This weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series will return to Michigan International Speedway in the Irish Hills of Michigan for their only visit of the season. Coverage of the FireKeepers Casino 400 will begin with Countdown to Green at 2:30 p.m. ET on USA Network. Race coverage is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. ET with green flag being displayed around 3:20 p.m. ET.
Records and facts
Last year's FireKeepers Casino 400 saw Bubba Wallace have a good chance to win his first full-distance NASCAR Cup Series race. With a little more than 40 laps to go, Ross Chastain and Christopher Bell crashed to bring out a yellow.
Everyone pitted and
Kevin Harvick won the race off pit road. Wallace appeared to have a faster car than Harvick at one point, but bobbled and dropped down the order. Harvick was able to open up the gap and hold on to win for his first victory since 2020. Wallace recovered to second, then Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano and Ryan Blaney.
Among active
drivers, Harvick has the most victories with six. Logano and Kyle Larson have three wins each. Denny Hamlin and Ryan Newman (not entered) have two victories.
All-time, David Pearson is the winningest driver at Michigan with nine career victories, including three in a row at one point. His first Michigan win came in the Yankee 600, an attempt to run a
600-mile race at Michigan. It ended up being rain-shortened to 165 laps of the scheduled 300.
Cale Yarborough is second all-time at MIS with eight wins, followed by Bill Elliott with seven. Harvick is fourth with his six, while Mark Martin and Rusty Wallace have five victories apiece.
Track Facts
Track / Race Length: 2-mile "D-Shaped" oval, 156 laps (312 miles)
Banking: 18 degrees
Frontstretch: 3,600 ft., banked 12 degrees
Backstretch: 2,242 ft., banked 5 degrees
Grandstand Seating: 71,000
Pit Road Speed: 45 mph
Pace Car Speed: 55 mph
Opened: 1968 (first Cup race in 1969)
Website: http://www.mispeedway.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MISpeedway
Twitter: http://twitter.com/MISpeedway
Pre-Race Sessions:
Practice: Saturday, Aug. 5, 12:30 - 1:20 p.m. ET on USA Network
Qualifying: Saturday, Aug. 5, 1:20 p.m. on USA Network
"Michigan is the fastest track we go to. It’s really hard to hold your foot down going into turn 1. Your brain is telling you that you need to start lifting, but usually the car can take a bit more. It’s super, super fast and the commitment level is very high. And the groove
is not really wide, which is different than, say, Fontana, where you can go really fast but the groove is very wide. You miss it by a few inches there you will be OK. At Michigan, not so much, especially when the traction compound is live, it’s very sketchy and on edge. We’ve been very consistent there in my time with JGR, but James [Small] and the guys have been bringing fast cars. Hoping Michigan is another place we add to the win list this weekend with our Auto-Owners Insurance Camry. Really
would love to get Auto-Owners a win at their home track. They’ll have a lot of people at the track cheering us on Sunday and hope we can make them proud." - Martin Truex Jr.
"Michigan is always a difficult track just because it’s so fast. You’re going through the corners at such a fast speed that you’re sustaining high speeds all the way around. I’ve won at Michigan once years ago but that was on the old asphalt and now it’s finally getting to
where the current racetrack asphalt is aging and leading itself to wider grooves that you can kind of maneuver around the racetrack a little bit better. Hopefully that’s the case this time around when we go back to Michigan." - Kyle Busch
"I’m looking forward to Michigan. All the cars at SHR have been pretty good at these longer, superspeedway-style race tracks. It’s going to be important to stay out of other people’s messes and just be patient throughout the race. Michigan is such a fast track and every decision you make is crucial.
You want to be able to take off on the straightaway and be on the throttle to gain as much speed as possible. We’ll be able to get a gauge on where our car is at during practice and qualifying and then we can come up with a game plan for the race. We want to keep these solid finishes coming and it would be awesome to bring home a win for Ford at Michigan." - Kevin
Harvick
Phil Allaway is the Newsletter Manager for Frontstretch. He can be reached via e-mail at phil.allaway@frontstretch.com. Photo is courtesy of NASCAR Media via Mike Mulholland of Getty
Images.
