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Drivers opt to learn from, compete against proven Sprint Cup star

When Kyle Busch isn’t racing in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series, though the chance of winning may be higher, the victory isn’t quite as sweet. At Texas Motor Speedway this past weekend — the first race without Busch since he swept the previous two — the Sprint Cup Series driver was, surprisingly, missed.

“I want to get back to Victory Lane, but I want to do it when Kyle Busch or Mark Martin or Carl Edwards is out there,” Brendan Gaughan, a four-time winner at Texas, said. “You wanna race against the best, and right now, Kyle Busch is the best.”

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In the four Camping World Truck Series races he’s been in this year, Busch has won two, placed second once and crashed out of the other. He’s started in the top five twice, and led 153 laps. By comparison, Trucks Series points leader Matt Crafton has led 44 laps so far this season.
 
Veterans of the series say a win would mean more if it were against the best in the business. They’d rather chance losing to him than lose the chance of beating him.
 
Younger drivers enjoy having the chance to learn from a proven Cup driver — and there is a lot they can learn from Busch, the youngest winner ever at Texas Motor Speedway until Jeb Burton took that record on Friday night.
 
“…You’ve got to believe that you can just constantly learn off of them,” said Chad Hackenbracht, who ran Busch’s No. 51 truck at Texas, “whether it be how they race, how they pass you or, once they pass you, how you see them get around someone else. I can only see it as being a benefit.”
 
It’s also a chance for drivers to see how they measure up to drivers in NASCAR’s premier series, such as Busch and reigning Cup champion Brad Keselowski, another regular double-duty driver.
 
“I’ve always enjoyed it when the Cup drivers or Nationwide drivers come back and race in the Truck Series because it really gives you a chance to compare yourself 100 percent to the guys that are racing on Sunday,” KBM driver Joey Coulter said. “And, two, obviously if you beat ’em it looks really good, and if you don’t beat ’em, usually if you really pay attention, you can learn a lot from ’em,”
 
Busch has never run a full trucks series season. The closest he has come was in 2008, when he ran 18 of the season’s 25 races. That same year, he won eight races in the Sprint Cup Series — the most wins he has had in a season to date. In 30 Nationwide races that year, he nabbed 10 wins in the Series — his second-best season only to 13 wins in 2010, when he won eight Trucks races and three Cup races. Yet Busch isn’t the only one who benefits from racing in all three series.
 
“It does hurt (the KBM) organization as a whole when he’s not here, ’cause you know that he… can change things that well, and it is a good voice box for Joey (Coulter) and the kids (Darrell Wallace Jr. and Hackenbracht), so I think it kinda hurts them a little bit,” Gaughan said. “Not Joey so much; he’s got more experience, but Darrell and Chad, would be nice if they could have Kyle here to lean on.”
 
While there seems to be a line of age and experience dividing drivers who want the Joe Gibbs Racing driver there to provide competition and those who want to learn from him, the sentiment about his presence on the track with them is the same.
 
“Whether Kyle’s a Cup guy or not, he’s winning races,” James Buescher, currently sixth in the standings after a ninth-place finish at Fort Worth, said. “So, I don’t think it matters that he’s a Cup guy. I think it matters that he’s got it figured out how to win it in truck, and we gotta figure out how to beat him. … Just because he does something else on Sunday doesn’t make it him any different of a competitor on Friday night.”

Posted on by Holly Cain

The standings continue to fluctuate every week and Pocono was no exception

IN THE REARVIEW. …

Greg Biffle’s runner-up effort Sunday in the No. 16 3M Ford was only his second top-five on the season and his first top-10 since April 13 at Texas Motor Speedway.

The good news for Biffle, however, is that with all the movement among the Chase contenders this week, it put him right back into the thick of things — a three-position improvement to 10th in the championship standings, the final guaranteed spot in the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

“We’re not quite there yet,’’ Biffle said. “Clearly we’re not celebrating that we finished second today quite yet. …but definitely, this is a step in the right direction.  We certainly ran better here than we have all season, and certainly that’s a positive for us going into next week, hopefully continue to build on that.”

TEAR DOWN …

Learning curve: There has been plenty of intrigue and expectation for this year’s Sunoco Rookie of the Year class. Despite all of the credentials two-time Nationwide Series champ Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and former open-wheel star Danica Patrick bring to the rookie competition — plus the added interest of the two being in a romantic relationship — it’s been a tough year as far as the actual on-track results.

It was no Party in the Poconos for Stenhouse or Patrick. He had the toughest points day of them all — his 26th-place finish in the race dropped him five positions to 20th. It was his second worst finish of the year (he was 40th at Texas in April). After a 29th-place finish at Pocono, Patrick is ranked 28th with only one top-10.

Stenhouse has been the top-finishing rookie in 11 of the 14 races, including Sunday’s 26th-place effort at Pocono, although Patrick made international headlines winning the Coors Light Pole Award and finishing eighth in the season-opening Daytona 500.

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Labonte-less Michigan? No driver has swept the season’s races at Michigan, the next stop on the Sprint Cup circuit, since Bobby Labonte all the way back in 1995. After 702 consecutive starts — the second-longest active streak and third all-time in NASCAR history — Labonte will be replaced in JTG/Daugherty Racing’s No. 47 Toyota with AJ Allmendinger next Sunday at Michigan.

INSIDE THE NUMBERS. …

1 — Number of cautions through the first 125 laps of the Party in the Poconos 400. 

5 — Number of cautions in the final 28 laps.

4 — Top-five finishes in the first four races of the season for Brad Keselowski. The reigning Sprint Cup champ has had only one (Dover) since. 

11 — Drivers ranked in the top-12 after this Pocono race last year who qualified for the Chase.  

128 — Laps Jimmie Johnson led Sunday, the most ever in his 23 Pocono starts.

CHASE WATCH …

Johnson now holds the largest championship lead he’s had all season. Amazingly, his 51-point advantage means he could essentially sit out a race and still maintain the lead.

As for other movers, Sunday’s third-place finisherDale Earnhardt Jr. and three-time race winner Matt Kenseth swapped places in the standings. Earnhardt is now ranked fourth and Kenseth is sixth.

Last week’s winner, Tony Stewart, continued a blazing run up the standings. His fourth-place effort moved him up another three positions, and he is now ranked 13th, only 17 points out of a guaranteed Chase berth in the top-10. Two races ago, he was winless and ranked 20th, more than 40 points out of the top-10.

Conversely, a tire problem on the very last lap Sunday dropped one of the season’s quiet achievers, Paul Menard, three positions in the standings — from a promising ninth place to 12th.

THEY SAID IT. …

“I’m not a dad, but I feel very much like a proud dad today.”

— Tony Stewart on his Stewart-Haas Racing team’s first double top-5 finish of the season. Stewart and teammate Ryan Newman were fourth and fifth, and it comes on the heels of Stewart’s victory last week.

“They are 43-wide going into Turn One.’’

–TNT analyst and former racer Kyle Petty joking about a late-race restart during the television broadcast.

“He was gone from the first practice yesterday. It was his race to lose all weekend."

— Matt Kenseth talking about winner Jimmie Johnson’s dominant win.

COMING UP. …

Next up, the first test of the Gen-6 car in race conditions during the Quicken Loans 400 at the super-fast, super-smooth Michigan International Speedway two-mile oval.

Nine different drivers have won the last 11 races there. Defending race winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. (2008 and 2012) and Denny Hamlin (2010 and 2011) are the only multiple winners in that span.

Biffle has three wins at Michigan, most recently in August, the last time the series raced there.

Posted on by Brad Norman

News, notes and quotes as the Sprint Cup tour heads to Michigan

1. Jimmie Johnson (No. 48)

Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet

Where he stands: Johnson leads the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings with 521 points.
Last week: He’s back. Not that Johnson went anywhere, actually, but one week after a late-race penalty ruined his shot at a win, the No. 48 was absolutely dominant at Pocono. Johnson won for the third time this season Sunday, leading a staggering 128 of 160 laps at the 2.5-mile Tricky Triangle. A series of late cautions didn’t hamper things, either, as Johnson’s car was a rocket on restarts. Five-Time increased his points lead to 51 points over Carl Edwards, enough for Johnson to sit out an entire race and guarantee he’d still be in first.
What he said: “I’m sure we’ve had some other really strong races like that, but not in recent memory. What a race car. Not only the car and the handling and the grip that it had, but also the engine and what was under the hood. When I would lean on the throttle, this baby would yard anybody and everybody. Hats off to everybody in every department at Hendrick Motorsports.”
This week: In 22 career starts at Michigan International Speedway, Johnson has four top-fives and nine top-10s. In the past eight years at Michigan, Johnson ranks third out of 51 drivers with an average place of 10.2.
Last year: Johnson is heralded as one of the most consistent drivers on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series circuit, and for good reason — the results speak for themselves. But Johnson had been inconsistent at Michigan for the past nine races at the 2-mile speedway. That span produced four results in the top 10, but three results outside of the top 20. The 2012 Quicken Loans 400 was a good one for Johnson, though. The veteran driver recorded his second consecutive top-five, finishing fifth after running outside of the top 10 for the first 140 of 200 laps.

2. Carl Edwards (No. 99)

Roush Fenway Racing, Ford 

Where he stands: Edwards is second in the standings with 470 points.
Last week: Edwards just keeps plodding along. Despite starting second and leading nine laps, he finished 18th at Pocono in his third consecutive showing with a finish outside the top-10. The No. 99 team has a win to fall back on regardless, and the guys below Edwards in the standings have been far more inconsistent. And from the sounds of things, it sounds like Edwards wasn’t pleased when Friday practice was rained out.
What he said: “It’s easy to make mistakes here, so you’d rather make those mistakes in practice. Less practice here is bad for us all around.”
This week: In 17 career starts at Michigan International Speedway, Edwards has two wins, nine top-fives and 13 top-10s. In the past eight years at Michigan, Edwards ranks second out of 51 drivers with an average place of 10.2.
Last year: In a story line that told the story of Edwards’ Chase-less season, the driver of the No. 99 Ford didn’t necessarily have a bad showing, but he walked away from the track disappointed. No, on the surface, finishing 11th at Michigan wasn’t too bad. But Edwards said he and his team picked the wrong setup for his Ford, which caused a loose condition all day and also contributed to him starting 42nd. The finish, coincidentally, dropped Edwards to 11th in the Sprint Cup points standings.

3. Clint Bowyer (No. 15)

Michael Waltrip Racing, Toyota 

Where he stands: Bowyer is third in the standings with 452 points.
Last week: Bowyer led all Michael Waltrip Racing drivers with the best finish at Pocono Raceway, which is good. The fact that he did so while taking 15th place is bad. It was a rough day at the office for all three MWR cars but Bowyer, who started third before free-falling down the field, didn’t lose ground in the standings.
What he said: “Tough day at the office. Got a little work to do at the ole (team) camp. We’ll get it back!”
This week: In 14 career starts at Michigan International Speedway, Bowyer has six top-10s. In the past eight years at Michigan, Bowyer ranks 14th out of 51 drivers with an average place of 16.2.
Last year: Bowyer paced his Toyota brethren in 2012, finishing the Quicken Loans 400 in seventh place. Bowyer actually thought his car was better than that, and he has a point — although the No. 15 led just one lap, it ran in the top five consistently from Lap to 85 to Lap 160. A less-than-ideal late pit stop, though, pushed Bowyer toward the back of the top 10.

4. Dale Earnhardt Jr. (No. 88)

Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet

Where he stands: Earnhardt Jr. is fourth in the standings with 439 points.
Last week: Heading into the track where he last won (Michigan), Earnhardt has some considerable momentum following his Pocono performance. Junior pushed eventual race winner Jimmie Johnson down the stretch before eventually ceding second place to Greg Biffle and finishing third. It’s Earnhardt’s second-best finish of the year, behind only his second-place effort at Fontana in March. It was his first top-five showing since that race, too.
What he said: “Yeah, we have been carrying momentum for a good solid year now. We had better finishes last year; we started this year off really good. We just had a lot of problems since then and just struggled to get good finishes. We are all right. We know what we need to do. Confidence is there, all the fans can rest assured we feel like we are on the right track. We want to get a win, man.”
This week: In 27 career starts at Michigan International Speedway, Earnhardt has two wins, six top-fives, 10 top-10s and two poles. He is the defending race champion. In the past eight years at Michigan, Earnhardt ranks fifth out of 51 drivers with an average place of 12.5.
Last year: After four years and 143 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series starts, it happened. Dale Earnhardt Jr., the circuit’s most popular driver, got back into Victory Lane with a dominance performance at the 2-mile Michigan track on Father’s Day. Junior started 17th, but pit strategy following a two-hour delay due to weather helped the No. 88 car make huge gains. In 29th place through 20 laps, Earnhardt was in the lead by Lap 70. All told, Earnhardt led 95 of 200 laps, including the final 30. There was no fretting the finish either, as he beat second-place Tony Stewart to the start/finish line by more than 5 seconds.

5. Kevin Harvick (No. 29)

Richard Childress Racing, Chevrolet 

Where he stands: Harvick is fifth in the standings with 434 points.
Last week: Harvick kept his top-10 streak going, finishing ninth at Pocono to remain fifth in the points standings. It was Harvick’s fourth consecutive top-10, and five of his six top-10s this season have come in the past six races. The No. 29 Chevrolet started fifth and may have challenged for a spot in the top five if not for a pit-road speeding penalty.
What he said: "The Rheem crew did a great job today at Pocono Raceway, especially coming back from that mid-race setback on pit road. Recovering from that mistake to finish in the top 10 is proof of how hard this team works each week."
This week: In 24 career starts at Michigan International Speedway, Harvick has one win, three top-fives and eight top-10s. In the past eight years at Michigan, Harvick ranks 15th out of 51 drivers with an average place of 16.3.
Last year: Harvick made 74 green-flag passes in last year’s Quicken Loans 400, a stat that tells just how much ground the driver had to make up. Starting wasn’t the problem — Harvick came off the grid second and was still in the top 10 when the first competition caution flag came out on Lap 27. Following his pit stop, Harvick was called back into pit road when a member of the No. 29 team noticed the dust cap was missing from the left-front hub. Repairs put Harvick in 39th position. It took the rest of the race, but Harvick managed to crack the top 10 by the end of the 200 laps, finishing 10th for his first top-10 at the Michigan spring race since 2007.

6. Matt Kenseth (No. 20)

Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota 

Where he stands: Kenseth is sixth in the standings with 418 points.
Last week: When Juan Pablo Montoya lost control of his car on Lap 133 and collected Matt Kenseth, it looked like Kenseth would get his fourth DNF of the season. The No. 20 car was salvaged, though, and three late caution flags ensured Kenseth would finish the race on the lead lap, albeit in 25th place. Prior to that incident, Kenseth had been running in the top 10.
What he said: “I really, honestly, don’t know (what happened). If I didn’t leave him enough room, sorry. If I did leave him enough room and he got loose and spun out underneath me, that’s just racing. I hate to use that term, but it just is.”
This week: In 27 career starts at Michigan International Speedway, Kenseth has two wins, 12 top-fives and 17 top-10s. In the past eight years at Michigan, Kenseth ranks fourth out of 51 drivers with an average place of 10.3.
Last year: Kenseth called his day “up-and-down,” but he maintained his points lead over hard-charging Dale Earnhardt Jr. by finishing third. It was a tremendous finishing kick for Kenseth, who hadn’t been better than third when he crossed the start/finish line under the checkered flag since Lap 50. He also led for 17 laps.

7. Kyle Busch (No. 18)

Joe Gibbs Racing, Toyota 

Where he stands: Busch is seventh in the standings with 412 points.
Last week: Busch lost ground on the last restart, but that’s piddling. After a rough three-race stretch earlier this season, it appears that Busch has found his groove once more. He ran in the top five at Pocono and was third on the final restart. A poor jump then dropped Busch back to sixth, where he finished up a 38-point day.
What he said: “We probably had a seventh-place car all day long and found ourselves in third on the last restart. I just couldn’t get going for some reason on that last restart. I just didn’t do a good job there and we found ourselves in sixth.”
This week: In 16 career starts at Michigan International Speedway, Busch has one win, three top-fives and five top-10s. In the past eight years at Michigan, Busch ranks ninth out of 51 drivers with an average place of 14.2.
Last year: Michigan isn’t one of Busch’s best tracks, but ‘Rowdy’ was coming off a win in the fall race at the 2-mile track. That success was not to be repeated in the 2012 spring race. Busch, who qualified 34th, was up into the top 10 by Lap 34. Then engine issues struck for the third consecutive race. The driver went to the garage, and eventually came back out, to complete 157 of 200 laps and finish 34th. To give an idea of how rotten of a day it was for Joe Gibbs Racing, Busch’s 34th-place effort was the best among JGR’s three entries. Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano didn’t finish due to wrecks.

8. Kasey Kahne (No. 5)

Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolet

Where he stands: Kahne is eighth in the standings with 400 points.
Last week: Kahne lined up on the grid seventh and was confident in his car, but we didn’t get a chance to see if that confidence was deserved. The No. 5 Chevrolet had mechanical issues on the very first lap and went to the garage. Kahne returned to log 141 laps, but it was far too late to compete for points. He finished 36th.
What he said: “I know that when I took off, in second gear, I had no power and it was just vibrating like crazy. The faster I went, the worse the vibration was. They changed a lot of things, but nothing was wrong. In looking at everything, it all looked fine. But still, you can’t make up 20 laps at Pocono.”
This week: In 18 career starts at Michigan International Speedway, Kahne has one win, seven top-fives, eight top-10s and two poles. In the past eight years at Michigan, Kahne ranks 12th out of 51 drivers with an average place of 15.3.
Last year: It was a rough go at Michigan for Kahne, who started the race with such promise in the fourth spot on the grid. Fourth was as high as the No. 5 Chevrolet would get, though, as Kahne struggled with his machine even before he was in a wreck with Joey Logano and David Ragan, bringing out a caution on Lap 127. Kahne would finish in 33rd place, logging 151 of 200 laps.

9. Brad Keselowski (No. 2)

Penske Racing, Ford 

Where he stands: Keselowski is ninth in the standings with 398 points.
Last week: Keselowski had a gritty effort for the second consecutive week, a showing more impressive than his 16th-place finish would indicate. For one, Keselowski ran at the front of the field throughout Sunday’s race. Secondly, he had perhaps the most jaw-dropping moment of the race. Battling Tony Stewart for fourth place, Keselowski got under the No. 14 and sent both cars into a synchronized spin. Incredibly, the defending NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion regained control of his car (as did Stewart).
What he said: “Fast race car today. Soon, we will put all the pieces together and get the finishes we deserve.”
This week: In seven career starts at Michigan International Speedway, Keselowski has two top-fives and two top-10s. In the past eight years at Michigan, Keselowski ranks 18th out of 51 drivers with an average place of 18.1.
Last year: In the middle stages of the 2012 Quicken Loans 400, Keselowski “blistered” — his words — his right-rear tire, setting his whole day off line. The driver had worked his way into the top 10 after starting 25th, and the emergency pit stop dropped him back to 31st. Keselowski, who also called it a hard-luck day, finished 13th at his hometown track.

10. Greg Biffle (No. 16)

Roush Fenway Racing, Ford 

Where he stands: Biffle is 10th in the standings with 395 points.
Last week: Is the Biff back? Well, maybe. Certainly Sunday’s performance was a step in the right direction for a No. 16 team that had gone six races with finishes of 13th or worse. Biffle’s Ford showed power at Pocono, allowing the veteran to finish in second place. | Click here to read a roundup on the six members of the Coca-Cola Racing Family
What he said: “We’ve really struggled this season, but once we got some track position we were pretty good. The 48 was definitely in a league of his own today. I was just hoping I could get up to his rear bumper or something would happen and I could get close enough to race with him, but we just needed a few more adjustments.”
This week: In 20 career starts at Michigan International Speedway, Biffle has three wins, nine top-fives, 12 top-10s and one pole. In the past eight years at Michigan, Biffle ranks first out of 51 drivers with an average place of 8.2.
Last year: Biffle had a great day at Michigan, finishing fourth after starting third.

11. Jeff Gordon (No. 24)

Hendrick Motorsports, Chevrolett 

Where he stands: Gordon is 11th in the standings with 393 points.
Last week: Gordon couldn’t sneak his way into the top 10, but he came close. Despite battling a tight No. 24 Chevrolet, the veteran came in 12th place. Only a second-place effort from Greg Biffle kept Gordon out of the top 10 in the standings, but he’s only two points back in 11th place and with one of two wild-card entries into the Chase.
What he said: “I would say I spend a little bit of time looking through the field and evaluating how we’re running, what our potential is, mainly has been the case for me most of the time is I put a lot more focus on what we’re doing and what we’re capable of doing than I do the rest of the competition. You have to evaluate what other guys are doing and how well they’re running and what kind of strength they have.”
This week: In 40 career starts at Michigan International Speedway, Gordon has two wins, 18 top-fives, 25 top-10s and five poles. In the past eight years at Michigan, Gordon ranks sixth out of 51 drivers with an average place of 12.6.
Last year: Only one driver (Carl Edwards) gained as many positions as Gordon from the start of the race to the end. The No. 24 started 28th and steadily crept through the field, getting into the top 10 by Lap 80. Gordon ran as high as second place before ultimately finishing sixth, his second consecutive sixth-place effort at Michigan.

13. Tony Stewart (No. 14)

Stewart-Haas Racing, Chevrolet 

Where he stands: Stewart is 13th in the standings with 378 points.
Last week: Stewart continued his climb up the standings and is up to 13th following his fourth-place finish at Pocono. He owns the final wild-card spot due to his one victory. | Click here to read a roundup on the six members of the Coca-Cola Racing Family
What he said: “Really happy with (the finish). We got kind of pinched down there in the tunnel; or not pinched down — we were the one doing the pinching, and got hit in the left rear there and moved up the track, and fell back to 12th and fought back to fourth there with all those restarts there, so pretty happy with that.”
This week: In 28 career starts at Michigan International Speedway, Stewart has one win, 11 top-fives and 19 top-10s. In the past eight years at Michigan, Stewart ranks eighth out of 51 drivers with an average place of 12.8.
Last year: Stewart couldn’t catch Dale Earnhardt Jr. down the stretch, but then again, no one could. So ‘Smoke’ did the next-best thing, finishing second for the first time at Michigan since 2005. Stewart did it in style, too, staying in the top 10 for nearly the entire race and leading 18 laps one day after posting the 27th best time in the final practice.

Five in the rearview mirror …

Paul Menard (No. 27)

Richard Childress Racing, Chevrolet 

Where he stands: Menard is 12th in the standings with 385 points.
Last week: Well, it happened. For all of Menard’s consistent showings, he hasn’t been dazzling. That caught up to him at Pocono. The No. 27 Chevrolet finished 30th after blowing a tire on the last lap, and his 13-point day was enough to drop him three spots in the standings and out of the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup field. Now, Menard must start finishing in the top 10 consistently to climb back up … or better yet, win.
This week: In 13 career starts at Michigan International Speedway, Menard has one top-five and two top-10s. In the past eight years at Michigan, Menard ranks 31st out of 51 drivers with an average place of 22.8.

Aric Almirola (No. 43)

Richard Petty Motorsports, Ford 

Where he stands: Almirola is 14th in the standings with 377 points.
Last week: It’s been four races since Almirola polished off his career-best streak of four consecutive top-10s. In the four races since, he’s finished 20th or worse, including Sunday’s 21st-place finish at Pocono.
This week: In two career starts at Michigan International Speedway, Almirola’s best finish is 17th in 2012. In the past eight years at Michigan, Almirola ranks 17th out of 51 drivers with an average place of 18.1.

Kurt Busch (No. 78)

Furniture Row Racing, Chevrolet 

Where he stands: Busch is 15th in the standings with 374 points.
Last week: Busch continues to knock on the door of opportunity, and you get the sense that door will eventually open. It didn’t happen at Pocono, where Busch was fastest in the final practice but had a blunder on pit road. By overshooting his pit box during stops following a caution on Lap 126, the driver was 24th on the ensuing restart. He was in the top 10 prior to that gaffe, and he still managed to finish seventh.
This week: In 24 career starts at Michigan International Speedway, Busch has two wins, three top-fives, eight top-10s and two poles. In the past eight years at Michigan, Busch ranks 10th out of 51 drivers with an average place of 15.1.

Joey Logano (No. 22)

Penske Racing, Ford 

Where he stands: Logano is 16th in the standings with 369 points.
Last week: Logano’s No. 22 team has pieced together three top-10s following his 10th-place effort at Pocono. And consider this — on performance alone, meaning not counting a 25-point penalty for a failed post-race inspection, Logano would be one point ahead of 11th-place Jeff Gordon and in control of a Chase wild-card spot. | Click here to read a roundup on the six members of the Coca-Cola Racing Family
This week: In eight career starts at Michigan International Speedway, Logano has three top-10s. In the past eight years at Michigan, Logano ranks 21st out of 51 drivers with an average place of 19.1.

Ryan Newman (No. 39)

Stewart-Haas Racing, Chevrolet

Where he stands: Newman is 18th in the standings with 363 points.
Last week: With a wily pit strategy, Newman had the No. 39 in position to challenge for a win Sunday. That didn’t materialize, but his fifth-place showing was good for a two-spot jump in the standings.| Click here to read a roundup on the six members of the Coca-Cola Racing Family
This week: In 22 career starts at Michigan International Speedway, Newman has two wins, five top-fives, seven top-10s and one poles. In the past eight years at Michigan, Newman ranks 19th out of 51 drivers with an average place of 19.0.

Posted on by Brad Norman

Red flags, clean track throw curve balls at Nationwide teams

NEWTON, Iowa — Tracks change from year to year, and that’s especially true for Iowa Speedway. The harsh, Midwest winter dumps piles of snow onto the 0.875-mile oval, and the oval in the spring is far different from what it was the past fall once the digging out is completed.
 
This weekend at Iowa, though, the biggest track challenge wasn’t the change from last year. It was the change from the previous day.
 
Teams set up their cars to run the DuPont Pioneer 250 on Saturday night, under the lights of a projected cool summer evening.
 
So when the clouds collected and dumped rain onto the facility, postponing the event until Sunday morning, cars were re-purposed and strategies were re-formulated deep into Saturday night in sessions that spilled over into Sunday morning.
 
“At night, the track is just different than it is during the day,” said Elliott Sadler, who finished third Sunday for his fifth top-five in five Nationwide Series races at the track. “The bump is back in Turn 1, where it wasn’t there last year, and it’s just built up character. For me, (delaying the race) made us looser, so we made some air pressure adjustments and learned a few things about this speedway. We know it’s a race we can win when we come back in the fall.”

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The beginning of Sunday’s race was often a cautious, feeling-out ordeal under the sunlight. But even that wasn’t a constant. A rain shower popped up suddenly, bringing out the red flag at Lap 168. Even when racing resumed 1 hour, 9 minutes and 57 seconds later, it was … different.
 
For the second time in 16 hours, showers washed away the built-up rubber, giving the track less grip. The final 82 laps were also run under skies that were cloudy, making conditions much cooler.
 
“I felt like our car changed dramatically when the sun was out, and then when the clouds came out,” said race winner Trevor Bayne, who chased down Austin Dillon and led the final 11 laps. “That was part of the reason we caught Austin at the end of that run. The clouds came out and we were able to run him down.”
 
The red-flag period produced a few unusual moments out in the garage area, too.

Drivers gave television interviews and milled around their haulers, interacting with team members and each other.
 
Several ate bananas and drank orange juice. Some tried to catch a quick nap, fearing a lengthy delay.
 
And when the race ended 18 hours after it was initially scheduled to begin, there was almost a tangible feeling of accomplishment for working through a rainy week to go the advertised distance — especially when heavy storms began in the area 30 minutes after the checkered flag fell.
 
“It was a long weekend with the rain, but the (red-flag period) went by pretty quick,” said Kyle Larson, who finished fifth in his No. 32 Chevrolet. “It would have been nice to get the race in Saturday so we wouldn’t have to worry about it, but hey, we got it in. I love racing at Iowa Speedway, and I’m glad we were able to go the full distance.”

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Newlywed outlasts Austin Dillon down stretch for first victory of 2013

RELATED: DuPont Pioneer 250 results

NEWTON, Iowa — Marriage hasn’t slowed down Trevor Bayne.

The 22-year-old joked over the radio that he should have gotten married a long time ago after he concluded a stunning and exciting late-race comeback Sunday.

Bayne exchanged vows with new wife, Ashton, on Tuesday and celebrated their honeymoon by winning the NASCAR Nationwide Series DuPont Pioneer 250 at Iowa Speedway. He endured the long day that included a more than one-hour rain delay for his first Nationwide win this season and second of his career.

The married couple was reunited in Victory Lane, after Bayne’s pass with 11 laps remaining to defeat Austin Dillon, who had led a whopping 207 laps.

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"It’s such a special week for me," Bayne said. “I was teared up at the altar on Tuesday and teared up on Victory Lane on Sunday."

The Roush Fenway team was all smiles, including Ashton, who attended the post-race press conference. The victory was the fourth in the last five Nationwide races at Iowa Speedway for crew chief Mike Kelley, who guided Ricky Stenhouse Jr. to three straight wins here in 2011 and 2012.

“This team at Iowa has been so good," Bayne said. “It’s such an opportunity and a blessing to be a part of this team."

Bayne closed the gap and pulled alongside Dillon with about 15 laps remaining when Dillon seemed slower due to lap traffic.

The pair made contact and Dillon became loose, allowing Bayne to pass and pull away for the victory.

“We ran him down," said Bayne, who earned a second straight top-five finish and fourth overall this season. “We were able to race him pretty hard."

The long runs seemed to benefit Bayne more than Dillon. It played a factor that the race remained green for the last 72 laps after the fifth and final caution. The goal was to keep Dillon in sight for the late surge, and it became a strong possibility about five laps before the final lead change, according to Bayne.

"We weren’t great on the short run, but the long run we could really get after him," Bayne said. “I knew we had to keep that lead to a minimum, while he was fast on the restart, so we could catch him at the end of the run."

It also marked the 200th win for a Ford car in the Nationwide Series, which began in 1982 and ranks second to Chevrolet (376). Kelley said the team had to make huge progress on the car’s setup to contend for a win and provide that wedding present they wanted for the happy couple.

“Actually, when we unloaded we weren’t that good," Kelley said. “Trevor did a really good job of telling us where we were wrong and what we needed to work on."

They had to make numerous adjustments during a day of inconsistent conditions that varied between sunny and cloudy and dry and rainy. They had to constantly adapt, preferring the cloud cover. The race originally was scheduled for Saturday night but postponed due to rain.

“Our car changed very dramatically when the clouds were out to when the sun was out," Bayne said. “We picked up two-tenths versus the competition as soon as the clouds were out. That was part of the reason we caught Austin at the end of that run."

The team has faced adversity on and off the track all season long. They have persevered through tests, so the conditions, including the long delay, were easy to handle.

“Days like today are becoming (easier) for us because of all the things we’ve had to go through," Kelley said. “We’ve had people in and out, crazy things happen to us on the race track we’ve seen happen to us before (and) we have to go back and rebound."

Dillon dominated nearly the entire race, leading 156 of the first 187 laps.

Instead, the power wasn’t there at the end to close out the dominating performance. He said the No. 3 car didn’t have enough drive into the corner and Bayne was better at the end.

“We could get a big lead but started fading fast at the end of those runs," Dillon said. “That’s just part of it."

He didn’t seem to have an issue with the late contact with Bayne, who made contact with Regan Smith during a restart before the rain delay that helped Dillon jump from fourth to first before the red flag.

“That was good racing," Dillon said. “Nothing wrong there."

Dillon posted his best finish of the season, earning his third straight pole. He now has six top-five finishes and seven in the top 10.

“We’ll keep improving," Dillon said. “It was a good points day."

Elliott Sadler recorded another top-five finish at Iowa Speedway. He placed third, but was too far away to challenge the top two. Sadler rebounded from a disappointed finish at Dover International Speedway last week.

Things appear to be moving in the right direction.

“We knew coming into Iowa we could be competitive and run up front," Sadler said. “We showed that today. This is a good momentum builder for me and my race team."

Sam Hornish Jr., who battled Dillon for early, finished fourth after leading 22 laps. He now trails season points Regan Smith by 23 points. Smith finished seventh.

Kyle Larson, the highest-finishing rookie, rounded out the top five.

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With a lot on the line, Hamlin would take power over predictability

Related: Party in the Poconos 400 results | Video: All-Access with Denny Hamlin | All news

LONG POND, Pa. — For Denny Hamlin, a good points day is no longer good enough. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver needs race victories, and Sunday he never really had an opportunity for one — even on one of his best race tracks.

A flawless pit stop gave Hamlin track position late, and he held on to finish eighth at a Pocono Raceway, where he’s won four times. But all that gave him was one position in the standings, which did little to improve his odds of making the Chase for the Sprint Cup — odds that are getting a little longer with every passing week.

Hamlin said part of the issue Sunday was that his team’s setup was off. But another was under the hood, in an engine Toyota Racing Development tuned for reliability over maximum horsepower after a spate of failures in recent weeks.

“It’s a tough compromise, because in my opinion, I’m a racer. I’d rather blow up leading than run 15th all day,” Hamlin said. “That’s just my mentality. We’d rather know we have a chance to win. Today, that was out of the question.”

"I’d rather blow up leading than run 15th all day."

— Denny Hamlin

Hamlin missed four full races due to a broken vertebra in his lower back suffered in a last-lap crash at Fontana in late March. The recovery time jeopardized his chances of qualifying for the NASCAR playoff, for which he needs to be in the top 20 in points to qualify. At 25th leaving Pocono, Hamlin knows he’ll need race wins — more than one, almost certainly — to steal a Wild Card and keep alive his streak of making the Chase in every full-time season he’s run so far.

All of which make missed chances like Sunday’s sting even more. Hamlin has run very well since returning, scoring top-10s in three of four full-race appearances. But right now it’s win or else, and Sunday, he was never even a factor at a facility where he’s typically a prime contender. Instead, Jimmie Johnson ran away, leading 128 laps in a dominant performance.

“It’s tough,” Hamlin said. “Had we had all the horsepower back today, I maybe could have given them a run, but I think our setup was off enough to where it probably wouldn’t have been that good. It definitely cost us spots today, but it didn’t cost me a win, I don’t think. …Next week is going to be another critical horsepower track, but I think that, in my opinion, we have room to be more aggressive. We can get back to the top 20 points finishing eighth or so, but that does nothing if you can’t get a win.”

Next week brings Michigan, and another track like Pocono that puts an emphasis on engines. After one TRD engine failed at Charlotte and two more last week at Dover, company officials decided to adjust tuning parameters to put reliability over top-end performance — which they thought could be spared, given how well most of the Toyota cars have run this season.

The TRD engines didn’t get a chance to show their flat-out best in qualifying, which was rained out. Sunday, two Toyota drivers cracked the top 10 — Hamlin in eighth, and JGR teammate Kyle Busch in sixth. It marked the first time this season that no Toyota driver has finished in the top five, but not everyone in the manufacturer’s fleet pointed to the power plant under the hood as the reason.

“It was fine,” Matt Kenseth, who finished 25th after being caught in an accident, said of his engine. “The 18 (car of Busch) and 11 (of Hamlin), I think, finished up OK and we were fine before we had the problem. We were OK. Jimmie had us covered, but there was a couple runs where we were pretty respectable. I didn’t think it was a big deal. I think we had the tools, if we had the car just right, to win until whatever happened to it.”

Added Mark Martin, who finished 19th: “Our engine ran good. We were fine with the engine. We just couldn’t get through the corners as good as we needed to get up there and fight for it.”

But those drivers are in a very different situation from Hamlin, who needs race wins more than anything else. The reduction in horsepower, he said, was “double what they thought in simulation.” He had to drive differently because he lacked as much power off the corner, he added, and wasn’t able to suck up to other cars as easily in the draft generated on the 2.5-mile track. A car three lengths behind him coming off one corner would be beside him by the time they reached the next.

“If our cars could go back to the way they were running three or four weeks ago, I would say we’ve got a good shot at a win,” he said. “We’re going to just have to battle through it. We can all (complain) and moan about the power and everything, but ultimately, it’s not our decision of what to put under the hood. TRD and Joe Gibbs Racing are going to decide what’s best for our race team, and we as drivers are just going to have to suck it up and have to overcome it. You can’t always have the fastest car. Sometimes a driver has to make something up, and for these next few weeks, at least, it looks like I’m going to have to do that.”

Meanwhile, “we’re just going to have to deal with it until everything in Costa Mesa is settled out,” Hamlin said, referring to the California city where TRD is headquartered, “and they get back the reliability and the comfort to give us what we need.”

And rely on a pit crew that vaulted him to seventh to second late in the race, keeping him in contention.

“I’ve been telling everyone how good our pit crew is, and I think they’re the best. But to take us from sixth or something to second on pit lane, against the best guys, that speaks for itself,” he said. “They’re the ones keeping us in this deal. They kept us in the first two races when I came back, and they’re doing it again. We’re riding the coattails of the pit crew right now.”

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Using car’s strengths, No. 39 pulls off a top-five finish

LONG POND, Pa. — One week after his boss buoyed the entire organization with a breakthrough victory, Ryan Newman used a bit of wily pit strategy to keep the roll going for Stewart-Haas Racing.

Sunday at Pocono Raceway, once-beleaguered SHR placed two cars in the top five for the first time this season, with Tony Stewart backing up his surprising Dover win with a fourth-place run while teammate Newman strategized his way to fifth. The No. 39 team used a pit strategy that put them off cycle from the rest of the field, and gave them hopes of stealing a victory until Jimmie Johnson asserted his dominance over a series of late restarts.

But for a while, though, Newman had everyone guessing. He stayed out while the field pitted following a caution for debris issued on Lap 66, and although Johnson quickly regained the top spot, Newman remained in second until he finally pitted under green on Lap 121. That mired him back in 19th — until everyone else pitted under a caution for fluid on Lap 125, which cycled Newman back to the point.

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Suddenly, he was a serious player for the victory with only 35 circuits remaining on the 2.5-mile track. On an afternoon where he led 128 laps, Johnson was at times untouchable, and often had little trouble muscling past Newman on restarts. But every pit cycle put the No. 39 car out front again, and it became a question of timing, and which driver would be there at the end.

“That pit strategy has won quite a few races here,” Newman said. “We just didn’t get good restarts there at the end. Jimmie was good all day. Just proud of the guys. They did a good job. We didn’t get the best restarts there at the end. Every time we had a restart, we’d lose a couple of spots and gain one back, and we ended up fifth.”

Crew chief Matt Borland said he devised the pit strategy on the fly, when he noticed how much his No. 39 car struggled back in traffic compared to others. “We kind of stalled out there when we couldn’t get through in traffic, and we looked at what was going on and decided we’d take a shot at it,” he said.

“If we were making a lot of ground passing cars, then we might not have tried to pull that. The car was good in clean air. We just couldn’t make the ground up in dirty air. (Race engineer) Daniel (Knost) did a great job calculating fuel mileage, and Ryan did a great job saving gas, and it all put us in a position to have a shot at it.”

There were some nervous moments early, when the green-flag runs stretched on and Newman didn’t get the cautions he needed to stay a step ahead of everyone else. “Typically here you get engines blowing up and things like that going on, transmissions breaking. But you start to worry about it when they’re not happening,” Borland said.

Newman wasn’t concerned. “When you get that many green-flag runs, there’s bound to be yellows,” he said. “So it’s just a matter of how many, and if they come at the right time.”

For Newman, they did, but his car just wasn’t strong enough to hang with Johnson’s on restarts. Even so, the final result was only Newman’s second top-five finish of the season, and his first since a fifth-place result in the Daytona 500. It coincided with Stewart’s first consecutive top-fives of the year, continuing a rebound for a SHR organization that struggled mightily in the opening months of this season.

“Definitely progress, for sure,” Stewart said. “It’s one thing if one car runs good, but to have two or all three of us running good shows that we are gaining momentum. It’s not just one team, the whole organization is gaining momentum.”

SHR’s other driver, Danica Patrick, finished 29th and on the lead lap in her first career race at Pocono in any series. For Newman, his result was a relief after crashing last weekend at Dover in an on-track scrape that resulted in heated off-track words between himself and David Gilliland.

“As good as (a) rebound as you almost possibly could have for us, given how bad it was last week,” Newman said. “… We’ll keep digging.”

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Third-place run is best since early in season; Michigan, site of last win, awaits

LONG POND, Pa. — Sunday at Pocono Raceway, Dale Earnhardt Jr. did more than record his best finish in more than two months. NASCAR’s most popular driver may also have regained some of the edge he had on the competition in the first few weeks of this season.

Although Earnhardt was unable to overtake race winner Jimmie Johnson on a trio of late restarts, he still seemed to rediscover some of his mojo at Pocono, where his third-place finish was his best since late March. Sunday was reminiscent of the five-race streak of top-10s Earnhardt used to open this year, one bookended by season-best runner-up finishes in the Daytona 500 and at Auto Club Speedway in Southern California.

“You’ve got to be there to win races. You’ve got to be there at the end. We haven’t been able to do that over the last couple of months,” Earnhardt said on pit road. “We’ve been struggling. But hopefully, we’ve got it turned around. Summer used to be my Achilles’ heel, and now it seems to be one of our strong suits. We’re going to try to maximize that and take advantage of the opportunities.”

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Indeed, last summer was perhaps the best stretch of Earnhardt’s 2012 campaign. He had arguably the best car at Pocono before pitting for fuel, snapped his 143-race winless skid the next week at Michigan, and briefly moved into the Sprint Cup Series points lead after a fourth-place result at Indianapolis. He occupied that top spot again following his run earlier this year at Fontana, but his team hasn’t seemed to be the same since.

Sunday, though, was a different story. Although Earnhardt didn’t lead a lap — hardly anyone did other than the dominant Johnson, who paced 128 — and fell from second to third on the final restart, the No. 88 car was in the top five virtually all afternoon on the 2.5-mile track.

“The first five, six, seven races, we had a tremendous amount of speed,” crew chief Steve Letarte said. “Texas we had great speed. Kansas we got caught by a yellow, Texas we broke an alternator. And then really we’ve lost our edge. We’ve been running like fifth to 10th, fifth to 15th. So it was nice to come back here. We didn’t really have car enough to win unless the 48 would somehow mess it up. And … if the 48 messed it up, I was going to be mad, because that’s the best car I’ve seen here in a long time. But that’s OK. You bring the second-best car to enough race tracks, you’ll win.”

At Pocono, Earnhardt’s only real opportunity to do that came on a trio of late restarts — one prompted when Dave Blaney and Aric Almirola crashed with 22 laps remaining, another when AJ Allmendinger’s engine blew with 12 laps left, the last when Dave Blaney wrecked with six to go. Each time, Johnson was able to stay out front.

“That was the only shot I had, was the restarts,” Earnhardt said. “I had to try to beat him and get him behind me and try to get him some dirty air. He’s just so fast through (Turn) 3. If I didn’t get by him at that point, I wasn’t even going to get to him. He was just driving away.”

Letarte knew his driver needed Johnson to make a mistake — which he also knew was unlikely to happen.

“Anybody can miss a shift, make a mistake, miss a groove. There’s a lot of opportunity,” the crew chief said. “We take for granted how easy Jimmie Johnson and Dale Earnhardt Jr. and these guys make this look. They’re doing a lot of work out here. There’s a lot of opportunity for mistake. But that guy that won, he’s won a lot of them, so we weren’t expecting him to make too many mistakes.”

That doesn’t mean Johnson wasn’t concerned. “Restarts are so tough, and around here if you can get the clean air on a short run, especially with the series of cautions we had, it would be tough to pass him,” he said. “But even with having a dominant car, I didn’t want to be in that position of running second and have to worry about getting by somebody.  I learned a lot on the two restarts where I was on the outside of the (Ryan Newman), and that helped me a lot going into those final three with Junior on the outside of me.”

Regardless, it was still a return to the form Earnhardt showed earlier in the season. At that point, Letarte said, his No. 88 team enjoyed an edge in the development of the Generation-6 car, a redesigned and more brand-identifiable vehicle that debuted on NASCAR’s top circuit this year. But in a sport that’s constantly evolving, they found it difficult to stay on top.

“I think everybody else gained,” Letarte said. “I think we came out really strong with the new car, had a big advantage, and we’ve (found it) hard to keep turning the Rubik’s Cube for the next advantage, and we haven’t found one. We came here with a little different concept in both the 48 (car of Johnson) and the 88, and I think it worked better. But this place is different, so we’ll just have to see as we get through the summer.”

The cars of Johnson and Earnhardt are fielded out of the same facility at Hendrick Motorsports. Although the results may not have indicated it before Sunday, Johnson’s crew chief, Chad Knaus, said he can see the progress his stablemates are making.

“I think Stevie and Dale are doing a really good job,” he said. “Their communication level has just soared over the last couple years, and I’m very proud of what it is that they do and how they communicate. They’ve got an amazing amount of respect for each other, and they believe in each other, and that’s something that’s very hard to find in the garage. When things go bad, a lot of teams, the driver will point fingers at the crew chief, the crew chief will point fingers at the drivers or the pit crew or mechanics or however it goes, and they don’t do that. If they have a good week, they all celebrate it. If they have a bad week, they don’t point fingers. They just say, ‘Well, we’ve got to get better.’ I think they are in a great spot.”

Particularly if Sunday’s performance ignites another summertime hot streak for Earnhardt — who next week heads back to Michigan, the scene of that drought-buster a year ago, which is also his most recent victory.

“I’m looking forward to it,” he said. “Hoping we can have a good run. We’re a good team, and if we can get up front there, we might get us a win and get us a repeat.”

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A week after controversial restart costs him, Johnson gets third win of season

Related: Results

LONG POND, Pa. — It’s not a good idea to rile up Jimmie Johnson.
 
A week after a penalty for jumping the final restart at Dover knocked Johnson out of a near-certain victory, Johnson absolutely scorched the field in Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Party in the Poconos 400, beating Greg Biffle to the finish line by 1.208 seconds.
 
The win was Johnson’s third of the season, his third at the Tricky Triangle and the 63rd of his career. Johnson increased his series lead over second-place Carl Edwards (18th Sunday) to a staggering 51 points after 14 races.

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Dale Earnhardt Jr. ran third, followed by Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Tony Stewart and Ryan Newman. Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick and Joey Logano completed the top 10.
 
"What a race car!" Johnson said after climbing from the No. 48 Chevrolet in Victory Lane. "Not only a great race car but an engine. We had fuel mileage and plenty of power. It was awesome on the straightaways today to be able to do what I wanted around other cars.
 
"So hats off to chassis, aero and the engine shop for this awesome race car."
 
You might think winning at Pocono for the first time since he swept both races here in 2004 might assuage the sting of last week’s penalty. You’d be wrong.
 
"No, but it’s OK," Johnson said. "It doesn’t make up for much, but we know we’re a great race team. Things won’t keep us down. We had a great race car today and had a lot of fun. That was a lot of fun out there."
 
Johnson avoided a surfeit of action in the late stages of the race — because he was ahead of it. By the time Dave Blaney’s spin brought out the fourth caution on Lap 138, the five-time champion already had led 106 laps.
 
That yellow followed a caution for an accident in the Tunnel Turn on Lap 133, when Juan Pablo Montoya drove hard into the corner under Matt Kenseth, lost control of his No. 42 and started a synchronized spin with Kenseth.
 
Subsequently, Johnson had to endure four restarts but did so as the leader and quickly regained control of the race in each instance. All told, Johnson led 128 of 160 laps.
 
Biffle was happy with a runner-up finish that jumped him three positions to 10th in the standings, but he conceded that his No. 16 Ford was no match for Johnson’s Chevy SS.
 
"Jimmie was in a league of his own," said Biffle, who took the green flag from the fourth position on the final restart with four laps left and surged past Earnhardt and Kyle Busch in the first corner. "I was going to have to get up beside him, take the air off him–something to try and gain an advantage.
 
"But I gave him such a good push on the restart I couldn’t catch back up with him… I couldn’t get him."
 
Though Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Kyle Busch and Hamlin finished sixth and eighth, respectively, Hamlin said he could feel a reduction in horsepower in his TRD (Toyota Racing Development) engine, after the engines were detuned in favor of reliability in reaction to several recent valve train failures.
 
"Any horsepower change is going to be a difficult thing to overcome, especially this week and next week (at Michigan), our two horsepower race tracks," Hamlin said. "I wouldn’t be opposed to say that other guys probably stepped up coming to this race track, and we took a step back.

"It’s kind of a double whammy, but it’s something TRD’s going to work through."

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Moments that changed the course of the race in the Irish Hills

BIFFLE’S LATE-RACE RESTART
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.

UPS

"It’s definitely a special day," Biffle said after delivering Ford Motor Co. its 1,000th victory in NASCAR’s three national touring 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.

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.

BLOWN TIRE NULLIFIES JOHNSON’S STRATEGY
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points leader Jimmie Johnson, with four fresh tires, was gaining on Biffle’s two in the final laps but a cut right front tire took him off the track with two laps to go.

Johnson took second a few laps before his misfortune, and Kevin Harvick backed out of the throttle to hold on to at least a third-place finish.

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.

KURT BUSCH’S SPIN PROVES COSTLY IN THE STANDINGS
Kurt Busch swept Saturday’s practice sessions, started second and was running fourth when he 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 the points standings over the 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.

“The car just broke loose,” said Busch. “We had a really fast car all weekend and it’s a shame that we didn’t capitalize on what we had. The driver feels the hurt, the same way the crew and the entire organization does. But these things happen and all we can do is put this behind us and get ready with the same intensity for next weekend’s race.”

NASCAR.com’s Zack Albert and the NASCAR Wire Service contributed to this report.