Aye, lads ‘n’ lasses, off to the Irish Hills of Michigan where teams work for manufacturer braggin’ rights. Keep it right here for track facts, records, TV times and our picks to make the car makers proud.
Track Facts
Michigan International Speedway made its NASCAR Grand National debut on June 15, 1969. Cale Yarborough gave the field the “Mercury Blues” by taking the checkered flag.
MIS is a wide open track with lots of grooves to pick from. Jeff Gordon says this is his favorite track, and he says so with good reason. Dale Earnhardt Jr. says this is one of the few tracks where you’ll get the side-by- side racing. Horsepower and handling will be key on this 2-mile track. The front stretch runs 3,600 feet on 12 degrees banking, the turns offer 18 inches of banking, while there’s 5 degrees of banking on the backstretch that runs 2,242 feet.
The grandstands will hold 137,243 race fans, but with the highest unemployment rate in the nation, it’s safe to say that if you’re thinking about going, there will be room. Reports tell us there were plenty of open seats last year BEFORE things got really bad.
Top Performers
“Rocket” Ryan Newman has run the fastest qualifying lap at Michigan with a time of
37.069 seconds for the June, 2005 race. His speed? 194.232 miles per hour. David Pearson was the King Of Qualifiers with 10 poles. Bill Elliott- who is in this Sunday’s field- leads active drivers with 7.
David Pearson leads all Cup drivers with 9 victories at MIS. Among active drivers, Bill Elliott has 6 victories, Jeff Gordon 5, Mark Martin won 4 back when “Dinosaurs ruled the Earth.” Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Carl Edwards raced to victory lane in 2008.
While racing for Robert Yates in June of 1999, Dale Jarrett ran the fastest Michigan race, a caution free affair in 2 hours, 17 minutes and 56 seconds.
That spring of 1999 race was the third and last time a race was free of the yellow flag. The record for cautions is 10, set in August of 2006.
As many as 41 racers finished the August, 2007 race. As few as 14 finished the June, 1974 race.
The record for lead changes is 65, set in in August, 1981. The fewest lead changes occurred in the August, 1984 when the lead changed hands 7 times.
Where to Catch It
TNT will be the TV home for Sunday’s race. Bill Weber, Wally Dallenbach Jr. and Kyle Petty describe the action. Pre-race starts at 12:30 Eastern, 9:30 Pacific. The green flag will wave at about 2:16 Eastern, 11:16 Pacific.
Radio coverage will be handled by MRN radio and XM Sirius Satellite NASCAR radio.
Who Will Win Sunday?
Consideration of this matters starts at the shop of Jack Roush. All 4 of Mark Martin’s wins came in the #6 now piloted by David Ragan. Carl Edwards has multiple wins here, as does Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth. No one in this trio was laying down exceptional laps on Friday, but remember Edwards won as far back as 27th and Tony Stewart won from 28th.
Speaking of Smoke, he’s on something of a roll right now, and he’s known for racing well in spite of where qualifies. That’s a good thing considering his qualifying position of 11th isn’t real exceptional. It beats 43rd though, which is where we won from last week. His teammate Ryan Newman is more the qualifying type. He’s been on a heckuva run himself. He’ll start from 18th, but he ran 9th in Friday practice.
It should be noted that of 79 races won at Michigan, 15 were won from the pole, 51 from the top 5 and 62 from the top 10.
When you look at the top 10 in the grid, there’s some ripe pickings for a dark horse. Brian Vickers captured his 8th career pole for this race and he’s joined by Kyle Busch- who has never won here. David Reutimann follows up his 3rd place finish at Pocono with a start from the 2nd row here- and that came after an early practice mishap.
Some other names you don’t hear enough of are up front to start. Juan Pablo Montoya, A.J. Allmendinger and Clint Bowyer are all top 10 starters. The biggest surprise of all is John Andretti- who starts 10th.
Favorites in good starting positions include Jimmie Johnson in 3rd, he also clicked off the fastest lap in practice Friday. Kyle Busch is on the outside front, brother Kurt starts in 5th. Kasey Kahne has shown signs of life here and there and he starts. Kahne has also won at Michigan.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. makes a nice dark horse, but realistically, he’s on a different agenda working with new crew chief Lance Mc Grew.
Narrowing it down- I’ve got to be thinking about those top 3 guys from Roush. This is a big, big race for the owner and they take great pride in the fact that Ford leads with 31 MIS wins. Biffle, Edwards and Kenseth are all either running well or they are at least doing so for extended stretches.
You have to figure The Busch brothers and Jimmie Johnson have to be accounted for in every race. The thing about Kyle is he can really use a good run at Brooklyn because he’s not quite as consistent on the Cup side as he is Nationwide. He’s definitely a high risk/ high reward type of driver. Really, Kurt needs a good run as he’s begun trending in the wrong direction. Make no mistake though, Kurt doesn’t need a compass to find victory lane.
If I’m racing, I’m always aware of where Johnson and Stewart are these days. Both are among THE most consistent drivers out there this season. as for Smoke wins tend to beget wins. JJ’s teammate Jeff Gordon will have to run from the back with an engine swap. All he can do is hope some of Stewart’s mojo rubs off on him.
So I’m really liking Edwards, Biffle (even though he’s a bit deep in the field), Stewart, Johnson, Vickers and Shrub for this race. Its’ real tempting to say Stewart will reel off another win. It’s real tempting to say Edwards will win his second consecutive Michigan race, but I’ve really got a feeling we’ll see another first time 2009 winner at MIS.
His name? Brian Vickers from the pole. He’s had moments, some real good moments this year, and he THOUGHT he beat Junior last year and the anti- Junior crowed will tell you he did. He’s really confident right now and it just may very well be team “83″ irons out the bobbles and gets this one.
PHOTO CREDITS- MIS by wishymom, Edwards by jalopnik, Earnhardt by junebug_008. To see more, visit flickr. com, or click on the hyperlinks.
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Room in the grandstand….. Hell there should be plenty of room in the GM, & Chrysler (does Chrysler even have one?) suites. Probably need to be wearing a company hat, show a set of keys, & you should be in. Rumor has it that this year there will be a cash bar, but hey, we all have to do our part.