Surprising and Not Surprising: Michigan Quicken Loans 400
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[/media-credit]From blistering speeds to blistering tires, here is what was surprising and not surprising in the 44th annual Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway.
Surprising: After the repaving, days of tire testing and several practices resulted in pervasive tire blistering throughout the garage, it was surprising the praise shared for Goodyear when they made the very difficult call to switch up the tires for the race.
And although known for his sometimes hard-hitting rhetoric, second place finisher Tony Stewart had nothing but cheers for team Goodyear.
“I think we need to give 100 percent credit to Goodyear for this weekend,” the driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet said. “I mean, what they had to do Friday night was a really hard decision to make.”
“It was for the betterment of all of us as drivers and teams and for the sport,” Smoke continued. “So every one of us need to walk through the garage and stop at Goodyear and shake every one of their guys’ hands.”
Not Surprising: While Junior nation paced and held their collective breaths during the final laps of the Quicken Loans 400, no one was more anxious than team owner Rick Hendrick.
“That was the longest 18 laps of my life,” Hendrick said of the waning laps before Dale Earnhardt, Jr. finally took that checkered flag, ending his four-year winless drought. “I was doing laps around my couch, trying to end this race, man.”
“I was too nervous to stand still,” Hendrick continued. “Linda and I were just watching it and saying ‘Come on, no problems.’ I was so afraid there was going to be a caution or something was going to happen.”
“I thought Dale had a real shot at Pocono,” Hendrick said. “But this is like a huge load off our backs.”
Surprising: While his teammate basked in the glory of Victory Lane, Jeff Gordon celebrated a top-10 finish, as well as a surprising career milestone. The driver of the No. 24 Dupont Chevrolet scored the 400th top-10 finish of his Cup career.
With his sixth place run, Gordon became the second youngest driver to achieve that milestone. This was also his fifth top-6 finish at Michigan International Speedway in the last seven races at that track.
“It was not easy,” Gordon said, especially after having to move up from his 28th starting spot. “We had a really good race car today.”
“I’m just glad we had a solid day,” Gordon continued. “It’s something to build on.”
Not Surprising: Always understated and never surprising Matt Kenseth had another solid run, finishing third in his No. 17 EcoBoost Ford. Kenseth also held onto the points lead, lording just four points over second place contender Dale Earnhardt, Jr.
“We were pretty good in the beginning of the race and got shuffled back and it was tough to work traffic today,” Kenseth said. “They got the setup good on the last two runs and had good pit stops.”
“We were able to stand on the gas and work our way up there to third.”
Surprising: One of the hottest drivers on the circuit surprisingly went from Victory Lane in Pocono and in the Michigan Nationwide race to hitting the wall and ending his Michigan Cup race with a DNF.
“It was just the restarts,” Joey Logano said. “The slower lapped car – we all waved around and we’re all trying to turn down underneath him.”
“I thought I had it saved and over-corrected and went in the wall,” Logano continued. “It’s a little frustrating.”
“We’ll go back out there next week and win that one.”
Not Surprising: NASCAR is a family so, to no one’s surprise, several teams and crew members came to the aid of a driver in trouble. After wrecking, Denny Hamlin tried to drive to pit road only to be engulfed in flames in the race car.
“There’s a lot of good safety stuff, but I’ve got to thank all of the crew guys that hauled ass over there and got me out,” the driver of the No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota said. “It was just a tough day.”
“I thought we had a car that could run top-three or four at times, but just didn’t have a great day and on fire is not a good way to end it.”
Surprising: Rough times surprisingly continued to plague the Busch brothers, from Pocono to the Irish hills of Michigan. Kurt Busch, who sat out of his car at Pocono due to a verbal altercation with a media member, wrecked on lap two of the Michigan race.
Brother Kyle fared none better, experiencing engine failure for the third weekend in a row.
Kurt Busch finished 30th and Kyle Busch finished 32nd. With the engine failure, Kyle Busch managed to hold on to 12th in the point standings, but barely remained in Chase contention.
Not Surprising: Jimmie Johnson, along with his lucky horseshoe, continued to triumph over adversity. The driver of the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet managed yet again to pull off another top-5 finish.
“Man, we were coming,” Johnson said. “We were really flying.”
“And then I blistered the right rear again and had to just hang on,” Johnson continued. “And then I ran out of fuel going into Turn 3 and coasted around and made it to the finish.”
“It was a tough day; but a good finish, so we’ll take that.”
Surprising: EGR racer Juan Pablo Montoya had a surprisingly good run at Michigan, finishing eighth.
“It was good,” the driver of the No. 42 Target Chevrolet said of his top-10 run. “I will tell you the truth, yesterday when they changed tires, I was really worried.”
“I called my dad to wish him a Happy Father’s Day and he said, ‘How is the car?’ I said, ‘If it handles the way it handled yesterday we are going to get lapped every 20 laps.”
“Our team has a lot of potential and we showed a little bit of what we can do,” JPM continued. “I think we still have a lot of work to do, but I’m happy, really happy.”
Not Surprising: As the fastest racer in NASCAR, Marcos Ambrose not only scored the pole with a new track record, but also finished ninth in his No. 9 Stanley Ford Fusion.
“We will take the top-10 but we had a great car today and we lost a little bit of track position and it hurt us there,” Ambrose said. “I am proud of my Stanley team. We led some laps and looked good up there.”
“It was a strong day for us, not quite what we wanted, but we will take it and move along to Sonoma.”
Justin Allgaier looks to turn season around after some early disappointment
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[/media-credit]”I’m a little disappointed. We’ve felt that we’ve had very strong racecars week-in-week-out, and for whatever reason, we’re not finishing the way we should. We’re struggling a little bit for the finishes, but not all of it is our fault. Some of it is mechanical failures, crashes, and things that are unfortunate, yet out of our control. We’re hopeful that we can get it turned around and we’ll be in good shape come the end of the year.”
13 races into the 2012 Nationwide Series season, Justin Allgaier has one top five and seven top 10s, sitting fifth in points.
It hasn’t been the season that Allgaier and team were looking for as many had them as contenders for the championship this season with Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Austin Dillon and Elliott Sadler. However, it’s been a mix of issues for Allgaier and Turner Motorsports, including a pair of finishes outside the top 15 due to an engine failure at Fontana and a wreck at Daytona.
This past weekend at Michigan International Speedway, Allgaier finished 14th after qualifying eighth.
“We unloaded off the truck and thought we were pretty decent, and for whatever reason, we seemed to kind of not have the day we were hoping for,” the driver of the No. 31 Brandt Chevrolet says. “During the race, we felt like we were underpowered a little bit and for whatever reason, we felt like we’d be better off the truck. Not sure what issue we were fighting, but we definitely not what we were looking for.”
This weekend, though, welcomes a change in pace for the NASCAR Nationwide Series with the road course event at Road America. Allgaier is hoping it brings him a good finish and begins a string of a solid finishes after running well last year before running out of fuel at the end.
“It’s a totally different mindset,” Allgaier says. “You’ve got to change how you race; it’s differnet than what we’re used to. Definitely got a big challenge ahead of us, but at the same time, it’s a good challenge. I think we all really enjoy going to the road courses and changing it up a little bit, and I think we’ll have a good weekend.”
Allgaier met Steve Turner after becoming good friends with both Chris and James Buescher.
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[/media-credit]”Everything kind of worked together with BRANDT and just the whole timing of everything was perfect and fortunately we were able to put a deal together and get them on the car,” Allgaier adds. “It was just the perfect storm, to be honest with you.”
Being a driver at Turner Motorsports has given him the opportunity to work with a diverse group of teammates, from veterans like Kasey Kahne to fellow young drivers like Brad Sweet and Steve Arpin.
“I think its great to work with those guys,” he says. “It’s a good group of guys and everybody is there to run good and win races, and I think that’s important number one.”
Allgaier says that sometimes, it can be tough being part of a non-Sprint Cup team when you’ve got a problem on your hands and can’t find the solution. That’s why at times it can be tough to run against the Sprint Cup guys in the Nationwide Series, but Allgaier welcomes the challenge.
“I think it’s a good thing for our sport to have the Cup guys run with us and elevate the competition like they do,” he says. “I think that’s great. Trust me, don’t get me wrong, it’s frustrating to have to race against those guys and try and beat them.”
He adds that racing against them prepares him for future goals, like making it to the Sprint Cup Series. Allgaier has been able to beat the field twice with a pair of wins in the Nationwide Series. Looking to help him reach the goal of victory lane for a third time is crew chief Jimmy Elledge.
Allgaier says that he and Elledge have a great relationship, though it can be their downfall sometimes to how much they are alike.
“We just seemed to hit it off right away, right out of the box,” Allgaier says. “I really enjoy that relationship and glad that he’s my crew chief. I feel that we work very well together.”
He adds that they also have fun together as Elledge got him interested in Outlaw Go-Karting and now they race together each week.
Allgaier is one of many drivers that came through the ARCA Series ranks up to the NASCAR ranks. Allgaier says it’s a great series to learn from and his most memorable moment came when he won the championship in 2008.
“At the time, I was driving for my dad’s ARCA team and it came down to the last race and we were third in points going in,” he says. “Everything had to work out exactly how it did for us to win the championship. We ended up winning the race and the championship and it was just an awesome experience for me and to see the joy on his face was just amazing.”
In all of his racing, Allgaier says that the biggest lesson he has learned is that you’ve got to put 100% effort into racing.
‘There’s always someone that going to want it and try just as hard, and if you’re not putting the effort in, someone else is going to be,” he says.
Rob Poole moves up to OSCAAR for something new and different
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[/media-credit]Going into a season running a new type of car, you’d think the biggest thing that’d stand in the way of having a good, solid finish would be learning how to drive the cars. However, so far for Rob Poole and team, it’s been bad luck that has been bitten him so far.
At Sunset Speedway in his first ever feature, he was involved in two separate incidents, however still managed to come home with a top 10 finish of eighth.
“It was a good time the first night out, learning the car,” Poole said. “It was something different.”
Going into the race at Barrie, Poole said he wasn’t looking forward to the night.
“Hopefully we don’t too crashing and banging and wrecking,” he said before the race. It was predicted that it’d be a caution filled event due to how tight Barrie Speedway is.
To compound issues, there were motor problems in practice, however the team was able to get them figured out before the first heat race.
In the feature, Poole started 12th and was running fifth with 11 laps to go when the rear end let go, resulting in a 12th place finish.
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[/media-credit]The three-time Sunset Speedway Thunder Car Champion made the decision to move up to OSCAAR during the off-season. Last season, he had competed full-time in the Limited Late Model division at Sunset Speedway, finishing third in points with two feature victories.
“We decided to do it just for something new and different, instead of going to Sunset Speedway every Saturday night,” Poole says. “The schedule is a little nicer, not so hectic in the summer as we’re all getting older and having less and less time for racing. So thought OSCAAR would be a fun way to still race, but have a few nights off, too.”
For the rookie, the goals are simple – have fun, try new tracks and bring the car home in one piece. One of the tracks that Poole is looking forward to getting to is Kawartha Speedway, which was rained out at the beginning of the month. The make-up date is set for September 7th.
“I’ve raced there a little bit,” Poole says. “Another track I’m looking forward to Delaware – never raced there, been there to watch a few times. It looks big and fast, and hopefully we can make it down there and run well.”
“The Professional” got involved in racing through a friend who was helping Herb Walters, before buying the thunder car that was pitted beside Walters. Since then, the success over the span of 11 years has been impressive, including three thunder car championships. After the thunder car success, Poole moved up to the Late Model ranks where he has had success in multiple wins.
Of the wins that he has had in his career, some of the most memorable wins including his first late model victory, winning the last feature on the
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[/media-credit]last night of the third thunder car championship season and some of the invitationals at Barrie Speedway.
Poole says for him, he’s always tried to stay patient no matter what.
“I’ve always been one to try and be patient, not to let my temper get the best of me,” he said. “Sometimes I get frustrated, but I always just try and be patient. That’s all you can do; not try and wreck the equipment.”
In making this year happen, Poole would like to thank his crew as they spend a lot of hours working on the car. He’d also like to thank his sponsors for their support: Visser Farms, Multi-Tech Machine and Welding, AGNAV, Alliston Auto Sales, R.A Electrical, Central Industrial Supply, Everlast, B.F.I, Reliable Waste Management and Triple Crown Auto Collison Ltd.
For more information on Rob Poole, check out http://robpooleracing.com/, like the “Rob Poole” facebook page and follow both Rob Poole Racing (@RobPooleRacing) & Rob Poole (@rpr45) on twitter.
“The people around me make me a better person”……. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
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[/media-credit]After almost four years to the day Dale Earnhardt Jr. is back in victory lane. Is it a coincidence that he won his last race at Michigan International Speedway (MIS) on June 17th 2008? It is Father Day Sunday and what a gift in memory of his Dad, in honor of Rick Hendrick and to all his fans.
Every driver has a long dry spell, some are longer than others but when you’re a Earnhardt Jr., the expectation of being a winner or loser is magnified. Race car drivers normally always give credit their team, the crew chief, the over the wall guys, the guys back at the shop, without the whole team success isn’t possible no matter what team you are on. Today Earnhardt Jr. gave credit more than once to his fans, which never stop believing in him or his ability. The fans who year after year, week after week buy tickets or watch faithfully on TV. The fans of any team in any aspect play a huge part in keeping teams alive.
Like Earnhardt Jr, many drivers find themselves giving back to their fans. They are involved in autograph signings, sponsor events and many have their own nonprofit organizations out of racing to “give back” to those less fortunate. The Dale Jr. Foundation is a charity dedicated to giving underprivileged individuals with a focus on youth, the resources to improve their confidence and education, and the opportunity to achieve extraordinary goals. The foundation supports over 300 charities nationally and locally, including Make-A-Wish Foundation, Family Promise of Cabarrus County, Speedway Children’s Charities, Ace and TJ’s GRIN Kids, Barium Springs Home for Children, VH1 Save the Music Foundation, Mooresville Soup Kitchen, and more. Without a team this foundation and many others wouldn’t exist that enable those in need to experience a better life in difficult times. Whether your Earnhardt Jr. competing for a championship run or a child trying to beat cancer for a second chance at a healthy it takes more than one person it takes a team at any level.
Team Kyle is another organization in the community of LaGrange Georgia that has been organized for Kyle Abernathy. Kyle is a 12 year old boy battling cancer for the 2nd time in 18th months. Kyle was diagnosed in Nov 2010 with Ewing sarcoma (solid tumor) in his left femur and also right lung. He had a spot in lung removed first. After 8 chemo treatments they replaced femur w/titanium, and then resumed 6 more chemo treatments. When all chemo treatments finished he had to have 10 radiation treatments on both lungs. Kyle and his family that it was over and had the port removed. Now as of First part of May 2012, the cancer is back, the right femur so far. More scans have determined the cancer is now in the right leg and has spread to other places as well. Two weeks ago the port was put back in and the Chemo has started over again. After becoming ill due to white count being low Kyle was admitted to Egleston for palettes and antibiotics and chemo will resume again tomorrow. Kyle continues to be in a lot of pain. Kyle lives with his Dad Toby and little sister in LaGrange. Kyle is a 7th grader at Lone Cane Middle School a Member of the First Baptist Church on the Square. Team Kyle is also group of family and friends making a difference this child’s life by helping him and his family during this uncertain time. A team that believes Kyle will beat this cancer and be victorious.
In the words of Earnhardt Jr., “without a crew, good people behind you and fans none of it would be possible.” This is true in any team setting whether it’s a sports team or a group of people like those rallying around Team Kyle to help this precious child and his family deals with all this the best they can. The faith of this family is inspiring and amazing even going through this for a 2nd time they are so thankful for all the love and support their “Team” as shown to them. The people who have made up Team Kyle and continue to do so isn’t much different than the 88 Team. All followers of Team Kyle love this child and his family and many of them don’t even know them. Fundraisers are being held now and throughout the summer for Team Kyle. As Jr. said today “it is the people around me that make me a better person”. Congratulations to Dale Jr, his crew and his fans for this win and the interviews that spoke about “believing, confidence and staying true to who you are and those around you that never give up”.
Please go to www.facebook.com/teamkylea and like his page. Also, follow Kyle on Twitter @kyleabernathy3. (Team Kyle).
