Sunday’s Cup race at Michigan International Speedway lasted just over 2 hours, making it the shortest Cup points race to run a full distance since 2017.
Kevin Harvick won Sunday’s Cup race, which lasted 2 hours, 9 minutes, 35 seconds. The short race was reduced to 312 miles since Cup teams ran twice there this weekend. Michigan races are typically 400 miles.
Sunday’s race is the shortest Cup race since the rain-shortened June 2018 event at Michigan that went 2 hours, 15 seconds.
The last Cup race that ran a full distance that was shorter than Sunday’s event was the 2017 Watkins Glen race that lasted 2 hours, 7 minutes, 3 seconds.
MORE: What drivers said after Michigan race
MORE: What’s in the future for Kevin Harvick’s undefeated car?
Nine of the 22 Cup races this season have taken less than 3 hours to run, including six races that were shortened this season after the series resumed in May from the COVID-19 pause.
The issue of shorter races has been a topic in the sport for years. The doubleheader weekend in two weeks at Dover will see both those races shortened from 400 miles to 311 miles each.
“The shorter races, seems like it’s been a good thing,” crew chief Rodney Childers said after Harvick swept the weekend at Michigan International Speedway. “Keeps things exciting. Everybody is racing harder the whole time, shorter stages. Not much for people riding around or waiting till the end, any of that kind of thing.
“I think the doubleheaders so far have been good. I think putting two of them in the same weekend has been something that probably saves a lot of money for the teams, you’re able to put on a good show two days in a row. We’ll just have to see how that plays outgoing forward.”
Here are the nine races that lasted less than 3 hours this season:
2:09:35 — Michigan II (312 miles)
2:25:01 — Pocono I (325 miles)
2:29:23 — Charlotte II (312 miles)
2:34:55 — Michigan I (322 miles)
2:37:07 — Auto Club (400 miles)
2:42:23 — Darlington II (284 miles)
2:50:54 — Pocono II (350 miles)
2:58:11 — Las Vegas (400 miles)
2:59:49 — Kentucky (400 miles)
Brandon Brown extended his hold on the final spot in the Xfinity playoff grid last weekend at Road America after struggles early in the race.
Brown needed to be pushed back to pit road before the field took the green because of a mechanical issue. He fell a lap down as his crew diagnosed the issue, got his lap back, scored four stage points in the second stage and finished 12th, one spot off his best career finish on a road course.
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Brown’s effort and Jeremy Clements misfortune in being collected in a crash to finish 29th led to Brown extending his lead on Clements for the final spot in the Xfinity playoff grid to 53 points. Myatt Snider is 73 points behind Brown. Eight races remain until the Xfinity playoffs begin Sept. 26 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
Here is a look at the playoff grid. Drivers shaded in green are locked in the playoffs. Those shaded in yellow are in a playoff spot based on their point total. Drivers shaded in red are outside a spot in the Xfinity playoff grid.
William Byron extended his lead for the final playoff spot after a pair of Cup races this past weekend at Michigan International Speedway.
Byron entered the Michigan weekend 15 points ahead of Tyler Reddick for the final playoff spot. Byron left Michigan with a 26-point lead on Erik Jones and Jimmie Johnson for that final playoff spot. Reddick fell to 36 points behind Byron.
For the weekend, Byron gained one point on Johnson, lost five points to Jones and gained 21 points on Reddick.
MORE: Winners and losers after Sunday Cup race at Michigan
MORE: What’s in the future for Kevin Harvick’s undefeated car?
Four Cup races remain in the regular season: Sunday’s race at the Daytona International Speedway road course (3 p.m. ET on NBC), the Dover Cup races Aug. 22-23 and the regular-season finale on the oval at Daytona on Aug. 29. The Cup playoffs begin with the Sept. 6 Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
Here is a look at the Cup playoff grid. Drivers shaded in green are locked in the playoffs. Drivers shaded in yellow are in a playoff spot based on their point total. Drivers shaded in red are outside a spot in the Cup playoff grid.
Winners and losers from the Sunday Michigan Cup race:
WINNERS
Kevin Harvick — Sweeps the weekend and scores his ninth consecutive top-five finish. He fell one stage victory short of a perfect weekend. His team is so good that he talks of having an undefeated car and possibly not running it again this year.
Denny Hamlin — Scores his fourth runner-up finish of the year. It is the second time he’s finished second to Kevin Harvick this season. Said Hamlin: “I definitely don’t like not winning. But we’re competitive. We’ve given ourselves a shot here these last few weeks.”
Short races — Sunday’s race was 2 hours, 9 minutes, 35 seconds. It is the shortest Cup points race to run the full distance since 2017. Still, there was much packed into that race with Kevin Harvick coming through the field and holding off Denny Hamlin in the final laps to win. Short races force the action.
Joey Logano — His fifth-place finish is his third consecutive top 10. This is the first time this season he’s scored three top 10s in a row.
Martin Truex Jr. — Finishes third in back-to-back races at Michigan. Has finished third or better in five of the last six races.
LOSERS
Alex Bowman — Failed to score a top-20 finish in either race at Michigan and placed 36th Sunday.
Brad Keselowski — A day after finishing second at his home track, he crashed and took out teammate Ryan Blaney as they raced for the lead Sunday. “I just lost it,” Keselowski said. “It’s my fault. I feel really bad for my teammate, Ryan Blaney. He didn’t deserve that.”
The car is referred to as 081 by Rodney Childers’ crew and in the three Cup Series races it has run this year, it’s unbeatable.
It’s the No. 4 Ford that Kevin Harvick is now 3-for-3 with after his win Sunday at Michigan International Speedway.
Harvick’s Stewart-Haas Racing team first brought the car to the track for the July 5 Brickyard 400.
In the three races the car has raced, including both parts of this weekend’s doubleheader, Harvick has led 250 of 478 laps and earned four stage wins.
On Sunday, Harvick officially started 20th after a field inversion of the top-20 finishers from Saturday. Harvick won the second stage and eventually led the final 41 laps, holding off Denny Hamlin by .093 seconds to keep 081’s winning streak alive.
Surely, they’ll bring it back at some point in the final 14 races of the season?
“I bet we don’t run it anymore, to be honest with you,” Harvick said after Sunday’s race. “I think there’s so many different styles of racetracks that we’re going to as we go forward here. Obviously, we’re going to a road course (Daytona) next week, then we go to a low downforce track two races in a row at Dover, then a superspeedway car (Daytona), then you go into short tracks, Darlington with high downforce cars. I know you won’t run it at Vegas or Charlotte.
“Honestly, I don’t think you’ll run this car anymore.”
When asked about the future of 081, Childers wouldn’t budge.
“That’s kind of up to me to decide. It’s top secret,” Childers said. “It’s going to be a surprise.”
Don’t expect the No. 4 team to christen 081 – a number assigned to it in production – with any affectionate nicknames, like the name Dale Earnhardt Jr. gave to a car a few years ago, “Amelia.”
“We don’t really talk about that kind of stuff,” Childers said. “We’ve had some good cars over the years with the 4 team and some of them have won a lot of races. We call it 081 and we keep it going through the system just like any other car. Just have to figure out our car schedule and figure out where we’re going to run it again and keep moving forward with it.”
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