Photo Credit: Jerry Markland/Getty Images
On a restart with 17 laps to go, Jeff Gordon kept even with Joey Logano on the restart and was able to clear him off of turn two to take the lead. From there, Gordon would hold off Logano’s attempt to pass him with 16 laps to go before cruising away from the field for the victory. It marks Gordon’s third victory of the 2014 season and the 91st victory of his Sprint Cup Series career.
“It wasn’t easy. It’s never easy to win especially at these tracks especially with aerodynamics and track position meaning so much,” Gordon said. “Alan (Gustafson) called a perfect race. Kept getting into that inside lane and not getting good restart. I knew with Joey and Kurt that it’d get it interesting and Kurt got loose. That final restart there – I got a good jump and was able to get ahead. It seemed whomever got out front was able to get ahead. I give him credit – he tried to get back by, but wasn’t able to. We set sail and next thing, I saw the checkered flag. It was a great race!”
For the fourth consecutive race at Michigan International Speedway, Kevin Harvick would pick up a runner-up finish as he continues to show the strength that has carried him to three wins thus season with Stewart-Haas Racing.
“Our car handled great all day,” Harvick commented. “We just didn’t have the speed that the 24 had today. All in all, it was a good day for our Jimmy John’s Chevrolet. Gotta thank everybody at SHR for working hard and keeping these cars running well. We’ve been doing a lot to get things consistent and run strong, but we have a little more work to do to catch that 24.”
For Logano, it marked a disappointing third place finish after leading the most laps throughout the afternoon as he was able to take the lead early from pole sitter Gordon in the race, only giving it up throughout the race for when he hit pit road.
“We were battling those restarts pretty hard and basically you use every trick that you have,” he commented. “Every game that you could play was played and I was clear of him. I should’ve pulled down and pulled off the draft, but he was able to get to my quarter panel and get by. Gosh, it was close. It’s a really good show for us to make sure that we’re in the contention for the Chase.”
Paul Menard battled hard in the late stages of the race to finish fourth, followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr., Clint Bowyer and Denny Hamlin. Earnhardt Jr. and Hamlin had a discussion post-race with regards to a disagreement during the final laps of the race. Brad Keselowski finished eighth with Jimmie Johnson fought back to finish ninth.
Johnson fell back to 35th early in the race, before having the shifter knob break. The crew would hand him a pair of vice grips to attach, however he wasn’t able to. The crew would then re-install the shifter under a pit stop, putting Johnson a lap down. He then fought back throughout the second half of the race to get back on the lead lap, before fighting his way through the field to finish ninth. The fight back through the field wasn’t clean, though, as there was some contact with Ryan Newman during the final 15 laps. Post-race, Newman would approach Johnson and the pair had a discussion.
“Its just normal Ryan Newman stuff,” Johnson commented after their discussion. “Anybody whose been around racing knows the frustration in racing Ryan Newman. I don’t want to take anything away from this team as they were able to salvage a good finish. It sucks that we weren’t able to get up further today.”
Greg Biffle would round out the top 10, ahead of Newman, Marcos Ambrose, A.J. Allmendinger, Jamie McMurray, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kasey Kahne, Casey Mears, Danica Patrick, Brian Vickers and Aric Almirola.
Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch both didn’t have the days that they were looking for as Kenseth got heavy rear-end damage during a incident initiated by Patrick spinning on lap 26. Patrick would get loose on the restart, spinning sideways, collecting Justin Allgaier, Michael Annett, Martin Truex Jr., Trevor Bayne and Kenseth. For Busch, he’d find his day end real early in the race as he got into the wall on lap three.
Rookie Kyle Larson also ran into issues, blowing a right front tire, causing him to plow into the wall on lap 97, causing the car to catch fire. Larson would get out of the car quickly, unharmed.
“It’s a shame. We’re just going to have to work extra hard to make the Chase,” Larson commented. “I thought we had a car to win the race for sure, and then on pit road, 88 and I got together on pit road and it screwed the toe. The crew worked hard on the car, but a blown right front tire took us out there.”
Jeff Burton was brought into sub for Tony Stewart as Stewart misses his second straight race, however Burton would not have a good day, either, finding his day end early with electrical problems on lap 82.
“I first smelt it and didn’t see anything. Then I saw a lot of smoke and it was getting pretty bad. I couldn’t see any fire at all,” Burton said. “I was terrible in traffic; I couldn’t drive it all. But once we got into clean-air, it was pretty good. It’s not how I wanted it to go, but I’m proud of all these guys for stepping up in how they handled the situation.”
With the victory, Gordon takes the points lead ahead of his Hendrick Motorsports teammates Earnhardt Jr. by three points.
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RT @OnPitRoad_: Jeff Gordon Beats Logano On Late-Race Restart To Claim Victory At Michigan by @ladybug388 http://t.co/FYL3aSk75D