BIFFLE TO BEAT; HAPPY FATHER'S DAY TO ALL

Who's gonna win the race today?

Take Greg Biffle. He's a horse at Michigan. His last three starts, he has two wins a sixth place finish.

It could easily be a Roush sweep.

And, it's Father's Day, so give the old man some special loving!!

KASEY KAHNE WINS MICHIGAN POLE (SO WHAT ELSE IS NEW?)

( Photo courtesy of Getty Images)


Comments courtesy of Dodge:
KASEY KAHNE (No. 9 Dodge Dealers/UAW Dodge Charger)
NOTE: Kahne captured his fourth pole of the season, beating Jeff Gordon by a whisker.
“Our Dodge Charger was really good today. That was a great run, and we’ll be starting out front on Sunday. I’m looking forward to it. This will be a great track to keep those Chargers up front. It’s so close to Detroit. It should be a lot of fun. I was worried when Jeff Gordon went out. He always qualifies well and I’ve seen him get the pole here before. It ended up close, but we were able to get it. I was sweatin’ for sure. We were a little free in turn three and then I got right back in the throttle. It carried a lot of momentum and stayed right where I wanted it on the track. It was better than it was in practice. I was happy Kennis Francis and the guys made a few adjustments, and it went the right way. It was a good run for us. When you see the 24 going last and the 16 and 18 and a lot of good cars going late, but the track had stayed really close. I was hoping the sun wouldn’t go down or anything like that and it didn’t. It was really a pretty fair test for all of us. I was waiting on Jeff. It was maybe he will and maybe he won’t, but I was definitely nervous.”

THIS IS THE CHARGER YOU’VE WON WITH THREE TIMES THIS SEASON. WHY IS IT SO GOOD? “I don’t really know. They built it during the off season, the guys at Evernham Motorsports, and we’ve just had some great runs with it. We’ve been up and down in all of those races. We’ve probably fallen back to 20th or in that area in all of those races and fought our way back. It’s very sensitive to being off. You can get it off, but you can also get it right back. Small adjustments really work on the car. If you can keep it in that area, that good side of things, it’s fast. That’s what we’re looking for on Sunday. We should have a great starting spot, and we’ll just make fine-tune adjustments throughout the race and hopefully we’ll be there at the end and have a shot.”

HAVE YOU PUT MORE EMPHASIS ON QUALIFYING? “We really haven’t. We made one run today, one lap in qualifying trim during practice. We worked on our race setup the entire time and got the car comfortable. We wanted to keep working on it, but we ran out of time. We figured out the changes we needed to put us in the ballpark when it came to qualifying from where our car was in race trim. We made one run and ended up on top and ended up on top in qualifying. It’s a really good group of guys.”

COMMENT ON POINTS RACE “When I came into this season, I put down some things I was going to work on, and I gave it to the team. One of them was to bring home the cars in one piece and the other was communication with Kenny Francis and my guys on the team. So far we’ve been able to do a good job with that. We’ve been able to make the cars better every weekend and bring most of the cars home. If we keep doing that we should end up in the top 10. If we get sidetracked or I start wrecking cars, we’ll probably miss it. We’ll just keep trying to do the same things we’ve been doing.”

COMMENT ON ROAD COURSE RACING “I tested last week with Boris Said one day, and I feel like I learned some things. I feel like we can run in the top 15 and keep the car on the course. That will be the big thing. I don’t feel like personally I can go there and win the race. I don’t think that I’m good enough road course driver yet to do that, but I’ve made gains. I think we can finish in the top 15 and with a little luck maybe better than that. The key will be to keep it on the road and bring the car home in one piece.”

COMMENT ON YOUR CONFIDENCE IN THE TEAM “It goes back to preparation, and my team has done an awesome job ever since we hit on some things in off season testing. We’ve been able to fine tune and come back to them. I think the communication is there and as long as we keep doing that stuff we should keep showing up with great racecars.”

WHY THE BLACK HATS?

Jeff Burton, left, and Ryan Newman, right, buck the NASCAR trend of wearing Nextel's yellow hats? Why? Because their sponsors are competing wireless phone companies. Cingular and Alltel were involved in NASCAR racing before the arrival of Nextel, so they were grandfathered into the series. When they take "official" NASCAR photos, they were NASCAR hats.

(Photos courtsey of Getty Images)

NEWS ABOUT ERIN CROCKER

ERIN CROCKER RETURNS TO MIS IN HOPES
OF BUILDING ON SEVENTH-PLACE FINISH FROM A YEAR AGO

LOCAL FAVORITE JOHNNY BENSON ON HAND TO PROVIDE GUIDANCE

BROOKLYN, Mich. (June 14, 2006) - One would think that a driver who had finished seventh at MIS just a year ago would need no further help on the two-mile oval, but Erin Crocker’s drive for racing keeps her wanting to build on the result which made her the second-highest female finisher in track history.

As a full-time competitor in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, Crocker also plans to run a limited schedule in the ARCA RE/MAX Series in 2006. In preparation for the June 16 Hantz Group 200 during MIS’s ARCA testing session on May 23, she was accompanied by Michigan native and fellow NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver Johnny Benson in the garage. Though she acknowledges a certain recognition of how to run well at MIS, the humble Crocker maintains that there is always more to learn.

“Evernham Motorsports and Ray Evernham have done a lot to help me,” said Crocker. “Sometimes it’s hard to relate with a crew chief who’s never been a driver, so it’s just good to have a driver coach. Johnny’s been nice enough to come out here and help as a mentor.”

Count Benson as a believer in the young Crocker. The Grand Rapids native who calls Michigan his home track and has made 24 starts at MIS (including five top-five finishes) would normally have to make a much more thorough explanation to a young driver like Crocker if called upon. However, he already believes Crocker understands how to succeed and that he might not need to help her so much at Michigan.

“I think the experience that I have here will help some, but I can probably help her more come race time,” said Benson. “She can go fast, but she just needs a little bit of help with some race stuff. They’re throwing her to the wolves, going from the dirt cars to this type of cars to the trucks. That’s just a huge, huge jump, a bigger jump than I’ve ever taken. I think she just needs that little bit of a foundation and once she gets that, she’ll be fine.

“As long as they get some people to help her out, which is kind of what I’m doing, this will be a good thing for her and for the sport. For her to come and get some success will be good for racing. She’s got a lot of desire and I think she’s got a lot of talent too. She’ll have to get through that learning process the best that she can and with as much help as she can.”
Even as seasoned drivers like Benson and others continue to realize Crocker’s potential not only as a female driver but as a driver in general, a certain novelty still surrounds her status as one of the only females in the top levels of motorsports. Crocker understands that there are two sides to the coin, which drives her to succeed.

“I’ve gotten used to (the recognition), but like I say in every interview, there are positives and negatives to being a female in this sport,” she said. “If I do well, it gets recognized right away but if I do badly, it also gets recognized right away.”

If Crocker knows how to benefit from teaching and learning experiences (likely as she owns a bachelor’s degree in industrial and management engineering), then her racing career should carry some exciting moments in the future. Crocker admits that both the ARCA and Craftsman Truck Series have helped her immensely, and it appears that she understands what to learn from each different style of racing.

“ARCA’s been an excellent training ground,” said Crocker. “The top levels of NASCAR right now are really, really competitive, and the ARCA series is a great place to learn because it’s not too cutthroat or anything. Honestly, it’s a confidence booster for me to come over here and run well at any time.”

With a veteran on her side, a solid team in her back pocket, and the clarity of mind to understand what it takes to win in different types of racing, Erin Crocker seems to be ready to engineer her own success behind the wheel of any vehicle.

BUSCH BANTER FROM KURT

KURT BUSCH ANSWERS SOME MEDIA QUESTIONS FROM A TUESDAY TELECONFERENCE:


Q. In regards to what is often referred to as "silly season," where drivers and sometimes sponsors switch rides, last summer you announced you would be leaving Roush. In terms of being bombarded with questions about that decision week after week, looking back, how difficult was it to cope with that, and in the same vein, during the next few days, weeks and months ahead, how difficult is it going to be for Brian Vickers and Casey Mears, who are in sort of a similar situation, until they announce their 2007 plans?
KURT BUSCH: You know, it is interesting. This has come about lately, some of the drivers that you see in the NEXTEL Cup, different types of motorsports as well, are always confronted with, am I running well enough, is it my own self, is it the team, where are things wrong and why should there be a change.
So Brian, he's made the announcement that he wants to switch teams or he wants to go in a new direction. I don't know the details. I don't even know if he signs for three or four more years; I don't even know if his contract ends this year. What I do know is that he's trying to position himself for a position where he thinks he can go and win races. He's with a very competitive team. Is he high enough on the ranking order? Who knows, because we see the success that Jimmie Johnson has, Jeff Gordon, as well as my little brother, Kyle Busch, over there. Why isn't Vickers running well; who's to know. So he's looking around for other opportunities to try to win races, because we all believe that Brian Vickers is very talented.
So he's got now with the media and the questioning that's going to come about on why he is switching, where is he going. And the advice that I did give him at Pocono is to know in his mind that things are going to be a bit out of the ordinary in the next upcoming weeks and months and that when you jump in the race car, that's when you get to the fun and drive that car as far as you can and try to pick up a win.
Q. Ryan Newman was in town next week, met the Governor and was in the capital of Lansing, and he was asked how his relationship with you was, and he said it was pretty excellent; that you guys are working as a team; you have no issues. Although, there's a lot of work to be done. How do you rate your relationship with your new teammate, and secondly, what's the difference or the main difference between running for Penske and Roush?
KURT BUSCH: On the first part of the question with the team communication and the camaraderie, I think everybody is doing a superb job, and the way that the information is being shared. Secondly, out on the racetrack with Ryan, it's definitely something where the two of us can help each other, whether it's a restrictor plate race at Daytona or Talladega, we've strapped in real well together; or a short track, if one of the car is faster than the other, we let each other go by. You know, those things go a long way and one little small thing can add up to be a big difference. And whether you're running for a win or helping a guy get a Top 10 finish.
So far, everything has gone very well working with Ryan Newman. I feel like he's a great teammate and the two of us will definitely be able to make one another better as we continue forward. And the second question, it's just the family atmosphere around Penske Racing and the way that he runs a tighter ship, not everybody wearing the white collared shirts, but everybody here is smiling and having fun, and it's definitely an atmosphere where it's easier to work in.
Q. Looking at where you are in the standings, you moved up the spot to 17, and we've got 11 or 12 races left. Is the sense of urgency, has that become focused in your mind as far as it looks like the Top 10 drivers are going to go this year and the 400 points count?
KURT BUSCH: Yeah, I believe you're correct in the 400 points. You definitely have to race to the Top 10, and the Top 10 guys will be in. And so we look at it where there's still plenty of races for things to go wrong and things to go right. Hopefully we're on the right side of things with our team because we have had our share of bad luck and misfortune, so when we are able to put a good race together, just like we did this past weekend at Pocono where our crew won the checkers realtime award for the least amount of time on pit road, we raced well and are competing in the Top 5 all throughout the day. So if we can continue to do that and position ourselves, we can make this Chase, and we'll have an opportunity to do that in these next upcoming races to see what we have.
Q. As stated earlier, you have one win at Michigan. Your teammate, Ryan Newman, has two. How much help or is there any help coming from that side on what you should do with the Dodge there?
KURT BUSCH: There's been a tremendous amount of help with getting the aero balance correct and with the general, I guess you could say, setup characteristics. Both of us have won there. We each know how to get around the racetrack. But when we sit down and talk about it, he let's me know things he's done in the past, and I let him know of some small things that I've done and the two of us can make each other better. So I believe the team communication is going very well, as well as the driver communication to help us both do better.

ROOKIE WINS AT POCONO & STUFF YOU NEED TO KNOW

· Denny Hamlin led six times for 83 laps to win the WIX Filters Lap Leader of the Race award in the Pocono 500. Hamlin claimed the WIX Filters Lap Leader award for the first time this season. He also led the most laps in the event, the first time this season he has accomplished the feat. The Pocono race is the fifth event this season where he has led at least one lap. Hamlin has now led 184 total laps in 2006.

· Hamlin won the Pocono 500, scoring his first NEXTEL Cup win in 21 career starts. He is the first Raybestos Rookie to win in 57 races at Pocono.

· Hamlin has racked up three top-five and six top-10 finishes this season. He moved up to ninth in the NEXTEL Cup Series championship standings.

· A different driver has now claimed WIX Filter Lap Leader of the Race in each of the past four races.

· Greg Biffle leads Tony Stewart (5-3) in the WIX Filters Lap Leader standings.

· Hamlin quotes: ““I knew right from the get-go that we had a very, very strong car, even in practice we were a top two or three car. We just needed to fine tune it and do something really small to make it a race-winning car. I knew when we took off and started pulling away that we had a really strong car. We were just going to have to keep up with the racetrack. We took tires and no adjustments on that first stop to just try to see where the racetrack was going to go. It pretty much stayed consistent and just tightened up just a little bit so that kind of played into our favor. Of course then we had our tire issue and I thought our hopes had pretty much gone down the drain because after we got back on the racetrack and it went green after we had that damage it just felt aero unstable. It disrupted the car quite a bit and just didn’t seem as fast as what it was. The whole crew just kept adding pieces to the car it seemed like on every single stop. They just added a couple more pieces because it knocked all the crush panels out to try to make it better. Each piece they added made the car a little bit faster and we finally got it back to where it belonged there at the end of the race.”