Will Power dominates en route to victory at Milwaukee Mile
On Sunday afternoon, Will Power would lead 229 of 250 laps en route to winning the ABC Supply Wisconsin 250 at the Milwaukee Mile as he continues his quest towards his first Verizon IndyCar Series Championship. It marks the 22nd victory of Power’s IndyCar career and his third victory of the season, but most notably his first short oval IndyCar victory. For Power, the accomplish means a lot considering he struggled on ovals at the beginning of his career.
“Its something that I’ve worked on over the last few years,” he commented. “I really enjoy racing on ovals now – I really do – and I’ve wanted to win on a short oval. It was a great day. The whole day we were able to run really good. Just really happy to be part of this team.”
The victory allows Power to stretch his points lead to 39 points ahead of Helio Castroneves.
“It’s perfect to start this three-race chase and we’ve got two other tracks that I’m strong on and enjoy so its about keeping my head down,” Power said. “I just kept my head down today and worked at getting the car right.”
Juan Pablo Montoya tried to mount a challenge against his teammate in the closing laps, however fell short in being able to close the gap as the pair weaved their way through lap traffic.
“It’s just hard. These cars are so aero-sensitive so you’re kind of stuck with it,” Montoya commented. “We struggled with the stability early in the race, but we worked on it and it turned out well. I’m slightly disappointed, but it’s good for the team in finishing 1-2.”
Chip Ganassi Racing teammates Tony Kanaan and Scott Dixon would finish third and fourth.
“I was able to keep up, but thee towards the end, he was really strong,” Kanaan. “So on that restart that I got by Andretti and Newgarden and got behind him with newer tires, I knew if something didn’t go wrong that he would’ve won.”
“The middle part we split up one of the splints and I think that’s where we made up five or six spots,” Dixon commented. “It was just a track position race and it was my fault and team’s fault in having too much understeer in qualifying in finishing 11th as we had a good car.”
Josef Newgarden would round out the top five after running inside the top three till he had to pit for fuel and tires with 13 laps to go.
“I think I’ll take away that the top five is not too shabby,” Newgarden said. “I’m still happy that we were able to salvage a fifth place. We worked hard for this result and just looking forward to having good results as the year ends. It was a tough day. It was hard and so difficult to follow close especially once the tires went off. It was tough to get by people. We tried a strategy to get up there and unfortunately, it didn’t work out as planned – but we got a good solid top-five finish.”
Ryan Briscoe finished sixth, followed by Simon Pagenaud, Mikhail Aleshin, Ed Carpenter and Jack Hawksworth. Helio Castroneves would finish 11th after struggling with the handling of his car throughout the day.
“The car was consistent, but unfortunately in three and four I had a lot of problems,” Castroneves commented. “If I finished without a crash, I was having a good day. Every time I went into the corner, it started sliding and I started saying ‘Woah’ but was able to keep it going. Still a lot of racing to go, 100 points out there so we’ll buckle down and keep working hard.”
Fellow Championship contender Ryan Hunter-Reay had a worst day, finishing 21st after the left rear suspension broke at lap 169.
“I could feel it running rough a couple laps before then,” Hunter-Reay said. “It wasn’t a clean berak. It was something with the left rear as it would splot. Its unfortunate, but what are you going to do? It wasn’t what I wanted, but that’s probably our championship hopes going up in smoke right now.”
Fellow Andretti Autosport driver Carlos Munoz finished 22nd after getting into the wall at lap 131.
“Having tough laps there, holding on there,” Munoz commented. “I just lost the entry and went into the marbles and as soon as you get in the marbles, you’re in trouble as I get into the weekend. Just a rough day as we weren’t fast all weekend. Just move on to Sonoma next weekend and take what we learned.”
The Verizon IndyCar Series is back in action next weekend on Sunday afternoon at Sonoma Raceway for the second last race of the season.
Surprising and Not Surprising: Pure Michigan 400
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.
Surprising: Drivers were apparently in full throttle preparation for Bristol, with tempers surprisingly abounding at the two-mile track in the Irish hills. Six time champion Jimmie Johnson and Ryan Newman exchanged words after the race, as did Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and Denny Hamlin.
“Just old Ryan Newman stuff,” Johnson said after his heated conversation with the driver of the No. 31 WIX Filters Chevrolet. “Anybody that has watched the sport long enough or has been in a race car out there understands the frustration of racing Ryan.”
Racing frustrations also abounded between the drivers of the No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota and the No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet.
“I felt like he crowded me off of (Turn) 4 in the middle part of the race,” Hamlin said. “We’re trying to make the best we can do down 50 horsepower.”
“I’m going to eventually let him go, but I’m not some lapped car that you can just shove to the high side and I’m going to back off.”
“I ran him up the track a little bit early in the race,” Earnhardt said. “He didn’t like it too much. I’ve been run up the track, too. I don’t like it either, but I didn’t want him hanging on my quarter panel all the way down the front straightaway and ended up three- or four-wide.”
“I just wanted to get on by him because I was flying. We were hauling.”
Not Surprising: Jeff Gordon went three for three for three, with his third win of the season, his third win at Michigan and a now three-win season, his first since 2011.
“Well, I like to go fast. This place is really, really fast,” the driver of the No. 24 Axalta Chevrolet said. “Michigan has always been one of my favorites.”
“Today I was able to drive this place the way I like to drive it, have success here again.”
Surprising: It was a surprisingly rough weekend for Martin Truex, Jr., with his girlfriend Sherry Pollex undergoing surgery for ovarian cancer, his brother Ryan suffering a concussion in Michigan practice and his involvement a nine car pile-up that relegated him to a 36th place finish.
“These two Michigan races turned out to be very long days,” the driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row/Denver Mattress Chevrolet said. “It was hard to learn anything about this place back in June and it was the same story today.”
“I just wish we could have finished one of these Michigan races with a clean car,” stated Truex. “You’re always curious to see how things would have played out and where you could have potentially finished.”
Not Surprising: He may have been a bridesmaid yet again, in fact for the fourth time at Michigan, but Kevin Harvick deemed his second place run a success, especially in light of the upcoming Chase.
“Yeah, I mean, we had a solid day,” Harvick said. “Just the 24 had more speed than we did all day. I felt like when Joey was out front, he could get away at the short run, we’d kind of even out.”
“But all in all, it was a good day,” the driver of the No. 4 Jimmy John’s Chevrolet said. “The main focus for our team has been consistency heading into the Chase to make sure we can scramble and do the things we’ve done over the last month.”
“Obviously you want to win, but all in all we had some different goals that are as important leading into the Chase.”
Surprising: While Joey Logano joked in the media center after the race that he really did not want to relive his last few laps, he too like Harvick had the championship on his mind, laying down the gauntlet after his third place finish.
“We can win a championship. I really feel we can do that,” the driver of the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford said. “That’s the message I want to put out there. I want to put out for my team that we’re strong enough to do that. I think we showed that today.”
Not Surprising: It was indeed a ‘hard week’ as Jeff Burton put it after being tapped to substitute for Tony Stewart, who decided to miss another race, grieving the contact with Kevin Ward Jr. which cost the young driver his life.
“This was a hard week,” Burton said. “This was honestly one of the hardest weeks I’ve ever spent, coming here on Friday not knowing what to expect.”
Burton’s No. 14 Mobil 1/Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet finished 37th after an electrical issue and a burning smell in the cockpit sent him to the garage.
Surprising: It was a surprisingly bad day if your name was Kyle. Both Kyle Busch and Kyle Larson crashed, the first on lap four and the latter on lap 98.
“I felt so good about my car those first few laps running the bottom, but then I was getting hung out on the straightaways,” Busch said “Then I just tried going to the top in (turns) three and four right away, and I got loose all the way through three and four. Every time I touched the gas it wanted to spin out, and finally it was too much gas and not enough save, and I wrecked.”
Larson’s incident was far more frightening, however, as his No. 42 Target Chevrolet went up in flames after his hard impact.
“I had no warning the right-front was going to blow,” Larson said. “Michigan is a fast track and into turn three is fast too. We are turning some really high speeds here so the hit was definitely a hard one.”
“Yeah anytime you see flames you want to get out,” Larson continued, explaining his bailing out of his car in spite of NASCAR’s new ruling. “I have had fires and stuff, but that is the first time I have ever had fumes or smoke and stuff in the cockpit. That is the main reason why I wanted to get out.”
Not Surprising: Once you get a win under your belt, as AJ Allmendinger did at Watkins Glen, those good finishes just seem to roll along. The Dinger finished top-15 at Michigan and officially clinched his spot in the Chase.
“It’s really cool,” the driver of the No. 47 Kingsford Charcoal Chevrolet said of his Chase berth. “I thought we had a really good shot, but you never know until it’s official. So to have that is really good.”
“More than anything I felt like this weekend made some gains so that gets a little excitement going into the next couple of race tracks to see if we can keep getting better. Overall the last few weeks has been really cool to share with the guys and come here and have a little energy and confidence. To come out here all weekend and show some speed has been really good.”
Surprising: In spite of burning up a test session at Michigan International Speedway prior to the race weekend, Roush Fenway Racing continued to struggle at a track they once owned. Greg Biffle did manage a tenth place finish and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished 15th, however, Carl Edwards had a disappointing end to his day, taking the checkered flag in 23rd.
“You know, I guess it was a good day,” Biffle said. “We got a top-10. Really we wanted to run up in the top-five. We had a car to do that and that track position we would get loose around other cars. We still have to work on that with our race cars.”
“It was a good solid top-15,” Stenhouse Jr. said. “We qualified 10th and finished 15th and ran right around 15th the whole time which is kind of a goal. Obviously we want to run top-10 and pass as many cars as we can but all in all we accomplished what we were looking to do.”
“We were so loose I just couldn’t drive it,” Edwards said. “It looked like Greg (Biffle) had a good run and we had speed in qualifying so that gives us something to look forward to but we were just too loose today to be able to do anything.”
Not Surprising: After some difficult runs recently, it was not surprising that Paul Menard scored a fourth place finish at an intermediate track where he tends to run well. The driver of the No. 27 Certainteed/Menards Chevrolet did in fact run well, finishing fourth.
“Our cars are really good,” Menard said. “The RCR fab shop, the ECR engine shop they make really good race cars. This track kind of suits my driving style I guess. Sluggar (Labbe, crew chief) and I, Justin and James and everybody on the No. 27 car have a good baseline intermediate track package that seems to work good at these fast tracks.”
“Definitely needed a good run the last three or four weeks have been pretty brutal,” Menard continued. “We definitely needed this.”
As a result of the Michigan race and assuming that they all attempt to qualify for the remaining three races of the regular season, AJ Allmendinger, Aric Almirola, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin all scored their spot in the championship Chase.
Jeff Gordon beats Logano on Late Race Restart to Claim Victory at Michigan
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.
“It wasn’t easy. It’s never easy to win especially at these tracks especially with aerodynamics and track position meaning so much,” Gordon said. “Alan (Gustafson) called a perfect race. Kept getting into that inside lane and not getting good restart. I knew with Joey and Kurt that it’d get it interesting and Kurt got loose. That final restart there – I got a good jump and was able to get ahead. It seemed whomever got out front was able to get ahead. I give him credit – he tried to get back by, but wasn’t able to. We set sail and next thing, I saw the checkered flag. It was a great race!”
For the fourth consecutive race at Michigan International Speedway, Kevin Harvick would pick up a runner-up finish as he continues to show the strength that has carried him to three wins this season with Stewart-Haas Racing.
“Our car handled great all day,” Harvick commented. “We just didn’t have the speed that the 24 had today. All in all, it was a good day for our Jimmy John’s Chevrolet. Gotta thank everybody at SHR for working hard and keeping these cars running well. We’ve been doing a lot to get things consistent and run strong, but we have a little more work to do to catch that 24.”
For Logano, it marked a disappointing third place finish after leading the most laps throughout the afternoon as he was able to take the lead early from pole sitter Gordon in the race, only giving it up throughout the race when he hit pit road.
“We were battling those restarts pretty hard and basically you use every trick that you have,” he commented. “Every game that you could play was played and I was clear of him. I should’ve pulled down and pulled off the draft, but he was able to get to my quarter panel and get by. Gosh, it was close. It’s a really good show for us to make sure that we’re in the contention for the Chase.”
Paul Menard battled hard in the late stages of the race to finish fourth, followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr., Clint Bowyer and Denny Hamlin. Earnhardt Jr. and Hamlin had a discussion post-race with regards to a disagreement during the final laps of the race. Brad Keselowski finished eighth while Jimmie Johnson fought back to finish ninth.
Johnson fell back to 35th early in the race, before having the shifter knob break. The crew would hand him a pair of vice grips to attach, however he wasn’t able to. The crew would then re-install the shifter under a pit stop, putting Johnson a lap down. He then fought back throughout the second half of the race to get back on the lead lap, before fighting his way through the field to finish ninth. The fight back through the field wasn’t clean, though, as there was some contact with Ryan Newman during the final 15 laps. Post-race, Newman would approach Johnson and the pair had a discussion.
“Its just normal Ryan Newman stuff,” Johnson commented after their discussion. “Anybody whose been around racing knows the frustration in racing Ryan Newman. I don’t want to take anything away from this team as they were able to salvage a good finish. It sucks that we weren’t able to get up further today.”
Greg Biffle would round out the top 10, ahead of Newman, Marcos Ambrose, A.J. Allmendinger, Jamie McMurray, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kasey Kahne, Casey Mears, Danica Patrick, Brian Vickers and Aric Almirola.
Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch both didn’t have the days that they were looking for as Kenseth got heavy rear-end damage during a incident initiated by Patrick spinning on lap 26. Patrick would get loose on the restart, spinning sideways, collecting Justin Allgaier, Michael Annett, Martin Truex Jr., Trevor Bayne and Kenseth. For Busch, he’d find his day end real early in the race as he got into the wall on lap three.
Rookie Kyle Larson also ran into issues, blowing a right front tire, causing him to plow into the wall on lap 97, causing the car to catch fire. Larson would get out of the car quickly, unharmed.
“It’s a shame. We’re just going to have to work extra hard to make the Chase,” Larson commented. “I thought we had a car to win the race for sure, and then on pit road, 88 and I got together on pit road and it screwed the toe. The crew worked hard on the car, but a blown right front tire took us out there.”
Jeff Burton was brought into sub for Tony Stewart as Stewart misses his second straight race, however Burton would not have a good day, either, finding his day end early with electrical problems on lap 82.
“I first smelt it and didn’t see anything. Then I saw a lot of smoke and it was getting pretty bad. I couldn’t see any fire at all,” Burton said. “I was terrible in traffic; I couldn’t drive it all. But once we got into clean-air, it was pretty good. It’s not how I wanted it to go, but I’m proud of all these guys for stepping up in how they handled the situation.”
With the victory, Gordon takes the points lead ahead of his Hendrick Motorsports teammates Earnhardt Jr. by three points.
