Jimmie Johnson leads the field on a restart during the Lifelock 400 at the Michigan International Speedway on June 15, 2008 in Brooklyn, Michigan. (Chris Graythen/Getty Images Photo)
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series returns to Michigan International Speedway this weekend for the 3M Performance 400. And while MIS doesn’t typically feature the fender-banging of a short track or the claustrophobic closeness of a restrictor-plate track, it does have something drivers love: grooves. Lots of grooves.
Michigan, which hosted its first Cup race back in 1969, has one of the widest racing grooves on the circuit, which means if a driver finds his car isn’t working around the bottom of the track, he can move up the 18 degree corner banking, or vice versa.
That flexibility does two things: It gives drivers options and it spreads the field out. And those are both good benefits if you’re in the cockpit going 200 miles per hour into the entrance of a corner at MIS, the pilots say.
“The thing about Michigan is that it’s been there for so long now that there’s no one, specific groove anymore,” said two-time Sprint Cup Champion Tony Stewart, who has one victory and nine top-five finishes at Michigan. “You can literally race from the white line on the apron all the way to the wall. That’s the groove. Depending on how your car is driving, you can move around on the race track and help yourself. That’s what makes Michigan such a fun race track for the drivers. The drivers can really help themselves out if they don’t have a car that’s working right. You can move around on the race track and find a spot that helps your car do what you need it to do.”
Stewart isn’t the only who relishes racing at Michigan. “There’s just no one certain way to be fast there,” said David Ragan, driver of the No. 6 Roush Fenway Racing Ford. “You have to judge how your car’s feeling and you just make the decision on where to run, and you just don’t get that luxury at many tracks. Most tracks you have to be right on the bottom, at Darlington you have to right against the wall, there’s only one place to go fast. But, at Michigan, the guy that’s winning may be running the bottom, and the guy that’s running second may be running the top. So, two different lines, and that just means that it’s more forgiving and it’s more fun.”
“It's just my kind of racetrack,” said Mark Martin, who has four MIS Cup victories. “It's big and wide, and you can really pass there. If you have your car set up just right, you can have a whole lot of fun racing at Michigan. Hopefully, we'll have one of those types of days this weekend.”
Of course, as it has been so often this season, track position will be critical at Michigan, one of the fastest ovals on the circuit. And that’s been exacerbated by NASCAR’s new-generation race cars.
“With the (new) cars, everything is more even across the board. It’s so valuable to be up front and get track position,” said Pat Tryson, crew chief for the Penske Racing Dodge driven by Kurt Busch. “ … The guy up front seems to just pull away from the field and all the cars mired back there from sixth through about 25th are so often running almost identical lap times. It’s a situation of you having to play your cards the best you can. You look for whatever strategy you can play to come out ahead at the end.”
Tom Jensen is the Senior NASCAR Editor for SPEEDtv.com, the former Executive Editor of NASCAR Scene and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. He is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of SPEED,” and has appeared on television and radio shows to discuss NASCAR racing. Jensen is the President of the National Motorsports Press Association. Jensen is the 1997 National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year and has won numerous national and state awards for news reporting, columns and feature writing. The Answer Man is back at SPEEDtv.com. Tom Jensen answers your questions during every race week and looks forward to hearing from you - please e-mail it to
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