The NASCAR Sprint Cup series heads to Michigan International Speedway Sunday for the Quicken Loans 400. Which driver will be quickest to get the win?
Drivers will be running at speeds of 200 mph at times as the race around the two-mile track for 200 laps. That means they will have to be up on the wheel and ready to react for 400 miles. If their car starts to get loose, they will need to react quickly to keep it under control. If car ahead of them or around them loses control, they will need to react quickly to avoid being collected in an accident that can ruin their chances at winning.
The cars will be running fast and the crews will need to be equally fast during pit stops. The key words for the crews will be mistake free. A mistake in the pits will cost the driver positions on the track that could be difficult to make up. A fast and mistake free pit stop can gain the driver positions on the track that could put them in position to go for the win.
There is plenty of room at Michigan International Speedway for the cars to go two, three, four even five wide at times. A driver that has a car handling well and the power to make a move to the bottom can gain several positions at once if they can control themselves and their cars enough to make the move.
Michigan is also a track where fuel mileage can come into play. You know that the crew chiefs will be calculating the fuel numbers all race long to create a strategy that could take a car that does not have the speed to win the race and put it in Victory Lane.
So, which drivers have the best performance resume at Michigan? Here are the top ten in Sprint Cup driver rating at Michigan International Speedway.
#1 – Greg Biffle – 107.1 driver rating with 4 wins
#2 – Jimmie Johnson – 102.5 driver rating with 1 win
#3 – Matt Kenseth – 101.3 driver rating with 2 wins
#4 – Carl Edwards – 100.5 driver rating with 2 wins
#5 – Dale Earnhardt Jr. – 98.0 driver rating with 2 wins
#6 – Tony Stewart – 95.8 driver rating with 1 win
#7 – Jeff Gordon – 93.6 driver rating with 2 wins
#8 – Joey Logano – 91.8 driver rating with 1 win
#9 – Kevin Harvick – 90.2 driver rating with 1 win
#10 – Kurt Busch – 89.9 driver rating with 2 wins
Greg Biffle is the active driver with the most wins at Michigan. He has not had the best or worst season so far in 2015. He has only one top five and two top ten finishes so far this year. However, he is 18th in the NASCAR Sprint Cup point standings. Perhaps this weekend is when he puts it all together to get a win and jump onto the Chase Grid as a winner.
Jimmie Johnson had not won a race at Michigan prior to this race last year. It was one of only a few tracks that the six-time Sprint Cup Champion had not scored a win. He changed that by grabbing his first Michigan win at the end of the race. He has already captured four checkered flags in the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup season. Sunday he could defend his 2014 win of the race to make it five wins for the year.
Martin Truex Jr. has not won at Michigan yet as a Sprint Cup driver and only has three top five and five top ten finishes with a driver rating of 79.1 at the track. However, he has been having the best year of his career and is coming off his first win of the season at Pocono last week. It is entirely possible that Martin scores back-to-back wins by getting his first win at Michigan.
I believe I am going to make Denny Hamlin one of my “dark horse” picks for this weekend. Call it a gut feeling, but I think the driver that won this race in 2010 and 2011 (his only two wins at the track) might just find his way to get win number three at Michigan.
My other “dark horse” pick will be every other car on the track. The reason is that as I pointed out above Michigan can be a track where fuel millage comes into play. If any crew chief manages to get the right strategy paired up with the driver’s ability to save fuel that car could wind up in Victory Lane at the end of the day.
Will the Quicken Loans 400 end with a drag race between two or more cars with power and handling or a car coasting to the checkered flag based on being able to longer than any other without stopping for fuel? We will all find out which scenario plays out Sunday, June 14th when the NASCAR Sprint Cup series takes the Michigan International Speedway at 12 noon central time.
By: Buck Stevens
