While Michigan and Kentucky don’t come close to ranking high on my list of favorite tracks for producing exciting racing, for some reason or another, both racetracks do produce some very interesting finishes in NASCAR racing and this past weekend was no exception.
When it comes to Saturday’s Truck series race at Michigan, I only caught the highlight reel as I was celebrating Father’s Day Weekend with my sister and my future brother-in law as they took my father and I to a local racetrack for some good old fashion short track racing under the lights, but from the highlight reel, what a photo finish to a good Truck Series race at Michigan where Eric Darnell narrowly edged out Johnny Benson by 0.005 for an impressive victory, now that’s a start to a weekend.
First, the name Joey Logano is already known in both the NASCAR East Series when Logano won 5 races on his way to winning the 2007 Championship and the winning the 2007 Toyota All-Star Showdown at Irwindale Speedway as well as the ARCA Series when this past May, Logano dominated the first ARCA race at the newly reopened Rockingham Speedway winning the Carolina 500 over Ken Schrader. In coming up, he sparked off the debate that NASCAR could change the age limit from 18 to 21 to be able to run in all three of NASCAR’s top series (which would be a mistake, it should be experience at the age of 18) by having to wait until his 18th birthday in late May to make his Nationwide Series debut at Dover earlier this month finishing 6th and to me, it was worth the wait.
I was wondering just what Joey “sliced bread” Logano would do in the Nationwide Series in premium equipment racing under the Joe Gibbs racing banner in a Toyota, well it don’t take long as going into Saturday night’s race, he already had two poles on the season, what an impressive debut as opportunity once again knocked at Kentucky for a Nationwide Series only driver to win and wow, in only his third Nationwide start, Logano held off Scott Wimmer to win his first race. I was surprised with this one even though I shouldn’t have been, this says a lot for Joey Logano’s talent, surprisely enough, after an stunning victory, he said he celebrated by eating a cheese burger and taking a hot shower, now that’s a celebration for anyone.
Second, but you know the keyword on Sunday for this Dale Earnhardt Jr. fan would be emotions as it has been a roller coaster ride for Junior fans over the past year with starting with a series of announcements including last May that he would be leaving DEI, in June with Junior joining Hendrick Motorsports which included him being teammates with Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson and Casey Mears, the third, that Budweiser and #8 will not be making the move to Hendrick Motorsports with him and finally, announcing that he will be driving the #88 AMP Energy-Mountain Dew-National Guard Chevrolet Impala SS, ironically that would be the tip of the iceberg.The 2008 season for Dale Earnhardt Jr. has been huge, it’s been Juniors best start to a season in his Cup Series career so far which includes Dale Jr. winning the first two events right out of the gate – The Budweiser Shootout and the first Gatorade Duel race, along with a 9th place finish at Daytona, a second at Las Vegas, a total of 7 Top 5’s and 11 top 10’s leading into Sunday’s Michigan 400, but you know, Sunday was just that race that ended with the headline saying “Dale Jr. wins in dramatic-fashion at Michigan” and those words are priceless for JR Nation including my father (on father’s day) and I who watched the race together… perfect. Neither one of us needed a seat in the closing laps for this one, what a victory. (Photo Credit: John Harrelson/Getty Images for NASCAR)
And to answer those two questions asked following the race… what about passing the pacecar under caution? That was nothing, he don’t advance a position, nor anything else, he was simply coasting on the back straightaway to save fuel, that’s it, no big deal. As for the second question, does this victory get Tony Eury Jr. on that list? What list, Tony Eury Jr. is Dale Jr’s crew chief period, like I said above, it’s been Juniors best start to a season in his Cup Series career so far and that’s due to Dale Jr and his team include Tony Eury Jr. and even without a victory at Michigan, Tony would still be the crew chief, that’s it. All I got to say now is, hay there making a left turn, but wait now their making a right turn on the road course in Sonoma. Comments.
- Racedriven
