FireKeepers Casino 400 at MIS guarantees one thing: speed

Michigan International Speedway is known for its high speeds, with the highest pole-winning lap speed on the NASCAR circuit.
The track’s width allows for high-speed passing, but the speed also makes passing challenging and risky.
Maintaining speed exiting corners is crucial, with speeds in the corners during qualifying estimated at a minimum of 185 mph.

There were nine cautions over 47 laps on Saturday, June 7, in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. Nine cars were eliminated as trucks smashed into each other, blew tires and eventually, went to triple-overtime, with Stewart Friesen winning.

NASCAR Cup Series drivers are likely hoping their race won’t look anything like that on Sunday, June 8. As entertaining as it is for the fans, it detracts from the main fun of the race for the drivers: Just how fast can they take their cars?

Michigan International Speedway is an “open the throttle and let her go” kind of track. The racetrack boasts the highest pole-winning lap speed of any track on the circuit at 192.04 mph — more than three miles an hour faster than the next fastest track. Drivers love it because they can put the pedal to the metal and rarely lift off much.

Part of what gives Michigan its blistering pace is how wide the track is, giving drivers the ability to pass at full speed, rather than reducing speed as they might at other racetracks. That does not mean, though, that passing will be easy at the FireKeepers Casino 400. In fact, because the lead cars are able to fly down the track as well, it can make passing more difficult logistically. Drivers must take more risks at a higher speed.

“It’s not necessarily the speed aspect by yourself, but how fast we’re going also makes traffic very difficult,” said Tyler Reddick, who won the FireKeepers Casino 400 last year. “We’re as close as we are to wide open. As the lead car, you’re able to defend really well, and when you’re the car attacking and trying to close the gap or make the pass, you have to work really hard and, at times, take a lot of risk. But that’s also what makes this place fun.”

Michigan also has one of the steeper embankments on the NASCAR circuit, with a track angle of 18 degrees, which aids drivers in their quest for speed. Anyone who took high school physics will remember learning about (or at least trying to learn) centripetal force, and it’s something the drivers know well. Michigan’s embankment combined with the two-mile distance means that drivers can build speed throughout the race and rarely need to drastically reduce it.

It also means that maintaining speed exiting the corners of the track is crucial to success, but that’s no easy task. Kyle Busch — a 2011 winner at MIS and the second-place qualifier on Saturday — estimated that speeds in the corners during qualifying were a minimum of 185 mph. That likely won’t be the minimum on race day given the traffic in the race, but the track is primed for speed this weekend.

“You’re relying on a lot of downforce and a lot of air going over your race car,” Busch said. “So when you get in traffic and you get pockets of dirty air or no air, you’ve got issues.”

Dirty air is always a concern in NASCAR races, but the width of the track at MIS provides ways for drivers to get more clean air. The truck series race on Saturday offered examples of how. Truck drivers in battles frequently split on the turns — one truck going high on the embankment, the other staying close to the infield — before reconvening on the exit. It allowed both cars to process fresh air through their grills before resuming the battle.

In a similar vein, it is essential that drivers capitalize on the massive draft opportunity created at MIS. The speed of the top cars create pockets of draft that cars behind can ride in and pick up additional speed. This is particularly useful for the cars at the back of the field as they can utilize multiple draft streams and advance in the field more easily. Those cars have to contend with the dirty air more, but knowing how to manipulate the draft can provide an advantage.

Drivers should be familiar with this style of track by this point in the season. Michigan comes at the end of a stretch full of intermediate races like Kansas and Charlotte. Some drivers, such as Ryan Blaney, have taken notes from those races — particularly Kansas, an oval track that tends to drive fast — and Blaney felt his strong performance there indicated his car might have similar success tomorrow.

“Our larger track or intermediate stuff has been pretty good this year,” Blaney said Wednesday, June 4. “Michigan is a little bit larger than Kansas, but they have a lot of same characteristics, and we were great. We were really, really good at Kansas. So hopefully we can take some of that stuff we learned there and apply it to Michigan.”

Other drivers disagree. Each track is different, and teams don’t necessarily run the same setup for each one, even within similar track styles. Kansas and Michigan have only a half-mile of difference in their run distance, but Joey Logano felt that the tracks simply don’t have much in common aside from the speed. And even there, Michigan wins by a long shot.

“The speeds may be similar, but the track’s so different being (a) half mile bigger than what Kansas was,” Logano said. “You’re in the loud pedal a comparable amount, so you’re similar from that standpoint, but your loads are different, too.”

Drivers have prepared differently for this race, but they’ll all be lined up on Sunday. Chase Briscoe was the top qualifier Saturday — his third straight pole this year — and will lead the field looking for his first victory this season.

Matthew Auchincloss is a reporter with the Detroit Free Press. Connect at mauchincloss@freepress.com.

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