FireKeepers Casino 400 Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BROOKLYN, Mich. – In the second race that featured NASCAR’s new lower-downforce package, Joey Logano lowered the boom—again. There was one major difference between Joey Logano’s victory in Sunday’s FireKeepers 400 at Michigan International Speedway and his win May 21 in the Sprint All-Star Race at Charlotte. This one counted in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings and punched Logano’s ticket into the Chase. But it remained abundantly clear that Team Penske already has a handle on the aerodynamic configuration the sanctioning body isRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor After leading a career-high 51 laps at Pocono last weekend en route to a fourth place finish, Chase Elliott came into Sunday’s race at Michigan looking to improve on that as he continued to be in the hunt for his first win. Elliott started the day in 10th and flexed his muscle early and often, working his way to the lead over Joey Logano on a restart at lap 117 and looked to be one of the cars to beat as the laps clicked off.Read More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor I’m sure I sound like a broken record by now, but Kyle Larson is closing in on finding victory lane in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.  Racing this week without his crew chief, Chad Johnston (suspended after a lug nut violation in Pocono) Larson qualified seventh for the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan, and he was in contention all day long thanks to some great work on restarts. “My restarts were pretty good,” Larson said after the race. “You’ve got to have a good guy behindRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Jimmie Johnson had a decent day going in the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan. He started from the 16th spot, but by the mid-point of the race, Johnson had emerged as a solid top-10 car. He even led four laps during a cycle of green flag stops from lap 99 to lap 102. But at lap 162, things began to come undone for the six-time NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion. Trevor Bayne and Johnson were battling for position, when Bayne washed up the track and intoRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor It’s been an odd season for Dale Earnhardt Jr. Usually, if you’re an Earnhardt fan, you circle the restrictor plate races and Michigan on the schedule as places where the No. 88 is expected to contend for victory. At Daytona and Talladega earlier this year, Earnhardt just lost control of his car and crashed out of the events. Sunday on lap 60 at Michigan Earnhardt suffered a similar fate as he slammed into the outside retaining wall at the exit of turn two. This crashRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Contributor After kicking off the first half of the season with three wins, Kyle Busch and his No. 18 team have been having a summer to forget, with finishes of 30th or worse in the three races prior to Sunday’s race at Michigan. Unfortunately for Busch, the summer slump would continue in the FireKeepers Casino 400. Starting ninth, Busch started having handling issues and made note that something was going on with his engine almost immediately. As Busch started dropping back just prior to lap 53,Read More