Prior to Sunday’s Sprint Cup race at Michigan Speedway, the much anticipated downforce aero package mandated by NASCAR was being tested for the first time in an official points paying race.
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Joey Logano, who piloted his Ford to victory, described the cars as “out of control”.
While Martin Truex Jr spun out on lap 46, a few others would have taken his eventual 12th-place finish. Kyle Busch is the defending race victor.
The day’s earlier matches both ended in 1-0 victories, with a wonder strike from Luka Modric seeing Croatia past Turkey in a bruising encounter and Arkadiusz Milik scoring for Poland against Northern Ireland. That hiccup cost him the top position and handed the lead to Logano, who never relinquished it.
“From the (race control) tower, it was definitely different than we’ve seen here before, a lot of action on the restarts, a lot of movement there”, said NASCAR’s senior vice president of competition, Scott Miller.
The changes really put the cars back in the drivers hands with massive corner entry speeds, topping 215 miles per hour, but with the reduced downforce having to get way out of the throttle and drive the cars out.
The pole-setter moved past rookie Chase Elliott on lap 153 Sunday and stayed ahead for the 15th Sprint Cup series victory of his career in the 15th race of the year.
With eight laps to go, a restart.
After losing the lead to Elliott on a lap 116 restart, Logano got back up front for good on the next restart following a yellow flag on lap 148.
BROOKLYN, Mich. (AP) – Joey Logano pulled away from the pack to win the FireKeepers Casino 400, becoming the 10th driver to win a NASCAR race this season. This is the highest starting spot of Stewart’s swan song season. On Sunday, Stewart once again looked like the champion driver that everyone was used to at MI. I think we learned a lot that we could use to understand how to get better. I don’t know. There is a lot of thought that goes into restarts with this race team, from every angle.
Believe it or not, Kyle Busch is indeed human. If you look at his career over the last four or five years, he’s been through it all.
Building a winning DFS NASCAR lineup at DraftKings for Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at MI will require a balanced approach.
As a result, it’s the fourth straight week where he has finished 30th or worse.
“Pocono was a good step in the right direction”, Earnhardt said. Notable drivers caught up in on-track incidents that brought out cautions included Dale Earnhardt Jr., Danica Patrick, Jimmie Johnson and Denny Hamlin. The right side of Earnhardt Jr.’s vehicle crashed into the wall, ending his race after 61 laps.
He would end up taking A.J. Allmendinger with him.
“Yeah”, Earnhardt said in a voice just loud enough to be heard over the sounds of revving engines and clamoring fans.
“We got the All-Star win, but it’s nice to get that win and lock ourselves into the Chase”.
Jim Harbaugh is everywhere. NASCAR is finally catching up.
He even busted out the khakis for this very special occasion!
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It was, as Logano crew chief Todd Gordon described it, “a status quo weekend”. “That’s certainly the way this sport is, and I did dumb stuff (Sunday), so can’t expect to win”. He is now the 10th entrant into the Chase and now only six spots remain.
