NASCAR Lifelock 400 at Michigan Results
June 17th 2008 10:07
Dale Earnhardt, Jr. wins for the first time in 76 races.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series LifeLock 400 at Michigan International Speedway
Since qualifying was rained out on Friday the field was set by the point standings. This generally means that some fast cars are sitting at the back of the pack, while some slower ones might be at the front of the line. To some extent this was true again. There was one perfect example of this, that was the #83 car of Brian Vickers. Vickers started back in 18th. During the first ten laps of the race he gained an average of one spot per lap, by the end of lap ten he was in 8th spot. He just kept passing cars by, on lap 15 he was in 5th, then on lap 25 he was in second place with only the #48 of Jimmie Johnson ahead of him. Johnson had taken the lead from former teammate Kyle Busch after the restart from a caution flag on lap three due to a Dave Blaney spin. On lap 34 Vickers moved ahead of Johnson, they would swap spots a couple of times until Vickers pitted from the lead spot on lap 39. He pitted slightly early because he had something covering up the grill of his car that was driving his temperature up. When green flag pit stops had cycled through Vickers was ahead of Johnson by more than two seconds.
At around lap 71 Johnson faded back as Matt Kenseth and Kyle passed him on the track. After another round of green flag pits on laps 79-82, Kenseth came out with a 5.5 second lead. Caution then flew again on lap 92 for debris on the track, a can of Budweiser was blowing around on the track. Coming out of the pits Carl Edwards was the new race leader after taking just two tires. He was followed by Kenseth, Kyle, Johnson, Vickers, and Junior. On lap 114 Kenseth retook the lead. Earnhardt had a problem where he was loose early on in a run, but very good near the end of a run. This led to him passing people at one point, then being passed by them after he had made a stop. This is a trend that went on for most of the day. He started pushing through the field on lap 130 and by lap 136 had moved up to 5th.
Bobby Labonte spun out, but didn’t hit anything on lap 148, this brought out another caution flag. Nearly everyone pitted during this yellow flag, but not quite everyone. Jimmie Johnson stayed out and took the lead, while Sam Hornish, Jr. stayed on the track and moved from 35th up to 2nd. Shortly after the restart David Ragan tapped the #7 of Robbie Gordon which turned him into the wall a bit. This ended up cutting a tire and would knock Gordon out of the race.
Hornish would have to pit on lap 178 of 200 and take two tires and fuel. Johnson would follow on lap 182 also for 2 tires and fuel. On the next lap all the green flag stops started. During these stops Greg Biffles bad luck hit again as he drove over his air hose on his way out of his pit box, this resulted in a drive through penalty. On this round of stops there were some others that didn’t come into the pits. This time it was David Ragan, A.J. Allmendinger, and Junior. At the time they all thought they were close enough on fuel that they might be able to make it. With just 8 laps to go Allmendinger’s crew decided he needed to come in for some gas. Ragan then followed him in with 7 to go. This moved Dale Earnhardt, Junior into the lead. As always the crowd went nuts. Could this be the week he ends the streak? His crew chief and cousin Tony Eury, Jr. thought he would have enough gas to make it to the end. Junior was trying to conserve some of his Sunoco fuel, this allowed Jamie McMurray to come up and pass him with 6 to go. Problem is McMurray was second at the time, Junior didn’t think he had to race him, he thought the first car he had to race was Kasey Kahne. Once he realized, he passed McMurray, and they would go back and forth a couple of times. Kahne was still sitting in third.
The laps were winding down and everyone was wondering if Junior had enough gas or not. With just three laps to go Hornish spun, out came the caution flag. It will be a green, white, checkered finish. Junior wasn’t sure if they have enough gas to be running at the end of the scheduled 200 laps, nevermind an additional couple of laps for the green, white, checkered. While running the caution laps many drivers were trying to save gas. None more than Junior who was picking up some speed then cutting off the power to the car and coasting for as long as he could, and driving down on the track apron. It wasn’t really looking good, many cars at the front of the pack were close to running out of gas. Time for the three lap sprint to the finish. During the restart Mark Martin ran out of gas but got out of the way of the other cars. Then with just under two laps to go there was a multi-car crash. Out came the caution flag to end the race. Junior wins! Without that caution flag however he would not have won. He ran out of gas shortly after the race ended, and had to be pushed to victory lane.
It was Dale Eanrhardt, Junior’s first win in the past 76 Sprint Cup races, and his first-ever points race win as a member of Hendrick Motorsports. It was an amazing finish for all the members of “Junior Nation”, and also for the sport. It isn’t good for the sport when the most popular driver goes through such a long drought. During the post-race interview he was asked if the way that the race ended mattered, and he responded by saying they can write whatever they want, we got the win.
Next week they head to the road course of Infineon Raceway in Sonoma, California for the Toyota / Save Mart 350. Last year’s winner was Juan Pablo Montoya.
| Pos | Driver | Car # | Make | Started | Laps | Led |
| 1 | Dale Earnhardt Jr. | 88 | Chevrolet | 3 | 203 | 14 |
| 2 | Kasey Kahne | 9 | Dodge | 9 | 203 | 0 |
| 3 | Matt Kenseth | 17 | Ford | 16 | 203 | 41 |
| 4 | Brian Vickers | 83 | Toyota | 18 | 203 | 44 |
| 5 | Tony Stewart | 20 | Toyota | 12 | 203 | 1 |
| 6 | Jimmie Johnson | 48 | Chevrolet | 6 | 203 | 65 |
| 7 | Carl Edwards | 99 | Ford | 4 | 203 | 21 |
| 8 | David Ragan | 6 | Ford | 13 | 203 | 6 |
| 9 | Elliott Sadler | 19 | Dodge | 27 | 203 | 0 |
| 10 | Jamie McMurray | 26 | Ford | 23 | 203 | 1 |
| 11 | Paul Menard | 15 | Chevrolet | 26 | 203 | 0 |
| 12 | Kevin Harvick | 29 | Chevrolet | 10 | 203 | 0 |
| 13 | Kyle Busch | 18 | Toyota | 1 | 203 | 5 |
| 14 | Denny Hamlin | 11 | Toyota | 5 | 203 | 1 |
| 15 | Jeff Burton | 31 | Chevrolet | 2 | 203 | 0 |
| 16 | Travis Kvapil | 28 | Ford | 19 | 203 | 0 |
| 17 | Martin Truex Jr. | 1 | Chevrolet | 17 | 203 | 0 |
| 18 | Jeff Gordon | 24 | Chevrolet | 8 | 203 | 0 |
| 19 | AJ Allmendinger | 84 | Toyota | 39 | 203 | 1 |
| 20 | Greg Biffle | 16 | Ford | 7 | 203 | 0 |
| 21 | Kurt Busch | 2 | Dodge | 22 | 203 | 0 |
| 22 | Sam Hornish Jr. | 77 | Dodge | 35 | 203 | 2 |
| 23 | Michael Waltrip | 55 | Toyota | 38 | 203 | 1 |
| 24 | Patrick Carpentier | 10 | Dodge | 43 | 202 | 0 |
| 25 | Mark Martin | 8 | Chevrolet | 15 | 202 | 0 |
| 26 | Clint Bowyer | 7 | Chevrolet | 11 | 202 | 0 |
| 27 | David Gilliland | 38 | Ford | 24 | 202 | 0 |
| 28 | Joe Nemechek | 78 | Chevrolet | 42 | 202 | 0 |
| 29 | Terry Labonte | 45 | Dodge | 36 | 202 | 0 |
| 30 | Casey Mears | 5 | Chevrolet | 25 | 201 | 0 |
| 31 | Bobby Labonte | 43 | Dodge | 20 | 201 | 0 |
| 32 | Regan Smith | 1 | Chevrolet | 31 | 201 | 0 |
| 33 | Scott Riggs | 66 | Chevrolet | 34 | 201 | 0 |
| 34 | Reed Sorenson | 41 | Dodge | 32 | 200 | 0 |
| 35 | David Reutimann | 44 | Toyota | 28 | 200 | 0 |
| 36 | Bill Elliott | 21 | Ford | 37 | 200 | 0 |
| 37 | Michael McDowell | 0 | Toyota | 33 | 199 | 0 |
| 38 | Juan Pablo Montoy | 42 | Dodge | 21 | 194 | 0 |
| 39 | Dave Blaney | 22 | Toyota | 29 | 180 | 0 |
| 40 | Robby Gordon | 7 | Dodge | 30 | 150 | 0 |
| 41 | J.J. Yeley | 96 | Toyota | 40 | 116 | 0 |
| 42 | Ryan Newman | 12 | Dodge | 14 | 114 | 0 |
| 43 | Dario Franchitti | 40 | Dodge | 41 | 30 | 0 |
2008 LifeLock 400 Stats
Scheduled Laps: 200
Total Laps: 200
Distance: 400.0 miles
Average Speed: 145.375
Pole Speed:
Cautions: 7 ( 22 Laps )
Lead Changess: 31 among 13 drivers
Time of Race: 2:47:34
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