The Green Machine in the Irish Hills

Coming off a couple of poor finishes, the 19 team headed to the Irish Hills of Michigan.  Once again, they unloaded a hotrod, finishing the first practice in 3rd place.

Qualifying continued to look promising.  They ended the first qualifying round in 3rd and the second qualifying round in 2nd.  It looked like a pole was possible.  But during the third round, Carl admitted to trying too hard and overdriving the car, ending up with the 11th fastest qualifying time.  For the third and final practice session, they tried a new setup that left them with the 17th fastest time.  Eh, no sweat!  It is easy to try something new when you have a top-notch setup to fall back on.

Once the green flag dropped, he began moving forward.  By lap 35, he was in 7th place.  During a restart on lap 51, he (and his teammate Denny Hamlin) had some problems with second gear, causing him to drop back to 13th.  And the next restart saw him fall back to 17th place.

During the next caution he misunderstood radio instructions from his crew chief, Dave Rogers, resulting in him staying out when they planned on pitting.  The confusion got him some track position, as he restarted 17th.  Unfortunately, though, it left him on worn tires and lower on fuel than the other cars.  But what could have been a problem turned into a positive, as his Subway Camry came to life.  He was back in the top ten by lap 119.  The next caution occurred at just the right time to level the playing field, and he went into and came off of pit road in 8th place.

By lap 154, he was in the top five, but that is about where he stayed.  He fell back to 7th, restarted in 5th and then 4th, and finished the race in 6th.  A good, solid top ten, almost a top five, after a couple of weeks of poor finishes.  He maintained the 4th spot in the drivers' standings and the 3rd position on the Chase grid.  Now time for a week off to refresh and regroup.

Usually the focus here is on Carl, but this week warrants mention of two of his Xfinity teammates.  First, Erik Jones drove with a heavy heart, after his father passed away from cancer on Tuesday.  Losing my dad when I was 56 was devastating, and my dad lived a good, long life to the age of 88.  Coping with the death of a parent when you are 20 is beyond my ability to comprehend.  Prayers and all good wishes to the family.

Another Xfinity teammate had a weekend deserving of a shout out.  Although everyone knew it was only a matter of time before the "other 19" Arris Toyota found success, it has always seemed just out of reach for Daniel Suarez.  He did do his best to put it out of reach on Saturday in Michigan, too.  Apparently lead feet run in the 19 family, because Daniel Suarez got nabbed speeding on pit road.  The resulting drive-through penalty put him well back in the field.  Thankfully he made that error early in the race, giving him plenty of time to drive himself back up to the leaders.  With ten laps to go, he found himself in 2nd place behind Kyle Busch.  He crept closer and closer to the leader until he was right on his tail with two laps to go.  He made a clean pass to take the white flag in the lead and held him off to the finish line.

Daniel was understandably at a loss for words in the winner's circle, in both English AND Spanish!  To show just what an amazing young man he is, one of his first thoughts was for his teammate, as Daniel dedicated his win in honor of Erik Jones' father.  This was Daniel's first win as well as the first win by a Mexican in any of NASCAR's three national series.  His win more than likely earned him a spot in the Xfinity Chase, as he now sits 2nd on the Chase grid and 1st in the driver's standings.  He planted himself firmly in the conversation of championship contenders.  How much fun would it be to have two 19-car champions in the same year!