Thursday, June 16, 2011

Driver Chassis Selections For Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400 at Michigan

Note: Not all teams list their chassis selection in their PR releases.

Ragan using strong All-Star car this week (Getty) 
#1-Jamie McMurray: Crew Chief Kevin "Bono" Manion has elected to bring chassis #1104 to Michigan this weekend. This chassis was last used at Charlotte for both the All-Star Race and the Coca-Cola 600. McMurray ran well with this chassis in the 600, leading several laps before losing an engine.

#2-Brad Keselowski: will race chassis PRS-755 during Sunday's Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400 at Michigan. This is a new chassis to the #2 fleet.

#6-David Ragan: Primary: RK-744 Last ran All-Star race - finished eighth; Backup: RK-695 Last ran Phoenix in 2010 as the #99 - finished first.

#9-Marcos Ambrose: The #9 RPM team has prepared chassis No. 743 for the 400-mile event at Michigan. This DEWALT Ford was run previously this season at California and Charlotte in the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race.

#14-Tony Stewart: Chassis No. 14-564: This car debuted at Texas in November 2009, where it delivered a strong performance by qualifying fourth and finishing sixth. The 2009 season finale at Homestead-Miami Speedway marked the car's second career start. There, it qualified fifth and led twice for 43 laps before two separate on-track incidents with Juan Pablo Montoya relegated it to a 22nd-place finish. It saw action during the offseason when it was used for a Goodyear tire test at Texas Jan. 19-20. Chassis No. 14-564 returned to competition in February at Auto Club where in the second race of the 2010 campaign, it started 16th and finished ninth.

It returned to Texas in April for its fourth career start, where it qualified on the pole and led five times for 74 laps before a late-race accident relegated it to an undeserved 32nd-place finish. It was repaired and fitted with a new body for the series' June stop at Michigan, where it qualified 17th and finished a solid fifth. It sat idle until it returned to Michigan for the series' August visit to the 2-mile oval, qualifying fourth and leading three times for 36 laps before finishing sixth.

The October race at Fontana marked Chassis No. 14-564's seventh career start and second at Fontana, and there it delivered Stewart's 39th career Sprint Cup win and his first at Fontana. The same car returned to action in November at Texas, where it qualified 11th and 500 miles later finished 11th.

With a new body honed in the wind tunnel, Chassis No. 14-564 got its first start of 2011 and the ninth of its career at Fontana. It again proved strong, qualifying fifth and leading four times for 11 laps. In the waning laps, however, it dropped from third to 13th after a late-race restart. Its most recent start came in May at Charlotte in the non-points All-Star Race, where it started sixth and finished fourth.

#17-Matt Kenseth: Primary: RK-741 (last raced at Charlotte)

#18-Kyle Busch: Chassis No. 311: This is a brand new chassis that is slated to see action for the first time in Sunday's Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400 at Michigan.

#20-Joey Logano: The #20 Home Depot Team is taking chassis #303 to Michigan this weekend. The team originally brought this chassis to Martinsville, but it was not raced following a practice incident. The team rebuilt the car and will race it for the first time on Sunday. The back-up chassis is #275 that Logano did drive in the Martinsville race and went on to finish in the 13th position.

#22-Kurt Busch & his Steve Addington-led #22 Penske Racing Team will be racing their "PRS-754" Shell-Pennzoil Dodge Charger in this weekend's action at Michigan. This chassis debuted in the June 5 STP 400 at Kansas Speedway. Busch won the pole and dominated the race -- leading four times for 152 of the 267 laps - before the outcome was determined by fuel mileage.

#27-Paul Menard will pilot Chassis No. 326 from the RCR Sprint Cup Series stable. This #27 Chevy was a brand new addition to the RCR fleet for the 2011 season and was last seen in competition on track at Bristol Motor Speedway where Menard brought home a fifth-place result after starting from the fourth position. This car also saw paces this year during the non-points Sprint Showdown at Charlotte where Menard started third and finished 11th.

Harvick using winning Fontana car; gave Burton his winning Michigan ride
#29-Kevin Harvick: will race chassis No. 299 from the RCR Sprint Cup Series stable. The team utilized this race car twice in 2010 and twice this year. Last season, Harvick recorded finishes of second at Las Vegas (2/28) and 19th at Michigan (6/13) in this car. So far this year he's driven chassis No. 299 to a win at Auto Club Speedway (3/28) and a 10th-place finish at Dover (5/15).

#31-Jeff Burton: will race chassis No. 288 from the RCR Sprint Cup Series stable. A former #29 racer, teammate Kevin Harvick raced this chassis eight times in 2010, earning three top-five and six top-10 finishes. The top-five runs included second-place finishes at Auto Club Speedway (2/21) and Indianapolis Motor Speedway (7/25) and Harvick's win at Michigan (8/15). Most recently, this RCR entry competed at Pocono Raceway last weekend where Harvick scored a fifth-place finish.

#33-Clint Bowyer: will pilot chassis No. 350 from the RCR Sprint Cup Series stable. This Chevy, built new for 2011, has now seen action twice this season - the first being a runner-up finish at Texas in April and the most recent coming two weeks ago in the Coca-Cola 600 when Bowyer brought home a 15th-place effort.

#36-Dave Blaney: will pilot the #78 chassis this weekend at Michigan. TBR previously ran the chassis at Kansas, Richmond, Martinsville and Phoenix. Blaney drove the #78 chassis to TBR's best finish of 13th at Richmond earlier this season.

JPM rolling with Charlotte car that raced at Michigan in 2010
#42-Juan Pablo Montoya: Crew Chief Brian Pattie will bring chassis #1015 to Michigan. This chassis was used earlier this year at Charlotte along with Michigan last season.

#43-A.J. Allmendinger: The #43 RPM team has prepared chassis No. 710 for this weekend's event at Michigan. This Best Buy Ford has been run previously this season at Bristol and Dover.

#48-Jimmie Johnson: finished 28th in primary chassis No. 659 at Charlotte in May. Backup chassis No. 623 crossed the finish line 16th at Las Vegas in March.

#99-Carl Edwards: RK-739; Last outing: Dover in May - finished 7th

- from Jayski.com

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