Wednesday, June 5, 2019

Who will win the 100th NASCAR Cup race at Michigan?

Denny Hamlin won at Michigan in 2011.
The NASCAR Cup Series has been racing twice a year at Michigan International Speedway since 1969, with the exception of 1973 when they raced only once because of a national fuel shortage. Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 will be the 100th Cup on the wide 2-mile layout located in the Irish Hills of Brooklyn, MI., 74 miles southwest of the Motor City.

The 15th race of the season will be the seventh using the race package with engines producing 500 horsepower with nearly the same body design. This race is always about the manufacturers with Detroit so close by. Executives from Ford, Chevrolet, and Toyota will all be hand looking to do some bragging before, during and after the race.

Ford has led the way at Michigan with 37 wins and they also have another 12 wins from the Mercury division which accounts for more than half the Cup wins in track history. Chevrolet has 26 wins with 10 other wins from the General Motors brand between Buick, Pontiac and Oldsmobile. Dodge has nine wins and the newest brand in the series, Toyota, has five wins. Incidentally, the Toyota Camry is manufactured in Georgetown, KY.

Ford swept both races last season with Stewart-Haas Racing teammates Clint Bowyer and Kevin Harvick, but this season it’s been Toyota doing most of the celebrating at tracks visited so far. Joe Gibbs Racing has won nine of the 14 races this season for Toyota, the last coming Sunday at Pocono with Kyle Busch winning his series-leading fourth race of 2019. And by the way, I must admit I was dead wrong about the expected racing at Pocono which I promised would be better with this new package. Only 13 lead changes among nine drivers with only three drivers leading 25 laps or more. it looked just like every other Pocono race.

But Sunday’s race should have us getting back to what we saw at Charlotte two weeks ago with lots of passing. The teams have been getting better with this package each week and I expect it to continue with another race on a high-speed oval. We might even see a Chevrolet back in the winner’s circle, something we’ve seen happen only once this season with Chase Elliott winning at Talladega.

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