One Menz Opinion: Have Speeds at Michigan Reached Dangerous Levels?

After recent frightening incidents at other tracks, including at Daytona International Speedway in the Sprint Cup Series and at Kentucky Speedway in the Camping World Truck Series, a return to Michigan International Speedway this weekend is rightfully raising some eyebrows.

MIS, after all, is the place where Sprint Cup cars were clocked at speeds of as high as 220 miles per hour in a Goodyear tire test in April of 2014. NASCAR will bring to bear the same aerodynamic package that it introduced at Indianapolis Motor Speedway at the end of July, but that may not mean much.

"When they first repaved Michigan in 2012, it was just insane," said former driver and crew chief Kenny Wallace, who is now a Fox Sports television analyst. "We were seeing corner entry speeds at like 218 miles an hour. You can't race a passenger car at those speeds. Those are airplane speeds."

Wallace described what it like trying to pilot a 3,400-pound stock car at those speeds.

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"When you're entering the corner at anywhere from 210 to 220 mph, it's very hard to pass," he said. "The G-forces are just insane. It's not so much that you know you are going that fast, but you feel it in your seat, especially if your seat does not fit you perfectly. And then it'll rip your neck off if you don't have a good brace. And as soon as the car gets even just a little bit loose, that's when you really know it—because there is no saving it. It's an extreme amount of load on the right-rear tire when you get loose."

Wallace added that the problem facing NASCAR is trying to slow the cars down so the corner-entry speeds aren't as high.

What has happened with the most recent aero packages introduced is that speeds on the straightaways have been reduced, but that actually has had the counter-effect of increasing corner-entry speeds at most tracks because drivers know they can keep the throttle wide open through most corners. That is especially true at a wider, bigger track like Michigan where they enjoy multiple racing grooves.

"I know that all the drivers are concerned about being able to race each other at speeds of 212, 218 miles an hour entering the corner," Wallace said. "There is a middle ground that NASCAR is trying to find, to where you can slow the cars up, but they don't go faster through the corners."

He said NASCAR is working on the problem, partly through talking with the newly formed Driver's Council, and should be commended for that. But he also said he isn't certain anything conclusive will come out of this Michigan weekend.

"Listen, everybody wants to see these guys go down into the corner and race each other," Wallace said. "It would be a great view to see somebody be able to jump to the outside and be able to pass somebody. And right now, we're just trying to find a way to slow the cars down but not make them go faster through the corner. I think they're headed that way, but whether it's going to happen overnight, I don't know."

And while Wallace said he thinks the two-mile MIS track is safe, he also was quick to add that he hopes not to see the kinds of speeds that drivers were posting in the 2014 tire test.

"I think it's safe. But I also don't think we need to do that again," Wallace said. "I don't think approaching speeds of 220 miles an hour in a passenger car is very safe.

"We're trying to do something that physics say you shouldn't do. In other words, we're taking a passenger car and we're doing that. These are speeds that IndyCar or Formula One should be running—not us."

Heat is on

Brad Keselowski said his greatest concern heading into this weekend's race at Michigan isn’t the high speeds on the track but the heat he expects to be experiencing inside his No. 2 Team Penske Ford and the havoc he fears it will wreak on the car itself.

Several drivers complained after racing with the new aero package at Indy that one of its unintended and unfortunate byproducts was a significant increase in the temperature inside the cockpits of their cars.

"There is a large amount of concern...for this rules package coming up to Michigan," Keselowski said in a national teleconference call Tuesday. "I would not be surprised to see a lot of car failures this weekend...And inside the car I would not be surprised to see a lot of hot and worn out drivers after the race. We all know we're in for a handful of a race."

Asked what his crew chief, Paul Wolfe, likely will do for him to try to make him more comfortable in the car, Keselowski added: "He's going to tell me to suck it up."

Thumbs up

Joey Logano, who had never before in his career won a road-course race in any of NASCAR's top three national touring series, swept both the XFINITY Series and Sprint Cup events last weekend at Watkins Glen International. "I remember the first time I came here, and I was so frustrated because I didn't know how to go fast," Logano said.

Thumbs down

AJ Allmendinger sat on the pole at Watkins Glen, but the road-course ace saw his best chance of winning a race and qualifying for the Chase take a wrong turn when his car lost power mid-race and had to be pushed to pit road by a wrecker before it could get restarted. "Can we have something not break for once?" Allmendinger pleaded over the team radio.

In the fast lane

It was shocking that the last two finishers at Watkins Glen, where they own a combined 10 career wins, were four-time Cup champion Jeff Gordon in 42nd and three-time champ Tony Stewart in 43rd.

As if Stewart doesn't have enough on his mind already, trying to turn around a disappointing season, he was hit with a wrongful death civil lawsuit by the family of Kevin Ward Jr. last Friday. It was almost one year ago to the day from when Ward Jr. died after being struck by Stewart's sprint car at a dirt track in New York, in what officials later ruled an accident.

Two days before Stewart learned of being hit with the lawsuit, he admitted that the Ward Jr. incident and a broken-leg injury suffered in another sprint car accident a year earlier have left him shaken. "I don't think I'll ever be the same from what happened the last two years. I don't know how you could be," Stewart admitted during a promotional stop at Texas Motor Speedway.

Unless otherwise noted, all information was obtained firsthand.

Joe Menzer has written six books, including two about NASCAR, and now writes about it and other sports for Bleacher Report while also working as a Digital Content Producer for FoxSports.com. Follow him on Twitter @OneMenz.