{"id":26725,"date":"2019-06-10T20:50:02","date_gmt":"2019-06-11T01:50:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=26725"},"modified":"2019-06-11T12:15:33","modified_gmt":"2019-06-11T17:15:33","slug":"nascar-monday-michigan-notebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2019\/06\/10\/nascar-monday-michigan-notebook\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Monday Michigan Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Exercising patience as required, Martin Truex Jr. comes home third<\/b><\/p>\n

With four laps left in Monday\u2019s rain-delayed Firekeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway, Truex thought he had second place in the bag.<\/p>\n

He and Kurt Busch were trailing eventual winner Joey Logano\u2014and making progress in a two-car draft\u2014when Erik Jones spun into the infield grass inside Turn 2. That set up an overtime restart, and Busch passed Truex for the runner-up spot on the next-to-last lap.<\/p>\n

\u201cI felt like before that we were going to finish second no matter what,\u201d said Truex, who finished third. \u201cMy mind-set there was at least we got a shot at it here. Rack ’em up, have a green\u2011white\u2011checkered and see.\u201d<\/p>\n

The higher-downforce, lower-horsepower competition package introduced into the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series this season had the desired effect at Michigan\u2014producing closer racing throughout the field. At no point did a leader pull out to a sizable advantage.<\/p>\n

Certain characteristics of the racing also resembled what fans are accustomed to seeing at superspeedways. Cars were fastest with drafting partners and could sustain major runs. On the other hand, a car that pulled out of line alone was in danger of getting freight-trained.<\/p>\n

\u201cMan, you have to be so patient in this racing,\u201d Truex said. \u201cIt’s really hard. Early in the race, I kept getting runs, going underneath guys, getting them in the corner. If you can’t clear them, you lose two, three, four spots every time.\u201d<\/p>\n

DANIEL SUAREZ CHARGES TO FOURTH-PLACE FINISH AT MICHIGAN<\/b><\/p>\n

An up-and-down day ended on the up side for Stewart-Haas Racing driver Daniel Suarez.<\/p>\n

After starting ninth in Monday\u2019s Firekeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway, Suarez fell back in the early going as he fought the handling on his no. 41 Ford. After the second stage, however, Suarez\u2019s car came to life, and by the time the race went to overtime, he had driven up to the sixth position.<\/p>\n

Taking advantage of a strong run in the outside lane, Suarez surged forward after the final restart and gained the fourth spot in the two-lap dash to the finish. The top-five result was Suarez\u2019s second of the season and kept him 13th<\/sup> in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series standings, solidly in contention for a Playoff spot.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe car was pretty strong the entire weekend and then again today,\u201d Suarez said. \u201cWe just struggled for whatever reasons on the long runs in the first half of the race.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were able to make some adjustments and come back, and I\u2019m proud of my guys. We still have some work to do, but we are slowly heading into the right direction.\u201d<\/p>\n

CLINT BOWYER\u2019S ROLLER-COASTER SEASON CONTINUES IN IRISH HILLS<\/b><\/p>\n

On Monday at Michigan International Speedway, Clint Bowyer continued a pattern he would love to break.<\/p>\n

In a feast-or-famine Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season, Bowyer ran fifth at Kanas in May, only to follow that with a 24th<\/sup>-place result, three laps down, in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte.<\/p>\n

A week ago, he finished fifth at Pocono, only to have calamity strike in the next race, Monday\u2019s rain-delayed Firekeepers Casino 400.<\/p>\n

Bowyer, the event\u2019s defending winner, had a top-five car through much of Stage 2, but on Lap 130, his No. 14 Ford broke loose as he was trying to steer away from Erik Jones\u2019 Toyota and backed into the outside wall.<\/p>\n

With his car crippled, Bowyer dropped out of the race in 35th<\/sup> place and feel two spots to 12th<\/sup> in the series standings.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 20 (Jones) got loose, and I tried to basically make an evasive move to get under him,\u201d Bowyer said. \u201cThe 3 (Austin Dillon) was there and got loose under him and then I got into him and ran out of real estate. It was a pretty frustrating day. Pretty frustrating out there.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service   Exercising patience as required, Martin Truex Jr. comes home third With four laps left in Monday\u2019s rain-delayed Firekeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway, Truex thought he had second place in the bag. He and Kurt Busch were trailing eventual winner Joey Logano\u2014and making progress in a two-car<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":26719,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_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},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[219,16],"class_list":["post-26725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-michigan-international-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-6X3","jetpack_likes_enabled":false,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/06\/MENCS_MIS1_Austin_061019.jpg?fit=3616%2C2573&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26725"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26725\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26727,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26725\/revisions\/26727"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26719"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}