Kasey Kahne won the 3M Performance 258 presented by Post-It Picture Paper this afternoon at a rainy Michigan International Speedway for his 4th win of 2006 (no one has more). After about an hour’s delay getting started (and multiple yellows for precipitation) the race was called after 129 laps and Kasey had his 5th career win (he’s tied for 62nd on the all-time win list). This was the 11th win for car owner Ray Evernham and was worth $205,364 from the over $5.5M in posted awards. When Kasey’s pit crew got him out about 18 inches ahead of Carl Edwards on their last pit stop, little did we know…..
Carl Edwards (2nd) had his best finish since he won at Texas last October.
Reed Sorenson (5th) had his career-best finish today. His previous best was 10th on two occasions….at Atlanta in March and at Lowe’s in May.
Casey Mears (7th) had his best finish since he was 7th at California in February.
David Stremme (19th) had his best finish since he was 16th at Chicagoland last July.
Bill Lester (32nd) had his career-best finish today. He was 38th in his only other start at Atlanta in March.
STREAKIN….Greg Biffle has 6 Top-10’s in a row.
Jimmie Johnson has 5 Top-10’s in a row.
Kasey Kahne has 4 Top-10’s in a row.
This Week’s Elevator….UP: Operator of the Week is Casey Mears (+30), followed by Carl Edwards (+29), Ryan Newman (+27), Reed Sorenson (+20), and Dale Jarrett (+20). DOWN: The Big Dropper was Clint Bowyer (-30), followed by J. J. Yeley (-26), Tony Stewart (-24), Bobby Labonte (-23), and Ken Schrader (-20). Lotsa action in the “Shaft” for a shortened event.
Reed Sorenson led today (once for three laps) for the first time in his NEXTEL Cup career. He’s the 41st different driver to lead a lap this season….last year we had 51 different leaders.
Greg Biffle moves above the “Stayin’ Alive” line this week as he replaces Kyle Busch in the Top-10. Jimmie Johnson lengthens his lead over Matt Kenseth to 74 markers.
We’re able to post our first “Mathematically Eliminated” line of the season (and we expect that line to move rapidly) after today’s race. Every driver from 47th on back can now state “Wait’ll next year!”.
Reed Sorenson (24th to 20th) made the best advance in the standings today, while six drivers fell two spots.(Stock Car Fans)(6-18-2006)
