With just four races remaining before the Chase for the Championship begins, Vickers, who is 17th in the points, needs strong finishes. And a strong finish could be achieved by Vickers this weekend given his run to fourth place in the June MIS race and a top-10 finish in this event last August.

My darkhorse pick is David Ragan, who drove to eighth place at MIS in June.

Like Vickers, Ragan would certainly benefit from a solid effort on Sunday as he is 14th in the points — just 89 markers shy of 12th place in points — which is the cutoff for making for the 10-race season-ending playoff for the Cup title.

Keys to success at Michigan
To run MIS and to run it well a driver needs a lot of experience. That experience translates to the ability to find more grip — if needed — on this very wide layout. Michigan is a track where drivers can run two and even three distinct grooves. With the multiple grooves there is a lot of room for drivers to move around and make some exciting passes.

If a driver can't get his car to grip on the bottom of the track, he can try to run in the middle or run high. And drivers like Kasey Kahne, who have reputations for going to the top of tracks, will likely look to run up high at MIS. But the real key is which drivers will have the cars that run well at the bottom of the track for the majority of the race because those cars will be the ones to beat.

With a wide track offering a lot of room to run and to pass, races at MIS are usually pretty clean. Managing fuel is always a major challenge and engine tuning is the most critical factor in getting maximum fuel mileage. Drivers have to be extremely conscious that races at MIS have most often been decided by fuel mileage so they have to be very careful of how they run the throttle. Crew chiefs will be under greater pressure to make the right calls with fuel mileage such a key factor.

Finally, there's a long pit road at MIS so expect that some drivers will be penalized for speeding, especially under green-flag pit stops.

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