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Will Earnhardt Jr.’s Superman Paint Scheme Give Him Super Powers in Michigan?

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SM Staff
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NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., will be driving the National Guard “Man of Steel” Chevrolet in the Quicken Loans 400 on Sunday at Michigan International Speedway.  Earnhardt Jr. is currently fourth in the points although he has been winless since claiming victory of the 2012 Quicken Loans 400 last year in Michigan.

Could the Superman themed paint scheme on the No. 88 Chevrolet give Earnhardt Jr. the edge he needs to repeat his victory at Michigan International Speedway?

When asked about last year’s win and this paint scheme, Earnhardt Jr. commented, “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 job easier.  I think the care does look good.  Hopefully it’s as fast as it looks good.  That is going to be more important to be able to repeat and get the win this weekend.  We feel pretty good coming in to this race.  We had a great run last week that sort of hopefully got us back in the right direction.  We talked about it last week after the race, but we kind of had some misses here lately and not many hits.  As far as showing up to the race track and being competitive and getting the job done putting together a full weekend.  We haven’t been able to do that.  We started the season off so promising the best that I had ever started a season.  It just seemed like things were going so perfectly and it’s the way it is in this sport.  You will think you have everything going in the right direction and then odds and fate and everything else get in the way.”

Rick Hendrick commented that Earnhardt Jr. and his team are performing better coming into this race than they were one year ago when they ended up winning.

In response Earnhardt Jr. said, “Well it’s probably better to see the truth from his position on the other side of the fence so to speak.  It’s more difficult to see growth and improvement within the team when you are a part of the team.  It’s kind of like when you are a kid and you are getting taller.  You are 10, 11, 12 years old and you are wanting to be six foot three (inches) one day you can’t tell you are getting taller unless you are marking the door jam.  Otherwise you wouldn’t notice any change of height.  That is kind of what it feels like when you are part of the team.  You don’t really notice when things get a little bit better or things get a little bit worse.”

Although Dale Earnhardt Jr. has an impressive nine top 10 finishes this season, he has only led 48 laps. Hopefully, his strong history here at Michigan coupled with the momentum from last week’s third place finish and the upbeat attitude associated with this week’s sponsor will create the recipe for success Sunday in the Quicken Loans 400.

Biffle Races to “Give Kids a Smile” in Michigan

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SM Staff
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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.

Driver of the No.16 3M Ford Fusion, Greg Biffle, first teamed up with 3M ESPE Dental, the ADA Foundation, and Henry Schein in 2011 to spread the Give Kids a Smile message to the NASCAR audience.   Biffle’s support includes a public service announcement featuring himself and ongoing outreach to parents and children through dental offices, community events, and media.

The American Dental Association president, Dr. Robert Faiella, comented on their organization’s partnership with Biffle. He said, “Greg Biffle’s support of Give Kids A Smile will help us get the prevention message out to more families.  We applaud his generous efforts, as well as those of the program sponsors.”

When asked about having dental health on his car this weekend for kids, Biffle commented, “Yeah, it’s a great thing that 3M does with the American Dental Association with the Give Kids A Smile program.  A lot of children go with less than a satisfactory level of dental care and this is a good way to build awareness for that.  They do a tremendous amount of screenings here at the race track for kids and build awareness around the country about how important it is to have proper dental health, so we’re excited to have them on the car.  I think this is the third or fourth year and we’ve done it at different race tracks.  Last year it was Richmond and this year it’s here at Michigan, so we’re certainly excited about the program.  3M does a lot to build awareness for a lot of different causes and this is a good one.”

Biffle’s No. 16 Ford Fusion will feature a Give Kids A Smile logo on the hood, roof and bumper, along with the logos for 3M ESPE and Henry Schein Cares on the bumper to spread the important dental health message.  Race fans can also visit the 3M display in the midway for healthy dental tips, fun family activities, prizes, and meet Greg Biffle on Saturday morning in the Kids Zone Area.

Brennan Poole Successful in ARCA Return, Wins Patriot Pumps 200 at Michigan

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SM Archive
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Photo Credit: ARCARacing.com

Preview: Month-long Layoff Evens Field For Barrie

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SM Archive
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Preview: Kennedy Looks For Repeat at Barrie

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SM Archive
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Brennan Poole wins the Patriot Pumps 200 at Michigan

By
SM Staff
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Photo Credit: ARCARacing.com

After running up front and close racing with teammate Justin Boston, Brennan Poole would pick up the victory in the Patriot Pumps 200 at Michigan International Speedway on Friday afternoon.

“We should have had more wins than this,” Poole’s crew chief Kevin Reed said. “These guys are just flawless. We’ve been the fastest car at every track. Looking forward to next week with John Wes and then the week after with Kyle Benjamin.”

Poole made his way up to the second position behind Boston and was closing in on him. When Poole got underneath of Boston with 12 laps to go, Poole would get loose and slide up towards Boston. The air, not any contact, would cause Boston to get loose and go around on the backstretch. Poole would pick up the lead and was able to hold off Ryan Blaney and Frank Kimmel on the late race restart.

“The car was just really good today,” Poole said. “We struggled in traffic behind Justin and I got underneath him at the door and got loose – we never touched, but I thought we were done after that. I don’t know what my next opportunity will be – but I’m looking forward to the next one.”

Blaney would have the most dominant car all day long and would lead the most laps, however would lose the lead when his team decided to short pit with 32 laps to go. The caution would then come out four laps later and Blaney was able to get the lucky dog, requiring him to start at the tail end of the last line.

When it came time for the restart, Blaney started behind the lead lap cars, however was not at the tail end of the longest line. Therefore, ARCA deemed it an illegal start and required Blaney to back off till he fell back in line before allowing him to make his charge to the front.

“I learned a lot today,” Blaney said. “Definitely learned how the track changed throughout the race. I thought we had the dominant car all day. We were just riding out there at front. We came in early, short pitted and hoped it would string out.

“We were supposed to be start seventh and the guy who I was supposed to start in front of dropped down and ARCA said we should have started behind him. I burned my stuff up trying to get back up there and if we would have started where we were supposed to, we would have been fine.”

Points leader Frank Kimmel finished third while Boston made his way back up to fourth. Grant Enfinger rounded out the top five.

Tires were a concern throughout the day as three of the four cautions were due to drivers having flat tires. mason Mitchell had the fire problem on lap 25, followed by Tom Hessert on lap 42 and Spencer Gallagher with 28 laps to go.

“We were okay there, struggling a bit,” Hessert said. “We did a four tire stop and went into the run. I don’t know how long we were into that run, but we blew a tire going into the turn and hit the wall.”

The ARCA teams will now turn their attention to Road America as they get set to do battle on the road course.

Lap by Lap: Patriot Pumps 200 won by Brennan Poole

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SM Staff
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Photo Credit: ARCARacing.com

After some close racing with teammate Justin Boston, Brennan Poole would pick up the win in the Patriot Pumps 200 at Michigan International Speedway.

 

Green flag as Blaney and Poole are side-by-side for the lead. Blaney takes the lead off of turn two

Lap 4 Blaney leads Poole F Kimmel Boston Mitchell Mingus Hessert Enfinger Williams W Kimmel

Lap 15 Blaney leads Poole F Kimmel Boston Mitchell Enfinger Mingus Williams Hessert W Kimmel

Lap 25 Caution Mitchell gets into the wall. Leaders head down pit road. Blaney wins the race off pit road ahead of Kimmel Enfinger Poole off of pit road. Boat came off fifth but was busted for speeding on pit road. Williams doesn’t pit and takes over the lead.

Restart Lap 31 Blaney takes the lead from Williams

Lap 41 Blaney leads F Kimmel Boston Poole Williams Enfinger Gallagher W Kimmel Boat Mingus

Caution lap 42 Tom Hessert gets into the wall. Williams, Will Kimmel and Boat head down pit road

Restart lap 47

Lap 48 Williams makes an unscheduled pit stop

Lap 50 Blaney leads F Kimmel Boston Poole Enfinger Gallagher Mingus Boat W Kimmel Graham

45 to go Boston looks for second by Kimmel and completes the pass off of turn two. Poole takes third from Kimmel

44 to go Blaney leads Boston Poole F Kimmel Enfinger Gallagher Mingus Boat W Kimmel Graham

39 to go Blaney leads Boston Poole F Kimmel Gallagher Enfinger Mingus Boat W Kimmel. 9 cars on the lead lap

35 to go Boat makes an unscheduled pit stop

33 to go Blaney leads Boston Poole F Kimmel Gallagher Enfinger Mingus W Kimmel. Poole and Frank Kimmel both have vibration.

32 to go Blaney pits, handing the lead over to Boston.

29 to go Boston leads Poole F Kimmel Gallagher Enfinger Mingus W Kimmel. Blaney is first car one lap down.

Caution 28 to go Gallagher gets up into the wall. Blaney gets the lucky dog. Leaders head down pit road. Enfinger takes two tires and leads race off pit road. Boston second followed by Kimmel Poole with four tire.

Restart 22 to go Enfinger gets a good restart ahead of Boston

21 to go Enfinger and Boston are side-by-side and Boston to the lead off of turn two. Blaney busted for passing too early, has to drop back in position

19 to go Poole passes Enfinger for second behind Boston

18 to go Boston leads Poole F Kimmel Enfinger Mingus W Kimmel Blaney

12 to go Poole slides up the track and the air off of Poole’s car causes Boston to around for the spin.

Restart 8 to go Poole gets a good restart as Blaney passes Kimmel for second. Enfinger looks for third by Kimmel.

7 to go Enfinger gets loose underneath Kimmel in turns one and two, allowing Kimmel to keep third

6 to go Poole leads Blaney F Kimmel Enfinger Boston Mingus W Kimmel Carter

4 to go Boston gets fourth from Enfinger

2 to go Kevin Shinkle has a problem, but is able to get to pit road

Brennan Poole picks up the win ahead of Blaney, F Kimmel, Boston and Enfinger

Edwards grab pole for Quicken Loans 400

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SM Staff
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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. Edwards earned his first career victory at the two mile speedway, a race which was also Roush-Fenway Racing’s last victory at the track.

Joining Edwards in the top ten were fellow Ford drivers, Aric Almirola and Joey Logano who qualified fifth and sixth respectively. Running well at Michigan has always been a sense of pride for manufacturers, as MIS is in the backyard of their corporate headquarters.

Kurt Busch continues to impress with another solid qualifying effort. Busch will start second on Sunday in his Furniture Row Chevrolet. In the media center after qualifying, Busch said, “It was a great lap, it’s amazing how close it comes down to after a two mile run.” Busch also credited his team association with Richard Childress Racing as playing a big part of their recent success. He also pointed out that the 78 team gives a lot of valuable information back to RCR and that the association is a two way street. He also commented that RCR considers his team a fourth team car.

Kasey Kahne who led first practice posted a solid third place effort, the only Hendrick Motorsports driver in the top ten. Paul Menard, Kurt Busch’s “pseudo-teammate”, who is having the best season of his career will start fourth on Sunday. When asked if his lap was helped by cloud cover, Menard said, “It always helps when you have a little shade for sure. We had a really good car in practice; we just never could really get a clean lap to show it.”  Rookie driver, Austin Dillon, also from the RCR camp, will start seventh. Dillon commented after qualifying, “I had to check up off of (turn) two, but really proud of that lap.”

Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch led the Toyota camp and will start eighth and ninth Sunday. TRD, who builds engines for Joe Gibb Racing, recently dialed back horsepower in an attempt to help durability. The lower horsepower seems to be evident, as Toyotas have been very dominant in qualifying this season, but have been a little off since the change in the engine department.

The Quicken Loans 400 will go green Sunday at 1:00 pm local time and will be televised on TNT.

Kahne leads practice at Michigan, breaks 200 mph barrier

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SM Staff
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Photo Credit: Geoff Burke/Getty Images

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 28th 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.

Quicken Loans 400 Quick Facts Preview

By
SM Staff
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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.

Forty-four drivers will attempt to qualify for Sunday’s race, which means after qualifying one team will not be in the field.

Fifteen active Sprint Cup Series drivers have previous wins at Michigan, but none more than driver of the No. 55 Aaron’s Dream Machine Toyota, Mark Martin.

The thirty-one year Sprint Cup Series veteran, Mark Martin, has the most wins at Michigan International Speedway among active drivers.  His five win Michigan history lands him fourth in the most wins at this track among all NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers.  Martin’s 31 top 10 finishes and 965 lead laps gives him the overall record for top 10 finishes at Michigan and third all-time in the most laps lead.

With a history of winning five poles at Michigan International Speedway, four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion, Jeff Gordon holds the record for most poles won among active drivers and is third on the overall list behind former Sprint Cup Series champions David Pearson and Bill Elliot, who won 10 and 6 poles respectively.

Driver of the No. 99 Fastenal Ford, Carl Edwards has been in Victory Lane twice at the Michigan International Speedway and has a best average finish among active drivers of 8.2.

Two-time Michigan International Speedway winner, Dale Earnhardt Jr. will look to repeat his success at Michigan from last year.  Earnhardt Jr., driver of the No. 88 National Guard “Man of Steel” Chevrolet ended a long losing streak last year when he won the 2012 Quicken Loans 400, and is looking to end another losing streak this weekend.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series drivers will qualify for the Quicken Loans 400 on Friday at 3:35 pm.

The Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway will get underway Sunday, June 16th at 1:00pm.

 

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