Kasey Kahne Post Michigan Race Interview

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Kasey Kahne NASCARKASEY KAHNE SURVIVES EARLY SPIN TO LEAD THE CHARGE FOR TEAM CHEVY AT MICHIGAN
CHEVROLET CAPTURES FOUR OF THE TOP-10 FINISHING POSITIONS

On lap 68 of the 200-lap Pure Michigan 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race, Kasey Kahne and his No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet avoided a multi-car wreck and slid through the infield grass of Michigan International Speedway. A fast race car, minor repairs by the crew, and 132 laps later, Kahne and the No. 5 team had rallied back to the fourth position as the field roared to life for a final green-white-checkered finish. Kahne was able to gain one position before the checkered flag fell to come home third. This was his fourth top-10 finish in the last seven races.

Dale Earnhardt Jr., who had started the race in the rear of the field in a back-up No. 88 National Guard/Diet Mountain Dew Chevrolet, also rallied back from a rough weekend at MIS to take a fourth place finish behind his Hendrick Motorsports teammate. Kahne and Earnhardt Jr. led Team Chevy by taking two of the top five finishing spots.
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Greg Biffle Post Race Interview on win at Michigan

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Greg Biffle NASCARGREG BIFFLE, No. 16 3M Ford Fusion – THAT WAS A WILD RACE AND GREAT WIN. YOUR THOUGHT? “Yeah, that was a wild race. I tell ya, we struggled with our car throughout the weekend. Friday we were good and worked real hard on it through the eventing. We looked at what the 17 was doing and what we did here last race. We were much faster in the Saturday practices and got it going fast. The race today, my car was super good at the beginning of the race when the track was kind of green and we got going there but once I got on restarts and in traffic I wasn’t that good. I just kept working on it and trying different things, dragging the brakes in the corner to get it go a little better. We were so good out front. I told Matt (Puccia) that is we could get out front we could win with this car. Once I passed a car I could run the next guy down by a half-a-second a lap. I knew once we got out front we would be tough to beat and that was the case. That pit cycle put us back. That was really bad. I got a great restart though and made up a bunch of those spots. We were able to close in on the 48 there on the end. I moved my line around in three and four and moved up getting in the corner and drove it in the corner a lot further and it held and I could go to the gas early. That was the only end he was beating me on and I got it turned around and was catching him and then he had the engine failure. It was going to be a great race no matter what. I felt like I could catch him but we will never know. Passing him might have been a different story but I certainly think with seven to go I could have probably pulled up close to him.”

YOU HAVE BEEN QUIET ALL YEAR LONG, WHAT DOES THIS WIN MEAN TO YOU AS THE COUNTDOWN GETS SO CLOSE? “Well, I know that a lot of people don’t expect us to win the championship and don’t expect us to compete for the title but I don’t care what they say or who they want to talk about or what they want to talk about. We will be a factor when it comes down to Homestead. I promise you that.”
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JIMMIE JOHNSON LEADS THE CHARGE FOR TEAM CHEVY AT MICHIGAN

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CURRENT POINT’S LEADER WILL START THIRD

BROOKLYN, MI – August 17, 2012 – Jimmie Johnson piloting the No. 48 Lowe’s Chevrolet will take the green-flag from the third starting position for the Pure Michigan 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race on Sunday. This will be Johnson’s 15th top-10 start at the 2.0-mile speedway in the Irish Hills.

Johnson’s Hendrick Motorsports teammate, Kasey Kahne driving the No. 5 Farmers Insurance Chevrolet will start fifth. Paul Menard in the No. 27 Menards/Pittsburgh Paints Chevrolet will start 10th.

Mark Martin (Toyota) earned his 55th career pole, Carl Edwards (Ford) will start second, Matt Kenseth (Ford) qualified fourth, Trevor Bayne (Ford) was sixth, Martin Truex Jr. (Toyota) will start seventh, Marcos Ambrose (Ford) eighth and Landon Cassill (Toyota) was ninth to round out the top 10 starting spots.
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Michigan Preview

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The wild card picture is far from settled – will Michigan make it any clearer?

JIMMIE JOHNSON: My Name Is (Not Kid Rock)

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With singer Kid Rock serving as grand marshal for Sunday’s Pure Michigan 400 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Michigan Speedway in Brooklyn, there are plenty of his lyrics that fit Jimmie Johnson’s recent run of hard luck at the 2-mile oval, and none are more appropriate than the opening line of the song My Name Is Kid Rock. “Faded fast, ran outta gas” seems to sum things up best. (Anyone familiar with the lyrical stylings of Kid Rock, a “Pure Michigan” native, it is about the only line appropriate for this preview!)

Johnson hopes to turn around his string of frustrating finishes at the 2-mile Michigan oval as the series makes the season’s second and final visit to the track this weekend. He may have a little more confidence since claiming the top spot in the driver standings after Sunday’s third-place finish at Watkins Glen (N.Y.) International. He knows his modest one-point lead could use some padding, but Michigan has been a thorn in the side of Johnson and the No. 48 Lowe’s team over the years. It is one of only five tracks on the circuit where Johnson has never celebrated one of his 58 victories. Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Ill., Homestead-Miami Speedway, Kentucky Speedway in Sparta and Watkins Glen are the others.
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TONY STEWART: What a Difference a Year Makes

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Last August when the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series rolled into Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Tony Stewart was blunt in assessing his team’s performance. “We’re not setting the world on fire,” said Stewart before the race weekend even began. Then, after a ninth-place finish in the Pure Michigan 400, Stewart famously declared, “If we’re going to run this bad, it really doesn’t matter whether we make the Chase or not because we’re going to be occupying a spot in the Chase that somebody else that can actually run for a championship should take because our stuff is so bad right now, we’re wasting one of those top-12 spots.”

Stewart, of course, made the Chase, and in doing so, set the world on fire behind the wheel of his No. 14 Mobil 1/Office Depot Chevrolet. In record fashion, he won five of the season’s last 10 races en route to securing his third Sprint Cup championship in an epic finale where Stewart won the title over Carl Edwards by virtue of a tiebreaker, as Stewart’s fives wins trumped Edwards’ one.
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KYLE BUSCH: Yes, Michigan

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“Yes, Michigan” became a famous tourism slogan when the Great Lakes State produced a commercial around the theme in 1986 for its 150th birthday.

Fast-forward to some 26 years later and Michigan’s tourism board, Travel Michigan, has flourished with its most recent memorable campaign, “Pure Michigan,” which also happens to be the title sponsor of Sunday’s NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn.

What does this have to do with Kyle Busch, driver of the No. 18 Interstate Batteries Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR)? Well, the talented 27-year-old hopes he’ll be saying, “Yes, Michigan,” by weekend’s end and that his chances of making this year’s edition of the 10-race, 12-driver Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Championship are much more solidified.
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