Roush Dominant While Hendrick Stumbles at Michigan

NASCAR at Michigan

Photo Courtesy Hendrick Motorsports

A race that left Jack Roush with the winning car and 4 cars finishing in the top 5 was nothing but a headache for Rick Hendrick - who had 3 cars involved in on track incidents, and his highest finishing car in 17^th.

“Carl is right there, has been all year.” ~ Kyle Busch

“Well, I can’t believe my good fortune,” said winning car owner Jack Roush. “I’ve been in the presence of really fast company, starting with Mark Martin here in 1988. We didn’t win in ‘88 but we were in contention from the very beginning.”

“Everybody did a super job, and as the crew chiefs and the drivers made their adjustments toward the end of the day, they were able to salvage the situation so that everybody was in the top ten, and certainly except for Kyle Busch being up there, we had a chance to have two or three winners, or actually four winners, out of the top five.”

Apparently Carl Edwards was a little nervous about restarting the race with 2 laps to go, and Kyle Busch on his rear bumper.

“Where was it, Chicago, it came down to, Kyle and Jimmie? Jimmie lost it on that restart because Kyle is good at restarts,” said Edwards, “and that’s just the facts. So I just didn’t want to have to go through that pain, so I just did everything I could to have the best restart I could, and it worked out great.”

When asked what it meant to win at Michigan, Roush’s home track, and home to Ford Motor Company, Edwards responded: “Well, it means a lot to me. Four years ago today I ran my first Cup race for Jack Roush, and he took a giant gamble on me I felt like at the time to put me in that car. Jack won the race that day. I believe Greg (Biffle) won it, and we finished 10th. All five of the cars were in the top ten. And to be a part of that again today for Ford Motor Company, for Roush and for all the guys, it’s an honor.”

The race got off to an interesting start, with two Chevrolet’s teaming up to deny Toyota a chance to lead the first lap.

When the green flag flew on lap one Dale Earnhardt Jr tucked the nose of his No. 88 Chevrolet against the rear bumper of team mate Jimmie Johnson. That move pushed Johnson ahead of pole sitter Brian Vickers’ Toyota.

It almost looked like the Hendrick team had a pact with Chevrolet to deny Toyota a chance to lead the first lap.

Johnson would lead until lap 8, when Dale Earnhardt Jr took the lead.

On the first pit stop Earnhardt took 4 tires and gas in 15.5 seconds, but still lost 2 positions on pit road after coming in with the lead.

Three Hendrick Motorsports cars had problems in the race.

First it was an incident involving Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson that would send Johnson to pit road with a flat tire on lap 92 — putting him one lap down.

Johnson and Gordon ran out of racing room when the action got 3 wide, with Tony Stewart on the outside and Gordon in the middle.

On lap 43 Earnhardt — while leading, Earnhardt radioed to his crew, “I’ve got a big, big, big, big big problem. The water temperature is at 260, and the oil temperature is at 300.” It turned out that the No. 88 car had picked up some debris that was covering the front air intake.

After Dale Jr was able to tuck the nose of his car behind he Toyota of Brian Vickers he was able to clear the debris, but the spiked temperatures apparently hurt the engine. The car was never as fast after that.

Five laps later Jeff Gordon’s car blew a right front tire — likely a result of the contact with the No. 48 car — and hit the outside retaining wall hard. The damage would send Gordon to the garage for repairs. Gordon would eventually return to the track just long enough to bring cause another caution due to debris falling off his wrecked race car. Gordon headed to the garage again — this time for good.

Then on lap 183 Dale Earnhardt Jr smacked the wall, doing damage to the right side of the No. 88 Chevy. Earnhardt pitted for tires and to pull away some beat up sheet metal, but was able to continue the race.

Just when the Hendrick group thought they were going to get out of Michigan before anything else happened Jimmie Johnson took a spin through the grass after tangling with Travis Kvapil’s No. 28 Ford on the final lap as the field was coming to the checkered flag.

Still Johnson had the highest finish for a Hendrick car at 18th. Dale Earnhardt Jr finished 23rd, and Jeff Gordon was next to last at 42nd.

Edwards strong run was not lost on Championship leader Kyle Busch. Busch finished 2^nd to Edwards - but was not a threat to make a pass as Edwards was able to easily pull away from Busch’s No. 18 Toyota.

Busch did not seem to take Edwards’ dominance lightly as the Sprint Cup Chase approached. “Carl is right there, has been all year, said Busch. He’s been the guy that we’ve got to race on these mile and a half, two mile racetracks. He’s been decent at other racetracks, too, but not as stout as he is at these, and there’s a lot of those in the Chase.”

With just 3 races remaining before the Chase begins the pressure continues to build as NASCAR heads to the half mile Bristol bullring for a Saturday night shootout under the lights.