Denny Hamlin's won five of the last 10 races since NASCAR reverted to the spoiler earlier this season. Photo courtesy NASCAR.

Denny Hamlin must like NASCAR’s new spoiler.

When NASCAR made the switch from the rear wing back to the spoiler for the Sprint Cup Series in March, Hamlin won the first race at Martinsville, and so far, has four more wins, including the Heluva Good! Sour Cream Dips 400 at Michigan International Speedway Sunday. That’s five wins in the past 10 races – the most Hamlin’s ever won in his Sprint Cup career, now in its fifth full-time year.

Like last week at his win at Pocono, Hamlin dominated throughout the race, this time leading 123 of 200 laps at the two-mile track.

“All we do is win, baby – two in a row,” Hamlin said over the radio to his crew, a mantra that’s been the theme to the No. 11 team’s 2010 campaign.Hamlin forged a nine-second lead over second place Kasey Kahne before a debris caution came out on lap 182, tightening the field.

“I knew a caution was coming, so I might as well back off and save my tires,” Hamlin said. “I knew that debris caution was coming. We’ve got to do what’s right for the fans, and they need to see a great race at the end.”

Kahne was one of nine Ford teams running the new FR9 engine. The new engine is said to run cooler, which in theory, allows teams to put tape on more of the front grill. More tape means the car is more aerodynamic and handles better, but limits the amount of cool air that can get into the engine and keep it from overheating. The new engine is still a work in progress and many Ford teams dealt with overheating issues, the result, no doubt, of being too aggressive with the front nose tape.

Despite the challenges, Kahne said the new engine is an improvement for his team. “We had the new Ford engine, and it was night and day difference to what I had last week,” he said. “I’m really happy with the FR9 engine. For our first time racing it, it was a nice improvement. I think that bodes well for all the Ford teams. I think we will all run better now.”

Of course, by the time the Ford camp gets this new engine figured out, Kahne will most likely have moved on to his new interim team for 2011, before getting behind the wheel of Rick Hendrick’s No. 5 Chevrolet in 2012.

Kurt Busch started on the pole, lead 60 laps and finished third, followed by Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart.

“We had a strong car early on,” Busch said. “It seems like we lost a little bit of speed as the race went on, lost a little grip when the track rubbered in.

“Denny Hamlin, once halfway rolled around, his car had really good grip,” Busch added.

It’s the second straight win for a Toyota team at the track located in the backyard of America’s Big Three automakers. Red Bull Racing’s Brian Vickers won last August at Michigan. Vickers is sidelined this year due to a medical condition. His substitute driver, Casey Mears, has struggled thus far, and wrecked fellow Red Bull driver Scott Speed during the race.

Hamlin picked up some ground in the points on leader Kevin Harvick, who finished 19th, one spot ahead of Hamlin’s teammate Kyle Busch. With 15 races in the books, Harvick leads the points, ahead of Kyle Busch by 22 points and Hamlin by 47. Stewart also gained in the points, up two spots to 11th, putting him within the 12-driver cutoff for the Chase, which begins 11 races from now in September.

Joey Logano tries to save his Home Depot Toyota from spinning out after making contact with Kevin Harvick's No. 29 Chevrolet. Photo courtesy NASCAR.

A funny thing happened on Denny Hamlin’s way to cruising to his fourth victory at Pocono Raceway. His teammate Joey Logano finished 13th, but picked up a bunch of new fans.

The fireworks at the end of Pocono Sunday between Logano and Harvick are some of the best NASCAR’s seen in a while. The post-race antics are the latest byproduct of NASCAR’s new “Have at it boys” mentality that’s led to more driver confrontation and has spiced things up in this year’s Sprint Cup season.

Rain at the start of the race led to an hours-long delay. But once the green flag finally waved, Hamlin led 88 of 204 laps, continuing his trend of schooling the field at NASCAR’s only triangle-shaped track. But with four laps to go, the front of Harvick’s car hit the rear of Logano’s coming out of turn three, sending Logano spinning. He almost saved his car from spinning out, a testament to the talent of the second-year driver and his future in the sport.It’s hard to say if either Logano or Harvick was at fault for the incident. From Logano’s perspective, Harvick let him go by on the straightaway, only to turn him in the corner. The Harvick version is that it was two guys going for the same piece of real estate on the track, the contact nothing but a racing incident.

Maybe Harvick’s right. But it’s not the first time these two drivers have been involved in on-track incidents while both were running up front. And usually, Logano’s on the short end of the stick. Remember the Nationwide race at Bristol earlier this year?

And that’s what’s got the 20-year-old fired up. After the race at Pocono, where Harvick finished fourth and Logano finished 13th, Logano parked his car perpendicular to Harvick’s and got out fuming. Harvick’s crew kept the two drivers apart, and even though Logano’s crew tried to pull him away from the situation, Logano’s father and spotter, Tom, was seen encouraging his young son to confront Harvick, to stand up for himself.

When he couldn’t get to Harvick, Logano got to a camera, uttering his now infamous line that the incident wasn’t Harvick’s fault since “his wife wears the firesuit in the family and tells him what to do.”

Harvick’s wife, DeLana, runs the Kevin Harvick Inc. truck and Nationwide race teams and is known for wearing a team firesuit on the pitbox when her husband is racing on Sundays.

As stupid as the comment was, it was good to see Logano stand up for himself. And gauging the reaction of fans on Twitter after the race, the NASCAR community loves this brewing feud. Logano made a lot of new fans after Sunday’s race.

People will complain that Logano’s father shouldn’t be involved in this tiff his son has with Harvick. TV footage showed him pulling a uniformed member of Logano’s No. 20 team off his son as he encouraged his son to confront Harvick. There are also allegations that he shoved a member of the media as he rushed toward his son. Tom Logano’s NASCAR credentials were previously revoked in reaction to his behavior at the track. Some have gone so far as to accuse him of being a helicopter parent the likes seen in the ranks of Little League.

But the behavior of Harvick’s crew – pushing Logano and creating a human barricade between the two drivers – was no better than that of the elder Logano.

Crew members – whether they are tire changers, crew chiefs, or in the case of Tom Logano, a driver’s spotter, need to remove themselves from situations between drivers. They’re not the ones on the track racing each other. It’s a matter that needs to be settled between drivers.

Last year, during one of the rain delays at the Coke 600, where David Reutimann got his first and so far, only, Sprint Cup win, Tony Stewart and a member of the No. 00 crew got into an argument on pit road. Dwayne “Billy Bad Butt” Bigger didn’t like the way Stewart was speaking to Reutimann and injected himself into the discussion, going so far as to mockingly get on his knees and bow down to Stewart. Stewart publicly chastised the crewman for interfering after the incident, which led to the creation of Bigger’s nickname.

It was a funny situation for the fans, and the involved parties later laughed it off. But last year at Charlotte, just like last week at Pocono, crew involvement hurt a situation rather than made it better.

Ryan Briscoe takes the checkered flag of the Firestone 550 at Texas Motor Speedway.

Ryan Briscoe started from the pole, but took the lead back from Danica Patrick and last week’s Indianapolis 500 winner Dario Franchitti to win his first IZOD IndyCar Series race at Texas Motor Speedway.

After the field made a round of late-race green-flag pit stops, Briscoe used a push to pass boost his speed exiting turn four to overtake Patrick and sailed away with the lead, capping off a total of 102 laps led in the 228-lap event.

“I’m surprised I didn’t have anything thrown at me,” Briscoe joked after the race. Patrick “gave us a good run for our money tonight. It was fun racing side-by-side with her.”The win is Briscoe’s first of the year and his first at the track. It makes team owner Roger Penske the winningest car owner at TMS in the IndyCar Series.

The race was an inspired performance for Patrick. She only lead one lap, immediately after her sixth and final green flag stop, but was in the top five for nearly the entire race. It was her first led lap this year and in her career at Texas Motor Speedway and the second place finish was her first top five of the year.

While the performance was there on-track, Patrick said while there have been lows in her season, there are many positives her team can glean thus far in 2010.

“Sometimes the little victories that I have throughout the season are not necessarily obvious on the track. It may be there in other aspects of what I’m doing, winning little victories here and there to get everything in line to perform from top to bottom on race day,” she said. “It’s just really nice to have a result to show how hard I’ve been working and how hard the team has been working as well.”

Patrick was followed by her Andretti Autosport teammate Marco Andretti in third, followed by Scott Dixon and Dario Franchitti. Franchitti leaves TMS with the IndyCar Series points lead, knocking Briscoe’s teammate Will Power off the top stop for the first time in 2010.

Andretti had to overcome a bad pit stop to finish third. After his team serviced the car and he went to drive away, the right rear wheel fell off the racecar, adding costly time to the stop.

“Never give up, I think that was the name of the game tonight,” he said.

A somewhat scary incident occurred on lap 99 when rookie Simona de Silvestro got loose and hit the outside wall going into turn three. Her car burst into flames and spun around, before finally coming to a stop in the apron between turns three and four. Texas Motor Speedway safety crews were slow to respond, with one track official, fire extinguisher in hand, standing yards away from the car, not doing anything. Finally, another track official assisted de Silvestro out of the car and crews put out the fire. The driver was treated for burns on her hand, the result of placing it on the sidepod in the middle of the fire, to lift herself out of the racecar.

Penske driver Helio Castroneves, last year’s winner at TMS, also wrecked out of the race when Mario Moraes made contact with him coming out of turn four, sending both cars spinning into the front stretch grass. Bertrand Baguette was also involved in the incident.

Members of the IRL's ICONIC Advisory Committee, from left: Retired Air Force general Bill Looney, TMS president and general manager Eddie Gossage, former IRL vice president of competition Tony Cotman, IRL president of operations and competition Brian Barnhart, former driver and current team owner Gil de Ferran and IRL CEO Randy Bernard.

Members from the Indy Racing League’s “Innovative, Open-Wheel, New, Industry-Relevant, Cost-Effective” (ICONIC) Advisory Committee addressed the league’s new engine initiative at Texas Motor Speedway, but the briefing left more questions than answers.

Few technical specifics were addressed in the 30-minute press conference, which was cut short before reporters had the opportunity to ask about which, if any, engine manufacturers had expressed interest in joining Honda in the Izod IndyCar Series.

As previously announced after the Indianapolis 500, the league will implement new race engines in the IndyCar Series, beginning in 2012. League rules will dictate engines of no more than six cylinders, a displacement of up to 2.4 liters. The engines will be fueled with ethanol and will be equipped with turbo chargers. The current Honda engine is a naturally aspired 3.5 liter, V8.
Many of the technical specifics will hinge on what chassis the ICONIC Committee will recommend to IRL officials. Committee members will leave Texas after the IndyCar Series race and head to Indianapolis, where they will hear presentations from five finalists that submitted proposals for the next car to race in the series.

So for the time being, committee members declined to specify whether the new engine will be a stressed or non-stressed member. Probably one of the most important variables other than the specifics already outlined is whether the engine will be a structural component of the car’s frame, or will be independent of the car’s frame. Currently, the Honda engines are stressed members. In addition, it is yet to be determined how fuel flow will be controlled.

“We’re looking seriously at monitoring the fuel flow rate in the total fuel allocation as our priorities to start with, along perhaps with a maximum boost level as well,” said IRL president of operations and competition Brian Barnhart.

But what committee members readily discussed was what impact the new engine, along with the new chassis, will have on American open-wheel racing, a sport that’s struggled to find its place among fans in the face of NASCAR’ massive popularity.

One of the main goals of the new engine rules is to attract new manufacturers in the sport, which the committee believes will increase on track speeds (particularly at road and street courses), promote better competition and reduce the cost to compete in the series. By creating a loose framework, that opens the door for more manufacturers to explore interest in participating.

“The burden is on us to attract manufacturers to the series,” Barnhart said. “We feel developing the rules in conjunction with the automotive manufacturers is a more rational approach. We feel it’s more inclusive and welcoming, rather than creating a rules package that is an obstacle to participation.”

Of course, all these initiatives are aimed at the ultimate goal of bringing more race fans to the series. Fans are clamoring for more diversity and better performance on track, said Texas Motor Speedway president and general manager Eddie Gossage.

“The thing we hear from [fans] is they want great performance, they expect high-quality performance out of the Indy Racing League,” he said. “If there are more manufacturers, there are more people marketing, advertising their involvement in the sport.”

Gossage has moderated two fan forums, one at Indianapolis, the second at TMS. Despite all the variety that could be coming to the engines of the IndyCar Series, fans want more American drivers racing. It’s important to fans, Gossage said, adding he’s heard suggestions from fans that he never would have thought of.

“You get great ideas by listening to the fans,” Gossage said.

Todd Bodine celebrates his sixth NASCAR Truck Series win at Texas Motor Speedway. Photo courtesy NASCAR.

Todd Bodine ended a 24-race-long winless streak at Texas Motor Speedway Friday, a track where he’s now won six races, the most of any driver in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series at the track.

Bodine led 106 of 169 laps, a career high at TMS, while he held off Ron Hornaday during a green-white-checker overtime restart at the Fort Worth track. It’s the seventh Truck Series race at TMS to end under NASCAR’s overtime rule and it gave Bodine his sixth win at the track. That’s more wins than any driver in NASCAR’s Sprint Cup and the IRL Izod IndyCar Series and is tied with Kyle Busch’s record of six wins at TMS, five in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and one in the trucks.The field restarted with seven laps to go – Bodine in first, Timothy Peters on his outside in second and Hornaday in third directly behind him. When the green flag waved, Hornaday pushed Bodine’s truck into turn one, and slipped in on the low groove of the track between turns one and two for the lead. But Bodine kept Hornaday pinched down on the track and retook the lead by the time the field of nine lead-lap cars made it back to the start/finish line.

But on lap 162, driver David Starr had a mechanical malfunction that sent him into the wall between turns one and two, collecting Matt Crafton in the wreck and bringing out the caution that necessitated the overtime finish.

On the final restart, Hornaday tried to make his way to the front, this time restarting second next to Bodine. But as he made his move, Johnny Sauter inched forward, his sights set on the lead. The two made contact, sending Hornaday back in the field, where he finished seventh.

“I’ve not always been the best at restarts, and when you’ve got Hornaday beside you, you know you have to be on your game and get it right,” Bodine said. “Once the 13 got beside Ron, I knew we had a pretty good shot at beating them for two laps.”

Sauter went on to finish second, followed by Austin Dillon in third.

“I had an opportunity there when Ron and Todd were beating and banging to probably take it three-wide, but I pedaled it and rolled out of the throttle a little bit just because I knew the outcome of that was probably not what we wanted,” Sauter said. “We all know how Ron races, so you’ve got to be careful around him. We’ve had fast trucks all year long and we needed a solid night tonight. Maybe it wasn’t in our best interests to try to win tonight.”

Dillon, a rookie in the Truck Series this year, got his best start of the year with the pole position and earned his first career top five finish.

“Our truck was really good at the beginning. We lost it there in the middle, but at the end it was right back there where it was at the beginning,” Dillon said. “Its good for us to get a good finish and get back up in there in points.”

Despite his phenomenal success at the 1.5-mile Texas track, Bodine said that doesn’t make him want to return to the track to compete in either of NASCAR’s other series, though he wouldn’t rule it out.

“We’ve got our agenda at Germain Racing and that’s for the 30 truck to win a championship. That’s not to say that if we had the opportunity to run a Cup car here or somewhere else, that we wouldn’t,” Bodine said. “The main thing is that we aren’t going to let anything affect the 30 truck and what we’re trying to do. This is the best start to the season we’ve ever had and we’re going to keep doing what we know how to do.”

Bodine leaves Texas with the Truck Series points lead, ahead 65 points over Aric Almirola.

Qualifying was earlier today and Ryan Briscoe took the pole. About this time tomorrow is when the green flag will drop, so I doubt there’s too much teams can glean from this session, other than basic setup and handling concerns.

Regardless, it’s a brilliant move. Fans are slowly but surely filing into the grandstands for the NASCAR race, and they’re getting a sneak peak at what’s in store for tomorrow. While most fans at TMS that come to the Truck Series race will inevitably be at Saturday’s IndyCar Series race, anybody that wasn’t planning on it will sure be enticed to make the trip back out to Fort Worth.

This may be an unintended consequence of the schedule, but it’s a great strategy.

TMS track president Eddie Gossage presents Ryan Briscoe with a helmet trophy after the Penske driver won the pole for the Firestone 550. Photo courtesy IRL.

Team Penske’s Ryan Briscoe will start Saturday’s Firestone 550 from the pole position, giving the team its sixth consecutive pole in the seven Izod IndyCar Series races of 2010.

While qualifying was conducted in the heat of the day Friday afternoon, the race will begin as the sun is setting and finish under the lights in Fort Worth.

Last week’s Indianapolis 500 winner, Dario Franchitti will start on the outside pole, putting two drivers who sometimes get overlooked in the mainstream consciousness by their famous wives – Briscoe recently married his wife, ESPN reporter Nicole (Manske) Briscoe and Franchitti is married to actress Ashley Judd – in the spotlight for the Izod IndyCar Series’ second longest race of the year.Making it more of a challenge is that the two longest races come back-to-back, after drivers had four weeks off to prepare for the Indianapolis 500.

It’s not the only stretch of back-to-back races, Franchitti said. But, he added, “the best you can do here with the heat is hydrate,” to keep fresh.

Franchitti also joked that wearing a predominately black firesuit didn’t make things better.

• Car will have a balanced downforce level that maximizes speed on straights and the ability to run in traffic. If downforce is too low, car is fast on straights, but light in corners.
• All four turns full throttle.
• Between Turns 1 & 2 and Turns 3 & 4 – the maximum G-force is 4 G’s.

Team Penske has five wins in the Izod IndyCar Series at Texas Motor Speedway and in the last six races, has led 664 of 1284 laps of competition, or 51.7 percent.

The Armchair Crew Chief will be covering all the action at Texas Motor Speedway’s double header weekend. Friday, the Izod IndyCar Series will qualify, followed by the Winstar World Casino 400. Then Saturday, the IndyCar Series field takes to the track for the Izod IndyCar Series Firestone 550.

Make sure to check in with Armchaircrewchief.com and follow me on Twitter @armchaircrchief

Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 2 Dodge leads Jamie McMurray, driver of the No. 1 Chevrolet during the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Photo Courtesy NASCAR

Kurt Busch ran 300 fewer laps and took home more than $600,000 less, but his win at the Coke 600 was no less sweet for the driver of the No. 2 car and team owner Roger Penske than Busch’s win last week at the All-Star race at the same track.

Penske’s main rival in the Izod IndyCar Series, Chip Ganassi, put two cars in the top five, including winner Dario Franchitti. Penske’s drivers finished 8th, 9th, and 24th.

But at Charlotte, for NASCAR’s longest race of the season, Penske’s driver Busch started the final restart from fourth, drove past three cars that didn’t pit for tires, and held off Ganassi’s Jamie McMurray in a 19-lap shootout to close out the 400-lap event.Busch combined to lead 252 of 400 laps, but he and McMurray exchanged the lead five teams throughout the course of the race.

“McMurray kept us honest,” Busch said after the race. “He was right there at the end. It wasn’t like we faded back into the pack; he just separated himself from the pack to come and get us. He taught me a couple things about my line. I needed to adjust it. It helped us stay out in front of him at the end.”

Despite not winning Sunday’s NASCAR race, Ganassi drivers McMurray and Franchitti combined to win both the Daytona and Indianapolis 500 races in the same year, a first for any team owner.

Like last week’s All-Star Race, Busch’s brother Kyle was the source of some post-race entertainment as Jeff Burton came out of his car fuming, yelling at the younger Busch for the way he was raced during the last restart. Busch, Burton and Burton’s teammate Clint Bowyer were three-wide on the restart, and the front splitter on Busch’s car made contact with Burton’s left rear tire, cutting the tire on the No. 31 car. Burton, who restarted eighth, finished 25th. Burton later said in a television interview he didn’t mind Busch driving aggressively, but wasn’t going to take getting knocked out of the race lying down.

Kyle Busch finished third, and Mark Martin and last year’s rain-shortened Coke 600 winner David Reutimann, rounded out the top five.