Backstretch Motorsports

“Michigan is a flat two-mile oval, and track position is huge there. It could turn into a fuel-mileage race at any time so you really have to be on your toes and be aware of what could happen.” — Tony Eury Jr., crew chief No. 88 National Guard/AMP Energy Chevrolet, most recent winner at MIS in June.

The Michigan International Speedway is a key player in NASCAR racing. Firstly, it’s in the backyard of the “Big Three”, Chevy, Dodge and Ford and traditionally a source of bragging rights for the Motor City brands with the win there.

Toyota has certainly made huge strides in knocking on the winning door at MIS.

The racing at the track has a traditon of being particularly good to the Roush-Fenway Racing group, as they have won 10 races there overall, second only to the Wood brothers who have 11 wins.

Carl Edwards on his own and Roush Fenway’s special providence at the MIS track: “Michigan has a lot of personal history for me and I’m always glad to go there – it’s where I made my first Cup start, where I made my 100th start and where I broke a 52-race winless streak with a win for Office Depot in June of last year. It’s a great track with some really awesome racing. You can pass and I think the fans always see a good show there. Michigan is a kind of bragging rights track. It’s in Roush’s back yard, Ford’s back yard – so another win there would be huge.”

Bobby Labonte is no stranger to the win at MIS with three trophys in his case and talks about the significance to the manuafcturer’s contingency in attendance: “There are certain tracks that you circle on the schedule as places where you want to do well, places that have a different meaning. Daytona and Lowe’s always come to mind. But Michigan is one too. There is usually a large group of Dodge employees that make the drive down from Detroit and you want to perform well in front of them. The support that we get from Dodge is huge. We couldn’t do this without them.”

Drivers like the wide corners and long straights, and being able to race to the absolute limits of the car. Racing can easily fan out to a maintainable three-wide in the corners. The track is not particularly stressful on the chassis, fatigue is kept to a minimum. Its not hard on tires and a complete fuel run is usually the norm.

The track lends itself to multiple grooves, and higher lines become extremely useful as the tires wear and more rubber gets into the lower to middle grooves. Put simply, the wider the oval becomes, the less steering input a driver has to use to maintain race speeds. But it is still hardest to maintain the very “usable but dicey” extreme outside groove right against the wall. As the tire wear becomes more evident, the loose material in that groove can wipe out the right side of a car quickly, as speeds are consistent up high and it’s a short two feet to the wall should there be a wiggle from the car.

Tony Stewart on racing at MIS: “It’s so wide and there are so many lines that you can run – that’s what makes Michigan fun for drivers. You have to figure out how to gauge your momentum and know where you want to be on that race track when you enter those corners. Michigan’s layout gives the drivers the flexibility to really make a difference in their car’s handling.”

“As soon as you feel like you’re not where you need to be. If you feel like you’re slower than the pace you need to be running, you’re going to move up the race track and find a place that helps balance your race car. Really, from the drop of the green flag, you do it from there on out.”

Being able to run a tire/fuel stint at the big 2 mile oval also means that fuel mileage is the premium and drivers have to start thinking about how to save fuel almost from the drop of the green.

Kyle Busch on last time the Sprint Cup Series raced there: For me, coming to Michigan, I tend to run well here, for whatever reason, and the biggest deal is trying to finish, and finish up front. We ran toward the front there in June, but we ended up making a late pit stop, and with all the fuel mileage strategy that was going on, we ended up getting shuffled back. We’ve had some great runs with the car that we are bringing this weekend, so I’m hoping we can improve on our June finish and keep the momentum going from last week’s win.”

So strategies play the all-important role, the call from the pit box in the hope that something will fall your way in the final 20 or so laps, something that just as easily can keep you from victory lane.

Jimmie Johnson on that subject: “To be honest with you, I’m shocked that we haven’t won here. We’ve had very good cars and have been in contention a couple of different times. It always seems like there’s a crazy strategy at the end that keeps us from winning. It’s either a two-tire deal, we’ve taken no tires when we’ve had a great race car and been leading and lost to guys that have had tires. We’ve also lost to fuel mileage before. So it’s just a weird finish to this race. In some cases the best car wins here but in other cases it’s something strategy-wise that plays out and it just hasn’t worked for us here.”

For some, MIS can be considered a less-than-exciting race to watch, but nothing could be further from the truth.

The races at Michigan are the epitome of working the entire package of team, driver and car to the best of what racing strategy is all about.

stay tuned.