NASCAR Cup Series

1. Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Earnhardt finished 11th at Watkins Glen after an untimely late caution cost him any chance of winning. He passed Jeff Gordon to take over the lead in the Sprint Cup points standings, and now leads Gordon by four.

NASCAR’s great redemption story of recent memory came to a close with AJ Allmendinger’s first career Sprint Cup win at Watkins Glen on Sunday. With the close of that story comes the beginning of another; his quest to find consistency as a proven winner.

Things are not rosy at Roush Fenway Racing. Lately, they’ve lost their top driver to apparently Joe Gibbs Racing, and today they lost 3M as a primary sponsor on the No. 16 Ford of Greg Biffle. The performance has been putrid at best all year even though Carl Edwards has two wins, but Biffle and Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. have not had the performance that a top team should have.

The last time Martin Truex Jr. competed at Michigan International Speedway it was both a short and long day for the Furniture Row Racing driver. Truex’s No. 78 Chevrolet got caught up in an accident on Lap 8 of 200 at the Michigan June race. The wreck caused him to fall three laps down with a heavily damaged race car.

With just four races remaining to earn a berth in NASCAR’s Chase for the Sprint Cup, driver Brian Vickers knows winning is the most likely way he’ll join the 16-car Chase field. But Vickers and the Billy Scott led team have work to do for the 2015 season as well at Michigan International Speedway.

DID YOU KNOW? … Ford Racing has won more NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at Michigan International Speedway than any other manufacturer with 34. NOTE: Mercury has 12 wins, giving Ford Motor Company more than half of the overall victories at the speedway (46-of-89, 52%).

Brad Keselowski, driver of the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion, is tied for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series lead with three victories in 2014. Assured of a spot in the upcoming Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup, Keselowski was this week’s guest on the NASCAR teleconference

Quicken Loans has selected the Childress Institute for Pediatric Trauma as one of three charities to benefit from its "Paint Your Way to Dover" online contest that starts today. The contest coincides with the Childress Institute's sixth anniversary and helps highlight the need for more support.

Stenhouse has three career Sprint Cup starts at MIS with an average starting position of 22.3 and average finishing position of 20.7.

Kevin Harvick, the winner of two NASCAR Sprint Cup races this season, has been added to the Green Flag Experience prior to the Goody’s® Headache Relief Shot® 500 at Martinsville Speedway on October 26.