{"id":18621,"date":"2018-06-05T17:54:28","date_gmt":"2018-06-05T22:54:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=18621"},"modified":"2018-06-05T17:54:28","modified_gmt":"2018-06-05T22:54:28","slug":"michigan-sets-the-stage-for-rising-talent-in-nascar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2018\/06\/05\/michigan-sets-the-stage-for-rising-talent-in-nascar\/","title":{"rendered":"Michigan sets the stage for rising talent in NASCAR"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Reigning Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series<\/a> champion Martin Truex Jr.\u2019s<\/strong> win at Pocono Raceway<\/strong> over the weekend provided a good glimpse at how the 2018 title hunt may well shape up.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #78 Bass Pro Shops\/5-hour ENERGY Toyota, leads Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Busch Beer Ford, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr., driver of the #17 Little Hug Fruit Barrels Ford, during the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Pocono 400 at Pocono Raceway on June 3, 2018 in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Truex picked up his second victory of the season and is the only driver other than five-time winner Kevin Harvick and four-time winner Kyle Busch with more than one win. And those two sure-bet title chasers were right on Truex\u2019 No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Toyota\u2019s bumper \u2013 finishing third and fourth, respectively.<\/p>\n

Just behind Truex, however, was 24-year old Kyle Larson, who notched his third runner-up finish of the season and fourth consecutive top-10.<\/p>\n

Many left Pocono with good reason to feel the race may have been a preview of what to expect in the Homestead-Miami season finale that crowns a champion.<\/p>\n

\u201cI’m good with it,” the Chip Ganassi Racing driver Larson said smiling on Sunday. \u201cLet’s do it.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #78 Bass Pro Shops\/5-hour ENERGY Toyota, takes the checkered flag to win the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Pocono 400 at Pocono Raceway on June 3, 2018 in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Jared C. Tilton\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

\u201cI don’t know, I think three out of the four have definitely been the best. I think I would say me. I mean, I’m the only one that doesn’t have a win in the front four. But yeah, I mean, the 2 (Brad Keselowski), the 12 (Ryan Blaney) yeah, I don’t know. I think that three of those guys are definitely head over heels better than the rest of us, but I think from fourth to sixth or seventh best car, it’s pretty close.\u201d<\/p>\n

As the series begins stock car\u2019s Summer Solstice, it\u2019s compelling and telling to see how the young drivers such as Larson have historically done at this week\u2019s 2-mile Michigan Speedway.<\/p>\n

Certainly the veterans such as Busch, Harvick and Truex have quickly reminded everyone they are repeat championship-worthy, but this week\u2019s Michigan venue, in particular, has recently been a track where the young stars have earned headlines and earned respect.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Martin Truex Jr., driver of the #78 Bass Pro Shops\/5-hour ENERGY Toyota, celebrates with a burnout after winning the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Pocono 400 at Pocono Raceway on June 3, 2018 in Long Pond, Pennsylvania. (Photo by Sarah Crabill\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Larson isn\u2019t just the defending race winner, he has actually won three straight at Michigan, including this week\u2019s race from the pole position last June. Five of his eight starts at the track are top-10 finishes, four of the eight are top-three results.<\/p>\n

Michigan has proven itself a mecca of late for NASCAR\u2019s rising young Cup talent.<\/p>\n

Consider this. In the June, 2017 Michigan race, Larson won, Elliott (then 20-years old), finished second , Joey Logano (then 26) was third and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (then 28) was eighth.<\/p>\n

In the August, 2017 Michigan race, Larson won again, Erik Jones (21 years-old) was third, Chris Buescher (then 24) was sixth, Austin Dillon (then 27) was seventh and then 20-year old Elliott was eighth. Half of the top-10 was under the age of 28.<\/p>\n

Logano, 28, has two wins and three pole positions at Michigan and has finished out of the top-10 only ONCE since 2012.<\/p>\n

Jones, 21, finished 13th and third in his two starts at his home state venue \u2013 leading five laps in the late summer Michigan race.<\/p>\n

Elliott, 22, who finished 10th at Pocono on Sunday, actually had an amazing string of second-place finishes in his first four starts at Michigan. He was eighth in the late summer race there in 2017. And as he is prone to do, the young talent shares so much of that credit with his crew chief on the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Alan Gustafson.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe has won races there,” Elliott said of Gustafson before last year\u2019s Michigan race. \u201cHe has a good feel for the racetrack. We ran well there the first race and I really think because we ran well, we went back and worked harder to try to run better.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think a lot of times when you have a good run at a racetrack, especially with the way the Michigan dates are \u2013 they are so close together \u2013 you could think you could just go back with the same thing and run well. Where in reality, I think that is a good way to get behind and I think he did a good job of staying up on things and making sure we improved and didn\u2019t just stay the same.\u201d<\/p>\n

Larson had a win (at Fontana, Calif.) and five runner-up finishes before his June Michigan masterpiece \u2013 from pole position to race trophy – last year and seems to be carrying that same momentum with a runner-up this past weekend.<\/p>\n

Of course, Busch, Harvick and Truex may have something to say about the Michigan \u201cyoung guns\u201d recent trend considering their own early 2018 season dominance. But there\u2019s no denying this track certainly has given plenty of hard-earned optimism and enthusiasm to NASCAR\u2019s newest Generation-Fast. <\/p>\n

\u201cI’m excited to go there off of three wins in a row,” Larson said. \u201cYou know, for whatever reason, we’ve been fast there. We actually weren’t that fast the last one we had, but we were able to have some good restarts at the end.<\/p>\n

\u201cHopefully we can go and have our car as competitive as it was the first two times and try and get a fourth win.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – Reigning Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series champion Martin Truex Jr.\u2019s win at Pocono Raceway over the weekend provided a good glimpse at how the 2018 title hunt may well shape up. Truex picked up his second victory of the season and is the only driver other […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18575,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[244,219,16],"class_list":["post-18621","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-martin-truex-jr","tag-michigan-international-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/06\/MENCS_PIR1_Burnout_060318.jpg?fit=3759%2C2454","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-4Ql","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18621","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18621"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18621\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18623,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18621\/revisions\/18623"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18575"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18621"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18621"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18621"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}