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.

Kahne’s Hendrick Teammates, Dale Earnhardt Jr and Jimmie Johnson also had solid top ten runs with a fifth and eighth respectively. Jeff Gordon struggled in practice and only posted a 28^th place run.

Kurt Busch continues to impress everyone in his no. 78 Furniture Row Chevrolet. Busch laid down a lap of 200.239 mph, and was second fastest in practice one. Aric Almirola and Kevin Harvick round out the top five in the early practice.

Veteran driver, Mark Martin, who has the second most starts, and he most wins here among active drivers, led the Toyota camp. Martin posted a lap of 199.861 mph which was good enough for sixth on the practice sheet. All eyes are on the Toyotas this week, as TRD announced last week they would dial back the horsepower to achieve better durability. At Pocono last Sunday, Toyota did not lead any laps, and had no drivers in the top five. Two statistics they have dominated this season.

Roush-Fenway driver, Carl Edwards was the only Ford driver in the top ten. Michigan is usually a track at which Ford usually runs very well. Ford teams have struggled with speed this season. Greg Biffle had a solid second place finish last week, but other than that and Edwards win earlier in the season at Phoenix, they haven’t had much to brag about. David Ragan did manage a victory at Talladega Superspeedway a few weeks ago, but being a restrictor plate track, it is definitely not a good barometer of a team’s overall performance.

Qualifying will take place at 3:35 pm on Friday afternoon, with happy hour practice session on Saturday.

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.”

Labonte who has the second longest active consecutive start streak in the series at 704, only one start behind Jeff Gordon, will drive the No. 51 Phoenix Racing Chevrolet for James Finch. When asked about the situation, Labonte commented, “They (JTG) have given me a great opportunity to help this team grow. It’s where my focus has been since racing with the team in 2011. I want to see this team get better and will do what I need to do to make that happen.” Labonte has 14 previous starts with the James Finch team, so he is familiar with most of the key team members.

This weekend’s switch could help both JTG and Labonte. It will give the team a chance to get feedback from a driver who has driven for other teams and see if there are any obvious differences that could be causing the team’s lack of performance. When asked if there were specific areas they were wanting AJ to assess, a JTG/Daugherty team representative said, “No, we’re just looking for an overall assessment.”

For Labonte, it will give him the opportunity to drive different equipment and see if he experiences a different feel behind the wheel. The team has had some solid finishes this season, in fact, many have been better than that of the No. 47 that Labonte usually drives, so it should give him a good gauge of what the car should be doing.

The big question is – What happens if Allmendinger performs well this weekend? Even though team officials say “Bobby is our driver”, could a strong run from AJ led to a more permanent change? There are several other factors to keep in mind as well. Labonte, who is 49, is obviously in the later stages of his career, has years of experience and is a former champion, but is that enough? As much as we hate to say it, AJ is younger, and perhaps more marketable in today’s NASCAR. AJ has also turned in some impressive performances in the recent past. Results that include four top twenty finishes in just five starts in the Phoenix Racing Chevy that Labonte is piloting this weekend. All these factors together could be the recipe that JTG/Daugherty needs to take the next step and start competing in the top twenty on a regular basis, a fact that Daugherty has said is a definite goal for the team.

I was very glad to hear Daugherty and Geschickter this week talking about how they want this team to improve. I’m glad they aren’t just racing for a weekly paycheck. They seem to really want this team to improve. If the JTG car is capable of competing at a higher level than it has been, and AJ turns in another impressive finish this weekend, we could see a changing of the guard at JTG.

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.

The first two generations of NASCAR race cars combined were on the race track for over 31 years. The first generation was on the track from 1948-1966, and the second generation was on the track from 1967-1980. The third generation lasted until 1991 and the best car ever made (in my opinion) started in 1992 and officially left the sport at the end of the 2007 season.

NASCAR made the decision that both the 4th generation car and the COT would split the schedule in 2007 with the COT taking over the entire schedule in 2008. Initially, NASCAR wanted to wait until 2009 for the entire schedule to be taken over by the new car. Now, do you notice one of the problems with this? We now run the Gen-6. While the Car of Tomorrow certainly made the racing lackluster, I think that the rush to get the Gen-6 on the race track will end up hurting NASCAR. We didn’t give the Car of Tomorrow the same amount of time like the previous generations of race cars. Maybe the product was such a complete bomb that the change needed to be made. I know that many drivers were very unhappy with the Gen-5, but learning an entirely new product takes time and that takes time away from actually racing.

The move to the Generation 5 car has changed NASCAR racing forever and in a very bad way. I will continue to love and cherish this sport the same way because I just love racing, but this isn’t the same racing that I grew up with. NASCAR wants to make the competition as tight as possible to level the playing field. NASCAR shouldn’t have to do that if they had a good racing product. The Generation 6 car is an improvement from the Generation 5 doesn’t get me wrong. We are seeing faster speeds than ever before, but that doesn’t define good races from bad ones. We have seen Camping World Truck Series races that were much more exciting than what the Sprint Cup Series has to offer and they don’t go as fast. Sometimes, I watch Indy Car and they have boring races. They go really fast.

The past is done, but we can learn from our mistakes. What would I do if I ran NASCAR? There is going to be a whole list of things here that include: 1. Do what you have to do to make your car go fasts. Do whatever you want to the car and see what happens. 2. Race back to the caution unless track conditions are deemed too dangerous by NASCAR, then the field will be frozen. 3. No more lucky dog or wave around rule. 4 Restarts will be single file unless there are lapped cars, then you will have lapped cars starting on the inside lane. 5. No more yellow line rule. If you think it’ll help you, then race there. 6. No more Chase. The man or woman with the most points will be crowned champion. 7. Boys Have At It!! TV conduct will be regulated though. Drivers will be fined for cursing. We have children that tune into the broadcasts and that to me is detrimental to the sport. We are adults and we need to at like it.

Do I like the Generation 6 car? I do. There are pros and cons about this new car and it will take a while to get used to the car and determine what changes need to be made, but we need to use this car for at least 10 years. We can’t be switching designs every 5 years, but there are some things to the car that I would welcome a change to. Imagine if Ford wanted to change from the Fusion to the Escape design. I would allow that. If Dodge were to come back into the sport and wanted the Avenger instead of the Charger, then I would accommodate that change as well. What would you change to NASCAR?