Takeaways from the Firekeepers Casino 400 at Michigan

From Autoweek

It was a good day for the choose rule.

Kevin Harvick won the Firekeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway on Saturday, and looked largely invincible in the process, but NASCAR’s new restart procedures kept things interesting until the very end.

First and foremost: Give credit to NBC Sports for clearly showing the lane selection before every restart. It’s challenging for fans to understand it when they couldn’t experience it, something supported by FOX Sports’ failure to show the rule during its unofficial debut last month during the All-Star Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

The moment it seemed to click for most viewers is after Chase Elliott used it to take the lead on Lap 139. Elliott was running fifth before 'taking the cone,' short track vernacular for choosing the non-preferred lane, selecting the inside front row after the leaders each took the dominant outside line.

That means Elliott went from running fifth to lined-up second.

Elliott powered by Harvick with a push from Brad Keselowski and took the lead on a restart where he would have ordinarily taken the green third on the bottom.

That’s the beauty of the choose rule, a longstanding short track procedure that NASCAR drivers have been loudly advocating for in recent years, but especially over the past two seasons with the current high downforce, low horsepower rules package.

The current formula makes restarts more important than ever before, and it becomes especially challenging to pass once cars get single-file due to the giant spoiler affixed to the rear of these cars, and the lack of power to overcome it.

Thus, the choose rule permits a driver who doesn’t have track position, should the opportunity present itself, to bet on himself in the non-preferred line and try to get clean air by force.

Kyle Busch used it on Lap 148 to take the lead, after he 'took the cone,' to go from the third position to the inside front row after Elliott and Harvick took the outside. Without the choose rule, Busch would have started on the bottom of the second row.

Of course, Busch didn’t have race winning speed, but took the lead regardless. That made things even more compelling when Harvick drove right up to his rear bumper and forced the No. 18 aero loose and into the wall.

Action!

Ultimately, the rule works because it places an additional layer of strategy into the drivers’ hands. No longer can a driver blame their lack of success on the randomness of which lane they happened to restart in during the course of the race.

Was it kind of strange to make a procedural change right in the middle of the season? Sure. There’s also several precedents for it, between double-file restarts, not racing back to the line after a caution and swapping from a wing to a spoiler on the Car of Tomorrow.

Better to do it now, rather than after the start of the playoffs, especially if there is widespread optimism that it can make the racing more compelling.

Mission accomplished through one race at Michigan.

THE CASE FOR SHORTER RACES

This will prove to be an unpopular opinion in some circles, but Saturday’s Firekeeper Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway was the perfect length and tempo for a modern NASCAR Cup Series race.

Let’s just get this out of the way: The cars are too reliable, and its drivers are too physically fit to make 500 miles the test of man and machine that it was back in the golden era.

Saturday’s race at Michigan was a 322-mile affair that lasted 2 hours and 35 minutes, providing just as much action as the standard 400-mile event, with considerably less filler and more urgency.

The pushback, of course, is that attending fans spend too much money to be short-changed a return on their investment. But consider the following: Saturday’s race was 78 miles shorter but finished just 20 minutes shorter than both its 2018 and 2019 counterparts.

Did anyone feel hoodwinked out of their NASCAR experience on Saturday, especially knowing there is another scheduled for Sunday?

Drivers never had a chance to ride around and just log laps, especially with a random draw that determined the starting lineups, and stages that ended on Laps 40 and 85 respectively. There was immediate and continued urgency.

Pocono Raceway already had a scheduled doubleheader for the 2020 season, with Michigan and Dover inheriting the same format due to the pandemic. The shorter races proved successful at Pocono, and the first Michigan twin delivered as well.

Here’s to hoping future NASCAR Cup Series schedules include more Saturday-Sunday doubleheaders. For those attending in person, you’re getting two (albeit shorter) races for the price of one, and perhaps included a companion race to extend the day and offering a return on the investment.

Perhaps this could turn three-day race weekends into two-day events, meaning fans could even cut a hotel stay from their planned expenditures.

Races like the Daytona 500, Coca-Cola 600 and Southern 500 are historic in nature, and should never be shortened.

Do we really need 500-mile Cup Series races at Atlanta and Texas?

THE BIG 3 PULL AWAY

The 2020 NASCAR Cup Series season continued to be dominated by its big three contenders on Saturday.

Kevin Harvick
Denny Hamlin
Brad Keselowski

Harvick’s victory matched Denny Hamlin with five wins and 29 playoff points. Keselowski finished second. Hamlin finished sixth after leading 10 laps earlier in the afternoon.

They continue to run 1-2-3 in the championship standings and are the only drivers with average finishes under 10.0.

They will accumulate even more playoff points than everyone else by finishing the regular season in the top three positions, meaning they have almost each guaranteed themselves a Championship 4 slot in November at Phoenix.

That, of course, assumes that three unlikely drivers don't win Kansas, Texas and Martinsville this fall.

REASONS TO WATCH ON SUNDAY

There’s another short race scheduled for Sunday at Michigan and the urgency should be equal to Saturday.

The starting lineup will be based on Saturday’s results, the top-20 finishers inverted and starting in reverse order, placing slower cars in front of the field upon taking the green flag.

That has generated exciting opening stages at Darlington, Charlotte and Pocono as the fastest cars from the day before work their way through the front half of the field.

Credit also has to be given to NASCAR and Michigan International Speedway officials for how they applied the traction compound to the middle groove of their two-mile track. It still proves to be incredibly challenging to pass with this package, but the application of PJ1 gave drivers a clear alternative third line compared to the races last season.

"I think getting that third lane right with the PJ1 really made Michigan and the race here, especially with this rules package, just way better from a driver standpoint," Harvick said. "We're getting close to having the races that everybody wants here. I thought today was a good race, and I think having multiple lanes is really what it's all about."

Martin Truex Jr. agreed with the sentiment.

"We had three good grooves on the racetrack where you could make some speed," Truex said. " I definitely thought it was a good race, and Michigan is a challenging place to put on good racing because the speeds are so high."

The NA18D high downforce, low horsepower rules package continues to be a polarizing topic, but there is little question that it, combined with the shorter race length, made for a more compelling television show than what Michigan typically offers.

PLAYOFF UPDATE

There are now just five races remaining until the start of the playoffs, and some marquee teams are running out of time to make the Round of 16.

1. Kevin Harvick (5 wins)
2. Denny Hamlin (5 wins)
3. Brad Keselowski (3 wins)
4. Joey Logano (2 wins)
5. Chase Elliott (1 win)
6. Alex Bowman (1 win)
7. Ryan Blaney (1 win)
8. Martin Truex (1 win)
9. Austin Dillon (1 win)
10. Cole Custer (1 win)
11. Aric Almirola +144
12. Kurt Busch +128
13. Kyle Busch +111
14. Clint Bowyer +41
15. Matt DiBenedetto +40
16. William Byron +16
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17. Erik Jones -16
18. Tyler Reddick -19
19. Jimmie Johnson -22
20. Bubba Wallace -123

What does all of this mean?

Barring an epic collapse over the next four weeks, Aric Almirola has all but locked himself into the playoffs, due to his points position and the number of points he is above the current cutoff.

Jimmie Johnson gained a few points on the cutoff Saturday but he still needs to leapfrog three other drivers and hope no one else on the bubble wins if he is going to make the Round of 10.

Erik Jones just needs to gain 16 points on William Byron, and certainly that’s doable in one race, much less five so there is a considerable amount of drama to watch for there as well.

Matt DiBendetto has a full race lead over the cutoff, but if a driver outside of the bubble wins, that would place the 15th place driver on the provisional bubble.

Point being, there are a lot of different ways this could play out, especially with wild card races remaining on the Daytona Road Course and the Daytona Superspeedway.

It’s not entirely impossible to expect a Wallace, Ricky Stenhouse or Ryan Preece type winning their way into the playoffs at the season ending superspeedway race on August 29.