Qualifying
Kasey Kahne beat Jimmie Johnson by two-hundredths of a second to top qualifying.
The second row featured Clint Bowyer starting third. Clint came into today's race thirteenth in points, desperately tring to claim a spot in the Chase.
Tony Stewart and Juan Montoya rounded out the top five.
Drop Of The Green
Jimmie Johnson made the outside lane work in turn two and took the lead down the backstretch. The top seven were in sinle-file when they completed lap one with Johnson, Kahne, Tony Stewart and Clint Bowyer leading the way.
Jimmie Johnson lead the first fifteen laps before Greg Biffle tracked him down from his sixth place starting spot and took over the lead on lap.
The racing was pretty quiet in the early going as drivers took advantage of Michigan's wide surface and (mostly) avoided contact.
Storylines
One of the exceptions to the early contact was Mark Martin. Mark came into the race twelfth in points but got run into the wall early in the race and fell back in the standings. This allowed Clint Bowyer to move into the Chase as Mark continued to fall back in the standings.
At the first caution Mark Martin found himself one lap down in 36th position and Clint Bowyer had a 96 point cushion.
When the checkered flag flew Mark Martin had moved up a few spots and Clint Bowyer had slipped back a little in the running order. The final damage? Mark Martin went from a ten point lead to a 35 point deficit.
Chasing The Checkers
The final green flag of the race flew with 28 laps to go. Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick and Denny Hamlin lead the way as the aggression was turned up for the finish.
Stewart jumped out to the lead but Denny Hamlin and Kevin Harvick got past just a couple of laps later. Harvick was haunting Dennny Hamlin lap after lap but just couldn't make his car stick on the bottom well enough to make the pass.
Harvick finally got a run on the outside of Hamlin with ten laps to go and was able to complete the pass.
It was all over at that point as no one had anything for Harvick at the end.
Top Ten
- Kevin Harvick
- Denny Hamlin
- Carl Edwards
- Greg Biffle
- Matt Kenseth
- Tony Stewart
- Juan Montoya
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Elliott Sadler
- Joey Logano
The Points
Kevin Harvick picked up the win today and officially clinched his place in the 2010 Chase for the Cup.
At the other end of the points Clint Bowyer moved into the Chase with a 13th place effort while Mark Martin struggled all day.
The top twelve are now:
- Kevin Harvick
- Jeff Gordon -293
- Denny Hamlin -353
- Tony Stewart -380
- Jimmie Johnson -386
- Carl Edwards -414
- Jeff Burton -414
- Kyle Busch -425
- Matt Kenseth -439
- Kurt Busch -465
- Greg Biffle -487
- Clint Bowyer -645
