June 15, 2010
By Allen Madding
When the green flag flew starting the 200 laps of competition at Michigan International Speedway for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400, pole sitter Kurt Busch took the lead and began to drive away from the field. At one point in the 200 lap event, the driver of the Penske Racing No. 2 Miller Lite Dodge had established a nine second lead over the field.
Yellow flags for debris gave crews the opportunity to adjust on their cars to compensate for changing track conditions and to achieve better performance from their cars, and Kasey Kahne and Denny Hamlin began to show strength of their own.
Kasey Kahne showed the most Ford muscle in his Richard Petty Motorsports No. 9 Budweiser Ford, starting fourth and leading six laps before finishing the event in second place.
Many had expected Kyle Busch, driver of the Joe Gibb’s No. 18 M&M Pretzel Toyota, to be the driver to give his brother a fight for the win, but after starting at the rear of the field, due to an engine change after qualifying, Kyle spent the day fighting his way through the 43-car field and settled for a 20th place finish.
Dale Earnhardt, Jr. and the Hendrick Motorsports No. 88 Amp Energy/National Guard Chevrolet enjoyed one of their best days of the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, starting 27th and finishing seventh. The finish marks his fourth top ten of the season.
Denny Hamlin and the Joe Gibb’s No. 11 FedEx Toyota crew proved to be the class of the field leading 123 laps. Hamlin wrestled the lead away from Kurt Busch and never looked back, taking the checkered flag, the big trophy, and the big check.
At the beginning of the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season, Jimmie Johnson appeared to be set to pick up where he left off at the end of the 2009 season. Johnson and the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48 Lowe’s Home Improvement Chevrolet, had quickly amassed three wins: the Auto Club 500 at Fontana, California, the Shelby American at Las Vegas, Nevada, and the Food City 500 at Bristol, Tennessee. But after the March win at Bristol, Johnson’s run for dominance in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and his charge for another NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship title seemed to cool.
Denny Hamlin won the following event, the Goody’s Fast Pain Relief 500 at Martinsville and then scored wins in the Samsung Mobile 500 at Texas, the Showtime Southern 500 at Darlington, and the Gillette Fusion ProGlide 500 Presented by Target at Pocono.
With this past weekend’s win in the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400, Hamlin now has five NASCAR Sprint Cup wins for the 2010 season – the most wins so far this season by any single driver. Hamlin presently sits third in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series points. With the momentum of winning back to back events this month coupled with five wins, Hamlin and crew are posed to contend for the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Championship.
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