Michigan Internat'l Speedway - Citizens Bank 400
RACE WINNER: CARL EDWARDS
Martin Truex Jr.: 2nd (started 8th)
- Martin’s string of great finishes continues! This was another one he almost won. He led 54 laps on 5 separate occasions. He even got involved in a mid-race crash! At the end of the race he was gaining on Carl until he got tight and scraped the wall a bit. But regardless, finishes like this are exactly what the #1 Bass Pro Shops team needs.
Quotes:
- “It was a great day for us. Got to thank all these guys on this Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet. They working hard since we started and we are finally getting the results we wanted. We had an awesome car all day. We got shuffled to the back of the pack there and it took us a long time to get to the front. Then once we got there, I kind of lost track of the adjustments on the car. We were back in traffic there for a while and it kind of threw us off on our adjustments. We just got a little tight there at the end. I think I might have been just a little bit better than Carl (Edwards, race winner) and I got as close as I could, then I got tight and brushed the wall. From there our effort was to save a little bit of fuel and get to the end. I am just really proud of my guys, they are giving me great cars and it is showing. We're doing all the right things. We're not having any bad luck. I'm just trying to win races man, that's what I'm here to do. Whatever the circumstances are, that don't matter. I love Junior and he's moving on and I'm happy for him.”
Race2Win
- The team’s consistent climb up the points continues. Martin is now 10th and 11th in owners points.
Casey Mears: 4th (started 13th)
- The past few races for Casey have been a lot like Martin’s. The #25 National Guard Chevy wasn’t as dominant as the 1 team, but again, they need solid finishes to carry them toward the Chase. Supposedly Casey wasn’t feeling his best either and asked for TUMS or Rolaids at one point during the race.
- Quotes:
“We had a good, solid day. We just stayed out of trouble on that backstretch there when they had that crash, fortunately dodged that. We just keep clicking them off. (Crew chief) Darian (Grubb) is making great calls, we have good race cars. Just good, solid days and that's what we really, really need right now. Just happy with the team's performance. We had a top-three, four, five car right there pretty much the whole race. We just needed the track position and once we got it and got on that strategy, I'd run Tony (Stewart) down at times and then he'd pull away. It seemed like we're pretty equal there. It was a good day for us. I'm happy. Obviously we want to win races but considering where we're at in the points it was a great day for us. "It was a good car all day, a good effort by the National Guard/GMAC Chevrolet guys. We just keep clicking off top fives and top tens.”
Race2Win
- Casey moves up to 19th in points.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.: 5th (started 23rd)
- After announcing his plans for next year, a lot of people would call Dale Jr. a lame duck, but Sunday’s finish was anything but shaky. He even had a tire going down on one of the restarts. However, it became a break that was amazingly lucky – the #8 car slowed dramatically and dropped back. Moments later, right where Junior was driving, a huge wreck was started by Ryan Newman that would have surely damaged his car. At the end of the race, Junior was really strong but ran out of time to make up even more positions.
- Quotes:
“It was a good day for us. I have to thank Tony Gibson and my crew. I got real loose in the middle part of that race and the guys made some adjustments that got me going again. So they deserve all the credit today. The Budweiser Chevrolet ran great. Martin had a good day, awesome day for DEI. I am just really proud of everyone. Just an awesome day, a really really good day. I was a lot of fun out there, but man, when it gets loose, it is a handful. But they made the right adjustments.”
Race2Win
- This finish puts Junior currently in the Chase at 12th in points. He is 13th in owners standings.
Michael Waltrip: 10th (started 18th)
- No, your eyes do not deceive you! That is a top-10 for Mikey! And it wasn’t just luck, or pit strategy that got him there. The #55 NAPA team ran in the top-20 all day and the top-15 for the majority of the race. The car was excellent! Buddy Sisco did a great job and Mikey looked fine up there riding the high groove. Unfortunately, right at the end he got tight and bumped the wall, causing him to lose a couple spots. But I’m not complaining! Michael can still drive and those Toyotas are good cars with good engines. The difference between now and a month ago are team melding and organization.
- Quotes:
“It’s really great for our team to have run that well all day today and my guys did a great job on pit road. I messed up there at the end; otherwise I think we could have picked up a few more spots. I just got real tight there at the end and I was trying to pass (Kevin) Harvick and got up into the wall. My guys are a little rusty, but you would have never known it. Today was a hot day and I haven’t gotten to race this much in awhile, but I felt just as good at the end as I did in the beginning. But once the checkers fell - then I started feeling bad - hot, tired and glad it was over.”
Race2Win
- Mikey moves up to 51st in points and 48th in owners points.
David Reutimann: 15th (started 40th)
- Your eyes do not deceive this time either! To put a cherry on the cake, the two MWR cars in the race got top-15 place finishes. David struggled mightily in the beginning and fell a lap down. As the car got better, he was fighting for the free pass. Luckily, pit strategy came into play. Green flag pit stops were under way when Tony Raines pulled a kamikaze move over Elliott Sadler and spun, bringing out the caution. Reut hadn’t pitted yet and ended up in the top-20, where he remained for the rest of the day. During the last run, he picked off positions and reached his best finish of the year by far.
- Quotes:
“Today was a lot of fun. That was the most fun I’ve had all year. For as horrible as were in practice, and as bad as we struggled early on, I think it’s a pretty good day. The guys kept fighting. We got back on the lead lap when we needed to and kept making good changes. We just got too tight at the end to keep moving forward. We made a good call to put fuel in it so we didn’t have to stop there at the end.”
From Mikey: “I’m so proud of David. I saw him get lapped early in the race and then I never saw him again -- I kept wondering where he was at. To get tenth and 15th with our Toyotas is just great.”
Race2Win
- The #00 team moves up to 41st in points.
Kurt Busch: 25th (started 10th)
- Kurt ran great all day but was busted when the team left a loose lugnut during green flag pit stops. The car shook going into the turns. After that, the car went towards the free side and became hard to drive. It was a shame and I’m sure Kurt wasn’t too happy with the way things shook out.
- Quotes:
“We had a good car that ran in the top five most of the day. We had to come in on lap 166 to change a loose lugnut, and the car got really loose after that.”
Race2Win
- Kurt stays 16th in the standings.
Brian Vickers: 41st (started 16th)
- As is the norm for Brian, he ran great. When he broke the top-10, I knew he had a car that was capable of winning the race. But when Ryan Newman came to pit road because of a cut tire and went 3 laps down, I got a bad feeling he was going to race extremely hard to get those laps back. And he did, ruining the day for many drivers. I believe that once you’re over 2 laps down, you should be sent to the end of the lapped line, but unfortunately that isn’t the case. On one of the restarts, Newman barreled haphazardly along with the leaders and raced free pass-eligible Jeff Green like he was going for the win on the last lap. Coming off of Turn 2, Ryan was above Green. Green got slightly loose and at the same time Newman turned left in front of the #66 when he wasn’t clear. He ripped up Green’s front end and spun, which then caused a massive chain reaction down the field as people slowed up. Brian, who was running near the top-5, got hit from behind and sustained a huge amount of frontal injury to the car. Needless to say, I was furious to the point of tears. Newman was racing like an idiot and should have had no place running with the leaders. I know he was frustrated because of his tire problem, but that gives him no right to be completely careless of his competitors. He of course blamed it on Green and said he “ran out of talent”. Bull! Eventually the #83 Red Bull team got Brian’s car back on the track, but he was so many laps down and too slow to really do much.
- Quotes:
“I don’t really know what happened - there was a lot of smoke and other cars wrecking out in front of me. I came out of turn two and just had nowhere to go. I tried to slow down and somebody checked up in front of me and then I got run into from behind. I don’t really know -- it was just one big crash. It’s really unfortunate because this Red Bull Toyota was really, really strong today and we were just pacing ourselves and taking our time out there. We had one of the fastest cars on the race track and we were going to have a good day.”
Race2Win
- This drops Brian to 39th in points and 40th in owners points (2 spots!). He is now 210 points from 35th.
Dale Jarrett: DNQ
- Just barely missed the race.
Other Notes:
- It was good seeing Carl win again, especially so his motorhome driver, Tom Giacchi, can shave that beard he’s been sporting since 2005! It was also nice seeing someone new win this year.
- During TNT’s prerace show, they did a wonderful tribute to Benny Parsons. I miss that man so much. Bill Weber, Wally Dallenbach, Marty Snider and Matt Yocum all talked casually together about him afterwards. It was so good to hear and very touching.
Martin Truex Jr.: 2nd (started 8th)
- Martin’s string of great finishes continues! This was another one he almost won. He led 54 laps on 5 separate occasions. He even got involved in a mid-race crash! At the end of the race he was gaining on Carl until he got tight and scraped the wall a bit. But regardless, finishes like this are exactly what the #1 Bass Pro Shops team needs.
Quotes:
- “It was a great day for us. Got to thank all these guys on this Bass Pro Shops Chevrolet. They working hard since we started and we are finally getting the results we wanted. We had an awesome car all day. We got shuffled to the back of the pack there and it took us a long time to get to the front. Then once we got there, I kind of lost track of the adjustments on the car. We were back in traffic there for a while and it kind of threw us off on our adjustments. We just got a little tight there at the end. I think I might have been just a little bit better than Carl (Edwards, race winner) and I got as close as I could, then I got tight and brushed the wall. From there our effort was to save a little bit of fuel and get to the end. I am just really proud of my guys, they are giving me great cars and it is showing. We're doing all the right things. We're not having any bad luck. I'm just trying to win races man, that's what I'm here to do. Whatever the circumstances are, that don't matter. I love Junior and he's moving on and I'm happy for him.”
Race2Win
- The team’s consistent climb up the points continues. Martin is now 10th and 11th in owners points.
Casey Mears: 4th (started 13th)
- The past few races for Casey have been a lot like Martin’s. The #25 National Guard Chevy wasn’t as dominant as the 1 team, but again, they need solid finishes to carry them toward the Chase. Supposedly Casey wasn’t feeling his best either and asked for TUMS or Rolaids at one point during the race.
- Quotes:
“We had a good, solid day. We just stayed out of trouble on that backstretch there when they had that crash, fortunately dodged that. We just keep clicking them off. (Crew chief) Darian (Grubb) is making great calls, we have good race cars. Just good, solid days and that's what we really, really need right now. Just happy with the team's performance. We had a top-three, four, five car right there pretty much the whole race. We just needed the track position and once we got it and got on that strategy, I'd run Tony (Stewart) down at times and then he'd pull away. It seemed like we're pretty equal there. It was a good day for us. I'm happy. Obviously we want to win races but considering where we're at in the points it was a great day for us. "It was a good car all day, a good effort by the National Guard/GMAC Chevrolet guys. We just keep clicking off top fives and top tens.”
Race2Win
- Casey moves up to 19th in points.
Dale Earnhardt Jr.: 5th (started 23rd)
- After announcing his plans for next year, a lot of people would call Dale Jr. a lame duck, but Sunday’s finish was anything but shaky. He even had a tire going down on one of the restarts. However, it became a break that was amazingly lucky – the #8 car slowed dramatically and dropped back. Moments later, right where Junior was driving, a huge wreck was started by Ryan Newman that would have surely damaged his car. At the end of the race, Junior was really strong but ran out of time to make up even more positions.
- Quotes:
“It was a good day for us. I have to thank Tony Gibson and my crew. I got real loose in the middle part of that race and the guys made some adjustments that got me going again. So they deserve all the credit today. The Budweiser Chevrolet ran great. Martin had a good day, awesome day for DEI. I am just really proud of everyone. Just an awesome day, a really really good day. I was a lot of fun out there, but man, when it gets loose, it is a handful. But they made the right adjustments.”
Race2Win
- This finish puts Junior currently in the Chase at 12th in points. He is 13th in owners standings.
Michael Waltrip: 10th (started 18th)
- No, your eyes do not deceive you! That is a top-10 for Mikey! And it wasn’t just luck, or pit strategy that got him there. The #55 NAPA team ran in the top-20 all day and the top-15 for the majority of the race. The car was excellent! Buddy Sisco did a great job and Mikey looked fine up there riding the high groove. Unfortunately, right at the end he got tight and bumped the wall, causing him to lose a couple spots. But I’m not complaining! Michael can still drive and those Toyotas are good cars with good engines. The difference between now and a month ago are team melding and organization.
- Quotes:
“It’s really great for our team to have run that well all day today and my guys did a great job on pit road. I messed up there at the end; otherwise I think we could have picked up a few more spots. I just got real tight there at the end and I was trying to pass (Kevin) Harvick and got up into the wall. My guys are a little rusty, but you would have never known it. Today was a hot day and I haven’t gotten to race this much in awhile, but I felt just as good at the end as I did in the beginning. But once the checkers fell - then I started feeling bad - hot, tired and glad it was over.”
Race2Win
- Mikey moves up to 51st in points and 48th in owners points.
David Reutimann: 15th (started 40th)
- Your eyes do not deceive this time either! To put a cherry on the cake, the two MWR cars in the race got top-15 place finishes. David struggled mightily in the beginning and fell a lap down. As the car got better, he was fighting for the free pass. Luckily, pit strategy came into play. Green flag pit stops were under way when Tony Raines pulled a kamikaze move over Elliott Sadler and spun, bringing out the caution. Reut hadn’t pitted yet and ended up in the top-20, where he remained for the rest of the day. During the last run, he picked off positions and reached his best finish of the year by far.
- Quotes:
“Today was a lot of fun. That was the most fun I’ve had all year. For as horrible as were in practice, and as bad as we struggled early on, I think it’s a pretty good day. The guys kept fighting. We got back on the lead lap when we needed to and kept making good changes. We just got too tight at the end to keep moving forward. We made a good call to put fuel in it so we didn’t have to stop there at the end.”
From Mikey: “I’m so proud of David. I saw him get lapped early in the race and then I never saw him again -- I kept wondering where he was at. To get tenth and 15th with our Toyotas is just great.”
Race2Win
- The #00 team moves up to 41st in points.
Kurt Busch: 25th (started 10th)
- Kurt ran great all day but was busted when the team left a loose lugnut during green flag pit stops. The car shook going into the turns. After that, the car went towards the free side and became hard to drive. It was a shame and I’m sure Kurt wasn’t too happy with the way things shook out.
- Quotes:
“We had a good car that ran in the top five most of the day. We had to come in on lap 166 to change a loose lugnut, and the car got really loose after that.”
Race2Win
- Kurt stays 16th in the standings.
Brian Vickers: 41st (started 16th)
- As is the norm for Brian, he ran great. When he broke the top-10, I knew he had a car that was capable of winning the race. But when Ryan Newman came to pit road because of a cut tire and went 3 laps down, I got a bad feeling he was going to race extremely hard to get those laps back. And he did, ruining the day for many drivers. I believe that once you’re over 2 laps down, you should be sent to the end of the lapped line, but unfortunately that isn’t the case. On one of the restarts, Newman barreled haphazardly along with the leaders and raced free pass-eligible Jeff Green like he was going for the win on the last lap. Coming off of Turn 2, Ryan was above Green. Green got slightly loose and at the same time Newman turned left in front of the #66 when he wasn’t clear. He ripped up Green’s front end and spun, which then caused a massive chain reaction down the field as people slowed up. Brian, who was running near the top-5, got hit from behind and sustained a huge amount of frontal injury to the car. Needless to say, I was furious to the point of tears. Newman was racing like an idiot and should have had no place running with the leaders. I know he was frustrated because of his tire problem, but that gives him no right to be completely careless of his competitors. He of course blamed it on Green and said he “ran out of talent”. Bull! Eventually the #83 Red Bull team got Brian’s car back on the track, but he was so many laps down and too slow to really do much.
- Quotes:
“I don’t really know what happened - there was a lot of smoke and other cars wrecking out in front of me. I came out of turn two and just had nowhere to go. I tried to slow down and somebody checked up in front of me and then I got run into from behind. I don’t really know -- it was just one big crash. It’s really unfortunate because this Red Bull Toyota was really, really strong today and we were just pacing ourselves and taking our time out there. We had one of the fastest cars on the race track and we were going to have a good day.”
Race2Win
- This drops Brian to 39th in points and 40th in owners points (2 spots!). He is now 210 points from 35th.
Dale Jarrett: DNQ
- Just barely missed the race.
Other Notes:
- It was good seeing Carl win again, especially so his motorhome driver, Tom Giacchi, can shave that beard he’s been sporting since 2005! It was also nice seeing someone new win this year.
- During TNT’s prerace show, they did a wonderful tribute to Benny Parsons. I miss that man so much. Bill Weber, Wally Dallenbach, Marty Snider and Matt Yocum all talked casually together about him afterwards. It was so good to hear and very touching.
