After dominating the opening stretch of the 2016 NASCAR
Sprint Cup season, it appears as if the Penske Ford’s and the Stewart/Haas and
Hendrick Motorsport Chevrolet’s have caught up to the Gibbs Toyota’s. Joey Logano, whose win at Michigan
International Speedway clinched his place in the Chase, may have been the
biggest sign yet that the field has now drawn even with the Gibbs cars.
After winning seven of the circuits first 12 races the Gibbs
cars have now gone winless in the last three.
In a sport that always searches for manufacture parity, the last three trophies
were awarded to a Toyota, Chevrolet, and a Ford. When
the series’ three car makers are all equally competitive it usually spells for
some entertaining races. Sunday’s race
was very easy on the eyes with some exiting racing especially back in the pack.
Logano, winless in 2016, had to battle Chase Elliott for the
win, stealing the lead from the #24 car on a late race restart. Logano, who started the Firekeepser Casino
400 on the pole, led 138 of the 200 laps.
Although he clearly had the dominate car of the day it was the restart
at lap 154 where he schooled the young Elliott to forge in front where he was
to stay the remainder of the race.
Elliot was in the lead before being beaten by Logano on a
restart at lap 117. Afterwards Elliott admitted
he missed a shift which ultimately cost him the lead.
“You can’t do dumb stuff and win these races. Completely my fault”, Elliott said after the
race. The driver of the 24 car for
Hendrick Motorsports as a 20 year old is quickly becoming a driver to
watch. Although winless thus far,
Elliott sits 6th in the current Chase standings and is enjoying a
stellar rookie season.
As for Logano it seemed only to be a matter of time before
he visited Victory Lane. When NASCAR
introduced the new less downforce package at the Charlotte All Star Race, the
#22 team seemed to take a quick liking to it.
After winning the All Star event Logano was once again the first to take
the checkered flag with the new package at the 2 mile oval at Michigan.
"Everyone did a great job of understanding what this
package was going to do," Logano said after the race. "They put
together a great race car for me.”
As for the Gibbs cars, only Carl Edwards scored a top10
finish, finishing 6th with his #19 Subway Toyota. Matt Kenseth 14th, Denny Hamlin 33rd
and Kyle Busch 40th had days to forget. It was by far the worst race weekend for the Gibbs
Racing Team. Look for them to quickly
turn it around.
Tony Stewart, fighting for his Chase life, had by far his
best day of the season, finishing 7th. Stewart, who needs a victory and to be in the
top 30 of the Chase standings, has a tough road to climb. His top 10 finish Sunday is a good start in
that climb.
After a week off the Sprint Cup Series moves to the first
road course race of the season. Sonoma, California
here we come.
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