NASCAR at Michigan 2016: Winners and Losers from the FireKeepers 400
Joey Logano, NASCAR’s most hated driver, finally reached Victory Lane in the FireKeepers 400 at Michigan International Speedway.
Logano drove that No. 22 Ford with the kind of authority we grew to expect from the 2015 Logano software update. He earned that All-Star win a few weeks ago, and now this win reasserts his prowess in the Sprint Cup Series.
The new aero package made headlines, too, and made for some slippery conditions into and out of the corners.
“You know what I loved about this race?” said FS1’s Michael Waltrip during the broadcast. “You had to execute perfectly at every point of the race. The restarts were intense. These guys were really charging into the corners, getting sideways, sliding up. I didn’t think they could make it seven laps without running into teach other.”
With eight major cautions, it was Team Penske winning the race in Ford’s backyard.
Here are this week's winners and losers.
Loser: The Late-Spring Funk of Kyle Busch
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Kyle Busch’s late-spring funk got a whole lot worse at Michigan.
On Lap 53, Busch's engine nuked, letting loose a firestorm under the car. The netting went down, and he drove the No. 18 car to the garage.
“Obviously done for the day," Busch's wife Samantha tweeted, “This summer slump really sucks. Out for a much needed off week.”
This makes three straight DNFs and four consecutive finishes outside the top 30 for the No. 18.
“At least I had a 30-lap warning it was coming,” Busch said during the broadcast. “It was building its own heat. Man, the last four races have been really bad. It’s good we started the season as good as we did. We had three wins, a lot of top fives. It gave us a good foundation but we need to get this turned around.”
The Joe Gibbs Cars are cooling down, but anybody who thinks they won’t factor strongly in the Chase needs a CAT scan.
Winner: Ultra-Low Downforce
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The new aero package for the race was the water-cooler talk ahead of this race.
Spoiler alert: no spoilers (sorta).
This ultra-low downforce package saw the cars exceed 215 miles per hour. Are you serious? They've gone plaid!
If you listen to Earnhardt racing, the package wasn’t that much different than what they’ve been racing with all season. But if you watched the race, cars were flying all over the track.
"NASCAR is doing what it takes, the teams are doing what it takes to go out and figure out how to make this the best racing it can be," Carl Edwards said in Jordan Bianchi’s SB Nation story. "This is going to be a blast. These cars, when you drive them sideways at 200 mph and you're closing on people and you're able to pressure them and race like that, that's as good as it gets."
Aside from a few drivers experiencing some worst-case scenarios and early vacations, the racing package was…about the same, as a viewer at least.
With the exception of Edwards, who’s about a big a company man as there is in the business, most drivers would probably be neutral on the situation, but NASCAR gets a good grade for effort.
Baseball could use a little more NASCAR in its rulebook.
Loser: All This Talk About Packages
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Speaking of drivers who didn’t finish the race, add Dale Earnhardt Jr. to the list.
During one of the earlier restarts, Chris Buescher in the No. 34 car got loose on the inside and got up into Junior Nation. The No. 88 car lost its grip and tanked the wall.
The impact ended his day.
“The 34 drove into the left-rear quarter panel,” Earnhardt said during the broadcast. “On the restarts you’ve got a responsibility to take care of everybody out there even when you’re three-wide. I’m disappointed. We were taking our time there. The car was great. It’s a shame.”
FS1 then asked Junior what he thought about the new aero package.
“It’s not a whole lot different than the other package,” he said. “We talk about packages too much.”
Few people think Junior won’t make the Chase, but he’s dangerously close to the cut line, and if a driver or o two from outside the top 16 wins a race, it could make the end of the season pressure-packed for Junior Nation.
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Winner: Blimp Shots
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For all the talk of this aero package and the wild and craziness of it all, there's no real way to grasp it on the boob tube.
Jenna Fryer, an Associated Press writer, tweeted out a survey asking folks if they liked the blimp shots. I emphatically clicked yes because that's where you see true action.
The aerial shots allow us to see upwards of 20 cars, and if you allow your eye to drift to the right side of the screen you will see a ton of passing, shifting, sliding, all the stuff the commentators rave about from on high.
Late in Sunday's race, you could see poor Ricky Stenhouse Jr. sink like a stone after he cut a tire.
TV often just gives us a tight frame of one guy passing another guy. It lacks the context of the surrounding cars. The broadcast can't handle a wide view the entire time, but the new aero can't be fully appreciated by the millions hundreds of thousands at home watching these races.
That's what makes the blimp shots so fascinating for the 10 seconds or so after each restart.
Loser: Fringe Drivers
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Drivers like AJ Allmendinger and Stenhouse can’t afford performances like they had at Michigan.
’Dinger hit the wall hard in conjunction with Earnhardt. Stenhouse, who started 12th with a tank full of high hopes, plummeted through the field like a knife through cake on the final restart. He went from a possible top-10 finish to 29th.
The good news for Allmendinger is that in two weeks he goes to Sonoma, a road course where he has the skills and the chassis, not to mention a pole and two top 10s.
These fringe drivers are losing their grip on the Chase Bubble and need quick recoveries as the season dives deep into the second half.
Winner: Chase Elliott, Despite Being a Wet Blanket
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Eight drivers led laps at Michigan, and supreme rookie Chase Elliott had 35 of them, second-best on the day.
You get the sense this guy has perhaps the most negative self-talk in all of NASCAR. Like when he goes home he’ll don a conical dunce cap and go to bed without dessert or something.
“You can’t do dumb stuff and win these races,” Elliott said on the television broadcast.
He refers, one presumes, to not keeping pace with Logano on restarts, especially the last one.
“Completely my fault,” said Elliott. “The guys gave me a fantastic car today. That one was on me and like I said you can’t do dumb stuff and expect to win and I did today.”
Then he walked off, a runner-up in the scoresheet, but a loser between the ears.
Let's not forget: He drove this car to near perfection when his gas man failed to completely fill up the No. 24 tank. Elliott has proven all year long that he’s willing to take 100 percent of the blame.
This comes from a young man whose runner-up finish earned him his sixth top -of the season, making him the top-fiviest rookie off all-time through 15 races, according to FS1.
Part of this negative talk, no doubt, is a sort of public humbleness so he doesn’t sound like, I don’t know, Austin Dillon, who in only third year hasn’t shied away from roasting his pit crew.
Elliott is wise beyond his years, and that’s why he’ll win this year and probably win 60 more races than Dillon will when we reach 2036.
Loser: Joe Gibbs Racing
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According to the FS1 broadcast, JGR went 35 consecutive races with at least one of its drivers in the top five. JGR has gone two in a row without a top-fiver.
Carl Edwards, new aero’s BFF, earned a spirited sixth, while he watched Kyle Busch blow an engine for 40th place and Denny Hamlin explode a tire for a 33rd. Edwards could wave hello to Matt Kenseth back in 14th, so there’s that.
With all drivers securely in the Chase, there’s little reason to panic, but with each race that JGR loses its grip, it gives others confidence that the mighty may fall.
Everyone living under the shadow of the despicable dragon Smaug saw that as a wicked bummer until a chink in his skin exposed his vulnerability.
Same goes for JGR, though you’re unlikely to find anyone in any of those garages geeking out on Tolkien, one presumes.
Winner: Team Penske
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Roger Penske, a former owner of Michigan International Speedway, earned his 99th Sprint Cup win when Logano pied-pipered this field in dominating fashion.
Logano led 138 of 200 laps and gaffed on a single restart on the day. He rarely ran out of the top two, this with new aero that was meant to facilitate passing*.
“Everyone did a great job understanding what this package was going to do,” said Logano during the broadcast. “Racing with Chase there and Larson. They had the restarts figured out on the bottom there. I still felt like I had to take the top. I was excited about seeing all those cautions, but what a great finish.”
The win was Logano’s first since Talladega in October 2015, a time when he swept the Contender Round of the Chase and became the even-money fave** to win the Sprint Cup.
“We’ve been knocking on the door for a win this season,” Logano said.
Before Kurt Busch won at Pocono, he was the best driver without a win in 2016. Logano inherited that lofty crown for a single week and now passes the bill to Chase Elliott*** as the best driver without a win in 2016.
As for Logano, this win could unlock a deep reservoir of wins in the second half off the season. As the JGR cars have faltered, beware of Team Penske.
*: So this happened, just farther back in the field where no one watching at home could see.
**: No data for this, but, you know, whatever.
***: Sorry, Junior Nation.
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