NASCAR at Michigan 2015: Winners and Losers from the Pure Michigan 400

Matt Kenseth’s win in the Pure Michigan 400 was pure domination.

Kenseth led 146 laps out of 200 on the day and rarely trailed at all, often battling with Austin Dillon here and there, but never for any prolonged period.

NASCAR rolled out a new aero package for Michigan, and it was, to put it mildly, a bit of a snore. Kenseth’s dominance made it all the more dull.

“Was it hard to pass today? Of course it was,” said NBC Sports’ Jeff Burton during the broadcast. “Someone was going to do it today, and it was Matt Kenseth.”

Beyond Kenseth was the rise of Dillon and the fall of Clint Bowyer.

Three races remain this season, but first we need a Sunday helping of winners and losers.

Loser: Cut Tires and Missed Pit Boxes

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Jimmie Johnson needed a strong performance at Michigan, a track that hasn’t always been his best, to get into playoff mode.

With four wins, but none since the spring race at Dover, Johnson hasn’t been the threat to win races the way he was early in the season. So when he cut a tire early in the Pure Michigan 400, it didn’t bode well for the No. 48 team. As if that wasn’t enough, Johnson then missed his pit box during a green-flag pit stop and lost any track position he had earned.

“This is a huge hit for the 48 team who was trying to battle back from earlier problems,” Mike Massaro, an NBC Sports reporter, said during the broadcast.

He spun out late in the race with no urging. He busted up the nose of his car, forcing him to pit and dropping him all the way back to 39th by race end.

"They're not in sync right now," Burton said during the broadcast.

Johnson, as you know, is solidly in the Chase and benefits from the Challenger Round having Dover in its rotation. His 10 wins at Dover is a record and almost ensures that he’ll be able to reach the Contender Round without a hiccup.

Winner: Kyle Busch Solidifying His Standing in the Top 30

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Kyle Busch finished 11th at Michigan, this after starting the race at the back of the field. He qualified inside the top 10, but he busted up his car in practice and the requisite repairs forced him to the back of the field.

He wrestled his way to the front to earn a respectable finish and put more distance between himself and 31st in the Sprint Cup standings.

“It was a success, but it wasn’t what we wanted,” he said on the NBC Sports broadcast. “We had a really fast car in practice, and I screwed up and wrecked that car. It was a winning car, maybe not the winning car.”

With the way the Joe Gibbs cars have driven lately, all four are winning cars week to week. Busch proved that with his incredible run of three straight wins a few weeks ago.

“We just got to keep on with our points gathering and move on to next week,” Busch said during the broadcast.

There are five heavy favorites to win the Sprint Cup, and Busch is squarely within that quintet.

Loser: Casey Mears Can't Beat the Heat

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The NBC Sports telecast featured Casey Mears’ No. 13 car through much of the race he actually ran. The point was to illustrate the severe in-car temperatures of the car. It got as high as 154 degrees for Mears.

Then he had plenty of time to cool down; his engine overheated and his day was done before 100 laps were over.

Mears, for a time, flirted with Chasedom in the first third of the season, but as the cream rose to the top, Mears subsequently got drowned out by that high class.

Mears has just one career win. That came at Charlotte back in 2007, so it’s unlikely Mears will find his way into the Chase in 2015. Sunday’s engine troubles symbolized his greater issues over the course of the year, a year that started with such promise, with his sixth-place finish in the Daytona 500, his only top 10.

Winner: Kevin Harvick Overcomes Fuel Issues

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For the second week in a row, Kevin Harvick ran out of gas.

At Watkins Glen, Harvick ran out of fuel on the final lap of the Cheez-It 355, and it cost him the race. Joey Logano zipped by him; so too did Kyle Busch.

Soon after Lap 100 at Michigan International Speedway, Harvick ran out of fuel again. This also cost Harvick, who was on the lead at the time, the race.

“This is excruciating for Kevin Harvick,” an NBC Sports reporter said during the broadcast. “This will cost him the race.”

Well, it cost him the win, but he still managed to go from 30 seconds back to right in the thick of the top five, ultimately collecting yet another runner-up.

His crew made a huge five-spot gain on a pit stop to get him back in the top five, and Harvick clawed his way back onto Kenseth’s and Dillon’s bumpers.

It could have been far, far worse for Harvick, but his run at Michigan proved just how resilient the No. 4 team is as we inch closer and closer to the Chase.

Loser: Clint Bowyer's Descent Off the Chase Grid

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Clint Bowyer, No. 16 on the Chase Grid heading into the Pure Michigan 400, is quickly losing his grip on that position. He's just 23 points up on Aric Almirola, who sits squarely in 17th place.

During a restart on Lap 126, Bowyer received a solid tap on the bumper from Ryan Newman that kicked Bowyer into the wall. Bowyer skidded across the apron and ripped up his back end on the inside wall.

His pit crew tried to fix the car on pit road, but it soon went to the garage where he kept losing valuable points. He'd finish 41st.

At one point, according to the NBC Sports broadcast, no fewer than 19 mechanics swarmed around the car in the garage. That gives you an idea of just how important it was to get the car back out on the track to salvage whatever points it could.

“The No. 15 car, they do not need a bad race,” Burton said during the broadcast. “This race will really hurt their opportunity to make the Chase.”

Bowyer’s chances aren’t done yet. With three races to go, he’ll need strong runs to gain on Paul Menard and Newman as the regular season quickly comes to an end. 

In fact, he needs to ensure a new winner (besides himself) doesn't surface. That will slay his chances at the Chase since he's close to 30 points behind Newman, who currently sits in 15th place.

Winner: Austin Dillon's Recent Form

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Dillon’s form of late suggests he may not be far away from his first career Sprint Cup win. Dillon took fourth and led the second most laps on the afternoon (19) in the Pure Michigan 400.

He was the only driver giving Kenseth headaches on restarts, and if Dillon keeps this up, he could be a major disruptor in the final three races.

“They’ve been running well over the last month,” Burton said during the broadcast. “They’re the most improved team over the last month. You can get a good race every now and then, but when you can string them together that’s when you see lasting improvements.”

He finished seventh at Daytona (where he soared into the catch fence), eighth at New Hampshire and now fourth at Michigan. Like Burton said, the No. 3 car is stringing efforts together.

A new winner into the Chase Grid is the last thing drivers such as Newman and Bowyer want to see, and Dillon could give it a run at Bristol, Darlington and Richmond.

Loser: The High-Drag Rules Package

Bob Brodbeck/Associated Press

Barely any passing? What's not to like?!

The high-drag package turned up the heat on the drivers at Michigan International Speedway, but it failed to add what fans want from a race: excitement.

"The package wasn’t going to change a lot," NBC Sports' Kyle Petty said during the broadcast. "I think it helped some things, and it may have hurt some other things."

Perfectly nebulous.

Drivers, such as Harvick, complained how differently the cars handled in the draft versus clean air. It made it hard to determine which evil was worth dealing with and which one was worth fixing.

The most exciting moment of the race came on Lap 1 when David Ragan in the No. 55 car lost control on the race’s first start. 

On the front end, it was largely a two-horse race between Kenseth and Dillon with Kenseth leading 146 laps on the day.

We saw little action at Indianapolis, the place where this rules package was first implemented. We saw even less action at Michigan, one of the most uneventful and unappealing races we watched all season.

Winner: Matt Kenseth and the Serendipitous Side-Skirt Incident

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Everything went right for Kenseth and the No. 20 team at Michigan. He won the pole. He led 146 laps¹. And even mistakes went his way.

On the Lap 100 pit stop, the No. 20 jack man missed the post and peeled back the side skirt. A year ago, crew members would pull back the side skirt toward the rear wheels to create more downforce through the turns. NASCAR outlawed that in 2015, but this jack man’s mistake made Kenseth’s car that much stronger.

“I wanted to know how that side skirt got the way it was,” said Steve Letarte, NBC Sports analyst, during the broadcast. “[The jack] misses and peels the side skirt up. That is, without a doubt, not on purpose."

Jason Ratcliff, Kenseth’s crew chief, added, “(It) probably was the third stop, maybe the second one. Matt rolled forward a little bit. I would like to sit here and say that was by design. It probably didn’t hurt anything.”

Kenseth crushed it and won his third race of the year, solidifying Joe Gibbs Racing as the favorite garage to win the Sprint Cup.

“It’s early to talk favorites,” Kenseth said during the broadcast. “There’s so much racing to do. It’s one week at a time. We’ve had a great couple of months. The guys gave us a rocket today.”

Kenseth went without a win in 2014 and has more than made up for it in 2015. He won seven races in 2013, and it appears he’s back in winning—and maybe championship—form.

1: Up until that point, he had led 147 laps the entire season, according to the NBC Sports broadcast.