The stages are 60-60-80. Competition caution at lap 20.
Erik ‘Da Brat’ Jones (20) goes for a spin early.
William Byron (24) loses it underneath, then into Martin Truex Jr (78) sending both for a spin on lap 15 of 200.
Stage 1 ends with Kevin ‘Happy/KHarv’ Harvick (4) in front.
Restarting on lap 66 of 200 with Jimmie Johnson (48) in the lead after a two tire stop.
Kyle ‘KyBu’ Busch (18) takes over the lead before the completion of lap 66 of 200.
Ryan Newman (31) has a tire issue on lap 75 of 200 sending him into a spin.
Jimmie is back in the race lead since he didn’t pit again.
KyBu, KHarv, Denny Hamlin (11), Ryan Blaney (12) and Alex Bowman (88) pitted for fuel front the front of the field.
Restarting on lap 79 of 200 with Jimmie Johnson and Martin Truex Jr (78) on the front row.
Jimmie leads the lap.
KyBu and Joey ‘Squinty-Douchey’ Logano (22) get around Hamlin.
Martin is stalking Jimmie.
Erik Jones goes around on lap 84 of 200 bringing out the caution. He got into Ryan Blaney’s right rear and possibly the tail-pipe cut down his front left tire sending him around.
Restarting on lap 88 of 200 with Martin Truex Jr in the lead. Jimmie Johnson gave up the lead for a pit stop.
Martin and KHarv lead the field to the green.
Jimmie is working his way back through the 20s after making that pit stop. Rusty Wallace on MRN is questioning their pit calls.
So now Martin Truex Jr is in fuel conservation mode with Happy in the lead on lap 116 of 200.
Truex runs out before the end of the stage and has to come to pit road while its closed getting a penalty.
Harvick wins the stage again.
The 78 also got an uncontrolled tire penalty on top of the pitting while pit road is closed penalty.
Jimmie has managed to get up to the 14th position after the pit stop when no one else pitted.
Restarting on lap 127 of 200 with KHarv and KyBu at the front.
Martin will restart 30th, one lap down.
Caution on lap 132 of 200 for Ty Dillon (13) bashing the wall and the car is on first. Ty ran over some debris and shortly thereafter went up in smoke followed by heading for the wall.
Rusty Wallace on MRN says it looks like somebody’s backup battery that Ty ran over.
Martin Truex Jr is back on the lead lap.
Ty wants NASCAR to fine the owner of the battery. He said that shouldn’t happen in this sport.
Restarting on lap 144 of 200 with KHarv and Ryan ‘Son’ Blaney up front. Jimmie is restarting from 10th.
Green flag pit stops underway on lap 170 of 200.
There are 9 drivers at the front of the field who still need to make pit stops. KHarv is in 10th so he’d take over the lead.
KHarv’s engine is running really hot with 15 laps to go. He doesn’t have debris on the girll.
Austin ‘Frankenstein’ Dillon (3) is dogging his heels.
KHarv and Frankenstein are beginning to pass the cars that stayed out.
Newman is still leading them around. The guys on MRN say none of them have enough fuel to make it to the end.
Jamie McMurray (1) and Kutey Kyle Larson (42) finally gave up the ghost and so has Newman on lap 189 of 200.
Harvick is back in the front followed by Frankenstein and Brad ‘It’ Keselowski (2).
The 6 of Trevor Bayne is stopped on pit road. Looks like he’s stalled. He started, then seemed to stall out. The car is being pushed back into his pit stall.
Jimmie Johnson pits on lap 194 of 200.
MRN is saying ‘It’ is the fastest car on the track in third position and that KHarv is likely rolling off the throttle to try to nurse the car to the finish. He’s busily passing cars like there’s nothing wrong with the car. I wonder if the temperature came down and he didn’t mention it on the radio.
Happy takes the white flag.
Kevin Harvick cruises to the win with no competition.
Apparently I missed the interesting part of this race. I get home to watch KHarv stink up the show as usual. Another boring Michigan race from what I saw. I’ll check out the beginning of the race as soon as the tv broadcast is concluded.
Rodney Childress says the cars normally get hot when pitting under green. He also thinks the speedy-dry may have clogged up the ductwork.
Kevin has sent six-year-old Keelan Harvick over to get the checkered flag.
Kevin is taking the window off. One of the officials is talking to Kevin while he’s putting Keelan in the car. Kevin put Keelan in the passenger side and he’s holding the flag out the window.
Keelan doused Josh ‘Poodle’ Jones with the water Beer that Kevin handed him.
Keelan is running a quarter midget now for fun. Kevin said as long as he gets a chance to spend time with him that’s all he cares about. Sweet.
He said the car scared him as it went into preservation mode and slowed down, but then it got cool.
The post-race shows seem endless on NBC. I remember on SpeedTV I felt like I couldn’t get enough of the race shows. They were informative, entertaining – and good television. The hosts were good, the guests were good, and I learned a lot about NASCAR – the racing and the racers. The NBC shows are rarely informative. They just seem masturbatory – big egos showing off for big egos. Everything feels like an inside joke or a private party held in public. Most often they’re like that insane thing they do of interviewing the driver when he goes to pick up the checkered flag, then interviewing him again when he gets to victory lane, then interviewing him again after victory lane on the set. What are the chances that he’s actually going to have anything different to say for interviews minutes apart. It’s just repetitive and feels like a waste of television time and time that could be spent talking to other drivers.
So you have the race, immediately followed by the big egos congratulating themselves on the post-race show, followed by the b or c team sitting on a desk rehashing everything we’ve just seen and everything that’s just been said, and throwing in some twitter crap on top of it. There’s nothing really new, and there’s little that’s relevant. They seem to enjoy themselves, but it seems pointless – just a time killer/filler.
A good measure of how boring the race was can be measured in how much everybody is talking about Happy letting Keelan get the flag, then giving him a ride to victory lane.
NASCAR News:
- Stage results Michigan August 2018 race.
- Justin Allgaier wins Xfinity Series race at Mid-Ohio.
- Todd Gilliland faces must-win situation to make playoffs.
- Daniel Suarez: ‘I’m capable of winning races’.
- Michigan Truck results: Brett Moffitt edges Johnny Sauter.
- Goodyear opts for slight tire change at Charlotte road course.
- Dale Earnhardt Jr. surprises fans with trip through MIS infield.