Surprising and Not Surprising: Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400
From oil pan issues for the cars of Joe Gibbs Racing to the end of probation for driver rivals Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick, the Irish hills of Michigan once again saw plenty of action for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.
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[/media-credit]Here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 43rd annual Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400 at Michigan International Speedway.
Surprising: It was surprising that Denny Hamlin, driver of the No. 11 FedEx Office Toyota, did not win last weekend at Pocono Raceway, a place that he had ‘owned’ for so many races in the past. But it was also surprising the Hamlin, who has been battling engine failures and other bad luck so mightily this season, finally put that behind him and took the checkered flag.
This was Hamlin’s first win of the 2011 season, although he has had six top-10 finishes to date. His previous win was sixteen races ago when Hamlin was the victor at Texas Motor Speedway in November 2010.
“We finished,” Hamlin said. “We got it done. It’s a big Father’s Day.”
Not Surprising: Since it was Michigan, Jack Roush’s backyard and Ford’s playground, it was not at all surprising that two drivers from that racing stable did well, scoring top five finishes.
Matt Kenseth, behind the wheel of the No. 17 Crown Royal Ford, driving as hard as his car would go while not wrecking on the final lap, finished in the runner up spot. His RFR teammate Carl Edwards, piloting the No. 99 Aflac ‘Now Hiring’ Ford and winner of the Nationwide race the day before, finished fifth.
This was Kenseth’s 15th top-10 finish in 24 races at Michigan International Speedway. This was also Kenseth’s eighth top-10 finish in 2011.
“We had a really fast car and thought we were going to have a chance to win,” Kenseth said. “I got back to Denny (Hamlin), but I could not get back around him. I tried everything I could, but I just could not figure out how to do it.”
For Edwards’ part, he just really wanted to win the Cup race, vowing to head all the way to the top of the grandstands just as he had in the Nationwide race, if he did. While he scored fifth instead of first, Edwards did extend his Chase points lead to 20 points over second place.
Surprising: Continuing with the Carl Edwards theme, it was most surprising to see the driver, who is usually most professional and an excellent spokesperson for the sport, call NASCAR out after the race.
“Track position is so important,” Edwards said. “Sadly, down force is such a big factor in these cars and I am really hoping that NASCAR will take the opportunity in 2013 to take down force away so the fans can see the guys race race cars and not race down force. That would be cool.”
Not Surprising: Neither oil pan troubles nor physical ailments could stop Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 Snickers Toyota, from his appointed rounds. After complaining of nausea and pain in the center of his chest, Busch drove forward from his 24th place starting spot to finish third.
“He just had a little stomach ache,” Dave Rogers, crew chief, said. “We gave him some Tums in a bottle of water and it took care of it.”
Busch’s crew did have Scott Riggs standing by if needed, but when Busch was leading at the half-way mark of the race, there was no way he was ever going to get out of his car, not matter how poorly he felt.
“Kyle is pretty dedicated to this race team,” Rogers said. “He’s a pretty tough kid so I didn’t think he would get out.”
“I didn’t feel that bad,” Busch said. “It felt like I was running a 400 mile marathon running on my feet instead of in a race car.”
Although Busch has never won at Michigan International Speedway, this was his fourth top-10 finish in 13 races in the Irish hills. Busch’s third place finish mirrored his third place finish the previous week in the Pocono race.
“It wasn’t going to be a great day but we turned it into a good one,” Busch said. “Overall I’m happy with today; happy with the finish. If you finish third in the last 10 races every single race, you might win this thing, so we’ll take it.”
Surprising: The primarily poor performance of the Hendrick Motorsports team was fairly surprising. Five-time champion Jimmie Johnson spun on lap 8, bringing out the first caution of the race.
Johnson, driving the No. 48 Lowe’s/Kobalt Tools Chevrolet, finished 27th and lost the second spot in the Chase standings, falling to the fifth position.
Johnson’s teammate, four-time champion and winner of last weekend’s race, Jeff Gordon, also did not fare very well in the Irish hills. Gordon, this week driving the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet, started 31st and finished 17th, falling one spot in the points to the 12th and final potential Chase spot.
What was most surprising, however, were the harsh words HMS driver Dale Earnhardt, Jr. had for his teammate Mark Martin. The driver of the No. 88 Amp Energy/National Guard Chevrolet made perfectly clear that he was not happy with being squeezed into the wall by the driver of the No. 5 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet.
“He just come on up and drove us into the fence,” Junior said of his teammate Martin. “He ran us flat in the wall.”
“I think we will get it sorted out,” Martin said in rebuttal. “I made a mistake.”
Dale Jr. finished 21st, his first finish out of the top-10 this season. Junior was, however, able to hold on to his third place in the points standings.
Mark Martin actually finished top-10, the best of all of the Hendrick Motorsports cars. He climbed one position in the points to 14th, just 20 points behind his teammate Jeff Gordon in the last Chase position.
Not Surprising: The majority of the Richard Childress Racing entries had a very good day at Michigan. Paul Menard, who has been struggling of late, had a terrific run, bringing his No. 27 Pittsburgh Paints/Menards Chevrolet home in the fourth position.
Clint Bowyer also had a good day in the Irish hills. The No. 33 Cheerios/Hamburger Helper Chevrolet finished in the eighth spot.
Finally, ‘the Closer’ Kevin Harvick overcame adversity and a brush with the wall to finish 14th in his No. 29 Budweiser Chevrolet. Harvick leapfrogged over Dale Junior to lay claim to the second spot in the point standings.
Surprising: One of the best surprises of the day was the terrific run by young Landon Cassill, piloting the No. 51 Security Benefit/Thank a Teacher Today Chevrolet for Phoenix Racing. Cassill finished 12th, the best finish ever in his Cup career, tying the best finish for Phoenix Racing this season.
“That was a great day all around,” Cassill said. “We lost some track position early but fought back all day. We had a good break at the end.”
Not Surprising: With Hall of Fame inductee Bud Moore on his race car in celebration of the US Army’s 236th Birthday, Ryan Newman had an ‘Army Strong’ day, finishing sixth.
“It was a good finish for us,” Newman said. “We fought back hard.”
Newman’s teammate and owner Tony Stewart also had a favorable race result. The driver of the No. 14 Office Depot/Mobil 1 Chevrolet finished the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400 in seventh.
Michigan….More Than Met the Eye
Michigan is one of the fastest tracks on the circuit. It’s wide enough to accommodate 4 wide racing. It’s forgiving because of that width. Yet Sunday’s race didn’t show that.
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[/media-credit]Michigan announced on Friday that the track will be repaved after the August race. The track is looking to avoid surface issues by repaving before they occur. It’s very responsible but one hopes that the reason they are resurfacing has nothing to do with the quality of racing that we have seen there over the last few years. Because if it is, it is a product of the Car of Today and the changes made to it and not the track itself.
Michigan is notorious for being a fuel mileage race. Fans as a rule do not like fuel mileage races. The strategy and the pit calls are lost on the long drawn out green flags. However, as was the case this past weekend, the racing at the track was quite exciting. The racing shown on TV was not. It seems impossible for the track to control both the actual event and the broadcast of the event to be sure that its facility is being shown in the best light.
The race itself was not without controversy. On Friday the oil pans of all three JGR teams were confiscated and tagged by NASCAR. The confiscated pans weighed in the neighborhood of 35 lbs a piece rather than the 5 of a normal oil pan. The added belly weight would have lowered the center of gravity of the car and improved it’s handling characteristics.
Although NASCAR’s statement only stated that the pans were removed and further penalties would be discussed early this week, it does bring to question the problem experienced by Kyle Busch’s JGR team last week. Could the added weight have caused the spring to fail? One of the pans did appear to have been used previously although there is no way to tell which team it belonged to. NASCAR did not further address this issue other than to say the pans were removed and it would be discussed early this week.
Many drivers however, did discuss the issue. The most notable was Jeff Gordon who stated that his team had been penalized a 100 points in the past for a fender flare that never even went on the race track. Other drivers cited similar incidents as well. It will be interesting to see what the end result of this controversy is as it will effect all three teams, drivers and crew chiefs.
The other controversy actually seemed minor at the time. In fact TV viewers never saw the actual incident only the after math. It occurred when the 5 of Mark Martin, got tight in the middle of the corner and drifted up into the 88 of teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr and put him in the wall cutting down a right front tire in the process. The incident occurred as Earnhardt was attempting to pass Martin for the 10th position on the track. Instead of having another consistent finish Earnhardt would be relegated to 21st position at the end of the race.
In post race Earnhardt was angry and disappointed stating, “I perceived that he didn’t know I was on the outside [of him],” Earnhardt said. “He knew I was up there, but he was just running hard. If the tables were turned, I would have been smarter and given him plenty of room, [more] than he did me.
“He is older than me, been racing forever and knows a lot more than I’ll ever get, or he has forgotten more stuff than I’ll never know. Still, I take better care of people than that.”
Shortly after making his statement, Mark Martin arrived at the 88 hauler and went inside to discuss the incident with Earnhardt and crew chief Steve Letarte. After the brief discussion Earnhardt had calmed significantly, stating, “I want to finish where I’m supposed to finish, and that really didn’t happen today, so I was real PO’d about it,” Earnhardt said. “Mark came and gave me a good explanation and I believe it and it’s the end of it. … I got the air screwed up around him and he got real tight off of [Turn] 2 and pushed into the wall.
“He was off the gas when we got together. There was nothing he could do.”
Martin accepted the blame for not realizing Earnhardt was that close.
“I would have given him room if I’d known he was there,” Martin said. “It was too late. I had my front wheels cut and I let off the gas and that’s all I could do at that point. My mistake. My mistake.
“I don’t have a history of having problems. I don’t think I have one now. … I feel like I give everybody on the race track respect. I made a mistake.”
Although Earnhardt Jr accepted the apology and the explanation, Social Media and fan based websites showed that Jr. Nation was not nearly so forgiving. “I lost a ton of respect for him when he pulled the Brett Favre act a few years ago with Roush and again with HMS in regards to retirement and what little respect I had left the building today with that explanation he gave. And where the heck was his spotter to tell him he was NOT clear to slide up on in there. Like Jr said he was careless and he cost Jr big time today. I will never look at MM the same way again or trust him as a teammate.” Another response was, “It was not the first time he has tried to that to Jr in the race, only the last time he really did knock him into the wall. In my opinion he had it out for him from the very beginning of the race, he’s a jealous old prune. He knew he was there, I do not buy his excuse.”
Martin’s on track mistake wasn’t the only one of the race. The televised broad cast was well in a word boring. The progress of the top 10 cars were the entire broadcast. Although, according to fans that were actually at the track the side by side racing was fierce from 10th back. The broadcast was basically a commercial break interrupted by the race. The fans at home were subjected to an 11 commercial average break every 5 minutes of racing. The race was the shortest points race thus far being just over 2 hours. I am sure that TNT was more than a little upset at the number of commercials they didn’t get to run during the shortened length of the race.
More and more fans are leaving the sport. The stands at Michigan were vastly empty. In a town that stands home to the big 4, between unemployment and a lack of competitive racing they choose to spend their dollars elsewhere. Sadly, it’s at most every track on the circuit. But with the broadcast media being the point of exposure for most fans one must question NASCAR’s attention to it. Surely someone watches the TV broadcast? Don’t they? Surely someone reads the print media sites. Surely someone heard Carl Edwards plea of fix the car so we can race other cars and drivers and not down force. Surely someone heard him say track position should not be the deciding factor in a race. Is it that they don’t care or is that truly an echo that we hear across the sport?
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Congratulations to Denny Hamlin and his Fed Ex Toyota Team on their victory at Michigan in the Sprint Cup Series.
Congratulations to Carl Edwards and his Fastenal Mustang team on their victory in Michigan in the Nationwide Series.
That said, to all the competitors in all the series thanks for giving us everything you have to give, you are our heroes. Most importantly, thanks to all the families who shared their loved ones with us so we could cheer our favorite driver and favorite teams. You are the true heroes of the sport and we are forever in your debt.
