Pure Michigan 400 2016 results: Kyle Larson takes Michigan
By Ted Fleming
The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series regular season is down to just two races with drivers looking to make the Chase or solidifying their position now that Michigan International Speedway is behind them.
Kyle Larson became just the second driver to win his first race at Michigan International Speedway by taking the lead off the final restart to win the Pure Michigan 400 Sunday afternoon. The victory not only gives him a spot in the Chase, it ends a 99 race drought for Chip Ganassi Racing. Ironically, it was Larson’s 99th Sprint Cup start.
The win made Larson the first graduate of the NASCAR Drive for Diversity and the NASCAR Next programs to win at the sanctioning body’s top level.
“I was teared-up that whole last few laps because I could just feel it,” Larson said. “It was finally going to be it. This one is for the Clauson family. We really miss Bryan. We love you guys. We’re going to miss him. We parked it for him, so that’s really cool.”
Bryan Clauson lost his life from a racing accident Aug. 7 and he was a close friend of Larson’s.
Car owner Chip Ganassi was also ecstatic over ending his long wait to return to victory lane.
“It was a big one,” he said. “It was a big one. I hate to put the onus on somebody else, but boy I’m sure glad to (NOTE: Richard Childress Racing has the next longest streak at 97). To go winless for so long is really difficult. Only one person wins in this sport. It’s like golf. There’s only one winner. And we’re just proud to be here right now. I’m really proud to represent out team and proud to represent our sponsors.”
It was the 13th different Sprint Cup driver to hit victory lane this season.
For the most part it was a pretty clean race, with just four cautions, a competition yellow at lap 20, a spinout by Kyle Busch at 27, at 119 for debris. However, with just 13 laps to go and Elliott leading by more than two seconds over Kyle Larson, Michael Annett blew a tire to bring out just the fourth caution of the afternoon.
Elliott was on his way to recording his first ever win until the yellow flag changed things. On the restart he fell back to third behind Larson and Brad Keselowski, eventually overtaking Brad’s No. 2. Unfortunately, he could not chase down the eventual winner.
PIT NOTES:
Joey Logano, who was seeking his third straight victory at the Pure Michigan 400, entered the pits in the eighth spot only to come out in 15th after Kevin Harvick ran over a hose and dragged the air gun away from a pit crew member. There was no penalty for equipment leaving the pit box because Harvick was the one who caused it. He would finish tenth.
“We came back down pit road there at the end to take four and somehow I guess the 4 car hooked our air gun and send the rear air gun flying and we lost time in the pits,” said Logano. “We were the last car on the lead lap on that last run and got back to 10th so I am proud of the effort this weekend. The pole was nice we just weren’t as competitive as we were in the spring race. Our car drove the same, everyone just got better.”
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One driver who did not need a bad day was Chris Buescher who is hanging on to his Chase hopes even with a win in his back pocket. He has to stay in the top-30 in points and his 35th place finish puts more pressure on him over the final two regular season events.
RACE NOTES:
CAUTIONS – 4
LEADERS – 13
LEAD CHANGES – 20
CARS ON LEAD LAP AT FINISH – 18
CARS RUNNING AT END – 39
Here are the final results of the Pure Michigan 400:
1 Kyle Larson
2 Chase Elliott
3 Brad Keselowski
4 Ryan Blaney
5 Kevin Harvick
6 Jimmie Johnson
7 Carl Edwards
8 Jamie McMurray
9 Denny Hamlin
10 Joey Logano
11 Greg Biffle
12 Kurt Busch
13 Matt Kenseth|
14 Kasey Kahne
15 AJ Allmendinger
16 Austin Dillon
17 Ryan Newman
18 Paul Menard
19 Kyle Busch
20 Martin Truex Jr.
21 Tony Stewart
22 Casey Mears
23 Danica Patrick
24 Trevor Bayne
25 Aric Almirola
26 Regan Smith
27 Rickey Stenhouse Jr.
28 Brian Scott
29 David Ragan
30 Alex Bowman
31 Michael McDowell
32 Matt DiBenedetto
33 Michael Annett
34 Cole Whitt
35 Chris Buescher
36 Reed Sorenson
37 Jeffrey Earnhardt
38 Josh Wise
39 Landon Cassill
40 Clint Boyer