2010 Carfax 400

Race details[1][2][3][4]
Race 23 of 36 in the2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Date	August 15, 2010 (2010-8-15)
Location	Michigan International Speedway,Brooklyn, Michigan
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	2.0 miles (3.2 km)
Distance	200 laps, 400 mi (643.7 km)
Weather	Partly cloudy with a high around 81; wind out of the W at 10 mph. Chance of precipitation: 10.
Average speed	144.029 miles per hour (231.792 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Kasey Kahne	Richard Petty Motorsports
Time	38.465
Most laps led
Driver	Greg Biffle	Roush Fenway Racing
Laps	66
Winner
No. 29	Kevin Harvick	Richard Childress Racing
Television in the United States
Network	ESPN
Announcers	Marty Reid,Dale Jarrett andAndy Petree

The2010 Carfax 400 was aNASCARSprint Cup Seriesstock car race that was held on August 15, 2010, atMichigan International Speedway inBrooklyn, Michigan. Contested over 200 laps, it was the twenty-third race of the2010 Sprint Cup Series season. The race was won byKevin Harvick for theRichard Childress Racing team.Denny Hamlin finished second, andCarl Edwards, who started twenty-fourth, clinched third.

Pole position driverKasey Kahne maintained his lead into the first corner to begin the race, butJimmie Johnson, who started in the second position on the grid, took the lead before the first lap was over. Afterward,Greg Biffle became the leader, and would eventually lead to the race high of 66 laps.Tony Stewart led after the finalpit stops, ahead of Hamlin and Harvick. Harvick helped Hamlin to become the leader, but with twelve laps left, Harvick gained on Hamlin and claimed the first position with eleven laps remaining. Harvick maintained his position to claim his first Sprint Cup victory at Michigan International Speedway.

There were fivecautions and nineteen lead changes among nine different drivers throughout the course of the race, Harvick's third win of the season. The result maintained the first position in theDrivers' Championship and clinched him a position in theChase. He remained 293 points ahead of second place driverJeff Gordon and 353 ahead ofDenny Hamlin.Chevrolet maintained its lead in theManufacturers' Championship, thirty points ahead ofToyota and sixty-one ahead ofFord, with thirteen races remaining in the season. A total of 105,000 people attended the race, while 4.917 million watched it on television.

Michigan International Speedway is one of sixsuperspeedways to holdNASCAR races; the others areDaytona International Speedway,Auto Club Speedway,Indianapolis Motor Speedway,Pocono Raceway andTalladega Superspeedway.^[5] The standard track at Michigan International Speedway is a four-turn superspeedway that is 2 miles (3.2 km) long.^[6] The track's turns are banked at eighteen degrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked at twelve degrees. Theback stretch, has a five degree banking.^[6] Michigan International Speedway had a seating capacity of 119,500 people for the race.^[7]

One team chose to replace their regular driver with a substitute. Prior to the first practice session,Extenze decided to cancel their sponsorship withFront Row Motorsports, prompting the team to replaceKevin Conway withTony Raines.^[8] During the week leading up to the race, Gordon's wife gave birth to their son, Leo Benjamin Gordon. Gordon said that he was not planning to retire until his son could see him in victory lane.^[9]

Before the race,Kevin Harvick led theDrivers' Championship with 3,210 points, andJeff Gordon stood in second with 3,025 points.Jeff Burton was third in the Drivers' Championship with 2,895 points,Kurt Busch was fourth with 2,892 points, andJimmie Johnson was in fifth with 2,882 points.^[10] In theManufacturers' Championship,Chevrolet was leading with 158 points, twenty-seven points ahead of their rivalToyota.Ford, with 102 points, was nine points ahead ofDodge in the battle for third.^[11]Brian Vickers was the race's defending champion.^[12]

Three practice sessions were held before the Sunday race—one on Friday and two on Saturday. The first session lasted 90 minutes. The Saturday morning session lasted 45 minutes, and the final practice session was 60 minutes in length.^[13] During the first practice session,Jeff Burton was quickest with a time of 38.479, ahead ofJuan Pablo Montoya andKevin Harvick in second and third.Carl Edwards followed in the fourth position, ahead ofGreg Biffle in fifth.^[14] In the Saturday morning session, Biffle was quickest, ahead ofRyan Newman andKasey Kahne in second and third. Burton andKurt Busch followed in the fourth and fifth positions.^[15] In the final practice session for the race,Jimmie Johnson was quickest with a time of 38.742.David Ragan followed in second, ahead ofJeff Gordon and Harvick in third and fourth. Biffle, who was quickest in second practice, only managed fifth quickest.^[16]

Denny Hamlin, who won at Michigan International Speedway in the spring, was having a difficult time trying to improve thecar handling of the race car he won with.^[17] Hamlin said, "It's going all right. We were about like we were here in [June] as far as speed. We're a little bit slow on speed as far as qualifying, but we feel like the race stuff is pretty competitive." His teammateKyle Busch was also struggling, adding, "Our [car] was loose off. We jumped back and forth in practice from tight to loose. We picked up from practice, but we couldn't rotate the center like I wanted to."^[17]

During qualifying, forty-seven cars were entered, but only forty-three will be able to race because of NASCAR'squalifying procedure.^[18]Kasey Kahne clinched his eighteenth careerpole position, with a time of 38.465.^[19] After his qualifying run, Kahne commented, "[Turns] 1 and 2 were really strong. Coming to the green, I felt like I was a little bit free, and it was the same through 1 and 2, but I got through there really good and carried a lot of speed down the backstretch. Then, when I got to Turn 3, I couldn't get it to turn enough, so I kind of just floored it and actually used up a lot of the racetrack, went up the track a little bit loose off [the corner] and definitely didn't have as good a 3 and 4 as I would have liked. At that point, I thought I probably gave the pole away, but we were able to still hang on just from the speed that we had in 1 and 2."^[20] He was joined on the front row of thegrid byJimmie Johnson.^[19]Clint Bowyer qualified third,Tony Stewart took fourth, and Montoya started fifth, after being scored ninth in the final practice session.^[19] The four drivers that did not qualify wereJ. J. Yeley,Scott Riggs,Casey Mears, andMike Bliss.^[19]

The race, the twenty-third out of a total of thirty-six in theseason, began at 1 p.m.EDT and was televised live in the United States onESPN.^[1] Conditions were partly cloudy with a high of 80 °F (27 °C).^[21] Pastor Doug Bradshaw began pre-race ceremonies by giving theinvocation. Next, Virgin Records recording artistsSaving Abel performed thenational anthem, and Virginia Craig andEvander Holyfield gave the command for drivers to start their engines.^[21][22]

Kasey Kahne held the lead going through the first corner but was passed byJimmie Johnson before the second lap.Tony Stewart then passed Kahne for the second position. Five laps later,Greg Biffle emerged in third. By lap ten, Johnson had built a 1.7-second lead over Stewart, who was passed by Biffle for second. Biffle caught Johnson by lap 14, but he did not snatch the lead until lap 15. On lap 18, Stewart took second place from Johnson, asKevin Harvick emerged in fourth. Harvick moved into third after passing Johnson on the next lap. On lap 23,Michael McDowell andP. J. Jones drove to the garage, followed byJoe Nemechek two laps later.^[21] On lap 28, Harvick began closing in on Biffle, but before he could pass him, the firstcaution was called becauseKurt Busch's engine had failed. On lap 39, Biffle led the drivers in therestart.Juan Pablo Montoya moved to fifth after passingClint Bowyer on the next lap. Johnson reclaimed third position on lap 41 but was passed by Harvick after five laps. By lap 48, Harvick had caught and passed Stewart for the second position, and by lap 55, Harvick had caught Biffle. Five laps later, light rain falling in turn three (the turn following the back stretch) prompted the second caution. On lap 61, teams made theirpit stops for fuel and tires. Biffle remained the leader when the green flag waved on lap 66.^[21]

On lap 70,Joey Logano collided withPaul Menard, and both sustained minor damage. After starting thirty-sixth,Jeff Gordon moved into the tenth position by lap 73. Eleven laps later, Stewart took the lead from Biffle. On lap 92, Harvick passed Biffle to claim the second position. Gordon passed Johnson for seventh as Montoya andDavid Reutimann began a run of green flag pit stops on lap 98. They were followed by Johnson, Kyle Busch, andDenny Hamlin two laps later. When Stewart went to pit the next lap, Harvick became the leader. Stewart reclaimed the lead on lap 103. Seven laps later, Bowyer passed Kahne for the fourth position, and Harvick moved into the first position.^[21]

On lap 116, Gordon emerged in fourth while Harvick held a 1.5-second lead over Stewart. Ten laps later, Gordon moved into the third position. By lap 129, Harvick had a 6.45-second lead over Biffle, who had passed Stewart for second. On lap 137, green flag pit stops began for the second time. Two laps later, Biffle made his pit stop. Harvick stayed on the track for another lap before pitting fast enough to hold off Biffle, therefore remaining the leader at the conclusion of the pit stops. On lap 148, Logano andRyan Newman collided, causing Newman's car to turn sideways, causing the third caution flag to be waved. On lap 152, Harvick led the drivers to the green flag. Two laps later, the fourth caution came out because Jeff Gordon and Jeff Burton sustained damage to their race cars. Most drivers made a pit stop for fuel only, butElliott Sadler stayed on track to lead the race. Sadler led on the restart, butMartin Truex Jr. andDavid Ragan passed him on the following lap, relegating him to third position.^[22]

On lap 166, Ragan passed Truex Jr. for the lead. The next lap, Stewart emerged in the first position as the fifth caution came out because of debris on the track. On lap 169, Stewart, Harvick,Regan Smith,Scott Speed, and Hamlin stayed out on the track while the rest of the field made pit stops. Stewart led on the restart, followed by Harvick. On lap 174, Hamlin passed Harvick for the second position and Biffle moved into fourth. Harvick helped Hamlin into the lead four laps later, but passed him for the lead on lap 189. By lap 193, Harvick had a 1.35-second lead over Hamlin.Carl Edwards passed Stewart for third on the next lap. Kevin Harvick crossed the finish line in first to take his third win of theseason. Denny Hamlin followed in second, ahead of Edwards in third, Biffle in fourth, andMatt Kenseth in fifth. The race had five cautions and ten lead changes among five different drivers.

Kevin Harvick appeared in victory lane after hisvictory lap to start celebrating his third win of the season, and his first Sprint Cup win atMichigan International Speedway,^[23] in front of a crowd of 105,000 people.^[24] "Our cars had run good here before, but I hadn't. The last couple of times we've really committed ourselves to driving in different spots on the race track and doing different things from inside the car and trying to manage the practice as well as we can to not fool ourselves," said Harvick of his triumph.^[23]

AlthoughDenny Hamlin was leading the race near the end, Harvick passed him with eleven laps left.^[21] Hamlin, who finished second, said, "He would catch me getting into turn three, I would pull away in three and four. He was quite a bit better than me in one and two. So it was kind of split. It's pretty much all we had. Obviously the fastest car won today. So it was at least good to see that."^[23] In the subsequentpress conference, Harvick stated, "A lot of the places we would classify as places we don't run good, we've ran as good at those places this year as we do at the short tracks, road courses, the places you can typically count on us running good."^[23]Richard Childress, the owner ofRichard Childress Racing, expressed his enjoyment of winning the race after reminiscing about one of his other victories at the track:

"I remember winning here and how proud we were to win for GM Goodwrench back in those days and to win in a GM product up here. There’s a lot of pride. It’s great to be here today and win."^[25]

Harvick spoke about the difficulty of winning at the track, saying "It's just a lot of years of getting beat by people running up there to be honest with you. I never really could figure it out. So probably end of last year ... I went home and watched some tapes of Dale [Earnhardt] Jr., some of his previous races here, because he always seemed to have a good handle on running the top groove. It was just more of a rhythm thing and some things that I needed to change in my approach to run up there. For us, I think the biggest change was not only the race cars being good, but just the approach to where we ran on the race track during the race and making that commitment. It worked out for us today."^[23] The race result left Harvick leading the Driver's Championship with 3,400 points, assuring him a position in theChase for the Sprint Cup.^[25][26]Jeff Gordon, who finished twenty-seventh, was second on 3,107, sixty points ahead of Hamlin and eighty-seven ahead ofTony Stewart.^[26]Jimmie Johnson was fifth with 3,014 points.^[26] Chevrolet maintained their lead in the Manufacturers' Championship with 167 points.^[11] Toyota placed second with 147 points, and Ford followed with 106 points, ten ahead of Dodge in fourth.^[11] 4.917 million people watched the race on television.^[27] The race took two hours, forty-six minutes and thirty-eight seconds to complete, and the margin of victory was 1.731 seconds.^[28]

Drivers' Championship standings[26] Pos Driver Points 1 Kevin Harvick* 3,400 2 Jeff Gordon 3,107 3 Denny Hamlin 3,047 4 Tony Stewart 3,020 5 Jimmie Johnson 3,014

Manufacturers' Championship standings[11] Pos Manufacturer Points 1 Chevrolet 167 2 Toyota 137 3 Ford 106 4 Dodge 96 Note: Only the top five positions are included for both sets of standings. * This driver clinched a position in theChase for the Sprint Cup.

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