The rain delayed FireKeepers Casino 400 was well worth the wait for Joey Logano. The Team Penske driver led a race high 164 of 213 laps en route to his 23rd career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series on Monday.
Logano, gave up the lead to pit for the final time of the race on Lap 175, but got it back 10 laps later when the pit sequence ended. Despite an Erik Jones spin in Turn 2 on Lap 195, Logano’s No. 22 Ford had a great launch on the final restart of the race in overtime and cruised to his first victory in the last 11 races and second of the season.
The defending Cup Series champion and pole sitter of the race at Michigan won the first straight of the race and earned his third career win on the 2-mile oval tying the Chip Ganassi Racing duo of Kurt Busch and Kyle Larson for most among active drivers in NASCAR’s premiere series.
Speaking of Busch, he brought his No. 1 Chevrolet home second for his first top five result in the series since Bristol in April. Busch, finished third and sixth respectively at Michigan last year and has scored nine top 10 finishes this season.
Busch, crossed the finish line just 0.147-seconds behind Logano who gives Ford their third straight win at Michigan and fourth in the last seven tries. The Team Penske driver also has finished in the top 10 in all but one race at Michigan since joining the organization in 2013.
Martin Truex Jr. finished third in his No. 19 Toyota for his ninth top 10 result of the year and fifth top six in his last nine Michigan tries. Daniel Suarez would finish fourth in his No. 41 Ford for his second consecutive top 10 finish on the season. He finished eighth last week in Pocono.
The Pocono race winner in Kyle Busch rounded out the top five in his No. 18 Toyota. It was Busch’s third straight top five finish on the year as well as at Michigan too.
Here are my main takeaways from Sunday’s race.
Penske/JGR Continue Dominance
Through 15 races run this season, Joe Gibbs Racing and Team Penske have combined to win 14 of them. Kyle Busch leads all drivers with four wins in his No. 18 Toyota while his teammate Martin Truex Jr. and Team Penske’s Brad Keselowski each have reached victory lane three time a piece.
Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano now have two wins.
Combined, that’s nine wins for JGR and five for Penske.
The only non JGR or Penske driver to win was Hendrick Motorsport’s Chase Elliott who won at Talladega back in April.
In fact, if you go back to last year at that, 16 of the last 17 races have been won by these two organizations. Heck, lets go even further back why don’t we.
Kevin Harvick’s win at Texas was later taken away, so lets skip that race. Logano, won the race prior in Martinsville. Elliott won the race prior to that in Kansas. The last non JGR/Penske/Elliott win was Aric Almirola at Talladega.
The last legitimate win not of JGR/Penske/Elliott was all the way back at Bristol last August. Penske and JGR have won 22 of the last 26 legit races run – again, excluding Texas last November. Two of those races that they didn’t win was at Talladega. The other two were won by Elliott.
That’s how you spell D-O-M-I-N-A-N-C-E.
Stewart-Haas Racing Has Fallen
At this point last year, SHR was celebrating a 1-2-3 finish at Michigan. It was their seventh win in 15 tries in 2018. But, over the last 36 races, they’ve reached victory lane just three times, including that L-1 victory at Texas. All three of those wins came last year at that, as they’ve been shut out in 2019 so far.
7-for-15 last year, 0-for-15 this year.
Suarez, was their best finisher on Monday for his sixth top 10 result of 2019. He was 16th and 12th respectively though in the stages.
Kevin Harvick was second best in finishing seventh in his No. 4 Ford. Harvick, finished in the top two in both races at Michigan last year and had a win and six runner-ups to go along with two fifth place runs since joining SHR. He was only seventh on Monday. In fact, over the last six races on the season, Harvick has just one top five. Furthermore, he hasn’t finished better than fourth in all 15 races this year and has led just 297 laps so far.
Combined, SHR has led a total of 491 circuits in 2019. For example, Kyle Busch has led 763 laps by himself. Even Hendrick Motorsports has led more laps than SHR 715-491.
Harvick, had a fast race car, but he developed a bad vibration early on, so much so he had to pit multiple times and fell down a lap in the first stage. He eventually not only gained his lap back, but he even challenged for the win in the closing portions of the race. Unfortunately, a four tire stop when everyone else took two, or even none, cost him a top five.
Aric Almirola finished 17th but that was after being fourth and fifth respectively in the two stages. Almirola, started the year off with six top 10 finishes in his first seven races but only has two in his last eight starts.
Clint Bowyer crashed out and only came home 35th on Monday too.
Hendrick Motorsports’ Strong Run Comes To An End
Entering this weekend, Hendrick Motorsports had some of the best speed in the sport. But, they all four struggled on Monday.
Chase Elliott’s five race stretch of a top five finish in every race ended with a 20th place result. It was his worst career Michigan finish as the Georgia native had a top 10 in all six tries entering this weekend.
William Byron had three top 10 finishes in his last four starts on the season but only came home 18th in his No. 24 Chevrolet.
Jimmie Johnson had two top eight finishes in his last three starts on the year but could only muster a 15th place finish in his No. 48 Chevrolet.
Alex Bowman was the best out of the bunch in coming home 10th in his No. 88 Chevrolet. Bowman, now has five top 10 finishes in his last six starts on the year.
Ryan Blaney Finally Gets Going, All 3 Penske’s Finish In The Top 10
This has been a tough year for Ryan Blaney. Heading into this weekend, Blaney had six straight finishes outside of the top 10. But, Michigan delivered his first top 10 since Bristol with a ninth place result in his No. 12 Ford. This was his third straight top 10 in Irish Hills.
Combine that with a win for Logano and a sixth place result for Brad Keselowski, and you get a great day for Penske.
Keselowski, has three top six finishes in his last four starts on the season to go along with nine top 10 finishes in his last 11 Michigan starts.
FireKeepers Casino 400 Results
- 22 Logano
- 1 KuBusch
- 19 Truex Jr.
- 41 Suarez
- 18 KyBusch
- 2 Keselowski
- 4 Harvick
- 6 Newman
- 12 Blaney
- 88 Bowman
- 11 Hamlin
- 8 Hemric R
- 21 Menard
- 42 Larson
- 48 Johnson
- 37 Buescher
- 10 Almirola
- 24 Byron
- 17 Stenhouse Jr.
- 9 Elliott
- 95 DiBenedetto
- 13 TDillon
- 32 LaJoie
- 36 Tifft R
- 47 Preece R
- 3 ADillon -1
- 34 McDowell -1
- 43 Wallace Jr. -2
- 00 Cassill -2
- 15 Smithely -3
- 20 Jones -4
- 77 Houff -5
- 52 Bilicki -6
- 38 Ragan -8
- 14 Bowyer OUT
- 51 Weatherman OUT
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