Posted on by Nascar

Sprint Cup trio grew up on Legends Car circuit as ‘Georgia Gang’

It was an unofficial title, likely created more in fun than in hopes it might strike fear into the competition.
 
Then again, any little advantage helps.
 
“We all lived in Georgia at the time, and we’d go up to Charlotte and run the (Summer) Shootout,” Joey Logano, youngest of the three, said. “And we were called the Georgia Gang. We’d try to go up there and kick everyone’s butt in Charlotte.”
 
Bandoleros and Legends cars. Not necessarily a feeder series for NASCAR hopefuls, but a steppingstone just the same.

"We always hoped and believed, and certainly it was our dream that we would continue to progress up the ranks … to NASCAR racing"

—David Ragan

David Ragan, son of a former NASCAR Cup driver and native of Unadilla, was the oldest, although by only six weeks or so.
 
Reed Sorenson, a product of Peachtree City, had the edge in experience, the first of the trio to begin to progress through the racing ranks.
 
Logano was the Connecticut Yankee, hailing from Middletown, yet he quickly became a fixture inside the small circle of friends once his family relocated to the Peach State.
 
Imagine three youngsters competing in the same sport, on the same playing field, two and three times each and every summer. The kids grow up, grow apart, and perhaps one from the group continues to excel.
 
But all three?
 
“The chances of that happening aren’t very good, slim to none,” Sorenson said. “Just because of how many people race all over the country.
 
“For three people from the same state, let alone three that grew up racing Legends cars from the same area …”
 
“When you go to a Legends car race in Georgia, you wouldn’t think, ‘Oh, three of those guys are going to be Cup racing someday,’” Logano said.
 
“You’d never say that. So that’s pretty cool.”
 
Logano, 23 and driver of the No. 22 Penske Racing Ford, is a two-time winner in the Cup Series. He has 19 career Nationwide Series wins as well.
 
Ragan, 27, scored his second career Cup win earlier this year at Talladega (Ala.) Superspeedway, driving for Front Row Motorsports.
 
And while Sorenson, also 27, is winless in Cup, where he has five career top-fives and 15 top-10s, he is a four-time winner in the Nationwide Series. He currently drives for The Motorsports Group in the Nationwide Series, although he filled in for the injured Michael Annett and Richard Petty Motorsports for seven races earlier this season.
 
“We always hopes and believed, and certainly it was our dream,” Ragan said, “that we would continue to progress up the ranks … to NASCAR racing.
 
“We were really fortunate that we hit it at a good time back in the mid- to early 2000s, where the economy was strong, teams were spending a lot of money on new young development drivers, and there was a wave of some of the older drivers that were retiring. So it was a perfect storm back then.
 
“I think Reed really led the way by going doing ASA racing, (then) he signed on with (team owner Chip) Ganassi. That kind of showed us, ‘Hey, we need to go run some ARCA cars or we need to run some ASA series and try to get on with a team.”
 
By 2009, the dream had become a reality as all three were competing full-time in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series.
 
But it was the early years that laid the foundation.
 
Sorenson, who began competing in Legends cars in 1998, scored 84 career wins in the series and was the Atlanta Motor Speedway track champion in 1998-99 and ’01.
 
“We were pretty close, especially in the summer when we would travel up to Charlotte for 10 weeks (to race) on Tuesday nights,” he said of competing regularly with Ragan and Logano.
 
On Thursdays, the racing moved back to Atlanta. “And then on Saturdays, we’d all race somewhere too,” he said.
 
That the races were televised was a factor in helping each of the three continue to move up the ladder. That, and the fact that each was highly successful.
 
“In any type of racing series, to be able to be on TV, and for people to see you running well and winning races … that was non-existent for a series (until then),” Sorenson said. “That’s probably one of the biggest things that helped me, to be able to go out there and win races, and have it be on TV where people could see it.”
 
Ragan, the son of former Cup driver Ken Ragan, won the first Bandolero race held at AMS, while Logano holds the distinction of winning a record 14 consecutive feature races at AMS in Legends competition.
 
As they watched Sorenson continue to move up through the ranks, “that certainly gave myself, and I believe Joey, some confidence that if we could continue winning as we moved up, there would be some interest in us,” Ragan said. “And that’s ultimately what happened.
 
Although they’ve move upward and onward, they haven’t totally drifted apart. And they continue to race each other the same way they did when each was first starting out.
 
“We don’t race each other any differently than we did back then,” said Logano. “We raced each other clean, but hard. Nothing dirty, but we raced each other hard.
 
“I remember I pushed David to his first Nationwide Series win at Talladega; I pushed him across the line. That was kind of cool.”

By 2009, the dream had become a reality as all three were competing full-time in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series.

Posted on by Nascar

Sponsorship withdrawal will leave No. 95 Ford parked

Leavine Family Racing will not compete in this weekend’s Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway due to a lack of sponsorship.

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The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series team had planned to compete at Sonoma and Watkins Glen road courses this season as part of a limited schedule with driver Scott Speed.

Team owner Bob Leavine said pending sponsorship “did not come through as agreed,” and as a result, the single-car organization would not make the cross-country trip.

“We went through great lengths to update our road-course car to the Generation-6 body style and to prepare for the first road course race of the season,” Leavine said. “We are disappointed we won’t be at Sonoma, especially since it is Scott Speed’s home track.”

Funding from the company, which Leavine declined to name, was to be for eight races in 2013.

Leavine said the team would return to the track next month for the July 6 event at Daytona International Speedway as originally scheduled.

“I can assure you we will be back at Daytona,” he said. “We are in the process of updating our schedule for the rest of the … season after this setback.”

Speed, from Manteca, Calif., has made eight attempts with the No. 95 Ford team this season, qualifying for seven races. His best result came at Talladega where he finished ninth.

Michael McDowell finished 14th in the Sprint Showdown at Charlotte Motor Speedway, filling in for the team while Speed participated in the Global RallyCross X Games event in Brazil.

Posted on by Staff Report

Biffle wins at Michigan; three Coca-Cola Racing Family drivers in top 10

Welcome back to Victory Lane, Greg Biffle.

The veteran driver secured his first win of the season Sunday, winning the Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

It was his first win since, well, the fall race at Michigan, giving the driver back-to-back wins at the 2-mile track.

Tony Stewart joined Biffle in the top five for the second consecutive week. The Stewart-Haas Racing owner finished fifth.

Joey Logano finished ninth, giving the Coca-Cola Racing Family three drivers in the top 10. And while Danica Patrick missed out on the top 10, she had her best showing since April.

A roundup on the Coca-Cola Racing Family in order of how they finished at Michigan:

Greg Biffle (No. 16)

Roush Fenway Racing, Ford 

Recap: One week after his runner-up finish at Pocono Raceway, Biffle found himself in Victory Lane for the first time this season. And what a trip it’s been. The No. 16 team struggled for a month early in the season, falling out of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup picture. With a victory to fall back on, Biffle can’t quite breathe easy, but at eighth in the standings, he appears to be in good shape. The win Sunday was also the 1,000th for manufacturer Ford in NASCAR.
Quotable: “Yeah, it’s definitely a special day. It was Father’s Day, my first, Emma’s first Victory Lane today, so that was pretty special for me. You know, we certainly didn’t probably have the fastest car today at times and kept working on it, kept making slight adjustments on pit stops, and you know, track position is huge with our car, and it’s been well documented that we feel like we’ve been a little bit behind this season. We’ve been gaining on it. It looks like we’re well on our way to getting some speed back in these cars, and continue to work on them and figure them out and get them to be just a little bit better yet. It was fun racing with those guys.”
His standing: Biffle is eighth in the standings with 443 points.
Outlook: Biffle is known as a strong race on 1.5-mile tracks and up. That’s true. But he may get somewhat of a bad rap on road courses. This week’s race is at Sonoma Raceway, a 1.99-mile road course in northern California. Biffle was seventh there last year and has four top-10s in the past seven races at the track.

Tony Stewart (No. 14)

Stewart-Haas Racing, Chevrolet 

Recap: What an ascent from three-time champion Tony Stewart. In 20th place less than a month ago, he’s now cracked the top 10 in the standings. Even if he falls out of the top 10, he is in good standing for a Wild Card berth to the Chase due to his win at Dover. Stewart’s fifth-place showing at Michigan — which came in a back-up car — was his third consecutive top-five and fourth consecutive top-10. There are 11 races to go before the field for the Chase is set.
Quotable: “I think we definitely got a lot of luck there at the end, but we’ll definitely take it because we haven’t had much to this point in the year. A caution came out at the right time, and we got a good restart. Two of the guys ahead of us — one had fuel trouble and one had a tire issue — so we got some breaks going our way. It was a good weekend for me (after) putting us in a hole as far as I did on Friday crashing our primary car. But I’m proud of these guys, and I’m definitely proud of the effort this week. I thought our guys did a good job.”
His standing: Stewart is 10th in the standings with 417 points.
Outlook: Stewart’s time has been gritty all year. Now that it has a bit of luck, can anyone slow the veteran’s chase to the Chase?

Joey Logano (No. 22)

Penske Racing, Ford

Recap: Again, Logano found himself in the top 10 following Sunday’s race (he finished ninth). It’s the fourth consecutive top-10 for the driver, who has worked his to 14th in the standings, in a pack of drivers who are separated by precious few points. Logano’s early-season issues seem to be behind him.
Quotable: “Of course I think everyone knows that this Shell-Pennzoil Ford Fusion was much better than ninth today. So yeah, in that sense it is always frustrating. However, that’s good when you can finish in the top 10 and still be frustrated with it. When you are getting to the point to where you finish up there and you expect more, that means you are hitting your stride. All-in-all, it was a really good day. We ran strong, we led laps and we proved we were a car to contend with this afternoon. Sure we would have liked to have finished in the top three, which is where I think we could have run, but I’ll take another top 10. It was a good points day for sure.”
His standing: Logano is 14th in the standings with 405 points.
Outlook: Logano has just four starts at the road course in Sonoma, and he’s done well the past two years. In 2011, he was on the pole and finished sixth. Last year, he finished 10th. Such a showing at a tricky course in 2013 could vault him into the top 12.

Danica Patrick (No. 10)

Stewart-Haas Racing, Chevrolet 

Recap: Patrick typically does well on wide, flat, fast tracks. Sunday at Michigan was no different. Patrick finished 13th on the 2-mile Michigan track, her best showing since finishing 12th at Martinsville — a different type of track altogether — in April. Crew chief Tony Gibson has told Patrick that she’s been the bug for a while, and her time as the windshield was coming. Is it here?
Quotable: “I think we caught some breaks out there. Yellows definitely helped us be able to get track position as far as closing up the gaps and being able to pit a few times. We tried to take right side (tires) and get track position early on. It just didn’t go well, and we just hadn’t gotten ourselves to a good place with the car that I could carry the speed that I needed to run with the (pack). It didn’t work out so well. We worked on it and got it better. At the end of the race, the last run was the best run I felt as far as the balance of the car, which I was surprised because we had fallen off a little bit at the end of the run before. This will hopefully get everyone’s head up a little bit, and we will go on. I think we have been strong lately. We just needed to have days like today where we finished it off.”
Her standing: Patrick is 27th in the standings with 277 points.
Outlook: Her experience at fast, big tracks won’t help this weekend. Patrick is headed to Sonoma to get a taste of road-course racing.

Ryan Newman (No. 39)

Stewart-Haas Racing, Chevrolet 

Recap: Good pit strategy worked to Newman’s favor last week. This week at Michigan, it was plain, old bad luck that cost him. A great pit stop gained Newman 10 spots, and he was in seventh with less than 30 laps to go. A flat tire wrecked Newman’s chances. The driver felt his tire go flat during the caution, and so he came back to pit road again. The crew put on new wheels, and Newman didn’t lose a lap, but he came out of pit road in 25th place.
Quotable: “That was a tough break for our Quicken Loans team. When we came out seventh after that pit stop, and we finally had some track position and the clean air that we needed, I really thought that we were going to ‘Bring It Home’ for Quicken Loans and get another top-five finish and pay five people’s mortgages for a month. I really wanted to have a strong run for Quicken Loans in their race, in their backyard, so I’m pretty disappointed right now.”
His standing: Newman is 18th in the standings with 389 points.
Outlook: His top-five streak snapped at Michigan, Newman must look toward the future. It looks likely he’ll need a win, and possibly more than one, to qualify for the Chase.

Denny Hamlin (No. 11)

Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota 

Recap: Hamlin lost the points position he gained last week following a 30th-place outing in which his No. 11 Toyota was a mess on the slick Michigan surface. Hamlin, though, was in the spotlight for a good reason. To honor the life of Jason Leffler, who died in a sprint-car crash earlier in the week, Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota underwent a retro paint scheme to have a similar look as the car Leffler drove in 2005.
Quotable: “It was an idea that I had to pay tribute to Jason (Leffler) in today’s race. We had become friends over the past several years and had the same circle of friends, so it meant a lot to me to honor his memory. I have to thank JGR (Joe Gibbs Racing) and FedEx for letting us do this — Jason was there at the start with FedEx joining JGR back in 2005 and there are still about five crew members on the team that were on the team with Jason so I know it was real special to all of them. Also want to thank NASCAR for letting us change the wrap on the car on such short notice — just wanted to help pay tribute to Jason.”
His standing: Hamlin is 26th in the standings with 299 points.
Outlook: A 14-point day isn’t what Hamlin needs. Even if he picks up a win soon, he’s still 85 points behind 20th-place Kurt Busch.

Posted on by Brad Norman

Edwards cuts into Johnson’s lead; Kenseth rejoins top five

1. Jimmie Johnson (No. 48)

Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet

Where he stands: Johnson leads the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings with 538 points.
Last week: For once, things didn’t go Johnson’s way. A unique pit strategy that didn’t quite work out the way crew chief Chad Knaus envisioned resulted in Johnson chasing leader Greg Biffle in the waning laps. Johnson’s car was a rocket, and he picked his way through the field, but by driving it so hard he busted his right-front tire with less than five laps remaining. Going from second place to 28th (and one lap down) was a precipitous points drop, and Johnson’s 51-point lead over Carl Edwards was sliced to 31 after Five-Time’s worst points day of the year.
What he said: “It’s just a bummer. We had a great race car. Our strategy was throwing some challenges at us today and we just struggled with maintaining track position. But we had a fast car and I could drive up through there and as soon as I’d get to first or second, a caution would come out and then something would happen again and we’d lose track position. But we had a great race car and I hate having that problem at the end.”
This week: In 11 career starts at Sonoma Raceway, Johnson has one win, four top-fives and six top-10s. In the past eight years at Sonoma, Johnson ranks sixth out of 48 drivers with an average place of 12.7.
Last year: Johnson’s background lends itself well to road courses, and the five-time champion has been successful recently on the 1.99-mile winding road course in Northern California. Johnson recorded his fourth consecutive top-five last year, finishing fifth. The No. 48 started third and was never lower than fourth until the green-white-checkered finish, which came as the team — unnecessarily — fretted about being out of fuel on the final lap.

2. Carl Edwards (No. 99)

Roush Fenway Racing, Ford 

Where he stands: Edwards is second in the standings with 507 points.
Last week: At first, it appeared that Edwards — not Greg Biffle — would be the driver to claim Ford’s 1,000th win in NASCAR. After all, Edwards started on the pole, had a fast No. 99 and led 16 laps. An ill-timed caution, though, was bad luck for Edwards. The yellow came as he was leaving his pit stall after he pitted on green, and it put the driver in 25th place with 30 laps to go at the 2-mile track. Edwards was running in the top five when he pitted, and was forced to rally for an eighth-place showing. Edwards’ day also included a barb thrown at Biffle, his Roush Fenway Racing teammate, over his radio.
What he said: “I think seeing those Fords up front today really was a statement that we’re moving in the right direction. There’s a lot of momentum and for us this is good. We need to get better and faster to be able to compete, especially with the No. 48 (Jimmie Johnson) right now in the Chase. Hopefully this is a turn in the right direction.”
This week: In eight career starts at Sonoma Raceway, Edwards has one top-five and three top-10s. In the past eight years at Sonoma, Edwards ranks 10th out of 48 drivers with an average place of 16.0.
Last year: Some cars did better than others in the 82-lap green-flag stretch to open the race. Edwards’ No. 99 wasn’t so hot. He slipped from 11th on the grid to 24th through 80 laps and finished 21st. Sonoma isn’t a great track for Edwards, but still, it was a disappointing finish on the heels of his career-best third-place showing in 2011.

3. Clint Bowyer (No. 15)

Michael Waltrip Racing, Toyota 

Where he stands: Bowyer is third in the standings with 489 points.
Last week: It’s starting to look like this could be a special year for Bowyer. The No. 15 team is still searching for its first victory, but Sunday’s effort at Michigan was among the best of the season. Bowyer finished seventh after starting 27th and falling to 37th by Lap 10 (of 200). It’s three consecutive seventh-place finishes at Michigan for Bowyer, who has five consecutive top-10s at the track.
What he said: “That was a crazy day. We got off to a rough start … we worked on it all day long and made the absolute best of the situation we were in. All in all it turned out to be a pretty decent points day for us. Not the way we would have drawn it up, but I’ll take it.”
This week: In seven career starts at Sonoma Raceway, Bowyer has one win, four top-fives and five top-10s. He is the defending race champion. In the past eight years at Sonoma, Bowyer ranks eighth out of 48 drivers with an average place of 14.6.
Last year: The affable Bowyer, for once, nearly found himself at a loss for words. After taking a risk (at the time) and signing with Michael Waltrip Racing before the season, the No. 15 driver earned his first win with his new team in the Toyota/Save Mart 350. In his first victory of the season, Bowyer led 71 laps, including the final 39. He held off both Kurt Busch and Tony Stewart during the green-white-checkered finish for the sixth win of his Sprint Cup career.

4. Kevin Harvick (No. 29)

Richard Childress Racing, Chevrolet 

Where he stands: Harvick is fourth in the standings with 476 points.
Last week: Harvick continued his assault on the standings with a runner-up finish at Michigan. True, he ceded second place to hard-charging Jimmie Johnson late, but the 48 team had a major car problem when it mattered most; the No. 29 didn’t. In the past seven races, Harvick has four top-fives and six top-10s and, during that same period, has gone from 14th in the standings to fourth.
What he said: “It’s just one of those days where you had to survive. You had to try to keep your track position the best that you could. You had to manage tires and get them on the car because people were having a lot of trouble. So it’s definitely one of those races where you had to manage numerous amounts of things to keep yourself in it.”
This week: In 12 career starts at Sonoma Raceway, Harvick has three top-fives and four top-10s. In the past eight years at Sonoma, Harvick ranks ninth out of 48 drivers with an average place of 15.3.
Last year: Harvick is an interesting Sonoma study. He finished 16th last year, breaking a two-year streak of top-10s. He’s finished 30 or worse twice, but not since 2008. He qualified fourth in 2010 and finished third. He qualified 26th in 2011 and finished ninth, then qualified 26th again last year. Long story short, Harvick is a mystery man at the 1.99-mile course.

5. Matt Kenseth (No. 20)

Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota 

Where he stands: Kenseth is fifth in the standings with 456 points.
Last week: Sixth-place was a fine finish for Kenseth, who hadn’t finished inside the top 10 since his victory on May 11 at Darlington. Still, it could have been better. His No. 20 Toyota was running well and, on the final restart with 27 laps to go, Kenseth was fourth and in the high lane. He gunned forward and seemed to be in position to pass his way to second, but was forced to slow down by a barreling Martin Truex Jr. on the low side. Kenseth fell back to 13th, but recovered.
What he said: “We fought it a little bit — the Hendrick cars had everybody covered. Other than them, I thought if we had the car just perfect that we had enough speed to have a shot at the win.”
This week: In 13 career starts at Sonoma Raceway, Kenseth has one top-10. In the past eight years at Sonoma, Kenseth ranks 21st out of 48 drivers with an average place of 18.8.
Last year: Kenseth was close to notching just his second top-10 at Sonoma. He started ninth and ran in the top 10 for the first half the race, but slipped after the first round of pit stops and finished 13th.

6. Kyle Busch (No. 18)

Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota 

Where he stands: Busch is sixth in the standings with 452 points.
Last week: Busch’s No. 18 Toyota wasn’t great on restarts, but it was good in most other aspects. Combine that with sound pit strategy, and the driver was happy with a fourth-place finish at a track where he’s not particularly strong. Although Busch won in 2011 at Michigan, he finished 32nd and 13th the past two races there. Fourth was as high as Busch ran all day.
What he said: “We made a lot of big swings at it. There were a lot of adjustments there, and the guys did good. Pit stops were good, so it was a good, solid fourth. We probably could have been better if we got better track position on restarts, but I had such a hard time getting into the corners behind people and protecting what I had on restarts, so people would get by me for a couple laps.”
This week: In eight career starts at Sonoma Raceway, Busch has one win, one top-five and two top-10s. In the past eight years at Sonoma, Busch ranks 19th out of 48 drivers with an average place of 18.1.
Last year: In a somewhat forgettable showing at Sonoma, Busch started seventh and finished 17th. It was his second-best showing there since his victory in 2008.

7. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88)

Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet

Where he stands: Earnhardt Jr. is seventh in the standings with 447 points.
Last week: Earnhardt Jr. is the perfect example when describing Hendrick Motorsports’ day. His car was phenomenal. His finish was miserable. Junior led 34 laps at the track where he last won, but started losing speed around Lap 130 (of 200). He appeared to drop a cylinder; then his engine blew up. From a possible victory to an eight-point day, Earnhardt fell three spots in the standings. He finished in 37th-place … just above teammates Kasey Kahne and Jeff Gordon.
What he said: “(It’s) worse than if it happens when you’re running in the back. I’m real proud of the car. We were really struggling in practice and I’m just real proud of (crew chief) Steve (Letarte) and the whole team. They made a lot of great changes. And that car was just flying at the end there. I don’t know if we had as good a car as Jimmie (Johnson), but we had certainly made some gains on it, even in the last stop.”
This week: In 13 career starts at Sonoma Raceway, Earnhardt’s best finish is 11th in 2003, 2004 and 2010. In the past eight years at Sonoma, Earnhardt ranks 26th out of 48 drivers with an average place of 23.7.
Last year: By his own admission, Earnhardt Jr. isn’t the best road-course racer in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series. He’s probably not even in the middle. That’s what made last year’s 23rd-place finish so frustrating. Earnhardt was up to 12th place before a green-white-checkered finish and felt like he had a car that would challenge for his first-ever top-10 at the track. But a late-race incident resulted in several cars wrecking, and Junior was hit and spun into the dirt, where he was walloped by Aric Almirola (who had no visibility coming over the hill).

8. Greg Biffle (No. 16)

Roush Fenway Racing, Ford 

Where he stands: Biffle is eighth in the standings with 443 points.
Last week: Biffle earned his first victory of the year, and his second consecutive win at the track, to land solidly in the top 10 of the points standings. He also won the 1,000th NASCAR race for manufacturer Ford, which has struggled this season, and led 48 laps. | Click here to read a roundup on the six members of the Coca-Cola Racing Family.
What he said: “You know, we certainly didn’t probably have the fastest car today at times and kept working on it. It’s been well documented that we feel like we’ve been a little bit behind this season. We’ve been gaining on it. We’ve probably gotten a little more than we deserved the past two weeks with a second and a win, but we certainly have gotten much, much better.”
This week: In 10 career starts at Sonoma Raceway, Biffle has two top-fives and four top-10s. In the past eight years at Sonoma, Biffle ranks 17th out of 48 drivers with an average place of 17.6.
Last year: Biffle is much better on 1.5-mile tracks than he is on road courses, so he was pleased with his team’s second seventh-place showing in the past three years. Biffle started fourth and slipped to 20th by Lap 70, but his car was finely tuned during his second and final pit stop, sending him back up the field.

9. Brad Keselowski (No. 2)

Penske Racing, Ford 

Where he stands: Keselowski is ninth in the standings with 430 points.
Last week: Keselowski felt his car was better than the final results indicated, although the No. 2 Ford finished 12th at his home track. Still, the driver was disappointed. Keselowski is from Michigan, and this was his hometown race. He was also in the top five with 10 laps to go but lost ground after losing a fuel gamble. He was able to putter across the finish line, but he lost some ground when his tank went dry.
What he said: “We didn’t need a full tank, but we did need more than what we would get in it on a two-tire stop. There was just a mix-up in communication. It’s unfortunate because in looking at the finishing order, I think we could’ve brought the Miller Lite Ford home in the third or fourth position. I was almost able to save enough fuel as it was, but we needed just another half of a gallon or so.”
This week: In three career starts at Sonoma Raceway, Keselowski has one top-10. In the past eight years at Sonoma, Keselowski ranks 15th out of 48 drivers with an average place of 17.1.
Last year: Keselowski was eyeing his second career top-10 at the track, but the first round of pit stops produced an error from which he could not recover. The No. 2 team was slow in getting to pit, and Keselowski stalled his car while leaving the pit box. He took blame for that error, but extended green-flag runs didn’t give him a great opportunity to gain ground. Still, the soon-to-be NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion finished 12th after falling to 25th after his gaffe.

10. Tony Stewart (No. 14)

Stewart-Haas Racing, Chevrolet 

Where he stands: Stewart is 10th in the standings with 417 points.
Last week: Stewart’s No. 14 team has been gritty throughout the season. Now it’s getting a bit of luck, too. The driver brought home a fifth-place finish at Michigan, despite not having a fifth-place car. Stewart is now in the top 10 in the standings and, should he fall out, has a win to fall back on in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup race. | Click here to read a roundup on the six members of the Coca-Cola Racing Family.
What he said: “We really weren’t a fifth-place car. But we had some breaks go our way. A caution came out at the right time and we got a good restart and two of the guys ahead of us, one had fuel trouble and one had a problem. So, we got some breaks going our way.”
This week: In 14 career starts at Sonoma Raceway, Stewart has two wins, five top-fives, nine top-10s and one pole. In the past eight years at Sonoma, Stewart ranks second out of 48 drivers with an average place of 9.9.
Last year: Stewart’s strategy of being patient paid off, resulting in a second-place finish. It was Stewart’s third career second-place showing at Sonoma, and this one came after the second-worst start of his career at the track — 24th. ‘Smoke’ had just cracked the top five by Lap 100 (of 112), and gained spots after being bunched up for the green-white-checkered finish. On the final lap, he maneuvered low on the track to pass Kurt Busch on Turn 11 to take second.

11. Paul Menard (No. 27)

Richard Childress Racing, Chevrolet 

Where he stands: Menard is 11th in the standings with 415 points.
Last week: Welcome back to the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup field, Paul Menard — for now. One week after dropping out of the field, the driver of the No. 27 Chevrolet is back in following a 14th-place effort at Michigan. If he’s as consistent as he has been this entire season (no DNFs), Menard has a shot at NASCAR’s postseason. But he must root for race winners Greg Biffle and Tony Stewart to stay in the top 10 of the points standings.
What he said: “We had a fast CertainTeed/Menards Chevrolet at the start of the race and began to battle handling issues as the laps wore on. We got caught behind later when the caution came out after we had just pitted under green-flag conditions and had to restart at the tail end of the lead pack. I have to give my guys credit, they never gave up and we were able to fight back and come home with a top-15 finish.”
This week: In five career starts at Sonoma Raceway, Menard’s best finish is 17th in 2011. In the past eight years at Sonoma, Menard ranks 27th out of 48 drivers with an average place of 24.5.
Last year: Sonoma is unkind to Menard, who has finished inside the top 20 twice in five tries. One of those came last year, when Menard finished 20th.

12. Kasey Kahne (No. 5)

Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet

Where he stands: Kahne is 12th in the standings with 407 points.
Last week: When drivers were asked about the best cars in the field after Sunday’s race, the No. 5 Chevrolet came up often. Unfortunately for Kahne, who led 14 laps, he cut a tire on Lap 102, sending him hard into the Turn 2 wall. Kahne was OK, but his car burst into flames and was clearly unsalvageable. It’s been that way throughout the season for Kahne, who has five top-fives, but also four races where he earned less than 10 points. His seven-point day at Michigan came on the heels of an eight-point day at Pocono. Kahne does have a win at Bristol to fall back on, though.
What he said: “No, I had no indication (of trouble). We were just cruising. We had a really good Farmers Insurance Chevrolet. I knew it was going to be a battle with Jimmie (Johnson) today. He’s fast and I thought we were really good.”
This week: In nine career starts at Sonoma Raceway, Kahne has one win, two top-fives, two top-10s and two poles. In the past eight years at Sonoma, Kahne ranks 11th out of 48 drivers with an average place of 16.9.
Last year: Kahne’s two top-fives came in back-to-back years: 2009 and 2010. The past two years, he’s been outside the top 10. He finished 14th in 2012.

Five in the rearview mirror …

Martin Truex Jr. (No. 56)

Michael Waltrip Racing, Toyota 

Where he stands: Truex Jr. is 13th in the standings with 405 points.
Last week: Truex Jr. has been like a ping-pong ball lately. He’s bounced all around the standings, but is actually close to a spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup. Truex Jr. held off several challengers on the final restart and finished third at Michigan. The 41-point day vaulted him four spots in the standings. It’s a great battle worth watching, too. Truex is 10 points behind 11th-place Paul Menard, tied with 14th-place Joey Logano and one point ahead of 15th-place Aric Almirola. None of those drivers has a win this year, either.
This week: In seven career starts at Sonoma Raceway, Truex Jr. has one top-10. In the past eight years at Sonoma, Truex Jr. ranks 18th out of 48 drivers with an average place of 18.0.

Joey Logano (No. 22)

Penske Racing, Ford 

Where he stands: Logano is 14th in the standings with 405 points.
Last week: Logano recorded his fifth consecutive top-10 showing Sunday, finishing ninth at Michigan. He also led 21 laps and climbed another two spots in the points standings. | Click here to read a roundup on the six members of the Coca-Cola Racing Family.
This week: In four career starts at Sonoma Raceway, Logano has two top-10s and one pole. In the past eight years at Sonoma, Logano ranks 12th out of 48 drivers with an average place of 16.9.

Aric Almirola (No. 43)

Richard Petty Motorsports, Ford 

Where he stands: Almirola is 15th in the standings with 404 points.
Last week: It wasn’t a great day for Almirola. Driving the No. 43 Ford, Almirola started fifth on the grid but finished 17th. He was in the top 15 most of the day, and a late-race accident dented the nose of his car.
This week: In two career starts at Sonoma Raceway, Almirola finished 28th in 2008 and 2012. In the past eight years at Sonoma, Almirola ranks 41st out of 48 drivers with an average place of 31.4.

Jeff Gordon (No. 24)

Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolett 

Where he stands: Gordon is 16th in the standings with 398 points.
Last week: Gordon lost the momentum he so carefully crafted heading in Michigan. A wreck with Bobby Labonte, who simply spun out, happened just four laps into the race. Gordon’s No. 24 team diligently worked on his machine, and got it in condition to go out and log another 40-plus laps to gain four spots in the day’s results. Maybe those extra four points will help Gordon down the road.
This week: In 20 career starts at Sonoma Raceway, Gordon has five wins, 12 top-fives, 16 top-10s and five poles. In the past eight years at Sonoma, Gordon ranks fifth out of 48 drivers with an average place of 12.4.

Kurt Busch (No. 78)

Furniture Row Racing, Chevrolet 

Where he stands: Busch is 20th in the standings with 384 points.
Last week: Much like Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch’s goodwill evaporated into the warm Michigan air. The driver had one of the fastest cars of the weekend and led the first 21 laps of the race after starting second. In fourth place following the first round of pit stops, Busch’s car simply got loose, sending him spinning into the Turn 2 wall. His day basically over — although he took his battered No. 78 Chevrolet out for a few late laps — Busch finished 35th.
This week: In 12 career starts at Sonoma Raceway, Busch has one win, five top-fives, five top-10s and one pole. In the past eight years at Sonoma, Busch ranks first out of 48 drivers with an average place of 9.1.

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No. 16 driver secures 1,000th NASCAR win for Ford

RELATED: Quicken Loans 400 results | Updated Sprint Cup standings | Edwards on Biffle: ‘He ain’t our teammate’

BROOKLYN, Mich. — Greg Biffle feels right at home at Michigan International Speedway.
 
He took the lead for good on a late restart and ran away from the field in the closing laps to win Sunday’s Quicken Loans 400. The No. 16 Ford driver won his second straight race here and the 19th of his career. Four of those victories have come at MIS.
 
"It’s definitely a special day," Biffle said after delivering Ford Motor Company its 1,000th victory in NASCAR’s three national series. "Just super-excited for Ford and sure excited to be No. 1,000."
 
The win secured Biffle a berth in the 2014 NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race and moved him up a spot to eighth in the standings.

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Second a week ago at Pocono, Biffle led the pack to the restart on lap 173 and outran Martin Truex Jr. to stay out front. He led a race-best 48 laps.
 
Owner Jack Roush’s operations center is in suburban Detroit and he considers MIS his home track. He was beaming almost as broadly as his driver.
 
"We expect to be at our best when we come to MIS and I am glad we could pull it off," Roush said. "I was a little nervous for a minute there, but I am glad it worked out and glad we could give Ford its 1,000th win."
 
Sprint Cup Series points leader Jimmie Johnson was gaining on Biffle in the final laps but a cut right-front tire took him off the track with two laps to go.
 
Kevin Harvick finished second and Truex, Kyle Busch and Tony Stewart rounded out the top five.
 
Johnson took second a few laps before his misfortune and Harvick backed out of the throttle to hold on to at least a third-place finish.
 
"It was the third set of tires we had and they felt a little wobbly," he said. "We just wanted to hold our track position."
 
Biffle still was impressed with Johnson, whom he finished second to a week ago at Pocono.
 
"The guy was 10 (on the restart) and was catching me with 10 to go," Biffle said. "That’s a fast race car.
 
"We beat the 48 today and that says a lot. He was really, really fast."
 
Johnson ended the day 28th to wrap up a tough day for Hendrick Motorsports. None of the racing giant’s four entries cracked the top 25.
 
Pole winner Carl Edwards, who trailed Johnson by 51 points at the start of the race, cut 20 points off the deficit by finishing eighth.
 
Dale Earnhardt Jr. took the lead near the halfway point and appeared strong, but a blown engine ended his race on lap 131.
 
"It made a lot of damage there when it broke," he said after leading 34 laps at the track where he ended his 143-race dry spell a year ago. "I’m not sure they’re going to be able to figure out what happened."
 
Jamie McMurray led 21 laps but fell out of contention when he blew a right-front tire on lap 167.
 
The day’s worst-looking wreck came shortly after the midway point when Kasey Kahne struck the wall near turn 2. The car caught fire as Kahne was getting out, but he stuck his arm back inside to trigger the fire-suppression system. He was not hurt.
 
Kurt Busch started on the outside of the front row and led the first 21 laps but spun and smacked the turn 2 wall two laps later.
 
Stewart ran his streak of top-seven finishes to four straight races and jumped from 13th to 10th in the standings.
 
There were showers after Saturday’s Nationwide Series race and NASCAR gave crews a competition caution 20 laps in to assess tire wear on the clean surface.
 
The Sprint Cup Series continues next Sunday when drivers run the first road course of the season in the Toyota/Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway in California.

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Troublesome No. 11 Toyota ends up with 30th-place finish at Michigan

RELATED: Quicken Loans 400 results | Updated Sprint Cup standings

BROOKLYN, Mich. — Denny Hamlin did a great thing this weekend.

Many drivers paid tribute to the late Jason Leffler by donning decals in honor of “LefTurn” in Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series Quicken Loans 400, but none recalled Leffler’s legacy with as much effort as Hamlin’s No. 11 FedEx crew.

Leffler, a former Joe Gibbs Racing driver, previously donned the FedEx logo, so Hamlin’s team transformed his black-trimmed Toyota Camry to a replica of Leffler’s 2005 paint scheme ahead of the race at Michigan.
 
“It was an idea that I had to pay tribute to Jason in today’s race,” said Hamlin. “We had become friends over the past several years and had the same circle of friends, so it meant a lot to me to honor his memory.
 
“He was the reason FedEx came into the sport, so it kind of all made sense.”

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While Hamlin’s heart was in the right place, his car wasn’t. The No. 11 struggled all day to find any sort of footing on the track, spending the majority of the day a lap down.
 
The team worked feverishly on pit road to bring Hamlin’s car at least a hint of competitiveness, but was unable to figure anything out by race-end.
 
"We changed everything,” said crew chief Darian Grubb. “We changed shocks, bump stops, everything and we never affected it really. So we’ll take it back to the shop, tear it all apart and see if we can find something.
 
The result was a 30th-place disappointment at a track where Hamlin has succeeded in the past, with two wins and five top-five finishes under his belt.
 
After a 34th-place finish at Dover two weeks ago, Hamlin needed to build off a top-10 at Pocono to get the ball rolling as he attempts to make his way into the top 20 in the point standings to be eligible for a Chase for the Sprint Cup wild card spot.
 
It just didn’t happen.
 
"I have no idea (what was wrong with the car),” said Grubb. “Just really, really loose in traffic. We couldn’t run within a second of what we ran in practice. I really don’t have a clue."
 
Hamlin’s return to the track after missing four races because of a back injury sustained in a wreck with Joey Logano at Auto Club Speedway has been all hit or miss. After getting back into the car for a brief run at Talladega before giving way to Brian Vickers, who drove to a 34th-place finish for which Hamlin received points, two consecutive top-fives at Darlington and Charlotte had many back on the Hamlin bandwagon as a win appeared imminent.
 
With an average finish of 24th over the past three races, a current standing of 26th in points and just 11 races left before the Chase begins, Hamlin’s chances continue to shrink.

What he needs right now is a win, and while he does have multiple wins at four of the remaining 11 tracks, he’d likely need to stand in Victory Lane two or three times to pull himself out of the deficit he finds himself in.
 
Considering just four drivers (Jimmie Johnson, Kevin Harvick, Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch) have multiple wins through 15 races, the likelihood of a struggling driver reeling off a few wins in a row to finish out the season is low.
 
If there is a silver lining for Hamlin to be found, it’s that at this point last year, Jeff Gordon stood in 20th place with no wins, and ended up making the Chase after earning his lone victory at the second Pocono race.
 
That being said, nearly 100 points stand between Hamlin (299 points) and Kurt Busch (384 points) in 20th place.
 
It’ll be a tough spot for him to race his way out of, but don’t except the hard-nosed Hamlin to give up his heard-earned reputation for resilience just yet.

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Reaches milestone on 110th anniversary of Ford Motor Company’s incorporation

Ford earned its 1,000th NASCAR national series win on Sunday at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Mich. 

Greg Biffle did the honors as the Blue Oval celebrated about an hour drive west of its Dearborn headquarters with his fourth career NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win at the track. The win moved him from the Chase bubble in 10th to eighth.

“Ford has been an important part of our sport since their first win,” said NASCAR President Mike Helton. “We congratulate the entire Ford Motor Company and the race teams, past and present, that have contributed in this very significant milestone of their 1,000th win.”

1,000 NASCAR WINS

— 615 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series wins by Ford
— 96 Sprint Cup wins by Mercury
— 4 Sprint Cup wins by Lincoln
— 200 NASCAR Nationwide Series wins by Ford
— 85 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series wins by Ford

TOP FIVE DRIVERS BY WINS

— 89: Mark Martin (35 NSCS/47 NNS/7 NCWTS)
— 73: David Pearson (73 NSCS)
— 64: Carl Edwards (20 NSCS/38 NNS/6 NCWTS)
— 53: Greg Biffle (19 NSCS/18 NNS/16 NCWTS)
— 43: Ned Jarrett (43 NSCS)

On Friday, Biffle was asked about getting the 1,000th win for the manufacturer and talked put it in the perspective of his season as he attempts to earn Ford’s first Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup since the inaugural Chase in 2004.

“There are a lot of things on the line for us as far as that win,” Biffle said. “One, it would be our first of the season; two, it would propel us towards the Chase; and three, the 1,000th win for Ford Racing in NASCAR.”

The weekend started for Ford drivers on Thursday in Dearborn, where Carl Edwards said he became one of “only eight or nine people” to drive “Sweepstakes,” a car designed by Henry Ford, who drove it to his company first victory on Oct. 10, 1901 at the Detroit Driving Club in Grosse Pointe, Mich. It was the first and only race Ford ran and set him on the road to establishing Ford Motor Company 110 years ago to the day on Sunday.

After winning the Coors Light Pole Award with an average lap of 202.452 mph, Edwards talked about driving Ford Racing’s first winning car.

“We got it up to maybe 20 or 25 miles per hour driving on the road there, and they said it would go 73 miles per hour in 1901,” said Edwards, who finished eighth on Sunday. “It was scarier driving that thing 25 miles per hour than it was driving the corner here at 205. Those guys were brave.

“The neatest thing about that which I didn’t know until I talked with Edsel Ford and the guys there is that if it weren’t for winning that race, Ford Motor Company as we know it might not exist,” Edwards said. “For him to risk everything and build this race car and go out and race it and win and be able to put together investors for Ford Motor Company was huge.”

The No. 16 team’s win extended owner Jack Roush’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series record of 13 victories at his home track and was a record 45th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series victory for Ford and Mercury at MIS.

“Here we are in the summer of 2013 celebrating Henry Ford’s 150th birthday and in the same year we’re celebrating our 1,000th win in NASCAR,” said Jamie Allison, director, Ford Racing.  “We all know how Ford Motor Company started, and I think reaching this milestone really honors the spirit of what Henry Ford started.”

Understanding the importance of the track’s proximity to the auto manufacturing hub of Detroit, MIS President Roger Curtis announced Friday that a manufacturer’s trophy will be awarded after each NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, beginning with the Pure Michigan 400 on August 18, for the car company that goes to Victory Lane.

Allison acknowledged that winning at MIS held special meaning for Ford.

“We want to show up and compete and win in front of our friends, our neighbors, our employees, the entire network of people who support our company, whether it’s executives, fans, you name it,” Allison said. “It’s an extra level of pride that comes with being here in your hometown.”

Ford’s winning ways began at the beginning of NASCAR as Jim Roper in a Lincoln won the first Strictly Stock, now Sprint Cup Series, race in the sport’s history on June 19, 1949 at the old Charlotte Speedway.

Sixty-four years later, Ford supports 11 full-time drivers in NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competition, five in the Nationwide Series and two in the Camping World Truck Series. Ford competes in all three national series with support of Front Row Motorsports, Germain Racing, Penske Racing, Richard Petty Motorsports, Roush Fenway Racing and the Wood Brothers. This season, Ford added full-time support of Brad Keselowski Racing in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series. 

Trevor Bayne, who claimed the manufacturer’s 200th NASCAR Nationwide Series victory last Sunday at Iowa and its 600th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win in the 2011 Daytona 500, finished 15th in the No. 21 car for Wood Brothers.

Bayne noted on Friday that the Blue Oval supported his No. 6 Nationwide car under the hood as well as being a sponsor.

“Ford is such a huge backbone of our team,” Bayne said. “Not only do they give us manufacturer support, but they were actually on our race car last weekend at Iowa with the Ford EcoBoost Mustang, so we could not do it without them.” 

Posted on by Zack Albert

Hendrick Motorsports drivers take brunt of topsy-turvy day

RELATED: Quicken Loans 400 results | Updated Sprint Cup standings

Several drivers needing shots in the arm in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings instead took hard shots Sunday at Michigan International Speedway, with early pitfalls dramatically impacting their rank with 11 races left in the regular season before the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

Hendrick Motorsports, typically up front performance-wise, was first in line for servings of adversity with all four of its entries hitting snags.

Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kasey Kahne, Denny Hamlin and Kurt Busch — all former Michigan winners — hoped to capitalize on their experience at the 2-mile track in the Quicken Loans 400. But the quintet was unable to solidify their positioning in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup postseason hunt, and points leader Jimmie Johnson saw his lead shrink significantly after a late-race tire issue.

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Gordon was the first to encounter trouble, colliding with Bobby Labonte in just the fourth of 200 laps and smacking the outside wall. His 39th-place finish dropped him a whopping five spots from 11th to 16th in the points as the four-time series champion lost his hold on one of the two Wild Card playoffs spots.

Gordon, a five-time Coors Light Pole winner at Michigan, attributed a portion of his misfortune to starting back in the pack in 29th place.

“For years I’ve always said I don’t believe in good luck or bad luck that you make it,” said Gordon, who managed to return to the race after 130 laps in the garage but retired early for his fourth DNF of the season. “Just in that instance right there I call that being at the wrong place at the wrong time, but I also know that we contribute to where we started. We started back there and we were moving forward which I’m proud of, but the fact that we are back there.

“I put as much blame on myself. I really struggled this weekend when we went into qualifying trim. I’ve struggled all year. Shoot, the last two years with qualifying and I don’t know what it is, but we have to get it better. Starting back there you are only putting yourself into those positions to have those kinds of things happen.”

Two different problems affected Kahne and Earnhardt, Gordon’s Hendrick Motorsports teammates, shortly after the race’s midway point.

Kahne brought out the race’s sixth caution period after a cut tire sent his No. 5 Chevrolet hard into the turn 2 wall in Lap 102. Kahne was uninjured, but his demolished car relegated him to a 38th-place finish.

The outcome continued a recent slide for Kahne, who was as high as second in the standings after a runner-up finish at Kansas on April 21. Since then, he’s gradually slid out of the top 10, with Sunday’s crash moving him from eighth to 12th in the points in one swoop. His one victory this year — at Bristol in March — does help him cling to one of the Chase wild-card spots.

Earnhardt was the next Hendrick driver to watch his day end early. His No. 88 car slowed dramatically for a lap before trailing a plume of smoke to bring out a 130th-lap yellow flag. Earnhardt finished third the previous week at Pocono Raceway to jump two positions into fourth in the Sprint Cup points; his failure to finish Sunday knocked him back three slots to seventh place.

“Just telling them guys to hold their head up they did a great job overnight getting the car competitive,” Earnhardt said of his crew. “We had a first- or second-place car right there.”

The lone bright spot for the Hendrick operation was primed to be Johnson for the second straight week, but his No. 48 Chevy slowed with a blown tire just three laps from the finish. He limped to the pits and finished 28th, the first driver one lap down.

The downfall allowed second-place Carl Edwards, who ran eighth Sunday, to chop 20 points off Johnson’s lead, closing to 31 points off the top. Clint Bowyer also moved 20 points closer in third place, finishing seventh Sunday to stand 49 points off the lead.

Kurt Busch, who started second and swept Saturday’s practice sessions, brought out the yellow flag in the 28th lap with a spin and mild contact with the outside retaining wall. The No. 78 driver had inched up nine places in last eight races, but Sunday’s 35th-place finish — seven laps down — pushed him from 15th to 20th in points, increasing his urgency to secure a win for his Wild Card hopes.

Hamlin paid tribute to former Joe Gibbs Racing driver Jason Leffler with a special throwback paint scheme. But his long-shot quest for a Wild Card berth hit another setback with a 30th-place finish after a pair of unscheduled pit stops and lackluster performance.

Hamlin, who missed four races after suffering a back injury in a crash at Auto Club Speedway on March 24, needs to climb into the 11th-20th range in points and collect at least a win or two to have a realistic chance at a Wild Card spot. Sunday, he dropped from 25th to 26th in points to stall his momentum.

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Biffle’s decision not to help remove trash from Edwards’ grille causes tension

RELATED: Quicken Loans 400 results | Updated Sprint Cup standings | Biffle gets win

BROOKLYN, Mich. — Carl Edwards felt his Roush Fenway Racing teammate should have helped him out.
 
Greg Biffle said that, given the gap between the two Fords, the timing and the fact that he was the race leader overruled any request for assistance.
 
Edwards was running second to Biffle with less than 50 laps remaining in Sundays’ Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway when the temperature of his car’s engine became a cause for concern.
 
Trash on the grille created the issue, and Edwards was hopeful that Biffle would slow enough to let him close in and allow the air pressure to remove the debris.

How much longer could he run before harming the engine?
 
“Somebody get a motor man to make the decision for me,” Edwards radioed his crew “because I’m not going to make the decision."

"(We) didn’t get any help from our teammate, and he put us in a hole."

— Jimmy Fennig

Told the engine should be OK until he pitted, which he did a handful of laps later, Edwards overcame an untimely caution that fell shortly after his green-flag pit stop to finish eighth.
 
No help from the teammate, came the voice on the radio after the stop.
 
“He ain’t our teammate,” Edwards shot back.
 
Biffle, however, said he had other concerns. With the potential to end a 27-race winless streak looming in the windshield of his No. 16 Ford, and a healthy margin on the track, it was a risk he wasn’t willing to take.
 
“These races are very, very hard to win,” Biffle, who scored his 19th career win and the 1,000th win for Ford Motor Co. across NASCAR national series. “The last win I had was here. This is a competitive sport.”
 
It would be different, he said “if he was eight car-lengths back, and I didn’t know when I passed him he had something on his grille or I’d let him get it off then. And I don’t know if he did have something …”
 
Told of his teammate’s potential problem, Biffle responded “I can’t help him … not right now. This is my chance to win today, right here, and the 48 (of Jimmie Johnson) is coming. I don’t know if you know that or not, but the 48 is coming.”
 
Afterward, team co-owner Jack Roush defended the decision of Biffle and the No. 16 team.
 
“There are no team orders for that kind of thing,” Roush said, “but I do support the decision that Greg made to not give up his track position, and we’ll discuss that.”
 
Edwards, the Coors Light Pole Award winner, led three times for 16 laps, the last time at lap 150 before Biffle came zooming past.
 
His eighth-place finish enabled him to hold his No. 2 position in the points standings, and cut into Jimmie Johnson’s points lead. He now trails by 31.
 
“It’s a two way street, right?” Biffle said. “You ask that guy up there to climb back down the rock to help you or you wait for the guy that’s coming (up) and ask him for help.
 
“There’s two ways of doing it. … There are lots of options … and I had to get stuff off my grille several times.”
 
Crew chief Jimmy Fennig wasn’t pleased, citing the problems at the end of a race on the fact that the team “didn’t get any help from our teammate, and he put us in a hole.
 
“We were a bit too free,” Fennig said of the day’s battle on the 2-mile oval. “We finally got it (better) at the end, but we got paper in our grille.
 
“Tried to get the 16 (of Biffle) to help get it off and he didn’t want to help us.”

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Series leader Johnson, teammates all finish outside top 25

BROOKLYN, Mich. — Jeff Gordon couldn’t avoid a spinning Bobby Labonte.
 
Kasey Kahne slammed the wall in Turn 2.
 
And Dale Earnhardt Jr. needed 400 miles out of his car’s engine. He got only 262.
 
Leaving it up to Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson to haul the mail and save the day.
 
Johnson, a five-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, entered Sunday’s Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway with 63 career wins. None had come at the 2-mile MIS.
 
And although he was closing on race leader Greg Biffle with less than 10 laps remaining, a flat tire inside the final five laps sent Johnson to pit road. He finished 28th.

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“We cut a right-front tire there at the end,” Johnson said, leaning back against the No. 48 entry as his crew scurried around in the background, preparing the car for the journey back to the team’s headquarters in Charlotte, N.C.
 
“I guess just running that hard trying to get through traffic and get to the No. 16 (of Biffle), we wore through the right-front. I’m kind of shocked because we didn’t have any issues (before that).
 
“Our strategy was throwing some challenges at us … and we just struggled with maintaining track position. But we had a fast car and I could drive up through there. As soon as I’d get to first or second, a caution would come out and then something would happen again and we’d lose track position.”
 
The 28th-place finish was the worst of the season for Johnson, but not enough to knock him off his perch atop the points standings. He leads Carl Edwards, who finished eighth, by 31.
 
As for the remainder of the HMS fleet?
 
Gordon was able to return after extensive repairs following his lap-6 incident, but fell five spots, to 16th in the points, with the 39th-place result.
 
Labonte “just did one of those slow spins where I couldn’t tell which direction he was going to go,” Gordon said, “so I had to guess and I guessed the wrong way. I didn’t really have anywhere to go.”
 
Kahne was leading when his No. 5 Chevrolet slid up the track and into the Turn 2 wall. The car briefly caught fire, but Kahne, uninjured, was able to exit without any issues.
 
“I would say it was a tire that went down, but I don’t know for sure,” said Kahne, who lost four points positions after finishing 38th. “I just was going into the corner and then it’ ‘boom’ and turned right went straight into the wall.
 
“Things were working out. I thought it was going to be between myself and Jimmie. We both had two really fast cars.”
 
Earnhardt Jr. had led 23 consecutive laps before his car’s engine began to sour — less than 30 laps after the Kahne incident. The 37th-place finish dropped him three spots in the standings, to seventh.
 
Off the pace a day earlier in practice, Earnhardt Jr. said he was “proud” of the work done by crew chief Steve Letarte and the No. 88 team to get the car turned around.
 
“They made a lot of great changes. And that car was just flying at the end there,” he said.
 
That speed was perhaps a silver lining for the group on an otherwise forgettable day.
 
“At least we weren’t running 25th with problems, that makes it all the worse,” Johnson said. “We have fast race cars and I’m proud of everybody at Hendrick.”