Greg Biffle Wins at Michigan

Gregg Biffle won the Quicken Loans 400 at Michigan International Raceway Sunday afternoon holding off a hard charging Jimmie Johnson in the closing laps to notch his first win of the season.

The win was the 19^th of Biffle’s career and the 1000^th win for Ford in NASCAR. The win puts Greg Biffle eighth in points and also will give him ten bonus points if he makes The Chase this season. “It’s definitely a special day, just super-excited for Ford and sure excited to be No. 1,000.” Biffle said while holding his daughter and standing with car owner, Jack Roush, in victory lane.

Kevin Harvick finished in second, moving up one place in the standings to fourth. Martin Truex, Jr. finished third and moved up four spots in the standings to 13^th, 12 points out of tenth place. Kyle Busch finished the day in fourth and Tony Stewart finished fifth, moving him back into the top-10 in points.

While the Roush-Fenway camp was celebrating, the Hendrick camp was left to scratch their heads after all four drivers finished outside the top-25. It all started on lap six when Bobby Labonte lost control of his car and spun right in front Jeff Gordon, who hit him head-on, ending both of their days. Gordon dropped five spots in the points to 15th and finds himself 19 points out of the top-10.

Kasey Kane was leading the race in his Farmers Insurance Chevrolet when he shot out of the racing groove and hit the wall at speeds of over 180mph. The car erupted into flames as Kane dropped the window net down, signaling that he was ok and climbed out of the car. The incident drops Kahne four spots to 12th in the standings, ten points out of the top-ten. Kahne is also still eligible for a wild-card spot due to his win earlier this year at Bristol.

Dale Jr. came into the Quicken Loans 400 eager to snap his 36 race losing streak, but found his day in shambles as he blew his engine while leading the race. Jr. finished 37th and dropped to seventh in the standings. When asked about his engine failure by reporters,  Jr. stated “It made a lot of damage there when it broke. I’m not sure they’re going to be able to figure out what happened.” Jr. started 5^th and led 34 laps before blowing the engine.

Jimmie Johnson marched his way up from tenth to second on the final restart of the race, desperately trying to play spoiler to Biffle’s win.  Just as Johnson was within one second of Biffle, Johnson had a tire go down knocking him into the wall and finishing 28^th. Despite the blown tire, Johnson remains first in the point standings 31 points ahead of second place Carl Edwards.

Joey Logano showed power in Sunday’s race finishing 9th after leading 21 laps. The finish is Logano’s seventh top-ten of the season and moves him up two spots to 14^th in points.  Defending series champion, Brad Keselowski had a disappointing day finishing twelfth.  The finish keeps Keselowski 9th in the point standings, 15 points ahead of 11^th place.

The day was also a disappointment for Kurt Busch who sat on outside pole and led the first 21 laps of the race before his car broke loose and ended his day. Busch finished 35^th and dropped five positions in the point standings. After Michigan, Busch finds himself 20^th in points and 33 points out of tenth place.

Denny Hamlin decided to pay tribute to his friend, Jason Leffler by repainting the colors of his FedEx Toyota white and black to match Lefflers old paint scheme when he drove for Joe Gibbs Racing. Despite the tribute to Leffler, who died Wednesday night at a short track in New Jersey, Hamlin came home disappointed with a 30^th place finish.  The finish puts Hamlin 26^th in points and all but guarantees he will not make the chase this season.

With eleven races to go before the ten race cutoff in September, I find myself looking at Clint Bowyer as the solid threat to Johnson’s title. Bowyer has stayed quiet this season mounting four top-fives and eight top-tens. For everyone thinking he can’t beat Johnson, just look at last year when he finished one position ahead of Johnson in the final point standings.

Looking at the results from this season it is interesting to note that during the first 15 races of the season, the 43 car field has already visited seven of the ten chase tracks that they will race at come September (Phoenix, Martinsville, Charlotte, Dover, Kansas, Texas, and Talladega). What’s surprising about this is if you add up Johnson and Bowyers finishes during those races, Johnson would only beat Bowyer by four points. Bowyer keeps it close due to Johnson’s penalty at Dover and his wreck at Charlotte.

Now if we look at Johnson and Bowyers finishes last year at the tracks that are only visited during the chase (Chicago, and Homestead) Bowyer would win the championship by 24 points over the five the time champion. Of course this is not including the New Hampshire race later this summer.

To me, all signs point to Jimmie Johnson needing to remain consistent and eliminate any errors to win the championship this season. If Johnson is not able to accomplish this expect consistent Clint Bowyer to be your new Sprint cup champion.

The Sprint Cup Series will head to Sonoma California this Sunday for the first road course race of the 2013 season. Expect Clint Bowyer and Michael Waltrip Racing to put together a great race strategy and possibly win the race. Another driver to watch is Tony Stewart.  With three straight top-tens since Dover, and two wins at Sonoma, expect Smoke to be rising and win the first road course of the season.

Finishing order.

1. Greg Biffle
2. Kevin Harvick
3. Martin Truex Jr.
4. Kyle Busch
5. Tony Stewart
6. Matt Kenseth
7. Clint Bowyer
8. Carl Edwards
9. Joey Logano
10. Jeff Burton
11. Austin Dillion
12. Brad Keselowski
13. Danica Patrick
14. Paul Menard
15. Trevor Bayne
16. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
17. Aric Armirolla
18. Ryan Newman
19. AJ Allmindinger
20. Juan Pablo Montoya
21. Casey Mears
22. David Gilliland
23. Marcos Ambrose
24. JJ. Yeley
25. David Regan
26. Mark Martin
27. Travis Kvaphil
28. Jimmie Johnson
29. David Stremme
30. Denny Hamlin
31. Dave Blaney
32. David Reutiman
33. Jamie Mcmurray
34. Ken Schrader
35. Kurt Busch
36. Joe Nemechek
37. Dale Earnhardt Jr.
38. Kasey Kahne
39. Jeff Gordon
40. Josh Wise
41. Mike Bliss
42. Michael Mcdowell
43. Bobby Labonte