Grade: F

37. Jeffrey Earnhardt, No. 32 Ford, GO FAS Racing. Earnhardt brought out the fourth and fifth cautions (accidents). There would be no shot at a third because his car went up in flames after the second incident. Grade: F

38. AJ Allmendinger, No. 47 Chevrolet, JTG Daugherty Racing. Allmendinger was another high-line loser. His day ended after 62 laps when Dale Earnhardt Jr. made it three wide, splitting Chris Buescher and Allmendinger. Buescher got loose, leading to Junior getting loose, leading to heavy right-side damage to the No. 47. Grade: D

39. Dale Earnhardt Jr., No. 88 Chevrolet, Hendrick Motorsports. See AJ Allmendinger for the particulars. Junior was not happy with Chris Buescher as he looked over the remains of his car in the garage. Earnhardt was running 19th at the time. It was his fourth DNF of the season, one more than his previous two seasons combined. Grade: F

40. Kyle Busch, No. 18 Toyota, Joe Gibbs Racing. Based on how his engine had been performing, Busch said he wasn’t surprised when it expired on Lap 54. (TRD said trash on the grille caused it to overheat.) It marked the sixth time in Busch’s 405 Cup starts he has finished last, with half coming at Michigan. Grade: F

Posted on June 13, 2016 by Staff Report

From 8-11 a.m. ET on Tuesday, NASCAR.com will live stream the post-race inspection process.

The three-hour look takes you behind the scenes as NASCAR officials inspect NASCAR Sprint Cup Series vehicles following Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

The cars being inspected this week are: the No. 22 Ford of Joey Logano (winner of Sunday’s race) and the No. 24 Chevrolet of Chase Elliott (runner-up in Sunday’s race.)

For more information on what the inspection process entails, click here.

Posted on June 13, 2016 by Staff Report

ThorSport Racing said Monday that fire had broken out in their Sandusky, Ohio, headquarters, causing significant damage to the 100,000-square-foot race shop.

According to a release provided by the organization owned by Duke and Rhonda Thorson, the blaze started shortly after midnight Monday in the shop’s basement. The team confirmed that no one was injured in the fire.

ThorSport general manager David Pepper told the Sandusky Register that the team’s vehicle fabrication shop was destroyed by the fire. Local firefighting officials told the Ohio newspaper that an investigation was ongoing to determine the cause of the fire.

ThorSport indicated in the release that it intended to compete as scheduled in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series’ next race, Saturday’s Speediatrics 200 (8:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM) at Iowa Speedway.

ThorSport, the longest-tenured team in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, fields four full-time Toyota trucks for two-time series champion Matt Crafton, Cameron Hayley and rookies Rico Abreu and Ben Rhodes. Crafton, a two-time winner this season, is the current leader in the points standings.

A spokesperson for Kyle Busch Motorsports said that the fellow Toyota team contacted ThorSport officials Monday with offers of help, providing space at KBM’s North Carolina-based shop and other assistance as needed.

Posted on June 13, 2016 by Zack Albert

Daniel Suarez described an understated observance Saturday — “we just celebrated a little bit,” in his words — after his breakthrough victory in the NASCAR XFINITY Series. Dinner at a Mexican restaurant with friends and his Joe Gibbs Racing team members that evening, followed by watching Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series race to round out the weekend.

By Monday, Suarez was still soaking in the accomplishment.

“I’m still thinking about it. I’m still thinking how everything happened,” Suarez said on a NASCAR teleconference, part of his Monday media rotation. “It was a race to try to learn some good stuff I could have done a little bit better in the beginning of the race, but definitely was an amazing weekend. I think there are no words to describe what I was feeling in those moments exactly, but it was an amazing weekend.”

Suarez tracked down and passed mentor Kyle Busch, the defending Sprint Cup champion, to prevail Saturday at Michigan International Speedway, becoming the first Mexican-born winner in any of NASCAR’s three national tours. The victory was a popular one for the first-time winner, who reaffirmed the series’ slogan — “Names are Made Here” — and received well-wishing notes of congratulations from his peers through text messages and social media.

But the impact was felt well beyond the Irish Hills region around the 2-mile track, stretching beyond state and country lines to his hometown of Monterrey, Mexico, just more than 2,000 miles away.

“From what I hear from friends, people, sponsors, they are getting crazy down there,” Suarez said. “The people are super happy and excited about what’s going on. I have received a lot of text messages and, as well, just comments, really good comments on social media about the race. They keep watching the replay of the race. They’re still getting excited — all these kind of comments.

“For me, just super-excited to have people with that amount of support all over the place. It’s just great. I’m just in such a great position right now, in Latin America and the U.S., that I really feel proud to be in this position right now.”

Suarez had come close before, both in XFINITY and the Camping World Truck Series, where he is a part-time entrant. Before his historic first, Suarez had 12 other top-five finishes in XFINITY competition and another eight top-fives without a win on the truck circuit.

Those near-misses, four pole positions and the honor of winning Sunoco Rookie of the Year last season raised expectations, projections that Suarez heard in terms of “when” and not “if” he would win a race. Accordingly, Suarez said he grew tired of the prediction talk and that he pressed in an effort to close the deal at the checkered flag.

Adopting a more relaxed approach, Suarez said, has helped immeasurably in recent weeks. Now the pressure is off in other ways, with a berth in the XFINITY Series Chase playoffs virtually sewn up.

RELATED: How the XFINITY Chase looks | Series standings

“I think the first one is always the most difficult to get in every series, pretty much in everything,” Suarez said. “We finally got that one. So from now on, hopefully we can keep this momentum. We can start building our confidence as a group, the whole team, and move forward.”

Saturday’s victory for the 24-year-old Suarez was bookended by other achievements in a growing NASCAR youth uprising. Rookie William Byron, 18, notched his second career truck series win Friday night in Texas; Sunday, 26-year-old Joey Logano led rookie runner-up Chase Elliott, 20, and third-place Kyle Larson, 23, to the Sprint Cup checkers at Michigan.

For Suarez, it’s part of a career arc set in motion by the NASCAR Next youth initiative, which began in 2011 when he was selected to the inaugural class. But he’s also hoping to blaze a trail not just for young drivers, but also for aspiring racers from his home country on the strength of his landmark win.

“Hopefully this can help to show more young drivers out there that they are doing good things and they are trying to follow a dream,” Suarez said. “Hopefully that can help to give them a little bit more confidence to come here to the U.S., to get the support from NASCAR. Really, I had a lot of support from NASCAR when I came here to the U.S., in the beginning of my racing career, trying to make it happen, pretty much like what we are doing right now.”

Posted on June 12, 2016 by Nascar

BROOKLYN, Mich. — It won’t silence all those “he needs to win” comments following Tony Stewart through his final season as a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver, but Sunday’s seventh-place finish was deemed a success just the same.

“We haven’t been running good enough to worry about just winning,” the co-owner/driver of the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet said on the grid after Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

“What we needed was a day like today … from Friday through right now we needed a solid weekend.”

Seventh might seem mundane given the fact that Stewart, 45, is a three-time series champion with 48 career victories. But those titles, won in 2002, ’05 and ’11, were the result of solid finishes as much as they were the result of wins. Stewart’s been around long enough, and won often enough, to know that.

Forced to sit out the season’s first eight races due to injury, Stewart and his team had struggled since his return, with only two finishes of 12th or better. To earn a berth in the season-ending, 10-race Chase for the Sprint Cup, he needs to be either among the top 16 in points or inside the top 30 with a victory.

Sunday’s top-10 inched him slightly ahead in the standings, to 35th. He trails 30th-place Brian Scott (Richard Petty Motorsports) by 45 points with 11 races remaining before the cutoff.

“Today it was a solid all day until we came out of the pits outside the top five the first time,” Stewart said. “When we were sixth before that last caution (which came with 10 laps remaining), we were catching Kevin (Harvick) and had a chance to race him back for the top five again.

“The last restart didn’t work out for us. We had two or three of them at the beginning (of the race) that didn’t work out and we had two or three there in the last half of the race that worked out. But the last one didn’t.

“That’s just kind of where we ended up. We had a solid day, and that’s what we wanted.”

After qualifying a season-best third on Friday, Stewart ran inside the top five for most of the first half of the 200-lap race on the 2-mile layout. He was 16th at the halfway mark, as most of the cars had begun cycling through a round of green-flag pit stops.

He quickly worked his way back inside the top 10, where he remained for the bulk of the final 100 laps.

What was behind what appeared to be an overnight turnaround in the team’s fortunes? Hard work by the boys back at the shop? NASCAR’s latest aerodynamic tweaks? Likely credit it to little of both.

“I don’t know. You have to remember, I just drive the car,” Stewart said.

“The thing is, you just want to come off the track close; you want to make good changes through the weekend. From the time we made the first run, every time we came in and made a change I could feel the change. The package here gives you that ability. You’re not just stuck. I’ll take what we’ve got.”

As for the aero changes, highlighted by a shorter spoiler?

“Love it. Absolutely love it,” he said. “The package is good. The areo package is starting to catch up now.”

RELATED: See all of Stewart’s wins

Posted on June 12, 2016 by Nascar

RELATED: Results | Standings | Chase Grid

BROOKLYN, Mich. — Daniel Suarez didn’t just drive off the race track and into Victory Lane here Saturday at Michigan International Speedway. He drove into the NASCAR record book.

Suarez, 24, became the first Mexican-born driver to capture a NASCAR national series victory with his pass of teammate Kyle Busch with two laps remaining in the Menards 250 Presented by Valvoline NASCAR XFINITY Series race. In doing so, he became the eighth foreign-born driver to win a NASCAR national series event, joining Italian-born Mario Andretti, Canadians Earl Ross, Larry Pollard and Ron Fellows, Colombian Juan Pablo Montoya, Australia’s Marcos Ambrose and Brazil’s Nelson Piquet Jr.

His winning move came as the two charged to the start/finish line with the white flag, signifying the final lap, waving.

MORE: Suarez first Mexican driver to win NASCAR national series race

The win came in his 48th career start in the series, all but one of which have been with Joe Gibbs Racing. That it came against Busch, the defending Sprint Cup Series champion, and all-time win leader in the XFINITY Series, made it that much more memorable.

That much more impressive, too.

But the enormity of the victory overshadowed such side stories on a hot, sunny day in the Irish Hills.

“Honestly I’ve had a lot of things going through my mind right now and I haven’t thought about that a lot,” Suarez said in his winner’s press conference. “Definitely it means a lot but at the same time a lot of this is (because of) the help that (Busch) has been bringing to the table to this program.

“He’s been super helpful to make this program better … we all work to go in the same direction but the experience he has, the laps he has on the race track, he brings a lot to the table.”

It was a trip that began years before, in Suarez’s home country of Mexico, and a journey that took the young driver through the NASCAR Mexico Series, the sanctioning body’s Drive For Diversity program and the NASCAR NEXT program.

Such systems recognize young drivers and help provide them with opportunities for advancement.

It is not a guarantee.

“I think without all the support … maybe right now I wouldn’t be here,” Suarez said. “At that point I didn’t know … how to find a way to make it to the national series. It was definitely one of the most difficult steps of my racing career. All these programs helped me to make it to this point for sure.

“Actually, the first year I raced here in the U.S. I was with an independent team and that wasn’t good at all. I learned some stuff but (made) so many different mistakes. I feel like the people that were trying to help me were doing the right thing but maybe I wasn’t learning the right way. As soon as I started moving to all those programs, everything started changing.”

Victory Lane was loud and raucous. Officials stood off to the side, watching Suarez handle interview after interview. Busch, the runner-up, dropped in to congratulate his teammate.

Later, Sprint Cup driver Ryan Blaney briefly interrupted the victor’s post-race press conference to offer congratulations as well.

“We always knew it was coming and how many times did Daniel Suarez already finish second to Kyle Busch?” asked David Wilson, president and general manager of Toyota Racing Development, USA. “It’s just a special win. It’s not just a win for Daniel; it’s a win for NASCAR if you think about it. The repercussions of this are tremendous.”

Brian France, NASCAR Chairman and CEO, said that while Suarez has been in NASCAR for “a relatively brief time,” his impact on the sport “has been immeasurable.”

“Combining impressive talent and an incredible personality, Daniel has attracted fans throughout North America. His accomplishments already are too numerous to list, so I congratulate him on his latest, and so far greatest one — a NASCAR XFINITY Series victory,” France said. “Today’s victory proved what many already knew: Daniel has the skill, fortitude and passion for future NASCAR stardom. I look forward to watching his career grow, and accomplishments mount, as he battles for a championship this year in the inaugural NASCAR XFINITY Series Chase.”

For Wilson and his Toyota companions, the victory by Suarez confirms what the group has known for quite some time. There is plenty of young talent spread across the various NASCAR series, but the number of available rides is a concern.

JGR teammate Erik Jones, already a winner twice this season, moved up to the XFINTY Series this year after winning the Camping World Truck Series championship in 2015 with Kyle Busch Motorsports. KBM driver William Byron won Friday night’s Camping World Truck Series race at Texas Motor Speedway and has two wins this year. Rico Abreu contended until the very end in his best showing to date.

And now Suarez has proven, as France said, that he has the talent to be a contender for years to come.

“I think our biggest challenge ahead of us is how to keep cars under all these young kids,” Wilson said. “The truck race last night with William and Rico, now Daniel. It’s a heck of a great problem to have. It’s just good for the sport that there is so much rich talent coming up.”

The win by Suarez “definitely says that there is opportunity,” Wilson said. “But you have to earn your way. I think that’s the secret to this. You have to earn your way.

“And Daniel has proven that. He’s worked his butt off.”

Posted on June 12, 2016 by

BROOKYLN, Mich. — Chase Elliott won’t be celebrating a runner-up result in Sunday’s Firekeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

Not at all.

The 20-year-old Sunoco Rookie of the Year contender stood dejected on pit road following Sunday’s 400-miler in the Irish Hills while race-winner Joey Logano did burnouts in his No. 22 Team Penske Ford behind him.

One would never know Elliott just recorded a career-best finish in the Sprint Cup Series.

“Not a good day,” Elliott said. “Can’t do dumb stuff and expect to win these things. When you do dumb stuff, you don’t win. I did dumb stuff today.”

The No. 24 driver took over the lead at Lap 115 and ultimately paced the field for 35 laps. A dwindling fuel tank was a lingering worry for the No. 24 team, as the gasman was unable to get the car full during a yellow-flag pit stop at Lap 148. But it was the late-race restarts –which also included a missed shift, according to Elliott — that were the Achilles’ heel for his shot at earning his first career Sprint Cup Series win.

“Completely my fault,” Elliott said. “The guys gave me a great car today. This whole NAPA group has been working so hard these past few weeks, and that one was on me.”

Crew chief Alan Gustafson took the blame off his young driver’s shoulders.

“I think we got 98 things out of 100 right,” Gustafson said in the garage post-race. “Couple things we missed potentially could have cost us there. The fuel ended up not costing us, but it could have if we hadn’t gotten all those cautions.

“It’s close, it’s close — you’ve just got to keep putting yourself in position. I think we learned a few things that we can do better moving forward that will help us in the future.”

Elliott’s post-race disappointment came as no surprise to Gustafson, as he tends to be harder on himself than most young drivers. Despite his six straight top-10 finishes and sixth-place spot in the driver standings, Elliott emerges from the No. 24 Chevrolet after each race vowing to do better and bearing the burden for missed opportunities.

“We were working on some stuff and we put him in a very difficult box,” Gustafson said. “He’s taking the blame, but it’s not his fault. So, we tried to gain an advantage and I think it ultimately hurt us so we’ll have to go back and reevaluate that and put him in a little bit better position next time.”

“Next time” comes in two weeks, as the series is on hiatus next weekend, returning to the track on June 26 for the Toyota Save-Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.)

And Gustafson thinks his rookie driver will bounce back just fine.

“He’s hard on himself,” he said. “We’re all hard on ourselves. We want to win. We know we have the team to win and we definitely have the team owner and the sponsors and everybody around that we need to win races.

“When you miss, you’re dejected, but at the same time you’ve got to take the positives and build on them. He’ll be fine. He doesn’t lack any confidence or he won’t lose any confidence from it.

“So, we’ll fix our issues and improve and just get stronger.”

Posted on June 12, 2016 by

BROOKLYN, Mich. — The rolling Irish Hills of Brooklyn, Michigan, offer the sort of charm that the Midwestern United States promises in storybooks. Simple and calm, the area is decorated with restaurants, antique stores and ice cream shops that offer local flavors to NASCAR tourists in town for the race.

For Midwestern native and driver of the No. 27 Chevrolet, Paul Menard, racing at Michigan International Speedway brings a sense of nostalgia, as his hometown of Eau Claire, Wisconsin, is a little over eight hours west of the two-mile track.

“We always like coming to Michigan because it’s fairly close to home,” Menard said in his hauler Friday morning. “… Looking forward to going to the Friday night fish fry tonight. That’s something I miss from Wisconsin is the Friday night fish frys and Michigan has them, so I’m going back to my roots a little bit.”

The return to his Midwestern roots also seems to transition to the race track: In Menard’s last five Sprint Cup starts at Michigan, he has recorded four top-10 results, with three fourth-place finishes in that stretch. The Richard Childress Racing driver credits his team for the strong finishes.

“(We bring) good cars for one, our aero program is pretty strong,” Menard said. “ECR brings good horsepower. We just balance out the cars around that. Michigan is a groove-and-a-half track, so the line doesn’t change much since the repave. But it’s getting older and it’s weathering, you can start to search around a little bit, but it still all comes down to fast cars and track position.”

The extra laps in the XFINITY Series car don’t hurt, either. Menard also ran Saturday afternoon’s Menards 250 presented by Valvoline in the NASCAR XFINITY Series, a race sponsored by his primary backer Menards and Grand Marshaled by his father/Menards founder John Menard. Menard ultimately finished third, but will the additional seat time help for Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 (1 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) – and ultimately the rest of the season?

The members of the Paul Menard Empire certainly hope so.

A force to reckon with

“Determined. Resilient. Focused. Ridiculously good looking. All proper descriptors of who the Empire is,” The Paul Menard Empire Twitter handle tweeted out Friday evening. “This weekend in Michigan is where we start to claim what is ours. To find that edge, push beyond it and claim the success on the other side.

“When you have the power of neon you can do anything. And we will do everything.”

The Paul Menard Empire: A quirky and eccentric Twitter handle dedicated to Twitter-less Menard. Started in 2010 by pharmacist Jory Fleischauer, the account offers a gathering pond for the eclectic No. 27 fans to express their neon pride.

“(When I first started this) someone was like, this is like a movement and I was like no, it’s not a movement — it’s an empire,” Fleischauer said in an interview on Saturday morning. “I initially started a Facebook page … and for the longest time it was just kind of our circle of friends, people we knew here and there. And then when he went to RCR the next year and really started running well … We all support him now, mainly because what’s happened over the last few years, but it’s weird, it’s weird to explain to people.”

A fellow Wisconsin native, Fleischauer’s daily tweets pick up on all the attributes that No. 27 fans cherish: His car’s bright neon coloring, his quiet nature, that full beard.

Goodness, they love that beard.

“Paul Menard may have won the trophy for the race but he really deserves one for that beard,” said one NASCAR fan via Twitter after Menard’s Road America win in 2015.

Their neon knight

With more than 2,000 followers now, the Paul Menard Empire seems to have encouraged the Menard brand in recent years. Fleischauer attends races, passes out lanyards to fans and even had shirts made for the No. 27 pit crew, reading “Paul Menard is my homeboy.”

“I think it might have had a small part in it,” Fleischauer said, regarding his impact on the growth and shaping of the fans. “(Menard) doesn’t do any social media things, Menards in general doesn’t do any social media things … so it’s kind of like a vacuum out there compared to most drivers and most sponsors where they’re heavily involved in stuff. When I started doing my thing, I kind of stepped into that vacuum and filled that void a little bit.

“My thing is, I try to have as much fun with stuff as I can … Paul’s a good guy for something like this because he is so quiet and you can play with it and you have so many different angles you can go off. Prior to that, I don’t think there was any centralized place for fans to unite over him and his abilities and his success. From a small scale, I kind of started putting that together and giving people something to gravitate to.”

While Menard himself — whom Fleischauer calls the Empire Emperor — doesn’t partake in any social media himself, he’s well aware of the Empire and its impact.

“They’re dedicated, I dig it,” Menard said. “They like the neon, they like the facial hair. I’m kind of clean-shaven right now for me anyway. But it’s a loyal fan base and (I’ll) try to get them some results.”

And when he does put together another win, the Empire will be ready for a celebration rivaling Mardi Gras.

“Whenever Paul wins, we have a Menard-i Gras celebration,” Fleischauer said. “They usually last a whole week.”

Call the Empire eclectic, call it strange – but you can’t call it dispassionate.

Call it neon pride.

Posted on June 12, 2016 by

You can find a stat for anything these days, but this one holds some merit. Over the past eight weeks, six of the eight NASCAR Sprint Cup Series winners have come from a pit box with an opening in front or behind.

This might sound trivial, but think about it — the teams that are able to get on and off pit road with less trouble than others are showing up in Victory Lane.

Teams with an opening in their pit stall won the five races from Texas through Kansas. For the season, eight of 14 races (57 percent) have been won with openings.

It’s something to consider if you play fantasy NASCAR. Check out this week’s pit stall assignments to spot the openings.

For more pit crew news, visit PitTalks.com.

Posted on June 12, 2016 by Staff Report

RELATED: Michigan results

The No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet of Kyle Larson failed post-race inspection Sunday at Michigan International Speedway following a third-place result.

According to NASCAR, the No. 42 failed at the laser station.

Larson had an interim crew chief in Philip Surgen this weekend. Full-time crew chief Chad Johnston was suspended for this weekend’s race after the team was issued a P3 penalty for lug nut violations at Pocono Raceway.

A NASCAR spokesperson said that any penalties would be announced later in the week.

There were no other issues in post-race inspection at the track. The No. 22 Team Penske Ford of race winner Joey Logano and No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet of runner-up Chase Elliott were cleared at the track, and they’ll undergo additional teardown on Tuesday at the R&D Center (which will be live-streamed on NASCAR.com, starting at 8 a.m. ET).

Three random cars also passed post-race inspection at the track — the No. 2 Team Penske Ford of Brad Keselowski (finished fourth), the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet of Austin Dillon (finished eighth) and the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet of Kevin Harvick (finished fifth).