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Both races at Michigan were washed away — in June by the news that Dale Earnhardt Jr. was leaving DEI for Hendrick Motorsports and in August by rain that forced the race to be run on a Tuesday.

Despite plenty of distractions, Roush Racing was able to win yet again at the two-mile Brooklyn track, riding an unmatched aero package to victory. With the CoT running full time this season, we’ll see if that continues. Carl Edwards was Roush’s man last season, taking checkers in June after posting three top 5s over his first five starts at MIS.

In August, one of Roush’s former winners, Penske pitchman Kurt Busch, took a rain-delayed Tuesday win in Brooklyn. Having won in both a Ford and a Dodge, Busch is representative of a Michigan trend — 14 of the 16 races since 2000 have been won by either a Ford (eight) or a Dodge (six), with only a Chevy driven by Jeff Gordon (June ’01) and a Pontiac with Tony Stewart (June ’00) behind the wheel interrupting the streak.

Martin Truex Jr. nearly put an end to the 13-race Ford/Dodge stranglehold last season. Although he did not win, Truex did take his DEI Chevrolet to consecutive runner-up finishes in only his third and fourth Cup races at the track.

Kasey Kahne has four top-5 finishes in only eight races at Michigan. After two great runs as a rookie in 2004, Kahne went through a sophomore slump, then won in June ’06 before falling off again in 2007. The 9 car is due for a bounce-back year in ’08.

FANTASY STALL
Looking at Checkers

Biffle, Edwards or Kenseth. Take your pick.
Pretty Solid Pick
Martin Truex Jr’s two runners-up in ’08 were solid.
Good Sleeper Pick
Denny Hamlin
Runs on Seven Cylinders
Childress cars, for some reason, have never fared as well here.
Insider Tip
You willing to bet against Jack Roush’s six MIS wins?

KEEP AN EYE ON...
Greg Biffle Biffle had back-to-back wins in 2004 and ‘05. That Roush machinery is uncanny at Michigan.

Dave Blaney A true darkhorse, Blaney runs well at the big intermediates. He notched a sixth-place run here last August.

Denny Hamlin In four career Cup starts, Hamlin has yet to finish worse than 14th at MIS. He won the August Nationwide event here last year as well.

Matt Kenseth This is one of those tracks where Kenseth thrives. His performance of late has been up-and-down, but he has two top-5 runs — including a win — in his last three MIS visits. In that time he has led 118 laps.

Tony Stewart He’s not in a Chevy anymore, so it’s all systems go for the 20. Stewart has two third-place finishes, a fifth and a 10th in his last five Michigan races.


RACE RESULTS FOR 3M Performance 400 (Aug 17th, 2008)
DRIVER MANUFACTURER START FINISH POINTS EARNINGS
Carl Edwards (#99) Ford 27 1 195 $226,075
Kyle Busch (#18) Toyota 11 2 175 $136,925
David Ragan (#6) Ford 16 3 170 $119,950
Greg Biffle (#16) Ford 9 4 165 $108,700
Matt Kenseth (#17) Ford 14 5 155 $134,516
Mark Martin (#8) Chevrolet 15 6 150 $123,908
Brian Vickers (#83) Toyota 1 7 151 $99,800
Kevin Harvick (#29) Chevrolet 38 8 142 $134,186
Elliott Sadler (#19) Dodge 3 9 138 $117,620
Jamie McMurray (#26) Ford 18 10 134 $94,900
Jeff Burton (#31) Chevrolet 28 11 135 $123,858
Tony Stewart (#20) Toyota 21 12 127 $126,461
Travis Kvapil (#28) Ford 26 13 124 $109,489
David Reutimann (#44) Toyota 7 14 121 $85,725
Scott Riggs (#66) Chevrolet 10 15 123 $99,433
Martin Truex Jr. (#1) Chevrolet 25 16 115 $110,533
Jimmie Johnson (#48) Chevrolet 2 17 117 $135,386
Casey Mears (#5) Chevrolet 29 18 109 $93,150
Michael Waltrip (#55) Toyota 42 19 106 $94,608
Clint Bowyer (#07) Chevrolet 41 20 103 $94,875
Ryan Newman (#12) Dodge 20 21 100 $116,625
Sam Hornish Jr (#77) Dodge 23 22 97 $121,125
Dale Earnhardt Jr. (#88) Chevrolet 4 23 99 $91,800
Paul Menard (#15) Chevrolet 36 24 91 $85,025
Juan Pablo Montoya (#42) Dodge 19 25 88 $105,058
David Gilliland (#38) Ford 40 26 85 $90,408
Bobby Labonte (#43) Dodge 35 27 82 $112,861
A.J. Allmendinger (#84) Toyota 33 28 79 $75,675
Regan Smith (#01) Chevrolet 8 29 76 $83,500
Patrick Carpentier (#10) Dodge 6 30 73 $72,925
Tony Raines (#70) Chevrolet 30 31 70 $72,300
Terry Labonte (#45) Dodge 17 32 67 $86,358
Reed Sorenson (#41) Dodge 31 33 64 $100,289
Joe Nemechek (#78) Chevrolet 34 34 61 $72,025
Mike Skinner (#84) Toyota 22 35 58 $81,422
Kurt Busch (#2) Dodge 13 36 55 $71,825
Robby Gordon (#7) Dodge 12 37 52 $79,775
Brad Coleman (#96) Toyota 43 38 49 $79,675
Denny Hamlin (#11) Toyota 37 39 46 $106,616
Kasey Kahne (#9) Dodge 32 40 43 $101,566
Dave Blaney (#22) Toyota 24 41 40 $71,515
Jeff Gordon (#24) Chevrolet 5 42 37 $120,376
Marcos Ambrose (#47) Ford 39 43 34 $89,252

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