In a day of fits and starts, drops and stops, here is what else was surprising and not surprising in the 47th annual Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Speedway.
This week, I’m going with Dale Earnhardt Jr. The driver of the No. 88 Chevrolet is coming off a sweep of this track last year, winning both this race and the August race. He was fast in Friday practice, running fourth, and with his Talladega win, he can now afford to gamble a little bit to get a second win this season.
For the second straight Saturday, Denny Hamlin had the chance to hold off a race’s strongest car for the victory. Unlike last Saturday’s NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race, however, there were too many laps left after the final restart in Saturday’s Hisense 300 NASCAR XFINITY Series, and polesitter Austin Dillon powered past Hamlin on Lap 186 of 200 to finish the race where he belonged—at the front of the field.
I am a blessed man. I have a multitude of wants, but I already have all those things I truly need. I just wish that when we pray for a miracle, the odds of realizing it were not as astronomically against its success.
With all of NASCAR nation standing up for Steve Byrnes and others battling cancer, here is what was surprising and not surprising in the 55th annual Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Just about the only thing missing was Jeff Probst and his Tribal Council as this turned into a game of survival. With the rains that delayed the start, the rains that stopped it again and again, the day race that ran into night became a reality show of its own.
From the first short track of the season with the grandfather clock as the trophy, here is what was surprising and not surprising from Martinsville Speedway’s STP 500.
With bad boy Kurt Busch apparently heading to victory, how fortuitous that a caution was called to open up an opportunity to alter the outcome of the race at Fontana. That should be easily enough addressed, one would think. Show us the debris, and it better be something more substantial than a hot dog wrapper.
Johnson started beyond 30th, as did 13 others who failed to even make it through tech inspection, never mind even attempting to qualify. Jeff Gordon failed four times.
