{"id":42956,"date":"2023-08-03T17:33:50","date_gmt":"2023-08-03T22:33:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=42956"},"modified":"2023-08-05T17:38:06","modified_gmt":"2023-08-05T22:38:06","slug":"nascar-weekend-preview-michigan-international-speedway-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2023\/08\/03\/nascar-weekend-preview-michigan-international-speedway-2\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Weekend Preview: Michigan International Speedway"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer<\/em><\/p>\n

NASCAR Wire Service <\/em><\/p>\n

Kevin Harvick looks to keep Ford streak alive in the Irish Hills<\/b><\/b><\/p>\n

For Kevin Harvick, a win at Michigan would be convenient\u2014but not necessary.<\/p>\n

For Ty Gibbs, a victory at the 2.0-mile track might make all the difference in the world.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Bubba Wallace, driver of the #23 McDonald’s Toyota, Kevin Harvick, driver of the #4 Busch Light Apple #BuschelOfBusch Ford, Kyle Larson, driver of the #5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, and Alex Bowman, driver of the #48 Ally Chevrolet, race during the NASCAR Cup Series FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway on August 07, 2022 in Brooklyn, Michigan. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Those two drivers are emblematic of the different agendas drivers will bring to Sunday\u2019s FireKeepers Casino 400 in the Irish Hills (2:30 p.m. ET on USA, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

Harvick comes to Michigan International Speedway with a 182-point cushion over 17th-place Gibbs in the race for a berth in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs. With a decent run on Sunday\u2014if he simply maintains that margin\u2014Harvick could clinch a position in the postseason on points. <\/p>\n

In his final season as a Cup driver, Harvick would like more. The driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford is winless so far this year, and MIS presents an opportunity to get a breakthrough victory, as Harvick did last year when he ended a 65-race drought at the track.<\/p>\n

In fact, Harvick has won four of the last five Michigan races and five of the last seven as the primary component of an eight-race victory streak for Ford drivers. Clearly, he understands what a driver must do to win at the speedway.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichigan is one of those places where you don\u2019t want to miss the center of the corner,\u201d said Harvick, who has been to Victory Lane at the speedway six times overall. \u201cYou want to be on the throttle at the center of the corner and get that good exit speed to make the straightaway as long as you can. <\/p>\n

\u201cSo, the less you can touch the brake pedal and the more time you can spend on the throttle to make those straightaways as long as possible, the better speed you\u2019re going to make. And Michigan in the past has been pretty line-sensitive, so you\u2019ve just got to be careful about where you are on the race track. And if you miss that on the entry, it just screws the whole corner up.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gibbs also knows what it takes to win at Michigan\u2014in the NASCAR Xfinity Series. Scheduled for double duty this weekend, Gibbs is the defending winner of the Cabo Wabo 250. A maiden victory in the Cup Series, however, would clinch a Playoff berth for the driver of the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, who currently is 18 points behind Michael McDowell for the final Playoff-eligible position in the standings.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love going to Michigan, and we\u2019ve run well there,\u201d said Gibbs, who gained ground with a 15th-place run last Sunday at Richmond. \u201cHopefully, we can have a good run in both races. Our teams are doing very well, and we\u2019ll try to keep that going.\u201d<\/p>\n

Another driver who could use a victory is Trackhouse Racing\u2019s Daniel Suarez, who has fallen out of a Playoff-eligible position with finishes of 36th at Pocono and 33rd at Richmond. Currently 19th in the standings, Suarez trails McDowell by 34 points.<\/p>\n

There are four races left before the Playoff field is set. After Michigan, the Cup Series races on two road courses\u2014at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and Watkins Glen\u2014before heading for the cutoff race at Daytona.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is a lot of racing left,\u201d said Suarez, whose only Cup win came at Sonoma Raceway last year. \u201cI told my guys all of us need to relax and have fun. That’s when we perform our best.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have some really good tracks coming up for us. Trackhouse Racing has a great road course program, and we have run really well at Daytona and Michigan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Justin Allgaier hopes for one-position improvement at Michigan<\/b><\/p>\n

In the last two seasons, JR Motorsports Chevrolets have been fast at Michigan\u2014just not quite fast enough.<\/p>\n

Justin Allgaier, for one, hopes that changes in Saturday\u2019s Cabo Wabo 250 at 2.0-mile Michigan International Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET on NBC, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). <\/p>\n

In each of the last two seasons, JRM has placed three of its Camaros in the top six finishing positions at MIS. Last year, Allgaier was runner-up to Ty Gibbs, who is defending his victory as a double-duty driver this weekend.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichigan has been a strong place for this team, and really (for) everyone at JR Motorsports for the last few seasons,\u201d Allgaier said. \u201cWe came close to getting the win here last year, and hopefully we can be that one spot better this weekend. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have had some unbelievable speed here lately, and I know that (crew chief) Jim (Pohlman) and everyone on this No. 7 team will give me just as strong a car again this weekend. Hopefully, we can avoid any trouble out there and come away with the win when the checkered flag falls Saturday.\u201d<\/p>\n

Allgaier\u2019s teammate, Sam Mayer, hasn\u2019t fared well at Michigan, as a pair of 33rd-place finishes in his only two starts there will attest. <\/p>\n

But Mayer picked up his first NASCAR Xfinity Series victory last Saturday at Road America, and he expects the momentum to carry over into the Irish Hills.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichigan has been a tough track for me in the past, but I\u2019m looking forward to getting back up there this weekend, especially coming off the thrill of my first career win,\u201d Mayer said. <\/p>\n

\u201cRoad America was a dream come true, and now that we finally got that first one out of the way, I\u2019m looking to keep this hot streak going and see what we can do in Michigan.\u201d<\/p>\n

There are six races left before the Xfinity Series Playoff field is set, and the battle for the regular-season championship has become a hotly contested affair. Austin Hill, a four-time winner this season, took over the top spot in the standings with a third-place finish at Road America.<\/p>\n

Hill currently leads second-place John Hunter Nemechek by 14 points.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer NASCAR Wire Service  Kevin Harvick looks to keep Ford streak alive in the Irish Hills For Kevin Harvick, a win at Michigan would be convenient\u2014but not necessary. For Ty Gibbs, a victory at the 2.0-mile track might make all the difference in the world. Those two drivers are emblematic of the different […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":39868,"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":[219,16],"class_list":["post-42956","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-michigan-international-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/08\/GettyImages-1413504707-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1678&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-baQ","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42956","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=42956"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42956\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":42959,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42956\/revisions\/42959"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39868"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42956"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42956"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42956"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}