Motor Racing Digest

Posted by: Candice Corrigan, follow @candicecorrigan

August 17, 2012

Date: Sunday, August 19, 2012

Location: Michigan International Speedway —Brooklyn, Mich.

Time: 1 p.m. ET

Distance: 200 laps/400 miles

Broadcast: TV- ESPN with coverage beginning at noon ET

Radio: Motor Racing Network (MRN) or Sirius XM Channel 90

The surface may still be new, but familiar faces continue to dominate the recently repaved Michigan International Speedway. Dale Earnhardt Jr. made his way to Gatorade Victory Lane here in June, ending a nearly four-year winless streak. Today, veteran Mark Martin earned his fourth pole of the season for Sunday’s race in his 15th qualifying attempt of 2012.

“I am surprised. I am surprised,” Martin said. “I was surprised in 2009 at what we were able to accomplish, very similar kinds of things that we have accomplished this year. I was surprised in 2011 when we were not able to accomplish anything special and I was surprised again this year to be able to accomplish what we’ve been able to.”

Martin knows his success in qualifying today was no fluke, though. Martin was one of 27 drivers that participated in the Goodyear tire test at the end of July. Martin referred to his dominance at that test as just “crazy.”

“I feel good about it for multiple reasons, mostly because at the test it was absolutely insane how much faster we were than everybody else,” Martin said. “I wish the race was that day because you come back the next day and more times than not it’s not that way.”

The tire test at the end of June was scheduled after teams experienced problems with severe tire wear at the first race on the repaved surface. Goodyear switched out the left-side tires the day prior to that race because of blistering caused by the high speeds and heat of the new surface. For this race, Goodyear has brought a redesigned tire combination to combat tire blistering and shredding.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kasey Kahne both felt confident with the new tire in their interviews this afternoon. Kahne did mention concerns with the lack of racing groove the new surface offers.

“The biggest thing to me is just being able to move around,” Kahne said. “That first race it was about one-and-a half lanes that you could really get in and push your car and not have it jump into the gray or anything like that. Hopefully this race we will get at least two lanes, maybe even three, as time goes on.”

Speaking of time, it’s running out for the drivers that are still hoping to make their way into the Chase. Only three races remain until the Chase field is set at Richmond International Raceway on September 8.

Kahne and Ryan Newman have possession of the two “Wild Card” positions going into this weekend. But, four other drivers outside the top-10 have a single win so far and could quickly snatch one of the positions away – Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch, Marcos Ambrose and Joey Logano. It’s still not too late for even more drivers to jump in the mix by earning a win.

Busch and Logano are two of the three Joe Gibbs Racing cars, all of which had problems in the June race at MIS. Logano won the Nationwide race the day prior and Busch is the defending winner of the Pure Michigan 400. A rebound for JGR would boost the confidence and positions of the teams.

Even with a new surface and better tires, don’t expect Sunday’s race to be all smooth sailing. Shark week may be coming to an end, but the Chase waters are still full of NASCAR’s “Card sharks.”

Complete Starting Order for the Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway

POS	CAR	DRIVER	MAKE	SPONSOR	SPEED	TIME	BEHIND
1	55	Mark Martin	Toyota	Aaron’s Dream Machine	199.706	36.053	Leader
2	99	Carl Edwards	Ford	Geek Squad	198.626	36.249	-0.196
3	48	Jimmie Johnson	Chevrolet	Lowe’s	198.440	36.283	-0.230
4	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford	Fifth Third Bank	198.183	36.330	-0.277
5	5	Kasey Kahne	Chevrolet	Farmers Insurance	197.878	36.386	-0.333
6	21	Trevor Bayne	Ford	Motorcraft / Quick Lane Tire & Auto Center	197.781	36.404	-0.351
7	56	Martin Truex Jr.	Toyota	NAPA Auto Parts	197.650	36.428	-0.375
8	9	Marcos Ambrose	Ford	Stanley	197.493	36.457	-0.404
9	83	Landon Cassill	Toyota	Burger King / Dr Pepper	197.433	36.468	-0.415
10	27	Paul Menard	Chevrolet	Menards / Pittsburgh Paints	197.163	36.518	-0.465
11	24	Jeff Gordon	Chevrolet	Drive to End Hunger / AARP	197.115	36.527	-0.474
12	15	Clint Bowyer	Toyota	5-hour Energy	197.012	36.546	-0.493
13	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	3M	196.893	36.568	-0.515
14	14	Tony Stewart	Chevrolet	Mobil 1 / Office Depot	196.877	36.571	-0.518
15	39	Ryan Newman	Chevrolet	Wix Filters	196.732	36.598	-0.545
16	20	Joey Logano	Toyota	The Home Depot	196.501	36.641	-0.588
17	22	Parker Kligerman	Dodge	Shell / Pennzoil	196.249	36.688	-0.635
18	78	Regan Smith	Chevrolet	Furniture Row / Farm American	196.217	36.694	-0.641
19	2	Brad Keselowski	Dodge	Miller Lite	196.180	36.701	-0.648
20	29	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	Jimmy Johns	196.052	36.725	-0.672
21	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	FedEx Office	195.956	36.743	-0.690
22	88	Dale Earnhardt Jr.	Chevrolet	National Guard / Diet Mountain Dew	195.822	36.768	-0.715
23	18	Kyle Busch	Toyota	Interstate Batteries	193.299	37.248	-1.195
24	1	Jamie McMurray	Chevrolet	Bass Pro Shops / Mercury	193.268	37.254	-1.201
25	42	Juan Montoya	Chevrolet	Target	193.138	37.279	-1.226
26	51	Kurt Busch	Chevrolet	HendrickCars.com	192.988	37.308	-1.255
27	191	Reed Sorenson	Ford	Plinker Tactical	192.709	37.362	-1.309
28	47	Bobby Labonte	Toyota	Clorox	192.596	37.384	-1.331
29	13	Casey Mears	Ford	GEICO	192.560	37.391	-1.338
30	93	Travis Kvapil	Toyota	Burger King / Dr Pepper	192.539	37.395	-1.342
31	30	David Stremme	Toyota	Inception Motorsports	192.359	37.430	-1.377
32	31	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet	Wheaties	192.282	37.445	-1.392
33	119	Jason Leffler	Ford	Plinker Tactical	192.205	37.460	-1.407
34	26	Josh Wise*	Ford	MDS Transport	192.179	37.465	-1.412
35	87	Joe Nemechek	Toyota	AM / FM Energy Wood & Pellet Stoves	192.118	37.477	-1.424
36	38	David Gilliland	Ford	Taco Bell	191.790	37.541	-1.488
37	34	David Ragan	Ford	Long John Silver’s	191.724	37.554	-1.501
38	23	Scott Riggs	Chevrolet	North Texas Pipe	189.943	37.906	-1.853
39	10	David Reutimann	Chevrolet	TMone.com	189.036	38.088	-2.035
40	32	T.J. Bell+	Ford	Southern Pride Trucking / U.S. Chrome	185.118	38.894	-2.841
41	43	Aric Almirola+	Ford	Eckrich	-	-	-
42	36	Dave Blaney+	Chevrolet	Tommy Baldwin Racing	-	-	-
43	98	Mike Skinner	Ford	Phil Parsons Racing	189.939	37.907	-1.854