Kenseth Leads Roush Fenway’s Return To Home Turf

Kenseth Leads Roush Fenway’s Return To Home Turf

Different points leader, same team.
Roush Fenway Racing continues to top the standings for the 12th consecutive race – and 13th time this season – as Daytona 500 winner Matt Kenseth replaced teammate Greg Biffle following his seventh-place finish last Sunday at Pocono Raceway.
Kenseth, the 2003 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion, posted his 10th top-10 finish at Pocono while Biffle, slowed by engine-related problems, finished 24th – his worst result this season – and slipped to third.
"It’s better than being second," said Kenseth, who has qualified for the Chase in seven of eight seasons under the post-season format.
Both drivers, along with Roush Fenway’s Edwards, figure to continue their duel at Michigan. Each has a pair of victories at the track. Edwards is the organization’s most recent winner in August 2008.
Driver Ratings suggest all three are among favorites to win Sunday’s Quicken Loans 400. Biffle and Edwards have identical Michigan Driver Ratings of 106.5. Kenseth is a close third at 104.7. No other contender has a rating in triple digits.
Roush Fenway’s Jack Roush long has been a dominant force at the organization’s home track. Roush Industries is located in the Detroit suburb of Livonia.
One more Roush victory will give the team its 12th Michigan win. It currently shares the top spot on the track’s winners’ list with NASCAR Hall of Famer Glen Wood, whose No. 21 Ford also is entered in Sunday’s race with 2011 Daytona 500 winner Trevor Bayne behind the wheel.
Roush’s first Michigan victory, one of four recorded by then-driver Mark Martin, came in August 1990. Martin’s five Michigan victories rank first among entered drivers. The 53-year-old veteran, now driving for Michael Waltrip Racing, comes off a second-place finish at Pocono.

Drought Notwithstanding, Earnhardt Enjoying Career Season

Lost in Dale Earnhardt Jr.’s weekly quest to break a 143-race winless streak that reaches its fourth anniversary this weekend in Michigan is one simple fact: Junior is on pace to have a career-topping season.
With his 11th top-10 finish of the 2012 season last Sunday at Pocono Raceway, Earnhardt is within one top 10 of matching his total output for last year. He’s on track, should the consistency continue, to record 28 top 10s by season’s end. His previous best, in both 2003 and 2004, is 21.
The driver of the Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet also has moved into second in the standings, 10 points behind Matt Kenseth.
Winning on Sunday – Father’s Day – would be emotional, to say the least. Following Earnhardt’s most recent Michigan win, on June 15, 2008, he paid tribute to his late father and seven-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Dale Earnhardt.
"It's special. You know, my daddy, he meant a lot to me. There's a lot of people that I look up to that just happen to be great fathers themselves, role models for their sons," he said. "It means a lot to me to do well on Father's Day."

Gibbs Dancing Toward Chase Berth

Though Joe Gibbs Racing has only one of its three cars inside the top 10 (the No. 11 of Denny Hamlin), there’s a pretty solid chance that all three cars will wind up in the Chase one way or another.
An unsung trio, JGR is the only team to place three cars in Victory Lane this season.
Hamlin – whose next win would be No. 200 for the No. 11 car – seems like a sure Chase lock. Currently fourth, Hamlin’s a healthy 81 points ahead of the top 10 Chase cutoff. Plus, he has two wins, so there’s the Wild Card fallback as well.
Then there’s the case of Kyle Busch and Joey Logano.
Busch fell out of the top 10 last week, but still holds the No. 1 Wild Card spot. Logano, whose name had been absent of any Chase chatter, immediately earned proper recognition with his impressive Pocono win. He’s now third in the Wild Card standings.
The JGR freight train shouldn’t slow this weekend at Michigan, where it has won three of the last four races, including a sweep last year. In all, JGR has seven Michigan wins, which is tied for third at the two-mile track.

With Michigan Repave, Newman’s Record Will Likely Fall

One repave down, two to go. Pocono Raceway’s facelift produced one of the year’s most intriguing races. Kansas Speedway’s new surface won’t be tested in competition until October.
This Sunday, Michigan International Speedway takes center stage with its new coat of asphalt. Earlier Goodyear Tire tests produced lap speeds that were fast – over 200 mph – and if duplicated, would make the Detroit-area track the fastest among current lap records.
"It's a very fast track but a very comfortable-feeling pace," said two-time Michigan winner Jeff Gordon, who participated in the April test. "The track drives so similar to the way it did before and I believe it's going to have multiple grooves."
Ryan Newman set the current MIS record of 194.232 mph on June 18, 2005. The driver of Stewart-Haas Racing’s No. 39 Chevrolet has been stuck on 49 career poles since last September, when he was the fast qualifier for the second time in 2011 at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. Only eight NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers have recorded 50 or more career poles.

NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Etc.

    Log onto Twitter.com/#NASCAR again this weekend for a complementary insider’s view of the action as it unfolds on the track and on Twitter. During the race on TNT, when fans click on #NASCAR, search for #NASCAR on twitter.com or visit twitter.com/#NASCAR, they’ll reach a Twitter experience where they will see the most relevant tweets from their favorite NASCAR drivers, teams, commentators, celebrities and racing fans and personalities. . … Milestones Watch: Jeff Gordon’s next top-10 finish will be No. 400. Once he reaches the milestone, he’ll be the fifth driver to do so. Also, with 17 laps led, Gordon will reach 23,000 career NSCS laps led. … Joe Nemechek will make his 600th NSCS start on Sunday, good for 23rd on the all-time list. … Austin Dillon will be making his second career NSCS start on Sunday in the No. 33 American Ethanol Chevrolet. He finished 26th in his debut, last October at Kansas. … Dale Earnhardt Jr., driving a special paint scheme this weekend in promotion of The Dark Knight Rises, will start his 450th NSCS start, which is 39th on the all-time list. … Heading into Michigan, Chevrolet (96 points) holds a 13-point advantage over Toyota (83) in the NSCS manufacturers’ standings. Ford has 71 points and Dodge has 58. … Kyle Larson made it 6-for-6 in different winners in the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East when the Rev Racing/NASCAR Drive for Diversity driver picked up his first career NASCAR win at Gresham Motorsports Park in Jefferson, Ga. … The Canadian Tire Series heads back to Canadian Tire Motorsports Park Saturday, this time running on the park’s oval. Points leader JR Fitzpatrick won on the road course in the season opener.