Motor car race
The
2010 Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400
was a
NASCAR
Sprint Cup Series
stock car
race that was held on June 13, 2010, at
Michigan International Speedway
in
Brooklyn, Michigan
. Contested over 200 laps, it was the fifteenth race of the
2010 Sprint Cup Series season
. The race was won by
Denny Hamlin
for the
Joe Gibbs Racing
team.
Kasey Kahne
finished second, and
Kurt Busch
, who started first, clinched third.
Pole position
driver Busch maintained his lead into the first turn to begin the race, but
Jamie McMurray
, who started in the second position on the
grid
, passed him to lead the first lap. Hamlin soon became the leader and would lead a race high of 123 laps. On the final
restart
, Hamlin started beside Kahne. Hamlin held onto first to claim his first Sprint Cup Series win at Michigan and his fifth of the season.
There were four
cautions
and nineteen lead changes among nine different drivers throughout the course of the race. The result left
Kevin Harvick
in the first position in the
Drivers' Championship
, twenty-two points ahead of second place driver
Kyle Busch
and forty-seven ahead of
Denny Hamlin
.
Chevrolet
maintained its lead in the
Manufacturers' Championship
, six points ahead of
Toyota
and thirty-eight ahead of
Dodge
, with twenty-one races remaining in the season. A total of 95,000 people attended the race, while 4.3 million watched it on television.
Report
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]
Background
[
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]
Michigan International Speedway
is one of six
superspeedways
to hold
NASCAR
races, the others being
Daytona International Speedway
,
Auto Club Speedway
,
Indianapolis Motor Speedway
,
Pocono Raceway
and
Talladega Superspeedway
.
[6]
The standard track at Michigan International Speedway is a four-turn superspeedway that is 2 miles (3.2 km) long.
[7]
The track's turns are banked at eighteen degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at twelve degrees. The
back stretch
, has a five degree banking.
[7]
Michigan International Speedway can seat up to 119,500 people.
[8]
Before the race,
Kevin Harvick
led the
Drivers' Championship
with 2,063 points, and
Kyle Busch
stood in second with 2,044 points.
Denny Hamlin
was third in the Drivers' Championship with 1,927 points,
Matt Kenseth
was fourth with 1,893 points, and
Kurt Busch
was in fifth with 1,881 points.
[9]
In the
Manufacturers' Championship
,
Chevrolet
was leading with 100 points, twelve points ahead of their rival
Toyota
.
Dodge
, with 61 points, was three points ahead of
Ford
in the battle for third.
[10]
Mark Martin
was the race's defending champion.
[11]
Practice and qualifying
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Three practice sessions were scheduled before the race ? one on Friday, June 11, 2010, and two on Saturday, June 12, 2010. The first practice session lasted only 70 minutes, but was scheduled to be 90 minutes. The Saturday morning and afternoon sessions each lasted sixty minutes.
[12]
In the first practice session, which was held under mostly cloudy conditions,
Juan Pablo Montoya
was fastest, ahead of
Jimmie Johnson
and
Kurt Busch
in second and third.
Greg Biffle
and
Jeff Gordon
followed in fourth and fifth.
[13]
In the morning practice session,
Paul Menard
was the quickest, with a time of 38.824 seconds while
Carl Edwards
,
Jeff Burton
, Jimmie Johnson, and Jeff Gordon followed in second, third, fourth and fifth.
[14]
During the third practice session, Jimmie Johnson, was the fastest, ahead of Paul Menard in second,
Denny Hamlin
in third, Jeff Gordon in fourth, and
Kevin Harvick
in fifth.
[15]
During Friday afternoon's qualifying session, forty-six cars were entered, but only the fastest forty-three were able to enter the race.
[16]
Kurt Busch clinched his second
pole position
of 2010, with a time of 37.898 seconds.
[17]
He was joined on the front row of the grid by
Jamie McMurray
. Jimmie Johnson and
Kasey Kahne
shared the second row in the third and fourth position, while
Jeff Burton
, with a time of 38.00 seconds, qualified fifth. The three drivers that failed to qualify were
Dave Blaney
,
Michael Waltrip
and
Johnny Sauter
.
[16]
Race summary
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The race, the fifteenth out of a total of thirty-six in the
season
, began at 1 p.m.
EDT
and was televised live in the United States on
TNT
.
[1]
To begin pre-race ceremonies, at 1:00 p.m. EDT, Fr. Geoff Rose, OSFS, from Lumen Christi High School in Jackson, Michigan, gave the
invocation
.
[18]
Then, the Army Chorus A Capella Team performed the
national anthem
, and, in a dedication to the troops,
Adam Sandler
and
Kevin James
sang the command, "Gentlemen, start your engines!", in a wacky, drawn out and musical manner, which has since been cited as the greatest command in NASCAR history by many fans.
[19]
Three drivers had to move to the rear from making major adjustments to their race car after first practice, they were
Kyle Busch
, with an engine change,
Clint Bowyer
, who changed to a back-up car, and
Kevin Conway
because of a transmission change.
[18]
Kurt Busch
made a good start, retaining the first position;
Jamie McMurray
behind him maintained the second position. At the end of the first lap, McMurray passed Busch. One lap later, Busch reclaimed the first position. By lap 3,
Kasey Kahne
and
Jimmie Johnson
had passed McMurray to put him in the fourth position. McMurray dropped to sixth place on the sixth lap. On lap 7, Kahne started catching the leader, and McMurray announced on the team's radio that his car was
loose
. On lap 11,
Max Papis
went to the garage (the place where teams repair or
park
their car) because of overheating problems. On lap 18,
Marcos Ambrose
spun through the grass, to cause the first
caution
. Afterward, most drivers made
pit stops
for fuel and tires while
Joe Nemechek
decided to stay out to lead one lap. On the same lap,
Todd Bodine
drove his car to the garage.
On lap 22, the
green flag
waved, as
Tony Stewart
led Kurt Busch, Jimmie Johnson,
Juan Pablo Montoya
, and Kasey Kahne on the restart. Stewart dropped to third after being passed by Kurt Busch and Montoya. Two laps later, Joe Nemechek went to garage with electrical problems. On lap 26, Jimmie Johnson moved into the third position after passing Montoya. By lap 27, Kurt Busch had a two-second lead over Tony Stewart. Johnson, Stewart and Kahne were battling three-wide for the second position on lap 30. One lap later, Nemechek returned to the track after having electrical problems. On lap 33, the top-five positions were single file with Kurt Busch in first, Kahne in second, Johnson in third,
Denny Hamlin
in fourth and Stewart in fifth. A lap later,
Bobby Labonte
went to garage because of overheating problems. On lap 37,
Landon Cassill
went to the garage with rear gear problems. Afterward, on lap 41,
J. J. Yeley
drove to the garage because of overheating problems, but he returned to the track four laps later.
[18]
On the forty-eighth lap, debris in turn two brought out the second caution.
Robby Gordon
and
David Gilliland
stayed out while the other teams made pit stops. Gordon and Gilliand made pit stops the next lap and gave the lead to Kurt Busch. Kurt Busch brought the field to the green flag with Hamlin in second, Montoya in third, Johnson in fourth, and Kahne in fifth on lap 51. After Hamlin made a good restart he passed Kurt Busch on lap 52. Afterward, on lap 54, Landon Cassill returned to the track while J. J. Yeley returned to the garage. Kahne passed Montoya for the third position. After 67 laps, Hamlin had a 2.4 second lead over Kurt Busch in the second position. On lap 87, green flag pit stops began. One lap later, most drivers in the first ten positions made pit stops. Denny Hamlin, who was in the first position, came to pit road on lap 92, but had problems leaving which gave Kurt Busch the lead.
[18]
On laps 94?95, Kurt Busch in first, and Kahne in second were battling for the lead, but Kahne did not pass Kurt Busch until one lap later. After the green flag pit stops, Kahne was first, Kurt Busch in second, Hamlin in third, Montoya in fourth and
Jeff Gordon
in fifth. On lap 99,
Scott Speed
spun after contact with his teammate
Casey Mears
, and brought out the third caution. One lap later,
Sam Hornish Jr.
stayed out as other teams made pit stops. On lap 101, Casey Mears collided with
David Ragan
while on pit road. Mears drove to the garage the following lap. On lap 103, Hornish Jr. led Kurt Busch, Jeff Gordon, Hamlin and Kahne on the restart. Three laps later, Kurt Busch passed teammate Hornish Jr. Afterward, Hornish Jr. dropped to fourth. On lap 113, Hamlin passed Kurt Busch for the lead in turn three. On lap 119, Kahne passed Kurt Busch for the second position.
[18]
On lap 126, Hamlin had a 2.8 second lead over Kahne. Seven laps later, Stewart passed Jeff Burton for the fifth position. By lap 134, the green flag pit stops began. Hamlin, Kahne, and Stewart made pit stops, as
Matt Kenseth
became the new leader. Two laps later, Hamlin regained the lead from Kenseth. On lap 146, Hamlin was in first, Kahne in second, Kurt Busch in third, Jeff Gordon in fourth, and
Greg Biffle
in fifth. Four laps later,
Ryan Newman
told his crew that his car was not running correctly from hitting a piece of
aluminum
. On lap 154, Hamlin was leading by seven seconds over Kahne. Most teams started making pit stops for fuel only on lap 161. On lap 177, Kahne became the leader as Hamlin made a pit stop. Kahne made a pit stop on lap 178 to give the lead back to Hamlin;. On lap 179, Hamlin was leading by nine seconds. With twenty laps to go, Hamlin was first, Kahne was second, Kurt Busch was third, Jeff Gordon was fourth, and Biffle was fifth.
[18]
The fourth caution came out on lap 181 because of debris on the back straightaway. The first nine positions stayed off of pit road while the rest made pit stops. On lap 186, Hamlin made a good start and maintained the first position. On lap 188, Jimmie Johnson, who restarted twelfth, had moved up to the sixth position. On lap 193, Hamlin had a growing lead over Kahne. Denny Hamlin crossed the line to win the race, a second ahead of second place Kasey Kahne. Kurt Busch maintained third while Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart finished fourth and fifth.
[18]
[20]
Post-race
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We're constantly trying to make our car better. We're not going to get complacent. Even though it looked strong, it's not as easy as it looked today. Friday and Saturday were somewhat of a struggle for us. We got lucky, qualified seventh simply because we went out early. [We] probably would have qualified about 15th or 20th in my opinion if we had went out any later.We just capitalized and did everything we were supposed to do.
Denny Hamlin
, speaking after the race.
[21]
Denny Hamlin
appeared in victory lane after his
victory lap
to start celebrating his fifth win of the season, and his first Sprint Cup win at
Michigan International Speedway
,
[21]
in front of a crowd of 95,000 people.
[22]
"It's so easy to drive cars like this," Hamlin said. He also stated, "We never stop working, regardless of whether we've got a nine-10ths-of-a-second lead or a nine-second lead."
[21]
Kasey Kahne
, who finished second, said, "I hung with him for about three laps running in his kind of dirty air. I was right there. Then he just slowly crept away. It felt good. We were close. That's a huge improvement. I was pretty happy."
[21]
"We had a similar [fuel] issue at the start of the Pocono race last year where we broke a fuel cable," Hamlin said after the race. "I thought maybe that's what we did. When I went to take off [after his stop], it immediately shut off. While it was "a downer, I was pretty confident we weren't going to have it again. Because Mike [Ford, crew chief] never really gave me an alarm we were going to be stretching it on fuel."
[21]
In the subsequent
press conference
, Hamlin's
crew chief
said,
"Towards the end of last season, where I said the best is yet to come, I strongly felt that way because towards the end of last season we closed out the season strong. I knew that was a catalyst to really turn up the team, to get a little bit more out of everyone. Denny goes down with his knee injury. He comes back, obviously not 100 percent. The team steps up. We narrow the gap to try to pick him up knowing he's not going to be there, and we start winning races, even with a driver that is not 100 percent. Now that he's coming back healthier each week, we're winning more and more. I simply think that's the catalyst for us to move forward. It's easier when the morale is high to get a little bit more out of your guys. Our benchmark is ourselves and we're just trying to work on that."
[23]
The race left
Kevin Harvick
leading the Driver's Championship with 2,169 points.
[24]
Kyle Busch
, who finished twentieth, was second on 2,147, twenty-five points ahead of Hamlin in second and ninety-six ahead of
Kurt Busch
in third.
[24]
Matt Kenseth
was fifth with 2,019 points.
[24]
Chevrolet maintained their lead in the Manufacturers' Championship with 103 points.
[10]
Toyota placed second with 97 points, and Dodge followed with 65 points, now even with Ford.
[10]
4.3 million people watched the race on television.
[25]
The race took two hours, thirty-three minutes and twenty-eight seconds to complete, and the margin of victory was 1.246 seconds.
[20]
Race results
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Standings after the race
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- Drivers' Championship standings
[24]
Pos
|
Driver
|
Points
|
1
|
Kevin Harvick
|
2,169
|
2
|
Kyle Busch
|
2,147
|
3
|
Denny Hamlin
|
2,122
|
4
|
Kurt Busch
|
2,051
|
5
|
Matt Kenseth
|
2,019
|
|
- Manufacturers' Championship standings
[10]
Pos
|
Manufacturer
|
Points
|
1
|
Chevrolet
|
103
|
2
|
Toyota
|
97
|
3
|
Dodge
|
65
|
4
|
Ford
|
65
|
|
- Note
: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings.
References
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