It seems that no matter what NASCAR throws at them the Joe Gibbs Racing team perseveres. Matt Kenseth capped off a dominating weekend by leading 146 of the 200 laps cruising to victory Sunday in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Pure Michigan 400. Kenseth led from his first pole at the 2-mile Michigan International Speedway, won on Friday, and scored the fifth win in the last six races for JGR.
“I don’t know,” Kenseth said when asked what made his Toyota so strong Sunday. “But if I did I sure wouldn’t tell you. We had really fast cars when we first got here. We made a lot of speed and we got it handling really good. They made great adjustments so the race was a lot like we thought it was going to look like, but we were just hoping we would have enough speed and be out front. We had perfect strategy and pit stops and the restarts were just good enough to hang on. Everything fell our way.”
Unlike his last win two weeks ago at Pocono that came as a result of fuel mileage, Sunday’s win was all Kenseth and his team as he had the car to beat and in the end, no one could. The race marked the second time for NASCAR’s high drag rules package. JGR won at Indy with the same high drag package with Kyle Busch and at Kentucky with Busch utilizing a low drag package. The low drag package will be run at Darlington in three weeks. MORE>>>
Greg is the author of "The Nuts and Bolts of NASCAR: The Definitive Viewers' Guide to Big-Time Stock Car Auto Racing" and has been published in major publications across the country including the Los Angeles Times, the Cleveland Plain Dealer and the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. He was also a contributor to Chicken Soup for the NASCAR Soul, published in 2010, and the Christmas edition in 2016. He wrote as the NASCAR, Formula 1, Auto Reviews and National Veterans Affairs Examiner for Examiner.com and has appeared on Fox News. He holds a BS degree in communications, a Masters degree in psychology and is currently a PhD candidate majoring in psychology. He is currently the weekend Motorsports Editor for Autoweek.
- NASCAR to debut new short track package at Phoenix - February 28, 2023
- The Wrench Who Stole Racing - December 16, 2022
- Matt DiBenedetto’s excellent run comes to abrupt, violent end - February 17, 2019
