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Roush Fenway Racing’s highest-ranking driver set a new career high with his fifth win of the season Sunday, holding off Kyle Busch on a restart with two laps left to win the 3M Performance 400 Presented by Bondo. In the process, Edwards won Roush’s 20th race at Michigan across all three top NASCAR divisions, including his fifth in the last nine Cup starts at the track.

“I can’t believe my good fortune,” said the car owner, who finished with all five of his cars in the Top 10. “Except for Kyle Busch finishing up there, we had a chance to have two or three winners – actually, four winners – out of the Top 5.”

“Kyle’s good on restarts, that’s just a fact,” he said. “I just didn’t want to have to go through that pain, so I just did everything I could to have the best restart I could… and it worked out great.”

“Everyone, the crew, did an unbelievable job, and the greatest part is that we didn’t give up more bonus points to Kyle [Busch],” he said in the post-race press conference. “Bob made great adjustments, and that was the key to the race.”

“It was a decent run for us,” Kyle Busch said.  “But, you know, just didn’t have enough for the 99 [Edwards] there at the end.”

Behind Edwards and Kyle Busch was David Ragan tying his career-best finish in third.  Roush teammates Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth rounded out the Top 5 finishers.

Mark Martin finished just behind Kenseth in sixth, followed by polesitter Brian Vickers, who led 21 laps on Sunday.  Kevin Harvick came from 38th to finish eighth, followed by Elliott Sadler and Jamie McMurray.

Point Standings

Kyle Busch’s second place finish on Sunday clinched his spot in the Chase (and the lead at the beginning of it), but he lost a small amount of his lead; Busch now holds a 222 point edge over Carl Edwards with three regular season races remaining.  Jimmie Johnson maintains third spot, but lost significant ground on Sunday.  Johnson’s contact with teammate Jeff Gordon necessitated a green flag pit stop for tires, which dropped him a lap down to the leaders and in a position where he couldn’t really recover.  After spending most of the race that way, Johnson eventually came back courtesy a late Lucky Dog to finish 17th.  Dale Earnhardt Jr., who is still fourth in points, wasn’t so lucky; he finished a lap down 23rd after hitting the wall on a late restart and being forced to pit for right side tires.  Earnhardt Jr. is now 345 points behind Kyle Busch.

Jeff Burton maintains the fifth spot in the standings after a relatively steady run to an 11th place finish on Sunday; and now, he is only four points behind the struggling Earnhardt Jr.  Tony Stewart moved up a spot to sixth after a rather anonymous run to 12th, followed by Greg Biffle in seventh.  Kevin Harvick is up three spots to eighth after an eighth place finish from 38th on the grid on Sunday.

Jeff Gordon was one of the big losers on Sunday, falling three spots to ninth after hitting the wall on lap 97.  This was the direct result of the aforementioned contact with Jimmie Johnson on lap 90.  The No. 24 went to the garage for repairs, came back out, and then caused a yellow when part of the right front fender came off.  After that, the car was retired for the day, leaving Gordon with a 42nd place finish.  This put Gordon only 82 points to the good over 13th place.  Matt Kenseth is up two spots to tenth after squeaking by Mark Martin for fifth spot at the finish on Sunday.  Denny Hamlin and Kasey Kahne both lost engines on Sunday, finishing 39th and 40th respectively.  Both drivers dropped three spots in the standings as a result — Kahne from eighth to 11th, and Hamlin from ninth back to 12th.  Just outside the bubble, Clint Bowyer and David Ragan are tied for 13th in the standings — 26 points behind Hamlin.

Danger Zone (Top 35)

After all of the fanfare that came with the No. 84 Red Bull team getting into the Top 35; it seemed that the team just didn’t come to Michigan on their A-game.  A subpar qualifying effort, contact with the wall during Saturday practice, and a 28th place finish on Sunday resulted in the No. 84 falling right back out of the top 35.  The No. 84 is now 36th in owners’ points, 13 points out of 35th, and will have to qualify on speed Friday afternoon at Bristol.

On the other hand, the Haas CNC Racing No. 66 — which fell out of the top 35 after Watkins Glen — had a very steady weekend.  Scott Riggs, whom the commentators on ESPN noted was essentially “racing for his career,” qualified tenth and ran steady all day.  Riggs was the recipient of a free pass late in the race and was able to use fresher tires to move up to a 15th place finish, best out of the non-top 35 teams.  The 15th place finish locks in the No. 66 for Bristol, but still without much of a cushion.

Finally, Brad Coleman’s Sprint Cup debut in Hall of Fame Racing’s No. 96 did not go very well.  Coleman put up one of the slowest laps in qualifying and started last on the field.  During the event, Coleman mainly rode around at the back of the field on his way to a 38th place finish.  This performance dropped the No. 96 two spots in the owners’ points to 40th, 269 out of 35th.

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Secret Star Of The Race : The Best Run You Never Saw

Chances are, you didn’t hear Jamie McMurray’s name called all day long. After all, he’s the forgotten fifth man at Roush Fenway Racing; and with three drivers in the Chase and a fourth on the cusp of making it, both TV and radio were gushing over David Ragan, Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, and winner Carl Edwards. Even McMurray’s own organization was hardly paying attention; the only thing Roush cares about with the No. 26 these days is whether he can kick its driver out of his contract a year early. But hold on a second here. After a solid performance at a track that’s always been kind to Fords, McMurray was able to pull out a 10th place finish with his Crown Royal Ford – a third such Top 10 over his last four starts in the Cup Series. That little streak’s brought him up to 18th in the points, by far McMurray’s highest ranking so far this season. Is that anything to write home about just yet? Not quite. But when it comes to his future with Roush, McMurray might be working on enough of a late season push to give himself a little extension on that pink slip. – Tom Bowles

STAT OF THE WEEK: 2001. After Carl Edwards’ victory at Michigan, that continues to be the last year Ford went winless over the course of a full Cup season at the track. In all, Blue Ovals have been shutout just twice in the last 25 years at the 2-mile oval just one hour from Detroit. Who were the ones to break the streak, you ask? Bobby Labonte swept both Cup races for Joe Gibbs in a Chevy back in 1995, and in 2001, Jeff Gordon and Sterling Marlin combined for a pair of victories in the Irish Hills. Marlin’s win was the most significant of all; it was the first win for Dodge since returning full-time to the series earlier that season.  – Tom Bowles

Big Six: 3M Performance 400
by Amy Henderson

Who… gets my shoutout of the race?

Finishing 8th might not seem like an outstanding day, but when you struggle in practice and qualify 38th like Kevin Harvick did, it must feel like a small victory. Harvick’s team found something in the No. 29 on Sunday and made their way steadily toward the front all afternoon, leading the charge for slumping Richard Childress Racing. For Harvick — still fighting to stay in Chase contention — the day was a shot in the arm to his playoff hopes.

What… do the other Roush and Gibbs cars have to do to get to Victory Lane?

Is it just me, or does it appear that both organizations are putting all of their eggs in one basket this year? Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards have now combined for 13 wins in 23 races this season, while their six combined teammates have a total of one. One.

On some level, you’ve got to hand it to them; the separation between the best and the rest appears to be working. Certainly, RFR and JGR are in far better shape for the championship than either Richard Childress Racing or Hendrick Motorsports, organizations who have spread the wealth this season. On the other hand, what kind of team morale can this be building? There’s not a lot of incentive to help your teammate in the Chase if he’s the chosen one within your own organization — where everyone is supposed to be given an equal chance to win. I wonder how the strategy of putting one guy up front every week and forgetting the others will play into a Chase where teamwork can often mean extra points?

Where… did the Spring race winner at Michigan wind up?

In the wall. Dale Earnhardt Jr. got loose on a late restart and rubbed the concrete, mangling the right front of his car and his chances for a top finish in the process. Earnhardt’s team had elected to stay out on the preceding caution to gain track position, but couldn’t hang onto the car when the race went green. In the early laps, it looked as though Earnhardt was strong enough to take the season sweep at MIS; but just like so many other times this season, both car and driver faded in the late laps as they struggled to keep up with the changing track. In the end, the visit with the wall knocked out any remaining chance Junior had for the win — it relegated the No. 88 to a 23rd place finish, one lap down to the winner.

When… will racing be fun again?

How about Wednesday night, when the Craftsman Truck Series — which consistently produces the best racing in NASCAR’s three elite divisions — takes to Bristol’s high-banked confines? With plenty of noise from the chrome horn, the Bristol Truck race (or just about any Truck race these days) is sure to provide more side-by-side racing and put on a better show than we’ve seen out of the Cup cars at any track in a long time. I wish NASCAR would realize the gem they have in this — the last old school series apart from the modifieds — and showcase the series better.

Why… have there been inconsistencies this year in throwing cautions for cars dropping oil on the track?

I’ll be the first to say I hate unnecessary cautions. But when someone’s engine lets go, the possibility of oil on the track makes it a safety issue; and that’s especially true at a track like MIS, where speeds go dangerously high. Just ask Ernie Irvan what hitting a wall at speed here can do; no question, the track has a vicious history and needs to be respected for it.

Yet when Kasey Kahne had engine trouble, there was no caution, despite teams stating on the radio that they could smell oil or thought they saw the No. 9 dropping oil on the track. Meanwhile, at other tracks, the yellow flies when the car dropping oil is out of the groove. Bottom line: this should never be a judgment call - the caution should fly if there is even a question of oil on the track. The sport has been very lucky in that there has not been a tragedy in a few years now – but that is no excuse for complacency when it comes to safety.

How… should NASCAR handle the Nationwide Series dynamometer incident?

I’ve been thinking on this one a lot. It’s a new area of working outside the lines of fair play, and while there was no on-track illegality in either the Nos. 20 or 18, the connotation is more insidious. If by fudging the dyno numbers, the team could get concessions from NASCAR, then the incident had potential to carry an unfair advantage into many races. There was also the school of thought that Gibbs was making more power with something questionable in the first place; and as a result, they tried to fudge the numbers to avoid a complete teardown.

With that said, I don’t think taking points is a fair punishment here – there was nothing wrong with either car in the race, and the points were earned legitimately. I do, however, think there should be a stiff fine for this incident; a record-breaking amount, to the tune of $200,000 or more. There should also be suspensions of the crew chiefs who — knowingly or not — allowed their teams to resort to blatant rulebreaking. And finally, NASCAR should now tear down every JGR engine after every race, even including their Cup efforts. It looked like the team could have been trying to hide something – and NASCAR should make it abundantly clear that would be an unwise choice.

Got NASCAR-related questions or comments?
Send them Matt Taliaferro’s way at matt.taliaferro@frontstretch.com ; and if you’re lucky, you’ll get your name in print when he does his weekly column answering back to you – the fans that keep Frontstretch afloat. Fanning The Flames returns Thursday with a whole new set of Fan Questions and Answers!

TODAY ON THE FRONTSTRETCH:

Matt McLaughlin’s Thinkin’ Out Loud : 3M Performance 400
by Matt McLaughlin

Ten Points To Ponder … After Michigan
by Tommy Thompson

Edwards Had To Win Duel Vs Busch — Now, The Real Showdown Lies Ahead
by Tom Bowles

Bubble Breakdown : Allmendinger’s Stay In Top 35 Was A Short One
by Mike Ravesi

Sprint Cup Rookie Report : Carpentier Strong, But Hornish Steals The Show At Michigan
by Tony Lumbis

Nationwide Series Breakdown : CARFAX 250
by Bryan Davis Keith

FRONTSTRETCH TRIVIA
Q.   From where and when did ESPN broadcast their first Cup level race?
Check back Tuesday for the answer, here in the Frontstretch Newsletter!

Friday’s Answer
Q.  In 1974, NASCAR reduced the length of all races by 10% in response to this event.  What was that event?
A.  Auto racing worldwide was threatened thanks to the Arab Oil Embargo. Bill France, Sr., retired NASCAR president, traveled to Washington to represent the entire auto racing fraternity in tense meetings with the Federal Energy Office in January 1974. As a result of these negotiations, NASCAR agreed to reduce the mileage of Winston Cup events by 10 percent, and a full 30-race slate remained intact for the 1974 Winston Cup season.

Frontstretch Trivia Guarantee;  If we mess up, you get the shirt off our backs!  If we’ve provided an incorrect answer to the Frontstretch Trivia question, be the first to email the corrected trivia answer to trivia@frontstretch.com and we’ll send you a Frontstretch T-Shirt FREE!

Coming Tomorrow in the Frontstretch Newsletter
– Top News from Bryan Davis Keith and Tom Bowles
– Sitting in the Stands: A Fan’s View by S.D. Grady

Tomorrow on the Frontstretch:
The Voice Of Vito
by Vito Pugliese
This week, Vito’s Voice covers the Big Three drivers that — once the Chase starts — will probably be the only three names you hear. Who are they? You’ll have to read to find out.

The Yellow Stripe
by Danny Peters
Our resident Brit continues chiming in with his weekly commentary about his own version of events in the Cup Series.

Who’s Hot / Who’s Not In Sprint Cup : 3M Performance 400
by Mike Lovecchio
Mike’s got the inside look at how your favorite drivers fared this weekend at Michigan, as well as who else is looking good with three races left until the Chase.

Running Their Mouth : 3M Performance 400
by Beth Lunkenheimer
Beth tracked all the wild and wacky things the Cup drivers said this week at the Motor City, and she’s put it together in one easy-to-read column for your convenience.

The Race For Ratings Points : Critiquing NASCAR TV
by Doug Turnbull
This week, Doug does a quick rewind and review on ESPN’s race broadcasts at Brooklyn.  Find out if they kept their broadcast mojo up and running in the Irish Hills!
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