Michigan Nationwide pit stall assignments

Posted on June 15, 2013 by Staff Report

Record fourth consecutive Coors Light Pole gives Dillon first pit pick

Austin Dillon set a NASCAR Nationwide Series record with his fourth consecutive Coors Light Pole. He also set a track record with a 191.882 mph circuit around Michigan International Speedway ahead of Saturday’s Alliance Truck Parts 250.

Dillon led the first ever Richard Childress Racing top-three Nationwide Series qualifying sweep. RCR teammates Paul Menard and Brian Scott qualified second and third followed by Trevor Bayne and Alex Bowman.

The No. 3 team chose the first pit stall at pit out, heading into Turn 1. Menard’s No. 33 team chose the 13th pit stall, which is the first opening closest to pit out. The No. 2 team chose the 23rd stall, right at the start/finish line.

Watch the Alliance Truck Parts 250 at 2 p.m. ET on ABC.

Posted on June 15, 2013 by Staff Report

Coors Light Pole Award-winner Carl Edwards picks first pit stall

Coors Light Pole Qualifying on Friday at Michigan International Speedway for Sunday’s Quicken Loans 400, Carl Edwards No. 99 Fastenal Ford was fastest of them all.

Edwards was one of 13 drivers to clock a time better than 200 mph as the Gen-6 cars took to the fast two-mile oval that was repaved last year.

With his lap of 202.452 mph and his first Coors Light Pole Award of the season, Edwards earned the first pick of pit stalls for Sunday’s race, and he and the No. 99 Roush Fenway Racing team chose the first stall at pit out toward Turn 1.

The second-fastest driver, Kurt Busch, and the No. 78 Furniture Row Racing team picked the first stall at pit in off of Turn 4. Kasey Kahne, who had the third-fastest lap in the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, chose the 38th stall, down toward Turn 4, with an opening in front of him for an easy exit.

Watch the Quicken Loans 400 on Sunday at 1 p.m. ET on TNT, which begins its "Countdown to Green" at noon ET.

Posted on June 15, 2013 by Staff Report

No. 78 driver tops Kahne to lead final session

RESULTS: Practice leaderboards | Pit road assignments

BROOKLYN, Mich. — Kurt Busch backed up his early Saturday practice dominance by topping the charts once again later in the day in the final Sprint Cup Series practice at Michigan International Speedway.

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Busch, who will start alongside pole winner Carl Edwards on the front row in Sunday’s Quicken Loans 400, ran 33 laps, but his first go-around on the two-mile circuit clocked in at 197.368 mph to best the field.

Kasey Kahne was right off Busch’s pace at 197.066, turning his ninth lap in 36.536 seconds. Kahne ran the most laps at 45.

Mark Martin’s fastest lap also came on his first time around the loop, his 196.073 mph best speed earning him third place on the speed chart. Points leader Jimmie Johnson (195.886, 36.756) and Edwards (195.721, 36.787) rounded out the top five.

Paul Menard, who will start the race fourth and was fourth in the morning practice, continued his hot start to the weekend by placing seventh on the leaderboard. Reigning Sprint Cup champion and Michigan native Brad Keselowski was 10th at 195.143, while defending race winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. was 18th at 194.558.

Danica Patrick, who qualified 37th and had placed 37th and 38th in the first two practices, improved to 28th (193.273, 37.253) in the final session.

Posted on June 15, 2013 by Staff Report

Menard, Scott, Bayne, Bowman also to start in the first five

BROOKLYN, Mich. — Austin Dillon made history on Saturday morning, becoming the first driver to earn four consecutive NASCAR Nationwide Series poles when he earned the top spot ahead of the Alliance Truck Parts 250 at Michigan International Speedway.

Dillon, who was last in qualifying order, took the top spot from Paul Menard with a best speed of 191.882 mph to Menard’s 190.668. Brian Scott (190.320), last week’s winner Trevor Bayne (190.310), and Alex Bowman (190.230) rounded out the top five. Dillon’s lap also broke his own qualifying record at the track.

Other Sprint Cup Series regulars didn’t fare as well as Menard, as Joey Logano (189.155), Kyle Busch (188.862), and J.J. Yeley (183.304) will start 10th, 14th, and 32nd, respectively.

Busch’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Brian Vickers (189.185) and Elliott Sadler (188.561) will start ninth and 19th.

Points leader Regan Smith qualified at 20th with a speed of 188.408.

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Posted on June 15, 2013 by Staff Report

Pole-sitter Carl Edwards runs just behind

BROOKLYN, Mich. — After each earning a front row starting position in Sunday’s Quicken Loans 400 Sprint Cup Series race, Kurt Busch and Carl Edwards remained dominant at Michigan International Speedway on Saturday morning in a practice session that saw the pair top the leaderboard yet again.

Busch once again topped 200 mph, pulling a best speed of 200.955, getting around the two-mile circuit in 35.829 seconds. Edwards, fresh off his first Coors Light Pole at perhaps his best track, was right behind him at 199.595. Jimmie Johnson (199.584), Paul Menard (198.933) and Mark Martin (198.818) rounded out the top-five.

Kasey Kahne, yesterday’s opening practice leader, was sixth with a speed of 198.747. Last year’s Michigan fall race winner Greg Biffle, driving for a Roush Fenway Racing team that has the most Sprint Cup wins (12) at this track, was seventh at 198.725.

Reigning Sprint Cup champion and Michigan native Brad Keselowski pulled in at 11th with a speed of 198.358. Defending race-winner Dale Earnhardt Jr. was 14th at 198.091. Marcos Ambrose, who set the qualifying record at 203.241 mph at this race last year, was 21st at 197.379. Austin Dillon, who will also be running the Nationwide Series race later today, put down the second most laps with 30 runs around the circuit. Johnson completed 36.

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Posted on June 15, 2013 by Nascar

Michigan pole winner: Second-place ranking in points ‘doesn’t tell the story’

BROOKLYN, Mich. — Carl Edwards, winner of the Coors Light Pole Award for Sunday’s Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway, is second in points in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series.

It’s a misleading statistic, according to Edwards.

“Second place doesn’t tell the story,” he said June 13. “We’re not that good. We’re not the second-best car in the series right now.”

Edwards, 33, has one win this season (Phoenix) and Friday’s qualifying lap (202.452 mph) on the 2-mile oval marked the second consecutive week he earned a front-row starting position.

"If we can really focus and actually gain some ground, we’re going to be awesome."

— Carl Edwards

But from a big-picture perspective, the fastest driver on Friday said not so fast.

“It’s nice,” he said of his position in the standings. “But what did we run, 18th at Pocono and 17th at Dover? Sixteenth? I don’t remember what we ran at Dover but it wasn’t good enough.

“And at the same time, Jimmie Johnson dominated both those races.

“That’s a big disparity between the first-place points guy and the second-place points guy.”

With race No. 15 on the horizon, the gap is 51 points. It is so large that Johnson, a five-time Cup champion, could take a weekend off and return with his points-leader status intact.

Points leads can be fleeting — defending series champion Brad Keselowski and Dale Earnhardt Jr. have each been atop the standings briefly this season. Johnson’s has more of a permanent feel, having lasted for two months and change.

Edwards has been in Johnson’s rearview for six weeks, the deficit as narrow as 30 and as wide as the current 51.

Although he said he doesn’t feel his team is second best, Edwards is pleased with the No. 2 points position.

“Fortunately we are second and we have a win,” he said. “We’re not panicking about making the Chase (for the Sprint Cup). We feel like we’ve got a really good shot at making the Chase, but we have time to work on some things. And trust me, we are working.

“ … If we can really focus and actually gain some ground, we’re going to be awesome.”

Kurt Busch (Furniture Row Racing) will start alongside Edwards, the fourth front-row starting spot this season for the 2004 Cup champion.

Kasey Kahne (Hendrick Motorsports), Paul Menard (Richard Childress Racing) and Aric Almirola (Richard Petty Motorsports) will start third through fifth, respectively.

A closer working relationship between Ford Cup teams is said to be in the making. Edwards cautioned it could take time — possibly a year or more — before any potential benefits might be realized.

Change comes slowly. Few drivers and teams are comfortable sharing information with those outside their immediate groups.

“It’s human nature,” Edwards said. “It’s tough for anyone to hand over all of their life’s work and say, ‘hey, here’s this for free. I hope you give me something back that makes it worth the exchange.’

“Trust isn’t something you build overnight, by definition it’s something that’s gained over time.

“I’ve been in the series for eight or nine years and there are only a few guys I’ve ever talked about my car with, and it’s always on the surface. You don’t talk much deeper than, ‘hey, yeah I’m a little tight over there.’ That’s about it.”

Edwards has 13 top-10 finishes in 17 starts at MIS, including a pair of wins. It’s also the site of his first career start in the Cup Series.

That fact wasn’t lost on him in the aftermath of his pole-winning charge.

“A huge day for me personally,” he said of the 10th place finish in 2004. “I will never forget when they said ‘Gentlemen, start your engines.’ That was one of the most emotional moments I’ve ever had in a race car.”

While Edwards’ pole-winning run didn’t eclipse the track record set a year ago by Marcos Ambrose, the Generation-6 car was fast as expected. Taped up for qualifying, Edwards said, the cars have “so much grip.”

That will change when long runs are the order of the day.

“Having that tape on there with all that downforce can make the car feel really good and make it go for a lap but it will be a tough race,” he said. “I think if it goes long green flag, then none of us know how the tire will act and you have to be able to adjust on your car as well.

“The race will be different and hopefully we can master that whole problem and go to Victory Lane. That would be huge.”

Posted on June 15, 2013 by Nascar

RCR driver can’t cash in after fourth consecutive pole

BROOKLYN, Mich. — It was frustration, Austin Dillon said, that led to contact between himself and Joey Logano during the latter stages of Saturday’s Alliance Truck Parts 250 at Michigan International Speedway.

And that led to a brief conversation between the two on pit road after the conclusion of the NASCAR Nationwide Series race.

“He was frustrated back there,” Dillon, 20th, said of his Sprint Cup Series counterpart. “… We were both frustrated because things didn’t go our way.

“But we’ll come back and do our best to gain on what we’ve lost today. Just a bummer day.”

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The contact came during a final, furious push to the checkered flag in the 125-lap event.

Dillon, who led 61 of the race’s first 68 laps, was charging toward the front, having rebounded from a lost lap due to a flat left-rear tire.

Logano, who led 30 laps (69-98) was in a scramble mode as well, a round of pit stops and differing pit strategies taking him from the point to just inside the top 10.

“We were three-wide on the bottom, I had the run, my nose was in front of his,” Dillon said. “I drove in deep and slid up and he was frustrated because I slid up in the middle of the corner.

“We came off side-by-side off of (Turn) 2, got midway down the backstretch and he just turned left on me.”

The contact knocked the fender in on the tire, he said, and led to another flat for the Richard Childress Racing driver, sending him back to pit road inside the final five laps.

With the race past the midpoint, and threatening skies overhead, Logano and his Penske team had wagered on a rain-shortened event, gaining track position under caution by staying on the track.

The rain, though, didn’t come until after the completion of the race.

“Unfortunately we gambled … and went for it,” Logano said. “It is just unfortunate and frustrating. I don’t even know where we finished but once you get back there in the pack, it is just a mess trying to pass cars here.”

The 11th-place finish halted a four-race run of top-five finishes for Logano, who won two weeks ago at Dover, Del.

Dillon began the day by winning a series-record fourth consecutive Coors Light Pole Award. But for the second consecutive week, a strong run went awry. At Iowa, he led 207 of 250 laps but lost the lead, and the win to Trevor Bayne with 12 laps remaining.

Although he maintained his fourth-place points position, Dillon now trails points leader, and Michigan race winner, Regan Smith by 67 points. He entered the race trailing by 46.

“We work hard to build fast race cars and the strategy we were on wasn’t wrong,” he said. “We had the right strategy there at the end. The seven (of Smith) and 32 (of Kyle Larson) finished 1-2 on that strategy.

“The speed was there. I’m really proud of my guys. It’s frustrating; we’ve got a monkey on our back and we’ve got to get it off.”

Posted on June 15, 2013 by Staff Report

Enter Article Subhead

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

Trevor Bayne, who claimed the manufacturer’s 200^th NASCAR Nationwide Series victory last Sunday at Iowa and its 600^th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series win in the 2011 Daytona 500, did the honors as the Blue Oval celebrated about an hour drive west of its Dearborn headquarters.

FORD’S 1,000 NASCAR WINS

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

The milestone comes nearly 112 years after Henry Ford defeated Alexander Winton in a 10-lap race on the one-mile oval at the Detroit Driving Club in Grosse Pointe, Mich. on Oct. 10, 1901. It was the first and only race Ford ran and set him on the road to establishing Ford Motor Company 110 years ago this month.

Ford designed the car, named “Sweepstakes,” that won his company’s first race. On Thursday at Greenfield Village in Dearborn, NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver Carl Edwards became one of “only eight or nine people” to drive “Sweepstakes.” 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,” Edwards said. “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 (great-grandson of Henry Ford and member of the board of directors of Ford Motor Company) 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.”

Bayne’s win extended owner Jack Roush’s record to six victories in the Nationwide Series at his home track. It was the seventh series win for Ford at the track.

On Friday, Bayne thanked Jamie Allison, director of Ford Racing, for the manufacturer’s support and noted that Blue Oval executives had a feeling that their chances were pretty good this weekend.

“I think they made a banner up for Sunday in case we do get it for 1001,” Bayne said. “They’re being pretty optimistic here at Michigan since it is their home track.”

Understanding the importance of the track’s proximity to the auto manufacturing hub of Detroit, MIS President Roger Curtis announced 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 supports11 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.

Posted on June 15, 2013 by

A celebration of Leffler’s life set for Wednesday

In honor of NASCAR driver Jason Leffler, who lost his life in a racing accident this week, a trust fund has been established for his five-year-old son, Charlie Dean.

This trust will serve as the official Leffler Family fund, with all monies going directly to Charlie’s needs. Turner Scott Motorsports co-owner Harry Scott Jr., former Braun Racing owner Todd Braun and Steve Overholser, CFO of Great Clips, will serve as trustees.

Donations can be made to The Charlie Dean Leffler Discretionary Trust at:  

The Charlie Dean Leffler Discretionary Trust
 c/o SunTrust Bank 
232 Williamson Road
 Mooresville, NC 28117

A celebration of Jason Leffler’s life will be held on Wednesday, June 19. The service will be at Grace Covenant Church, located at 17301 Statesville Road in Cornelius, N.C. at 1:00 p.m. In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to The Charlie Dean Leffler Discretionary Trust.

Posted on June 14, 2013 by

Junior brimming with confidence at Michigan; other drivers take notice

BROOKLYN, Mich. — The newest installment in the Superman series to make it to the silver screen, “Man of Steel” has endured some mixed reviews heading into its opening weekend, hovering around 60% out of a 100 rating from well-known movie review site RottenTomatoes.com.

As for Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s No. 88 Chevrolet, which has a paint scheme inspired by the Last Son of Krypton himself, there’s been nothing but favorable returns from some of the toughest critics in NASCAR — his teammates.

“I thought Junior had a very impressive run last week,” Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon said. “He was very competitive and it was great timing for them because (Michigan International Speedway) is a track that I know he likes and does well at; he did well last year. So, if this is a window of opportunity for him, it’s opening.”

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“He could win here again,” added Kasey Kahne, another teammate. “He was really good here last year and they’re always right there and consistently in the top 10.”

Earnhardt Jr. was one of the fastest drivers in Friday’s opening practice session, his National Guard “Man of Steel” Chevrolet clocking in fifth at 199.922 mph to Kahne’s chart-leading 200.619. He was a little faster in qualifying at 200.100 mph, but ended up placing 12th. Earnhardt shouldn’t take his marginal qualifying position to heart, considering that in his last two races here he finished fourth and first, starting 22nd and 17th, respectively.

“Hopefully (the car is) as fast as it looks good. That is going to be more important to be able to repeat and get the win this weekend,” Earnhardt said. “We feel pretty good coming in to this race.”

The annual expectation ahead of each of the two Michigan races is that Earnhardt will run well at the track, as his average finish of 10.5 at the track in the past eight races ranks among his best. Not many could have predicted that he’d be riding a wave of momentum from the week before, however, following a third-place finish at Pocono.

The fact that Earnhardt now sits in fourth place in the Sprint Cup standings is impressive. After all, he had not a single top-five finish in all of April and May following three in the first five races.

“We had a great run last week that sort of hopefully got us back in the right direction,” Earnhardt said. “We started the season off so promising, the best that I had ever started a season. It just seemed like things were going so perfectly and it’s the way it is in this sport. You will think you have everything going in the right direction and then odds and fate and everything else got in the way.”

While Earnhardt is currently in no danger of missing the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, a win at Michigan is almost a necessity to ensure he stays near the top of the standings. He and third-place Clint Bowyer are the only two drivers in the top eight without a win. Meanwhile, some of Bowyer’s best tracks — Sonoma and New Hampshire, two tracks where Earnhardt struggles — are on the horizon.

“We feel like we are coming through a stretch of races and race tracks, if you take out Sonoma, that we should run pretty well at and have a lot of confidence at,” said Earnhardt. “Not that we won’t go to Sonoma and hope to run well, we will, but the track record (13 starts, no top-10 finishes) speaks for itself there.”

Perhaps there’s a little extra jolt that comes along with racing at one of his favorite tracks, but Earnhardt appears rejuvenated and ready to make a summer run as he tries to secure his first Sprint Cup championship. Now 38 years old, he isn’t surprised that there is concern over his age and his motivation after 15 years of Cup racing, but he’s as determined as ever.

“I feel like I have good energy. I’m not burning out,” said Earnhardt. “I think that the passion and the commitment probably goes before the physical end of it goes in this particular sport. I feel like I’m in the best opportunity of my career. There is a ‘seize the moment’ kind of feeling because I’m in such good equipment around such good people.

“We want to win more races. We want to win numerous races and multiple races in a season. We want that to be the status quo. We want that to be the norm.”

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