Turn 4 Transitions
Friday, June 11, 2010
By Natalie Anthony
Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400
June 13, 2010 (Sunday) 1:00 pm – TNT
Mark Martin- 2009 LifeLock 400
Winner!
For those
of you that unfortunately missed Tony Stewart’s Prelude to the Dream Wednesday
night, you missed some awesome racing.
Where else can you see drivers from all different series (that includes
two wheels and four wheels) racing against each other in the dirt on a week
night? Kyle
Busch performed as expected and really put on a show for all the fans,
but the Sprint Cup series champion and 6th in the point standings Jimmie Johnson took the green flag from the pole and
never looked back. Even though this was
a charity race, this win on an unfamiliar track surface is going to be just
what Jimmie needs to get back into the winners circle.
Michigan
International Speedway (MIS) seems like a typical cookie cutter track that
NASCAR spit out into the “Motor
City”, but MIS offers so
many more challenges and warrants more of a willingness to win than most molded
tracks. This weekend’s race at Michigan is race where
the crew chiefs have to pull out their clip board with all their notes from
previous races and hold one had behind their back with fingers crossed. Of course every team wants to impress there
manufacturers in their make sake’s home state, so there is some pressure there
for the driver, but what really makes Michigan stand out is that fuel mileage
has been and always will make or break a win.
Just wait for the last two laps of the race and inevitably you are going
to see cars fall off the pace and coast into the pits that had a chance to win and
their fuel cells ran dry. You will also
see cars come from out of nowhere in the back of the pack who conserved fuel
all race long or their crew chief is a physicist/mathematician and they contend
for the win.
Jack Roush said that the lack of testing
and their simulation programs have been the reason why his drivers are
struggling this year, but how can he even use the word struggling when Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards, and Greg Biffle are all in the Top 12 in points and poised to
make it into the chase. Wow, I would
really like to see what kind of verbiage Jack uses when the Roushkateers
are outside of the cut off for the chase.
Carl Edwards should do more than struggle this Sunday at MIS since Carl
finished in the Top four during the last two races at Michigan.
And I wouldn’t count out teammates Matt and Greg; they should at least
finish in the Top 15.
Jimmie Johnson (JJ) is on a winning
high from his first win at Eldora Speedway and that will certainly convey into
his attitude on Sunday at MIS. Plus,
Jimmie has one of the most gifted crew chiefs (Chad Knaus)
to help him with fuel strategy.
Denny
Hamlin, who is in an unacknowledged race against JJ for the championship
this year, will undoubtedly be racing the #48 up front all race long. Denny is two for two
in Top 10’s his last two races at Michigan.
Track Stats
LifeLock 400
(June 14,
2009)
Top 10
Results
1. Mark Martin
2. Jeff Gordon
3. Denny Hamlin
4. Carl Edwards
5. Greg Biffle
6. Juan Pablo Montoya
7. Tony Stewart
8. Kurt Busch
9. Brian Vickers
10.Clint
Bowyer
3M
Performance 400
(August 16,
2009)
Top 10
Results
1. Brian Vickers
2. Jeff Gordon
3. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
4. Carl Edwards
5. Sam Hornish Jr.
6. Casey Mears
7. Joey Logano
8. Clint Bowyer
9. David Reutimann
10.Denny
Hamlin
Post Questions
& Comments to:
NASCARNATALIEANTHONY@yahoo.com
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