It’s been quite a little run for Jeff Gordon, as he clinched his second pole in as many weeks, this time for Sunday’s Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway. While his last qualifying win may have felt better personally -- he promised his son he’d win the pole as a birthday present -- this week’s incredible 206.558 mph run, the seventh fastest in NASCAR history, still felt pretty great.
How to follow Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway online, TV schedule, radio and more
Records were made to be broken at Michigan International Speedway, with Jeff Gordon leading the way for one of the fastest NASCAR races of the year, the Pure Michigan 400.
Robert Reiners
As Gordon told the Detroit News, “I don’t know how to make it much better than that.” He was one of 32 qualifiers to surpass Kevin Harvick’s previous track record set just two months ago, the latest in a stream of qualifying records set this season. Why exactly that keeps happening is up for debate, but Gordon told AP that he believes in Michigan at least, it’s the track’s recent maintenance, “You can point at the repaving of the racetrack. This track is smooth -- has a tremendous amount of surface area where the tire can get a lot of grip to it,” before adding “the next thing is the cars.”
While the man who finished directly behind him, Joey Logano, disputes the first part of Gordon’s theory -- telling AP that “the racetrack, if anything, is maintaining to getting slower,” -- he agreed wholeheartedly with his addendum. “It has (to do with) what we’ve been doing to the race cars to go faster. ... I believe it’s cooler out, too. So I think between those two things, that’s why we went faster again, but the racetrack itself isn’t picking up speed.”
Either way, it’s fast, real fast. Which Carl Edwards, who qualified third, seemed to enjoy, telling AP, “It’s fast -- that’s the simplest way to describe it, I wish you guys could ride in that car with me there. That is screaming.”
You can watch the race on ESPN beginning with pre-race coverage at 12:00 p.m ET on NASCAR Countdown, featuring Nicole Briscoe, Brad Daugherty and Rusty Wallace. Live race coverage will begin at 1:00 p.m. with Allen Bestwick, Dale Jarrett and Andy Petree in the booth. The green flag is tentatively scheduled for 1:16 p.m. In addition to the television coverage, viewers with a subscription to RaceView will be able to follow the race online. Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM Satellite NASCAR Channel 90 will provide radio coverage.
Pure Michigan 400 coverage (all times Eastern):
TV: ESPN -- Noon.
Green flag: Approximately 1:16 p.m.
Online: NASCAR.com RaceView (subscription required)
Radio: Motor Racing Network -- Sirius-XM channel 90
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