Anderson Dominates Again!!!

The loudspeakers were booming Kid Rock as the fans piled into Michigan International Raceway for The Days of Thunder 100. Fans know this race usually comes down to fuel strategy. So the guys up front may or may not be able to make it, or, someone in the back may steal the show. You just never know here. Michigan is extremely fast, but at the cost of the “oh so precious” Sunoco race fuel. But this race would take a dramatic turn as fuel was not the issue here. Tire wear became the beast, as the falloff was extreme. In 3-5 laps the time would drop by almost a full second. So the drivers would need to save their tires. The byproduct of this would also be saving fuel. The question would be, who could do that the best?

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Justin Anderson would pace the field with a time of 38.314 in his Raybestos / R-n-J Motorsports Ford Fusion. Anderson would barrel hard into turn 1 and take the lead. His next goal was to stretch it out apparently as he would have a 4 car length advantage coming to the line to lead lap 1. Dennis Brasfield driving the #38 Noritz / R-n-J Motorsports Chevrolet SS, would try to mount a charge to go after his fellow teammate after starting 4th. The next 20 laps didn’t produce any exciting changes as the drivers were just trying to get into a groove and tick off laps, except Anderson that is. Anderson would get out to an eight and a half second lead over Mark Arthur. There would be an occasional pass for position here or there. But you could tell that the drivers were just wanting to log laps for right now.

Lap 24 saw the pitting begin, as Brasfield would pit after hitting the wall hard out of 2 just two laps prior. The only real battle up to this point, was between Mark Arthur in the #12 Force Awakens Chevrolet SS, and point’s leader Thomas Christ in the #55 Summit sports / Rn-J Motorsports Ford Fusion. These two would battle each other all race long. Anderson would start the pitting on lap 33 bringing his Fusion in with a comfortable 12 second lead. The next partakers of the pit would be Arthur and Dean Viney in the #071 Miller lite Chevy. The very next lap Christ would bring the #55 down for service after collecting that so important bonus point for leading a lap. This would give the Hot Wheels #46 of Jim Whaley Jr the lead. Whaley would eventually come down pit road for service handing the lead over to Brasfield, completing this round of pit stops. While this was going on, Brasfield would get into teammate Terry Walters in the #27 Widow Wax / R-n-J Motorsports Ford Fusion sending him into the grass on the front stretch.

Lap 44 would see Anderson retake the lead from Brasfield. Brasfield’s crew chief decided to roll the “short pit” dice, and bring him down with 48 to go. The problem is everyone else would have to stop 1 more time, he would need a caution as he would have to stop again. Anderson and Christ would make their last stop (or so they thought) on lap 63. This would give the lead back to Whaley and put Brasfield back in 2nd. The hot Wheels Ford would come to pit road giving the lead to Brasfield. However, Brasfield would have to pit again which would hand it back to Anderson who was in 3rd. But Anderson had a different strategy. He wasn’t going to wait for the inevitable. He was just going to go take it. And take it he did!

Brasfield would bring it down pit road on lap 76. He needed to get as much time as he could by taking just two tires. Wrong plan! Entering turn 3 he lost control and spun. Using the often ill looked upon strategy, he would stay parked on the track to bring out the 1st yellow of the race. This would wipe out Anderson’s 19 second lead. Brasfield would for some reason lose it again under caution in turn 1. Again he would spin out. This had people scratching their heads. Lap 89 would see the 2nd yellow as Brasfield would once again lose it out of turn 2. The field would come down one last time to put four fresh Goodyear’s on for the 6 lap shootout.

Anderson would bring the field to the green with Christ on his outside along with Arthur and last week’s winner Clifton Cockrell. As the green flew, the 55 spun his wheels allowing Anderson and Arthur to get away. Heading into turn 3 Arthur would dive to the inside of Anderson to try and wrestle the lead away from him. Whaley starting in 5th was making a statement as he was right on Arthur’s bumper into 3 trying to get by Christ as well as Anderson. The next lap turn 1 would drastically change the outcome of this race. Anderson in 3rd would take a high sweeping arc to try and get as much momentum as possible to make a run on Whaley on the outside. Anderson squeezed Whaley down. Christ thought he could go on the low line and snooker them both as they were fighting tooth and nail. At least that was the plan. Anderson and Whaley touched ever so slightly. Christ being on the bottom just could not keep it there with the lack of grip. He would push up and clip the 46. Miraculously Whaley managed to spin and not catch Anderson or Christ, and he didn’t go all the way around. Christ would slide down to the apron and manage to keep it going and get back up on track losing minimal time. With Whaley trying to save it, Cockrell had nowhere to go, and got into Whaley hard. The caution never flew allowing this race to finish under green. Anderson was hot on the heels of Arthur for the lead. Christ would get back to 3rd, but quite a ways back. Arthur’s chances would go up in smoke as he blasted the wall out of 4 with just two to go. This allowed Anderson to retake his lead back. With that hit it would launch Arthur down into the infield allowing Christ to grab 2nd. With that, Anderson would grab his league leading 3rd win of the season. Christ would finish 2nd with Arthur keeping 3rd. Dean Viney would be 4th and Mark Koschik with another great run would round out the top 5.

FINAL THOUGHTS:

With the way Justin Anderson has attacked this season despite missing a race. It would be safe to say that had he not missed one, he and Christ would be having a dog fight for the remaining two races. The 38 team of Brasfield has struggled mightily for the last 4 races. That team needs to straighten itself out in a hurry if they want a shot at the title. With all the setup issues and spinning out and wrecking and getting into people. They have put themselves into a box only they can dig out of. And how about Mark Koschik. The last two races the driver of the #33 has put together a road course top 5 as well as a 2nd straight top 5 at Michigan! With 2 races to go its Christ’s if he wants it and doesn’t do anything foolish. Or will Brasfield’s team wake up and go get it cleanly and competitively? Only time will tell. See you next week at Homestead!