With some help from incessant rain, Kurt Busch was named the victor of Sprint Cup’s last race at Michigan worldwide Speedway on June 14.
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Busch needs to finish in the top 30 in the standings after 26 races – Michigan is race No. 23 – to qualify for the Chase. This choice comes after NASCAR put track-specific packages in place for a handful of races recently – including this weekend at Michigan.
There are four races left before the Chase, NASCAR’s version of a post-season playoff, begins at Chicagoland in September.
“We have decided to keep the 2015 rules package as it is for the Chase”, said Steve O’Donnell, NASCAR’s chief racing development officer.
The bad news, from Roush Fenway’s standpoint, is that Sprint Cup cars this weekend are running the same high-drag package first tried last month at Indianapolis, where Biffle finished 19th, Stenhouse 35th and Bayne 40th. We’ve been up front in all three of them – on speed and in the races and in qualifying. He’d never won the pole at MIS. “In a lot of discussions we had with the industry – and that includes the tracks, the drivers, the race teams, the OEMs – all believe that was in the best interest of the sport, excited about the Chase, excited about the package and what’s to come in the Chase, especially when you look back to past year”.
In the window of time between a midday practice session and qualifying for the Pure Michigan 400, Matt Kenseth couldn’t offer much detail as to what his team did to maximize his vehicle. So from that aspect, I feel ok about it no matter what they bring.
“The racetracks are just massively different”, said driver Matt Kenseth.
NASCAR anticipated the high-drag package would create more passing at Indy, but that wasn’t the case. The same package, which increases drag on the cars, is being used at MIS.
In the first Michigan race, Harvick was the 7-to-2 favorite and Kyle Busch was 15-to-1.
Kenseth wasn’t pleased with his practice run earlier Friday, when he was 10th at 193.543. “I’m proud of the effort”. “It’s definitely warmer than the normal package”.
“As compared to where I thought we were going to be, I’m pretty happy with where the auto was all day”, said Hornish, a Defiance native.
NASCAR goes racing again in Michigan, this time for the Pure Michigan 400.
The track qualifying record was set last August by Jeff Gordon at 206.558 miles per hour, but speeds have been lower in 2015.
It will be the same package that was used at Indianapolis in late July. He also has been pushing the notion that tracks should eliminate grass areas because of damage cars get in those locations.
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“I don’t think anybody’s really going to be able to answer that until Sunday night after the race is over”, Kenseth said.
