Benny Parsons

On Sunday the Nextel Cup Series makes a stop at Michigan International Speedway, the track where last year Tony Stewart showed he was primed for what would be an incredible summer run of success.

So it might not come as a surprise to many that Stewart is my pick to get to Victory Lane this time around at the two-mile tri-shaped oval.

Working in Stewart's favor
Stewart runs well at Michigan, where his Cup resume reads one win (June of 2000), six top-fives, and nine top-10s in 14 races. His average start position is 20.6, and his average finish position is 12.5.

Factoring into why the two-time Cup champion fares so well at this venue is that it is a track with three groves -- bottom, middle, and top. Stewart is a guy who loves the bottom, and he won't venture off of it.

And if he gets his car to run well down low, he's difficult to beat because racing the bottom is a shorter way around the track than is racing the middle or top groove.

Stewart came into this race last year without a win and tenth in the championship standings. He ran second that day, and his runner-up result ignited a red-hot streak, and his charge to the top in points.

It was a stretch of phenomenal racing, one that set up Stewart to make the Chase for the Nextel Cup, and to win the title in NASCAR's 10-race playoff.

Over the span of 12 summer races beginning the week following Michigan at Infineon, and ending in New Hampshire, Stewart not only won five events, he never finished outside of the top 10. He was hotter than hot. 

Stewart hopes this Sunday's race at Michigan provides him with the start of another sizzling summer. And physically Stewart says his broken right shoulder blade feels fine after he completed all 500 miles at Pocono Raceway last weekend.

Other drivers to watch
Greg Biffle likes competing at Michigan because the track gives him and the other drivers a lot of room to race. And his results at this tri-oval have certainly been impressive.

In six Cup starts at Michigan, Biffle has won twice (including in this race a year ago), has three top-fives, and four top-10s. His average start position is 22.3, and his average finish position is 11th.

On Sunday Biffle's crew chief Doug Richert has his driver in the same car he took to Victory Lane last year at Michigan, and it’s also the car Biffle won with at Homestead at the end of last season.

A key thing to watch with Biffle is that his being 12th in the championship standings has him racing for points, and that might make him less aggressive for a win if he feels that by trying for one late in race he could put in jeopardy a solid finish and the points that go with it.

Biffle would like nothing better than to pick up a win at a track that is in Ford’s backyard, and that sentiment is shared by all the Roush Racing drivers.

Matt Kenseth, one of Biffle's teammates at Roush Racing, has finished in the top 10 nine times in his last 11 races at Michigan, and last year at this venue he was fourth in the June event, and third in the August race.

Slide show   Hot wheels Click to see images of NASCAR's hottest drivers on the circuit including Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart.

In late February Kenseth won at California Speedway, a track very similar to Michigan. And on Sunday he'll compete at Michigan in the car that won for him at California, and that he also raced in at Texas (runner-up), and Las Vegas (runner-up).

The other Roush racers, Mark Martin, Carl Edwards, and Jamie McMurray could all be in the hunt for a win.  

Martin, who was third in this race last year, has six top-10s in his last 10 Michigan starts, and his 26 top-10s at Michigan are the most of any active driver.

Edwards has made three Cup starts at Michigan, and finished in the top 10 each time, two of those results being top-fives.

McMurray has one top-five and one top-10 in six Cup tries at Michigan, but this is the first race at this venue where he will be in a Roush Racing car.

Jimmie Johnson could contend for the win at Michigan, where he was on the pole for the August 2004 race, and where he had a top-10 finish in August of last year.

Jeff Gordon had the pole for the June 2004 race at Michigan, and he led 81 laps before an engine problem relegated him to a dismal 38th-place result. He came back to qualify second in August 2004 at Michigan, and led 37 laps on his way to finishing seventh.

But Gordon had a disappointing 32nd-place finish in this race last year, and he hasn't been running well of late, so it will take a turn of fortunes for him to win this Sunday. 

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