The 3M Performance 400 at Michigan is history! Kurt Busch won, distancing himself further from Dale Earnhardt Jr. in the point standings.
Junior ended up finishing 12th. I watched bits and pieces of the race here at work. From what I saw it looked like a fairly good race. As I've said before, I'm not much of a fan of Michigan. I have always found it to be a bit of a snoozer.
But from the little bit that I did watch, it looked like one of the more exciting races at Michigan.
The 3M Performance 400 at Michigan International Speedway has been scheduled to start this morning at 10am. At the moment, the weather appears to be foggy.
If NASCAR cannot get the race in today they have said they will try to get it in tomorrow but there is more rain and thunder showers scheduled for tomorrow.
If they cannot get the race in this week, NASCAR would possibly bump the Michigan race to the weekend after Thanksgiving making the Sylvania 300 at New Hampshire International Speedway the final race to qualify into the chase.
I think that would be good and bad.
Good (and I'm being pretty selfish here) because I'm going to Loudon for the race and it could be a really exciting race to watch if the points remain as close as they have been around that cut-off position of 12th in the point standings.
Bad for the poor fans that will actually go and sit in the grandstands at Michigan on November 25. It should be brutally cold that time of year.
Today is not looking much better for 3M Perfomance 400. They postponed the race at Michigan yesterday until today at noon. But the weather doesn't look all that much better.
The forecast calls for more rain today and tonight. It is looking more and more like they are going to have to hold the race tomorrow. According to NASCAR, the last time they had to postpone a race until Tuesday was Talladega in 1997.
I did not watch any part of the Busch race on Saturday. All I know is Denny Hamlin won and that's just about it. Did I miss anything exciting?
Because Sal and others mention Lorne Wallace in some of the comments and some of you may be new to the racing scene and cannot figure out who Lorne Wallace is, this is for you...
For whatever reason, I am having a real difficult time throwing together an entry for you today. I'm just not feeling it. Maybe it's because I find Michigan to be such a sleeper race.
In any event, I think I'm going to go with Dale Earnhardt Jr. for the win this weekend. He has finished in the top 10 in the last three races here, June 07,August 06, and June 06. After his bad luck last week, I think he is going to be a man on a mission. He is 100 points behind 12th place driver, Kurt Busch.
Martin Truex Jr., who is 11th in the point standings, may be another contender on Sunday. He finished 2nd here in June.
Qualifying is today at 3pm on the SPEED channel. It doesn't appear that weather is going to be a factor today but the extended forecast doesn't look all that good for Sunday.
His last victory was at Texas Motor Speedway, Nov. 6, 2005. Even after he was penalized for speeding on pit road and had to start from the back of the pack, he still managed to win. It had been 52 races since his last victory. At last, we finally see that back flip that he is famous for…
Ryan Newman’s lucky streak ended. He blew a left rear tire, went 3 laps down and then got tangled up with Jeff Greene. Newman was trying to race the leader to get one of his laps back and Greene drifted up the track and tapped his rear bumper.
The drivers involved in that wreck were: Kevin Harvick, Brian Vickers, Matt Kenseth, Martin Truex Jr., Greene and Newman.
Do you think a driver that is 3 laps down should race the lead-lap cars that hard?
How about Mikey Waltrip? He seemed to have his act together during this race. I wasn't even watching for him and at the end of the race, I was wondering where on earth he came from...
A quick search and I found that his last top-10 finish was May 1, 2005 at Talladega when he was driving the #15 for Dale Earnhardt Inc.
John Andretti will be racing the #45 car for Petty Enterprises in this weekend's race at Michigan International Speedway. He hasn't raced for PE since 2003.
I was never a big fan of Andretti, but I will be watching him on Sunday to see how he does.
Nextel Cup qualifying is on at 3 p.m. today on SPEED channel.
The race is scheduled for 12:30 p.m. on Sunday.
AND -- Happy Father's Day to all you Dads out there!
Jennifer is the newsroom
administrative assistant and
executive
assistant to the editor for the Portland Press Herald/Maine Sunday Telegram. She is married, lives in Pownal with her husband and son, and has been following NASCAR for many years.
About this blog:
I am hopeful that this will be a place where people can air their two cents' worth about a race, catch up on the gossip and share their opinions on the rules and regulations of NASCAR. I have always felt that there has been a need for such a place in Maine and that this blog helps to fill the void.