A curmudgeon. An old fart who sits in the wings like a Muppet and mocks those upon the stage. In this case, for me that includes the three in the booth and the three on the desk offered up by ESPN. I am sure even a certain green talking frog would not have been safe from my sarcasm.
With an impassioned driver’s meeting speech by Carl Edwards urging safety and throttling back during cautions at such a high-speed track, here is what else was surprising and not surprising from the 45th annual Pure Michigan 400.
On a restart with 17 laps to go, Jeff Gordon kept even with Joey Logano on the restart and was able to clear him off of turn two to take the lead. From there, Gordon would hold off Logano's attempt to pass him with 16 laps to go before cruising away from the field for the victory. It marks Gordon's third victory of the 2014 season and the 91st victory of his Sprint Cup Series career.
After making his pit stop a little earlier than his competitors, Chris Busecher was able to stretch the fuel and hit all his marks around the 13-turn Mid-Ohio Sports Car road course to score his first career Nationwide Series victory in his 30th career start.
After taking a splash of fuel with seven laps to go, Johnny Sauter would beat his ThorSport teammate Matt Crafton back to the line to score the victory in the Careers for Veterans 200 at Michigan International Speedway. It marks Sauter's first victory of the season and his 10th victory of his career. It also marked the first race that Sauter had Jeff Hansley on the pit box.
This weekend in Michigan Gordon broke the track record in the final session of qualifying with a lap of 206.558 miles per hour. The speed is the seventh fastest qualifying speed in NASCAR history and the only one not on a super speedway. It is Gordon’s sixth pole award at Michigan and the 76th of his storied career.
The news of late has been enough to make a clown cry. In fact, we just lost one of our most treasured entertainers, by his own hand. We have the tragedy involving Kevin Ward Jr. and Tony Stewart still on our minds. We have Martin Truex Jr.’s girlfriend facing health challenges.
As the NASCAR touring series rolls into the central part of the United States I can’t help but reflect on last weekend. First, I’m going to discuss NASCAR racing and not opine about incidents that happened away from NASCAR sanctioned tracks.
The references to the “hot head” Tony Stewart really burn me, as though his past demonstrations of temperament have any more to do with the events of last weekend than whether or not he takes a morning tinkle upon awakening or if his facial stubble is the result of a poor razor.
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.
Joe Gibbs Racing driver Chase Briscoe was made available to the media on Saturday after willing the pole for the NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega Superspeedway.
The two-time Southern 500 champion from Mitchell, Indiana, clocked in a pole-winning lap at 186.065 mph in 51.466 seconds for his first Cup pole of the 2026 season and the 10th of his career at Talladega.
CHRIS BUESCHER, No. 17 Kroger Ford Mustang Dark Horse – “That’s solid. We had a lot of speed here today. I know it’s single car, but it translated really well at Daytona..."
Kyle Larson, driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, met with the media in a panel with fellow Chase contenders, Chase Briscoe and Ryan Blaney, in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series practice qualifying session at Talladega Superspeedway.
Chase Elliott, driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, met with the media in advance of the NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session at Talladega Superspeedway.
