Kevin Harvick held on for his second victory of the Monster Energy Series season Sunday, stretching his final fuel run at Michigan International Speedway.
Harvick’s Stewart-Haas Racing No. 4 Ford led 22 of the 200 laps in the Consumers Energy 400. His third win at the 2-mile Michigan was the 47th of his Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series career.
Denny Hamlin wrapped up second place in the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota. Kyle Larson took third place, with Martin Truex Jr. fourth and Daniel Suarez closing out the top five.
Pole-starter Brad Keselowski led a race-high 66laps in the Team Penske No. 2 Ford, but headed to pit road for fuel on Lap 189. He wound up 19th in the 38-car field.
Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Truex and Kyle Busch divided the stage wins. Truex landed a top-five finish in his 500th career start, and Busch faded to sixth place.
A pair of incidents imperiled the postseason hopes for Jimmie Johnson and Clint Bowyer. Johnson’s issues struck early, with a brush of the Turn 2 wall sending him to pit road on Lap 15. Repeated stops for repairs left him 34th, eight laps down at the finish.
THE FRATERNAL ORDER OF THE GO FAST
This week there was one player who successfully selected the race winner of Kevin Harvick. In spite of his rough weekend of racing on the dirt, David The Mudslinging Throttle Jockey was riding shotgun with “Freaky Fast” Harvick long before Keelan was was lifted into the copilot’s seat for some really cool Dad/Son burnouts after the race at MIS! The Throttle Jockey racked up a much needed 45 points to drop into his 2nd segment bucket.
THE MOVERS AND THE SHAKERS
We have a new leader sitting atop of the scoring pylon this week! Ol Snoopy Dawn very sneakily slithered her way to the top of the leaderboard when the Victory Lane celebration ended at MIS!
As happens from time to time the race winner does not always produce the highest point tally when the checkered flag flies. This week that was the occurrence at MIS.
The duo that racked up the highest totals this week is the husband-wife pair of Snoopy Dawn and Carlton The Doorman. This pair picked Martin Truex, Jr. as their man to enable them to surge up through the standings as the segment comes nears completion. Even though MTJ did not win the race, he nevertheless contributed 52 points to their totals this week.
The second biggest scorer was already mentioned above in the Go Fast portion of this article about The Mudslinger.
There was a trio this week that was hanging with, and supporting, The Delivernator, aka Denny Hamlin. Those three players include Jim, aka Chiefy, Dan The Numbers Cruncher, as well as Wild Bill The Pretzel Man. Each of these players added a cool 44 points to their bucket this week.
Ranking fourth this week with 35 points scored at Michigan is Bernie The Bay Area Bandit. The Bandit used her Chase Elliott card hoping that Awesome Bill’s kid could add another victory to his very young Cup resume. That did not occur this week, nevertheless, Elliott did deliver a nice point total to the Bandit’s bucket.
Rounding out the top five scorers this week is still another unlikely trio! That threesome consists of Edie the Las Vegas Super Star, Kathy The Church Forecloser, and Leon Your Most Humble Sheriff. Each player added 34 points to their respective totals, but from two different drivers this week. Both The Forecloser and The Super Star were rooting for Easy Money, Kyle Larson, while Your Sheriff was in the copilot’s seat with Joey Logano.
Only four players, Kathy the Church Forecloser, Bobby Blue Crush, Leon Your Most Humble Sheriff, as well as Edie the Las Vegas Super Star remained in their previous positions!
The single biggest mover this week was Karen The Highly Opinionated Southern Belle. The Opinionated One plummeted six (6) places to land in 12th place at the end of the race.
Conversely, Carlton The Doorman rocketed up the scoring pylon four (4) places to reside now in 5th place this week.
Meanwhile, Snoopy Dawn, Wild Bill The Pretzel Man, and Jeremy the Coach moved three (3) places as the Sun set on Michigan International Speedway. Snoopy and Wild Bill each stepped up their game moving up to sit now on top of the leaderboard, first place, and 14th place, respectively. The Coach, however, is not celebrating this evening at all. The Coach is poised to make a surprise attack on The Outhouse, just in time for the end of this segment!
Still a third trio banded together in their migration through the scoring pylon. This threesome consists of Dan the Numbers Dude, Amber the Extremely Lucky Cheddar Head and Lonna The Quilt Angel. Both The Numbers Dude and The Cheddar Head climbed up two places to sit in 13th and 16th, respectively. But The Quilt Angel tumbled and fell two places to return to The Outhouse this week!
STRAIGHT FROM THE CRAPPER
This week we have a pair of players who will be sharing The Crappiest Pick of The Week award. Both Karen The Highly Opinionated Southern Belle and Lonna The Quilt Angel will be sharing this award this week. Both players were only able to scavenge up 3 microscopic points for the week!
With those three points scored, Lonna The Quilt Angel returns to some familiar digs, The Outhouse. With just one race left in this segment The Quilt Angel may have solidified winning this illustrious award for the second segment!
Next week NASCAR rolls back to Tennessee for the night race from Bristol. That’s right it’s Bristol baby, and it’s comin’ around again!
TIL NEXT TIME, PULL YOU RBELTS TIGHT AND LET’S GO RACIN’!