NASCAR Cup Series

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver, Greg Biffle, has teamed up with the American Dental Association to raise dental awareness this weekend at Michigan International Speedway. The Give Kids a Smile campaign is a dental education program that is currently in its 11th year. The program provides dental services to more than 400,000 underserved children.

Fords have been less than impressive this season. Several Ford drivers have recently commented on the lack of performance. If there is one track that Ford seems to always run well at, it is Michigan International Speedway. Today was no exception. Edwards posted a fast lap of 202.452 mph to grab the 12th pole of his career. Edwards lap was a full tenth of a second over second place qualifier Kurt Busch.

Hendrick Motorsports driver, Kasey Kahne, leads the first Gen-6 practice at Michigan International Speedway. Kahne drove his no. 5, Farmer’s Insurance Chevrolet to a fast lap of 200.619 mph. Kahne was one of four drivers to break that barrier. The chatter around the garage area today is that we will see the track record broken this week.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to the Michigan International Speedway this weekend for the fifteenth race of the 2013 points season, the Quicken Loans 400 held on Sunday June 16th.

This week JTG/Daugherty Racing announced that AJ Allmendinger will drive the No. 47 Charter Communications Toyota Camry in the Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway. The team co-owner, Tad Geschickter said, “We’re not replacing Bobby, he’s still our driver.” Geschickter continued saying, “It is a good opportunity for us to verify what Bobby thinks the main issue is.”

Todd Anderson who had been crew chief for the #93 BK Racing Toyota for driver Travis Kvapil since the teams inception, left the team after the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway. Todd has now been named crew chief for the #35 Front Row Motorsports Ford and driver Josh Wise. Anderson will make his debut atop the pit box at the Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

There is a saying that goes, “Don’t fix it unless it’s broke.” While the grammar of the statement may be well off the message behind remains strong today. The last seven years in NASCAR have had a really dormant appearance on growth. The sport simply isn’t attracting new fans to the race track and the people running the sport don’t either which is really making the situation consistently poor.

“We are excited about the car. The car looks great. It’s not difficult to come up with a cool paint scheme when you are working with Superman and like we did last year with Batman and all that. It’s pretty simple to come up with something really cool and fun. Definitely makes that kind of a job easier. I think the car does look good. Hopefully it’s as fast as it looks good.

“I’ve been ready for a long time. We’ve been so close here. But, when it happens, it will make it all that sweeter for us. The exciting thing is we’ve been plenty fast here over the years. But getting to the final lap and seeing that checkered flag has been a little more difficult than I could imagine.”

Trevor Bayne, driver of the No. 6 Clean Tech Ford Mustang in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and No. 21 Motorcraft Quick Lane Ford Fusion in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, is coming off Ford Racing’s 200th NNS victory last weekend at Iowa Speedway. He spoke to the media about that victory before practice.