ThatsRacin.com: Michigan International Speedway

Rain at Michigan also dilutes TV ratings

Fri, 24 Aug 2007 13:00 EDT

Tuesday’s rain-delayed coverage of the Nextel Cup race at Michigan on ESPN2 received a 1.7 national rating, according Nielsen Media Research.

The rating is the lowest for a Cup race this season, but was twice delayed and started on a weekday morning.

Sunday’s prerace coverage on ESPN received a 1.5 rating and still ranked among the week’s top-10 sporting events.

Last Saturday’s Busch Series race received a 1.2 rating on ESPN2, down from a 1.8 last season on TNT.

| Stewart, 20 crew still the ones

Thu, 23 Aug 2007 14:00 EDT

David Poole of The Charlotte Observer and ThatsRacin.com ranks the top-40 teams in the NASCAR Nextel Cup series following the 3M Performance 400 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Mich. (Rankings based on team performance and potential. Each team’s previous week’s ranking in parentheses:)

1. (1) Tony Stewart - car No. 20

Finished 10th and it was like he wasn’t on the track at Michigan. How soon we forget.

2. (2) Jeff Gordon - car No. 24

Fin spelled finis to hopes for Michigan win. Needs a little pre-Chase positive mojo.

3. (3) Denny Hamlin - car No. 11

For some reason, my mind keeps coming back to this team as one to watch in Chase.

4. (4) Jimmie Johnson - car No. 48

Thought two tires late would mean a Michigan win. Rarely works that way anymore.

5. (5) Matt Kenseth - car No. 17

Stunk up the show in last year’s night race at Bristol with a remarkably dominant car.

6. (9) Kurt Busch - car No. 2

Speaking of dominant. This team was untouchable at Pocono and again at Michigan.

7. (6) Kyle Busch - car No. 5

Think about it. He’s never lost a car of tomorrow race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

8. (7) Carl Edwards - car No. 99

In top 10 all day and was seventh at Michigan, but it seems he should’ve been better.

9. (10) Martin Truex Jr. - car No. 1

May have to hold off teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. in battle to secure a Chase slot.

10. (8) Kevin Harvick - car No. 29

Usually a threat when Cup Series goes to a short track. Fourth at Bristol this spring.

11. (11) Jeff Burton - car No. 31

12. (12) Clint Bowyer - car No. 07

13. (14) Dale Earnhardt Jr. - car No. 8

14. (13) Ryan Newman - car No. 12

15. (18) Casey Mears - car No. 25

16. (16) Greg Biffle - car No. 16

17. (15) Mark Martin/Regan Smith - car No. 01

18. (19) Bobby Labonte - car No. 43

19. (17) Juan Pablo Montoya - car No. 42

20. (23) Robby Gordon - car No. 7

21. (20) Reed Sorenson - car No. 41

22. (21) Jamie McMurray - car No. 26

23. (22) Tony Raines - car No. 96

24. (32) Dave Blaney - car No. 22

25. (24) David Gilliland - car No. 38

26. (25) Ricky Rudd - car No. 88

27. (27) Jeff Green - car No. 66

28. (31) David Stremme - car No. 40

29. (26) J.J. Yeley - car No. 18

30. (28) Kasey Kahne - car No. 9

31. (29) Elliott Sadler - car No. 19

32. (38) Brian Vickers - car No. 83

33. (30) Bill Elliott - car No. 21

34. (35) David Ragan - car No. 6

35. (36) Johnny Sauter - car No. 70

36. (37) David Reutimann - car. No. 00.

37. (33) Paul Menard - car No. 15

38. (40) Ward Burton - car No. 4

39. (39) Kyle Petty - car No. 45

40. (34) Scott Riggs - car No. 10

Earnhardt Jr.: 'My fault, totally'

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 15:31 EDT
BROOKLYN, Mich. -- No fingers to point, no conspiracies to dream up.
Any Dale Earnhardt Inc. fan who might think anything fishy is going on as Martin Truex Jr. tries to stay in and Dale Earnhardt Jr. attempts to claw his way back into the Chase for the Nextel Cup is off base. Just ask Earnhardt Jr.
The driver of the No. 8 Chevrolet, whose Chase hopes took a hit with his finish in Tuesday's 3M Performance 400 at Michigan International Speedway, took 100 percent of the blame for a costly late-race miscue on pit road.
"My fault, totally," Earnhardt Jr. said.
Earnhardt Jr. said he saw Jeff Green's crew changing a tire on the No. 66 Chevrolet as Earnhardt Jr. came in for a green-flag pit stop on Lap 168.
"I thought I pitted past him but I was two stalls before him," Earnhardt Jr. said. "When you come down pit road and guys are anywhere near your stall you look and see if they're jacked up on the left because if they get dropped and pull out you can have a crash. You don't want to do that. I was just looking at that and I drove right by my pit."
By the time Earnhardt Jr. got the No. 8 Chevrolet stopped and backed up into position for his team to make their stop, he'd lost valuable time and track position. After having worked his way into the top five, he wound up finishing 12th.
The error was compounded as Kurt Busch, the driver who's currently holding the final Chase spot, went on to win for the second time in three races and widen the gap the Earnhardt Jr. now has only three more races to work on.
Earnhardt Jr. moved ahead of Ryan Newman to 13th in the standings, but still fell 63 points further behind Busch at the cutoff. Earnhardt Jr. is now 163 points behind Busch.
"It's not frustrating," Earnhardt Jr. said. "When they beat you fair you can't. ... You've got to take it like a man."
Earnhardt Jr. had suffered two engine failures in the three races prior to this rain-plagued event, and had to start this race from the rear of the field after a transmission change between practices on Saturday. With Earnhardt Jr. leaving DEI at season's end, that led some to ponder if all of that might be more than coincidence?
After all, Truex is staying at DEI for 2008, and he's the driver immediately ahead of Busch in the standings.
Truex did all he could to add room between himself and his teammate, coming in behind Busch for his second Michigan runner-up finish of 2007. Truex is 33 points ahead of Busch and 196 ahead of Earnhardt Jr. in the fight to stay above the Chase water line.
"Great day," Truex said. "I could smell the victory, but congratulations to Kurt."
Truex lost the clutch in his No. 1 Chevrolet late in the race, which made his decision to stay out while others pitted on a late-race caution an easy one.
"I was going to get killed on pit road, so we got some clean air and that thing just went to digging," he said. Truex had a couple of tries to get Busch on late restarts, but wound up working more to hold off Jimmie Johnson for the No. 2 spot.

Kurt Busch wins much-delayed race

Wed, 22 Aug 2007 22:09 EDT
BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Kurt Busch, looking to sew up a spot in the Chase for the Nextel Cup, scored his second dominating victory in three races Tuesday by winning the rain-plagued 3M Performance 400 at Michigan International Speedway.
Busch, who thrashed the field at Pocono two weeks ago, took charge in the second half of a race that had finally got going after being rained out on Monday and Tuesday.
After emerging with the lead from a battle with Matt Kenseth just past the midway point of the race, Busch's No. 2 Dodge was clearly strong but still had to endure a lot of late-race drama to bring home the win.
First, there was a caution for debris on the track on Lap 176. Busch stayed on the track as did Jeff Gordon, while some of the other leaders came in for at least two tires.
When the green flew again, Busch used the clean air he got out front to balance any detriment of not having new tires, pulling away to lead again.
Gordon, however, didn't have as much luck. He lost second to Martin Truex Jr. and then, while sliding up the track in a loose car as he came out of Turn 4 on Lap 190, he spun after contact from Matt Kenseth into the muddy trivial to bring out another yellow.
That left Busch seven laps to fend off Truex Jr., Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin and Matt Kenseth. He looked to be home free, but Greg Biffle spun on Lap 199 -- just in time to set up a green-white-checkered finish.
Busch got a good restart when the green flew, however, and held on to win for the 17th time in his career. Truex wound up second, with Johnson third, Kenseth fourth and Hamlin fifth.
Dale Earnhardt Jr., who had run in the top five at some points in the race, made a mistake on pit road when he drove past his pit stall on a late green-flag stop. He finished 12th, and while he moved up from 14th to 13th in the standings he lost ground to Busch. With just three races left until the Chase cutoff, Earnhardt Jr. is now 163 points behind Busch.
Engines were fired on time for a start scheduled shortly after 10 a.m., but after 10 laps under the green and yellow flags, the cars were brought back to pit road and held up once more because of fog. The teams' spotters and NASCAR officials in the control tower could not see the backstretch because of poor visibility.
After a 32-minute delay, drivers were called back to their cars and -- finally -- at 11 a.m., the green flag flew.
Twelve laps had already been counted, and on the second lap under green Juan Pablo Montoya spun as he tried to work three wide in the low groove under Blaney's Toyota. The race -- after a delay of about 45 hours -- was finally under way.
Greg Biffle, who started on the outside of the front row, jumped to the lead when the green flag flew and stayed there until a planned "competition" caution on Lap 30 thrown by NASCAR so teams could check tire wear on the green race track.
Robby Gordon didn't make a pit stop, so he had the lead at the restart. It took less than a lap for pole-winner Jeff Gordon to zoom by to grab the lead.
Behind him, though, was the early story of the race. Brian Vickers had started 18th in his Toyota, but by Lap 37 he was all the way up to second. Vickers couldn't hold the No. 2 spot for long, however, as Johnson moved past him on Lap 40.
Johnson and Gordon, teammates at Hendrick Motorsports, each got his crew chief back this week after they'd served six-race suspensions.
On Lap 48, Johnson, with Chad Knaus back in his pits, moved to the lead past Gordon, who got Steve Letarte back. Gordon, who had changed only right-side tires on his stop under the competition yellow, also lost positions to Kenseth and Vickers, dropping to fourth by Lap 52.
Vickers, however, kept moving and by Lap 65 had the No. 83 Camry in the top spot.
Vickers and Kenseth swapped the lead on the next two laps as a round of green-flag pit stops began. When those stops were done, Kenseth had the lead over Kurt Busch and Vickers and kept it until a caution flew on Lap 88 for an oil leak with Mark Martin's No. 01 Chevrolet.
Kenseth, Busch, Vickers and Johnson came out in the top four spots after the leaders pitted under that yellow, with Hamlin fifth, Jeff Gordon sixth and Dale Earnhardt Jr. seventh.
Earnhardt Jr. is trying to come from 100 points back to make it into the top 12 to qualify for the Chase for the Nextel Cup, but the guy he is chasing is Busch, and Busch was running second.
One lap after the restart, on Lap 94, Michael Waltrip spun his car and got clipped by Joe Nemechek before he could get it completely stopped.
The race restarted on Lap 99, and two laps later everyone in the sport breathed a sigh of relief as the race reached and passed the halfway point, making it an official event. No matter what else happened, it was certain that this would be the end of the long week.
On that same lap, Busch moved past Kenseth to take the lead for the first time and pick up five bonus points. Earnhardt Jr., who'd been forced to start at the rear of the field after changing transmissions, meanwhile was up to sixth.
Kenseth took the lead right back on Lap 104, with Gordon passing Johnson for third at the same time. Busch got the lead again on Lap 108, and Gordon later moved into second past Kenseth.
The race remained green until Lap 129 when the leaders began another round of green-flag pit stops. When Busch came in a lap later, Earnhardt Jr. took the lead to get his five bonus points.
Busch, Gordon and Stewart resumed the top three spots after the round of pit stops were complete.
As the race remained under the green, Busch pulled away to a lead of more than 5 seconds over Gordon as he tried to repeat a dominating performance in his win at Pocono two races ago.
The final round of pit stops began on Lap 164 with Vickers coming down pit road. Jeff Gordon, who'd been second, had to take extra time getting a fin on his car's back window put back into place. Earnhardt Jr., meanwhile, slid through his pit box and had to back up before he got service, costing him time and positions on the track.
When the stops were done, Kurt Busch was about 5 seconds clear of Johnson with Hamlin, Kenseth and Kyle Busch behind him. Gordon was seventh and Earnhardt Jr. was eighth with just inside 30 laps remaining.

Another rainy day washes out racing

Tue, 21 Aug 2007 05:42 EDT
BROOKLYN, Mich. -- There was a window.
Sadly, it turned out to be a hole into which a lot of jet fuel was poured trying to dry Michigan International Speedway and get in the 3M Performance 400 on Monday.
It rained so hard Sunday night that Kasey Kahne said it kept him awake in his motorhome. It rained all Monday morning, too. But the precipitation eased just before noon, and NASCAR officials convinced themselves they saw an "opening" on the radar.
Jet dryers were dispatched and started making progress. But a heavy drizzle returned about 2:30 p.m.
Finally, just before 4, the race was rescheduled for 10 a.m. today.
If the race is run, it will be the first Tuesday event in NASCAR's top series since David Pearson won the 1978 Firecracker 400 in Daytona Beach, Fla.
Before NASCAR's modern era began in 1972, races were run regularly on weeknights.
As inconvenient as it will be today to have a race nearly 48 hours after it was scheduled, it would be imminently preferable to other options.
Plan B would be to move this race to the end of the season, the day after Thanksgiving. New Hampshire would become the 26th race, not Richmond, and championship weekend for the Cup series would change from South Florida to southern Michigan.
Wheee!
If the weather doesn't get better during the next 36 hours or so and the race can't be run this week, this season is going to become a bigger mess than it already has been.
Waiting stinks anywhere, but the stench is particularly foul at race tracks.
"Really, I have just been bored," Kahne said. "There is not a lot to do in these motorhomes. You run out of movies to watch. The satellite dishes don't work when it rains as hard as it has. You just wait and hope it quits."
Carl Edwards, who won at Michigan on June 17 and whose No. 99 Ford was fast in Saturday's practice, the last time Cup cars got onto the track, said he and his pals got so tired of playing video games they found a gym at a college nearby and worked out late Sunday, then came back to the track and tooled around the track's infield in an all-terrain vehicle.
"I can't wait for the start of the race," Edwards said.
He's not alone.
Today?
AT MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
• 10 a.m. , ESPN2

Pos. No. Driver Car Speed

1. 24 Jeff Gordon Chevy 189.026

2. 16 Greg Biffle Ford 188.684

3. 9 Kasey Kahne Dodge 188.516

4. 43 Bobby Labonte Dodge 188.132

5. 19 Elliott Sadler Dodge 188.024

6. 5 Kyle Busch Chevy 187.882

7. 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevy 187.877

8. 11 Denny Hamlin Chevy 187.373

9. 07 Clint Bowyer Chevy 187.344

10. 01 Mark Martin Chevy 187.246

11. 55 Michael Waltrip Toyota 187.042

12. 00 D.Reutimann Toyota 186.848

13. 99 Carl Edwards Ford 186.780

14. 1 Martin Truex Jr. Chevy 186.746

15. 2 Kurt Busch Dodge 186.577

16. 49 John Andretti Dodge 186.446

17. 22 Dave Blaney Toyota 186.393

18. 83 Brian Vickers Toyota 186.239

19. 31 Jeff Burton Chevy 186.225

20. 40 David Stremme Dodge 186.215

21. 17 Matt Kenseth Ford 186.181

Pos. No. Driver Car Speed

22. 88 Ricky Rudd Ford 186.167

23. 21 Bill Elliott Ford 186.123

24. 38 David Gilliland Ford 185.946

25. 6 David Ragan Ford 185.888

26. 42 J.P. Montoya Dodge 185.806

27. 4 Ward Burton Chevy 185.591

28. 29 Kevin Harvick Chevy 185.428

29. 25 Casey Mears Chevy 185.428

30. 7 Robby Gordon Ford 185.366

31. 18 J.J. Yeley Chevy 185.338

32. 08 Joe Nemechek Dodge 185.319

33. 41 Reed Sorenson Dodge 185.061

34. 12 Ryan Newman Dodge 184.947

35. 20 Tony Stewart Chevy 184.800

36. 26 Jamie McMurray Ford 184.791

37. 96 Tony Raines Chevy 184.611

38. 15 Paul Menard Chevy 184.450

39. 8 D.Earnhardt Jr. Chevy 184.422

40. 66 Jeff Green Chevy 184.327

41. 70 Johnny Sauter Chevy ownpts

42. 45 C.McCumbee Dodge ownpts

43. 10 Scott Riggs Dodge 184.672

Rudd to retire at end of season

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 16:21 EDT
BROOKLYN, Mich. – Ricky Rudd is almost 51 and the grueling Nextel Cup schedule has finally taken its toll on the one-time NASCAR ironman.
“To run this schedule week in and week out, week in and week out, it’s more demanding than it used to be,” Rudd said at Michigan International Speedway, where NASCAR was still trying to run the rain-delayed 3M Performance 400 on Monday.
“I think it’s really a young guy’s sport, a single guy or a guy that’s married or no kids, which means a guy in his 20s or early 30s,” Rudd said. “Because there’s so many demands on your schedule that I guess I’m not willing to want to make the sacrifices for that full-time schedule any more.”
Rudd, whose birthday is Sept. 12, said he plans to retire at the end of this season.
He drove in a record 788 consecutive races from 1981 through 2005 before sitting out the 2006 Nextel Cup season. But Rudd said he purposely never used the word retirement at that time.
“At the end of 2005, I wasn’t sure if I wanted to retire or not, so I never made a statement,” he said. “I took a year off and I ended up coming back. It’s clear to me what I want to do now.
“It’s a great sport and it’s been good to me, and we’ve still got 14 races left (this year). But the grind of the schedule just kind of wears you down.” Rudd came back this season to drive for what is now Yates/Newman/Haas/Lanigan Racing after Robert Yates asked him to help him out of a tough situation. Yates had lost driver Dale Jarrett and his high-dollar UPS sponsorship to the new Toyota team of Michael Waltrip and needed a name driver to replace the 1999 Cup champion.
Rudd joined second-year driver David Gilliland at RYR and both have struggled this season, with the 31-year-old Gilliland 28th and Rudd 29th in the points and only one top-five and three top-10s between the teammates.
Asked if he might feel different about continuing in 2008 if he was in the top 10 in points, Rudd said, “I might. I’ve always been motivated by performance, and everybody in this garage is pretty much the same way.
“We really haven’t had those this year. We’ve had one top-10 – a seventh at Charlotte.”
Rudd said he doesn’t want to blame the Yates team, though.
“When I came back over here, this team had sort of hit rock bottom and it was in a rebuilding process,” Rudd said. “And it’s coming along – slowly, but it’s coming along. The merger with Carl Haas I see as a big plus.”
Yates recently announced a partnership with Champ Car’s elite Newman/Haas/Lanigan team that is expected to be an engineering bonanza for the stock car team.
“Right now they’re on the bottom rung of technology and they can quickly move to the top rung,” Rudd said. “If I was in my 30s, somebody like David Gilliland, this would be a great opportunity. If you can wait it out, it’s going to eventually work its way back to where it used to be.
“This sport has always been a tough sport, but the enjoyment has come from winning a race or running up front, in the top five or top 10. That’s sort of the benefit you would receive for the demands on your time. We haven’t had many rewards this year to offset some of that.”
Rudd said he doesn’t know what he will do next year or beyond that.
“I guess I want to be a little lazy for a while, but I don’t really know what the future holds,” he said. “I’m very fortunate. When I came into racing, there was no money and I saw it to the point where guys are making good money and, financially, I was able to put aside so I don’t have to worry about taking the first job that comes up.
“I’m a pretty committed person when I figure out what I want to do. So I’ll end up doing something, I just don’t have a clue what that is right now.”

Not today folks

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 16:26 EDT
The 3M Peformance 400 at Michigan International Speedway is sailing -- almost literally -- into uncharted NASCAR waters.
Rain washed out the race for a second straight day on Monday, forcing NASCAR to attempt to run a Nextel Cup race on a Tuesday for the first time in the sport's modern era.
The postponed race will air at 10 a.m. on ESPN2.

Rain washes out Cup race

Mon, 20 Aug 2007 12:16 EDT
BROOKLYN, Mich. – The 3M Performance 400 at Michigan International Speedway was rained out Sunday. That's about the only simple thing that can be said about the impact weather could have on NASCAR's top series.
The race was rescheduled for noon today (ESPN2), but the forecast is dismal. One online forecast put the rain chance at 80 percent at noon and 100 percent at 3 p.m.
NASCAR has never run a Cup race on a Tuesday after postponements on two previous days. The last time a race was rained out two straight days was on a Sunday and Monday in 1997 at Talladega, Ala. That race was moved several weeks later.
But there are no open weekends left on this year's Nextel Cup schedule.
"First, we will do everything we can to get the race in" today, NASCAR spokesman Ramsey Poston said. "Beyond that, we would look at Tuesday, and possibly at Wednesday."
Beyond that?
"If the race can't be completed this week," he said, pausing, "the race would be moved to Thanksgiving week, probably that Friday."
That would be Nov. 23, in Michigan -- albeit southern Michigan.
"And," Poston said, "according to the rulebook, the Chase field is comprised of the top 12 after the first 26 events and the Chase is comprised of the final 10 races."
That would make New Hampshire on Sept. 16, not Sept. 8 at Richmond, Va., the 26th race and the cutoff for the Chase.
A rescheduled Michigan race would be the 10th race in the Chase, supplanting Homestead-Miami Speedway as the season finale.
Tuesday's forecast for this area, however, is somewhat more promising.
There were a few developments unrelated to weather.
• Ricky Rudd confirmed he has told team owner Robert Yates he will not return as a full-time Cup driver in 2008. Rudd left full-time competition after the 2005 season, then returned to drive the No. 88 Ford for Yates this year.
Rudd said he's glad he came back because he believes this season will eliminate any second-guessing he might have had. He wouldn't rule out a part-time schedule with a strong team, but he's not actively pursuing such an opportunity.
• Dale Earnhardt Inc. President Max Siegel said he doesn't know what to say to fans about not being able to work out a deal with Hendrick Motorsports to let Dale Earnhardt Jr. take the No. 8 with him for 2008.
"Hopefully five years from now, people will be saying nice things about DEI," Siegel said. "I am not interested in getting into any personal discussions about Dale vs. Teresa. Dale Jr. knows exactly how I feel about the situation and about him.
"The reality is when you have any set of negotiations, the best you can do is have open dialogue. I have been open and very transparent with him. ... It was a very complicated situation. ... The emotional charge of this whole situation tells you how complex the discussions are."
Siegel reiterated DEI will field a team using the No. 8 next year.
"If we didn't have plans to run the 8 we wouldn't have gone through this whole exercise," he said.
He said the team is a week or two from announcing its full driver lineup for 2008, which will include four sponsored teams.
Today
AT MICHIGAN INTERNATIONAL SPEEDWAY
• Noon, ESPN2
• Forecast: 80 percent chance of rain at noon and 100 percent at 3 p.m.

Pos. No. Driver Car Speed

1. 24 Jeff Gordon Chevy 189.026

2. 16 Greg Biffle Ford 188.684

3. 9 Kasey Kahne Dodge 188.516

4. 43 Bobby Labonte Dodge 188.132

5. 19 Elliott Sadler Dodge 188.024

6. 5 Kyle Busch Chevy 187.882

7. 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevy 187.877

8. 11 Denny Hamlin Chevy 187.373

9. 07 Clint Bowyer Chevy 187.344

10. 01 Mark Martin Chevy 187.246

11. 55 Michael Waltrip Toyota 187.042

12. 00 D.Reutimann Toyota 186.848

13. 99 Carl Edwards Ford 186.780

14. 1 Martin Truex Jr. Chevy 186.746

15. 2 Kurt Busch Dodge 186.577

16. 49 John Andretti Dodge 186.446

17. 22 Dave Blaney Toyota 186.393

18. 83 Brian Vickers Toyota 186.239

19. 31 Jeff Burton Chevy 186.225

20. 40 David Stremme Dodge 186.215

21. 17 Matt Kenseth Ford 186.181

22. 88 Ricky Rudd Ford 186.167

23. 21 Bill Elliott Ford 186.123

24. 38 David Gilliland Ford 185.946

25. 6 David Ragan Ford 185.888

26. 42 J.P. Montoya Dodge 185.806

27. 4 Ward Burton Chevy 185.591

28. 29 Kevin Harvick Chevy 185.428

29. 25 Casey Mears Chevy 185.428

30. 7 Robby Gordon Ford 185.366

31. 18 J.J. Yeley Chevy 185.338

32. 08 Joe Nemechek Dodge 185.319

33. 41 Reed Sorenson Dodge 185.061

34. 12 Ryan Newman Dodge 184.947

35. 20 Tony Stewart Chevy 184.800

36. 26 Jamie McMurray Ford 184.791

37. 96 Tony Raines Chevy 184.611

38. 15 Paul Menard Chevy 184.450

39. 8 D.Earnhardt Jr. Chevy 184.422

40. 66 Jeff Green Chevy 184.327

41. 70 Johnny Sauter Chevy own pts

42. 45 C.McCumbee Dodge own pts

43. 10 Scott Riggs Dodge 184.672

RCR officially re-ups with Chevrolet

Sat, 18 Aug 2007 17:47 EDT
BROOKLYN, Mich. -- It surprised no one Saturday when Chevrolet announced it will continue its relationship with Richard Childress Racing for 2008 and beyond, re-signing the three-car team as one of its “key partners.”
Childress’ team long has been one of the cornerstones of Chevrolet’s NASCAR participation.
As for Joe Gibbs Racing, which is widely believed to be at least considering a move to Toyota, Ed Peper, Chevrolet general manager, said Chevrolet is still in negotiations with the team. “They have been an absolutely wonderful partner with us for many years,” Peper said.

Dominant Chevys? There’s a reason, Burton says

Sat, 18 Aug 2007 17:48 EDT
BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Chevrolet has only one of the past 17 races at Michigan, but it has won 17 of the 22 races held this year and has nine of the 12 drivers currently in position to make this year’s Chase.
While some fans are raising a ruckus about that disparity, there hasn’t been a grand level of protest from within the sport itself. Jeff Burton, who drives the No. 31 Chevrolet, thinks he knows why.
“The teams don’t have a whole lot to complain about,” he said. “NASCAR has put us under tighter constraints than we’ve ever had.
“What matters now is the participation of the manufacturer from an engineering and technological standpoint. The teams can’t stand on firm ground saying they have better pieces and parts because NASCAR has taken a lot of that away.
“NASCAR also quit reacting to it. The reason we complained a lot is because it worked. Now they don’t react so it doesn’t do any good.”
Burton’s car, by the way, will have the AT&T logos on it in today’s race. AT&T filed a request late Friday for an appeals court to reconsider its decision to overturn the injunction allowing those logos on the No. 31. The court took no action on the request before the weekend.

| Michigan 400

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 07:04 EDT
RACEDAY

3M PERFORMANCE 400
Where: Michigan International Speedway, Brooklyn, Mich.
When: 2 p.m. Sunday
Weather: 70 degrees, showers and thunderstorms likely (60 percent chance)
TV: Coverage begins at 1 p.m. on ESPN.
Radio: Motor Racing Network, WSOC-FM (103.7)
Race distance: 400 miles (200 laps)
Track length: 2 miles

THREE THINGS TO WATCH
1. Roush Racing Fords have won four of the past six Michigan race, with Matt Kenseth winning here a year ago and Carl Edwards victorious in June. Edwards, Kenseth and Greg Biffle, who won in August 2004 and June 2005, were all among the four fastest cars in Saturday’s first practice.
2. Dale Earnhardt Jr. has had engine failures in two of the past three races and is now 14th in the standings, 100 points below the Chase cutoff. He did finish fifth here in June.
3. Teammates Kasey Kahne and Elliott Sadler ran so poorly here in June it led to a major upheaval in how things are done at Evernham Motorsports. Both of those cars start in the top five today.

PRACTICE UPDATE
Carl Edwards, who won the race here in June, had the fastest laps in both of Saturday’s practices. Greg Biffle was second in the first practice and fifth in the second. Dale Earnhardt Jr. had the fifth fastest lap in the first practice, but his team decided to change a transmission on the No. 8 Chevrolet before the final session. Earnhardt Jr. was 36th in the second practice and will start from the rear of the field today.

OBSERVER’S PICK
David Poole
Jeff Gordon – Delivers a “make good” for Watkins Glen misstep to his team and fans.

| Roaring back with a vengeance

Sat, 18 Aug 2007 20:41 EDT
BROOKLYN, Mich. – Jeff Gordon is the most recent Chevrolet driver to win at Nextel Cup race at Michigan International Speedway. That was 12 races ago at this 2-mile track, in June 2001.
“We’ve been in position to win some races here, it just hasn’t worked out,” said Gordon, who’s on the pole for today’s 3M Performance 400. “I don’t think there's really any major thing. …But if I was the last one I hope I’m the next one to do it too.”
Consider this fair warning: That’s precisely what might happen Sunday.
That’s not necessarily a prediction, although in the ridiculously inexact science of picking a race winner, Gordon gets the call here. It’s more like an observation, based on years of seeing what makes the driver of the No. 24 Chevrolet tick, and on a gut feeling about how he’ll bounce back from what happened to him last week at Watkins Glen.
“I take a lot of pride in what I do out there, and I want to do the best I possibly can every single time I’m out there,” Gordon said. That’s why it still bugs him so much that he drove into Turn 1 too hard while leading with two laps left at Watkins Glen and opened the door that eventual winner Tony Stewart drove right through.
“That was a very tough one to get over, and I'm really good at letting things roll off my back and getting past them,” Gordon said. “This has been a tough week.”
At Texas earlier this year, Gordon was in contention late when he got a little too aggressive with his car and slapped the wall. Jeff Burton and two others went on to pass Gordon that day, and the four-time champion was kicking himself.
And yeah, he still remembers that.
“I told the team I was going to make it up to them,” he said. Gordon won the next race, at Phoenix, and won two of the next three races after that, too.
“It happened last week and I want to make it up to them again,” Gordon said. “I’m not saying it has to happen this week, but my way of making it up to them is to come to the track prepared with the intensity that it deserves.”
If a little extra determination from a driver who has won 79 career Cup races and who leads the current standings doesn’t seem like enough reason to expect Gordon to do well today, there’s also the fact that Gordon’s team will be back to full strength with the return of crew chief Steve Letarte.
Letarte and Chad Knaus, crew chief for Jimmie Johnson, have served out six-week suspensions levied by NASCAR for unapproved modifications on the bodies submitted for inspections at the race at Infineon Raceway in June.
Gordon hasn’t exactly wallowed in anguish with Jeff Meendering filling in for Letarte – finishing no worse than ninth and more than doubling his points lead from 171 to 344 in the interim. But Gordon thinks Letarte can make a difference.
"We did a really good job without him being here, but he's…the decision-maker for the team,” said Gordon, who said he and Meendering and other members of the team shared that responsibility in recent weeks. “We’re not in that position at all times. We did a good job with it but it's not our role, it's not what we do. So to have Steve back and him be the decision-maker, the guy that all things funnel and all information funnels into - and his job is to worry about that - will take the burden off of myself, off of the other guys and we can all focus on our jobs a lot more.”
Letarte brings some focus and determination with him to the race track today, too.
“I’m fortunate enough to have two children, and it has kind of been like watching your kid play a sport or a game,” Letarte said. “You want to help him, but you can't. You have to let him learn on his own.
“With us, I can do everything I can Monday through Thursday to prepare them, give them my notes, give them my ideas…but when they leave and come out to the race track, they're kind of on their own. People make all this about communications, this and that, (but) this is way too competitive a sport. The only way this can be handled is to be handled at the race track by really elite guys.”
If Gordon has his way, he’ll handle the task of making up for Watkins Glen the best way he knows how Sunday.
“I don’t like to make mistakes,” he said. “I take it very personal. When the team puts me in the position to win, then we need to win. I don’t want to make those same mistakes twice.”

Hamlin dominates Busch race

Sun, 19 Aug 2007 16:21 EDT
BROOKLYN, Mich. – Denny Hamlin had victory so firmly in hand in the closing moments of Saturday’s Carfax 250 race in the NASCAR Busch Series that he had time to plot a practical joke.
As Hamlin came toward the checkered flag, he radioed crew chief Dave Rogers that his car was out of gas.
“I figured the guys were pretty bored with just watching us going around the track,” said Hamlin, who actually had plenty of fuel. “But I didn’t want to jinx myself from saying it too soon and then running out, so I waited until I thought I could coast in.”
Rogers said his driver was “due for a beating” for the comment.
Hamlin was the only one left due, though, since he’d had just put a beating on everybody else on a cool, cloudy Saturday.
It was largely academic, in fact, after a round of green-flag pit stops with just less than 100 miles left.
Hamlin and Matt Kenseth had see-sawed up front, swapping the lead four times between laps 33 and 68 and generally running nose-to-tail or side-by-side while trying out various lines around this wide 2-mile track.
Both came to pit road on Lap 78 of the 125-lap race, but a lug nut fell off a tire and had to be retrieved during Kenseth’s stop. Hamlin’s stop came off without a hitch and that allowed to get back up to speed faster.
Hamlin was about two seconds ahead of Kenseth once Bobby Labonte came in to complete the final round of stops, and from there he poured it on to win by nearly seven seconds.
“We were about the same,” Kenseth said. “We just got a little too tight as the track changed. I would have liked to have had a chance to battle him at the end, but we just got too far behind on the pit stop.”
Kevin Harvick, who’d won the previous two Busch races on road courses at Montreal and Watkins Glen, finished third. Jeff Burton was fourth and Greg Biffle was fifth.
Despite that fact that Carl Edwards is still a runaway leader – by 700 points – in the Busch Series driver standings, Burton’s finish in the No. 29 Chevrolet moved that Richard Childress-owned team into the lead in the owner standings.
Burton shares that ride with Scott Wimmer, and they’re now 40 points ahead of Edwards in that less-closely followed championship race.
Edwards finished 28th Saturday after having his car damaged in an early incident with Reed Sorenson.
“I don’t know what he was thinking out there,” Edwards said. “I guess there’s a reason he runs like he does. …It was just a very frustrating day.”

No on No. 8? No surprise to Earnhardt Jr.

Sat, 18 Aug 2007 17:41 EDT
BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Dale Earnhardt Jr. said Saturday he figured all along that his stepmother, Teresa Earnhardt, wouldn’t let him have the No. 8 when he goes to Hendrick Motorsports.
“I knew that this was the way it was going to be,” Earnhardt Jr. told NASCAR Scene. “I've been in these negotiations with the same person before and they never work out in your favor.”
Earnhardt Jr. declined comment on Friday, but did speak to a small group of reporters after Saturday’s first practice.
Earnhardt Jr. said his sister and business manager, Kelley Earnhardt Elledge, and Dale Earnhardt Inc president Max Siegel worked hard to make a deal for the number he’s used throughout his Nextel Cup career.
“Max tried to make it work and trying to talk to Teresa and get some sense into her,” Earnhardt Jr. said. “But she either feels too personal about the number, or the rift between me and her or whatever is too personal. I can totally understand if I was in her shoes, I would be inclined to probably keep the number myself.”
Earnhardt Jr. said Teresa Earnhardt, the chief executive officer at DEI, wanted Earnhardt Jr. to relinquish the number back to DEI when he was done with it. He was willing to do that. But she also wanted a part of the licensing revenue off the number, and that wasn’t something he was willing to do.
“When I walked away from DEI, I wanted no ties whatsoever,” he said. “If I was to get the 8 and allow Teresa to still have control over it, I would still have to deal with it. That is not what I wanted. I have to let it go.”
Earnhardt said he has considered other options and is considering a number with an 8 in it – “some 80s and things like that.” He said he will be involved with the design of how the number appears on his car and will build a new brand identity with that.

Knaus says he has no regrets

Sat, 18 Aug 2007 17:42 EDT
BROOKLYN, Mich. -- Chad Knaus, back with the No. 48 team this weekend after serving a six-week suspension for unapproved body modifications on the car submitted for inspections at Infineon Raceway in June, says he still doesn’t feel like what he did was wrong.
“I’m sorry for what happened but for the reason that it happened I'm not sorry,” he said. “What we did was not something that we thought was bad. We didn't feel like we were breaking the rules. We've said that a million times. I stand by that, that's the case.
“In NASCAR's eyes, they feel that we did do something wrong so I don't feel any regret, remorse or anything like that,” Knaus said. “Am I sorry that I missed the races? Am I sorry that I wasn't there? Absolutely. It's painstaking not being here but regret or remorse, no, that's not even an option.”

Pos.	No.	Driver	Car	Speed
1.	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevy	189.026
2.	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	188.684
3.	9	Kasey Kahne	Dodge	188.516
4.	43	Bobby Labonte	Dodge	188.132
5.	19	Elliott Sadler	Dodge	188.024
6.	5	Kyle Busch	Chevy	187.882
7.	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevy	187.877
8.	11	Denny Hamlin	Chevy	187.373
9.	07	Clint Bowyer	Chevy	187.344
10.	01	Mark Martin	Chevy	187.246
11.	55	Michael Waltrip	Toyota	187.042
12.	00	D.Reutimann	Toyota	186.848
13.	99	Carl Edwards	Ford	186.780
14.	1	Martin Truex Jr.	Chevy	186.746
15.	2	Kurt Busch	Dodge	186.577
16.	49	John Andretti	Dodge	186.446
17.	22	Dave Blaney	Toyota	186.393
18.	83	Brian Vickers	Toyota	186.239
19.	31	Jeff Burton	Chevy	186.225
20.	40	David Stremme	Dodge	186.215
21.	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford	186.181