Pick 'em: Michigan

Each week the staff at NASCAR.COM will pick a race winner, a dark horse for the checkers and the ain't-got-a-chance driver (no scrubs; someone with a Q score).

Our scoring system: Experts receive as many points as the "winner" pick gets in the race.

3M Performance 400

Writer Winner Here's why ... Dark Horse No Chance Points

Josh Pate Jimmie Johnson Remember how good Kyle Busch was at the start of the year? That's where Jimmie is now. In five of his past six Michigan races he's finished sixth or better. He's never won at MIS, so while Roush steals all the headlines, the 48 team will snag the trophy. Brian Vickers Clint Bowyer 3,187
Duane Cross Tony Stewart Conventional wisdom had me thinking Matt Kenseth, but now that his shop is in order I think we may begin to see Smoke emerge from the fog. Martin Truex Jr. Kurt Busch 3,171
Bill Kimm Carl Edwards Roush owns this track and I'm going to go with his hottest driver. Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle each have their two wins here, now it's time for Edwards to get his second. kasey Kahne Clint Bowyer 3,131
Joe Menzer Dale Earnhardt Jr. Last time he broke his long winless streak at Michigan by winning on fuel mileage. This time, he'll do it because he's got one of the best cars and he and crew chief Tony Eury Jr. are starting to take more aggressive chances. Juan Montoya Ryan Newman 3,045
Raygan Swan Carl Edwards Everyone knows that Roush Fenway Racing cars dominate in Michigan so Carl Edwards is the obvious pick this week and he's looking to cut into Busch's lead heading into the Chase. David Raygan Clint Bowyer 3,003
David Caraviello Matt Kenseth He's overdue, and he needs a strong run to solidify his place in the Chase. He'll get that and more Sunday at a track where Roush Fenway cars have traditionally dominated. Kurt Busch Jeff Gordon 2,988
Dave Rodman Jimmie Johnson He is getting into a zone that may result in his third consecutive Cup championship, but at the very least will result in a victory Sunday. Brian Vickers Clint Bowyer 2,882
Jarrod Breeze Carl Edwards Gotta go with arguably the second-best driver all year -- at least in terms of wins (four) and points (currently) -- whose track record at Michigan also is arguably second to none. He's good there because of Roush; but Roush is good there because of Edwards. Elliot Sadler Kasey Kahne 2,764
Mark Aumann Carl Edwards With seven top-10s in eight starts, has the best average finish of any active driver at Michigan. And he's hungry to find 10 more bonus points.

Vickers follows top practice run with pole at Michigan

It didn't take Brian Vickers long to realize that his No. 83 Toyota was a potential pole winner.

By the second lap of Sprint Cup practice Friday at Michigan International Speedway, Vickers knew he had something special. Later that afternoon, Vickers put his Camry on the pole position for Sunday's 3M Performance 400 at the 2-mile track.

3M Performance 400
Race Lineup

Pos. Driver Speed Time

1. B. Vickers 188.536 38.189
2. J. Johnson 187.028 38.497
3. E. Sadler 186.577 38.590
4. Dale Jr. 186.321 38.643
5. J. Gordon 186.032 38.703
6. P. Carpentier 185.979 38.714
7. D. Reutimann 185.907 38.729
8. R. Smith 185.874 38.736
9. G. Biffle 185.821 38.747
10. S. Riggs 185.821 38.747

• Lineup | Videos | Photos"We tried some things during practice that didn't work at all,'' Vickers said. "So we went back to where we were and I think that's one of the best qualifying cars I've ever had. It was a heck of a lap.

"Sometimes you just hit it. You don't know why.''

Vickers turned a lap in 38.189 seconds (188.536 mph) to knock Jimmie Johnson off the top spot late in the Friday's session and secure the first pole for Red Bull Racing (watch video), which made its debut in Cup racing last year.

"It was there from the first lap, the first turn,'' said Vickers, who won his fifth career pole and his first since leaving Hendrick Motorsports at the end of the 2006 season.

"Some days, some weeks you just hit it -- and we hit it," Vickers said. "We wish we knew what caused that, because you'd do that every week. Obviously, we've come a long way since last year."

Last season was mostly a struggle for Vickers, who finished 38th in the standings. But the 24-year-old, who raced to fourth here in June -- one of three top-fives this season -- has made big strides this year and is a solid 17th in the standings.

"I'm very proud of everybody at Red Bull Racing and Toyota,'' he said. "We've come a long way since last year.

Johnson (187.028 mph) will start on the outside of the front row (watch video).

"We picked up speed from practice, but I just knew inside the car that it wasn't the perfect lap," Johnson said. "It was way tighter than it needed to be. I was shocked when they told me the lap time."

Johnson's lap was more than three-tenths of a second slower than Vickers.

"And I think, for that [Red Bull] team and Brian, this has been a track that fits their style. He'll be ever more of a threat come race time," Johnson said.

"That's a great team,'' Vickers said of Johnson and his No. 48 Hendrick Chevrolet. "It's the team to beat in our sport for the last several years.''

And the fast lap by Vickers wasn't a fluke. He was also fastest in the 90-minute practice earlier Friday (speeds).

"To lay that lap down in practice and back it up in qualifying, that's a really good feeling,'' the youngster said. "Really unbelievable. I wish we could take that and apply it to every week. But it's not that easy.

"But anytime you can see progress, feel progress, patience comes easier.

Elliott Sadler (186.577 mph) will start third in Sunday's race, followed by Dale Earnhardt Jr. (186.321 mph) and Jeff Gordon (186.032 mph), as Hendrick Motorsports drivers claimed three of the top-five spots on the grid.

Patrick Carpentier, David Reutimann, Regan Smith, Greg Biffle and Scott Riggs will start from the sixth through 10th positions, respectively, on Sunday.

Notes: Brad Coleman, who will make his Cup debut on Sunday, was the last car to make the race on speed. Coleman has replaced J.J. Yeley in the No. 96 Hall of Fame Racing Toyota. ... Of 44 drivers competing for 43 starting spots, Johnny Sauter was the odd man out. Sauter's No. 08 Dodge was more than .2 seconds slower than Coleman's Camry. ... Terry Labonte didn't need his past champion's provisional to get into the field. He'll start 17th in the No. 45 Petty Enterprises Dodge, 18 positions ahead of his brother, Bobby Labonte, who drives the No. 43 Petty car. In a nine-car pileup last week at Watkins Glen, Bobby Labonte took one of the hardest hits of his career. ... Matt Kenseth, trying to protect 12th position on the Cup standings, starts 14th. Clint Bowyer, 13th in points, will have to rally from the 41st starting position.

Burton: Fewer teams best for long-term health of Cup

Jeff Burton was on a roll Friday morning at Michigan International Speedway, and he wasn't even on he track.

Burton was asked about how only a year ago there were concerns about too many sponsors with too many cars and no guarantees of making Sprint Cup Series races, and about how this weekend, for the third time this season, only 44 cars showed up to attempt making the 43-car field for this Sunday's 3M Performance 400.

“
I think there was a time in our country where you looked at the auto manufacturers as an empire that could never go away -- and I think today we can't look at it in that fashion, which is sad.
”
JEFF BURTONIt was only one question. But he rambled on with his passionate answer.

"I don't think there's any question it's a function of sponsor involvement -- and the sponsor involvement has a great deal to do with the economy," Burton said. "A company has to be 100 percent committed to motorsports in this kind of economy to be able to spend the money that it takes, which goes back to part of the reason that I believe it's not in our best interest to have 48, 49 teams."

In Burton's mind, NASCAR's Sprint Cup Series actually would be fiscally healthier with fewer teams.

"How many cars did we have at Daytona [for the Daytona 500] this year? Fifty or so [actually 53]?," Burton quizzed. "We're having teams shut down. Every time a team shuts down, there is somebody who is left unemployed.

"We put ourselves in a position where with this change of car count, over a three-year or four-year period you go from 49 full-time teams to maybe 44, that's a five-team switch. If you put 60 people on a team, that's 300 people whose jobs are impacted by that."

Burton said he has a simple answer to put an end to all that economic uncertainty, whether the nation's economy is in a slump as it is now or it's when the good times are rolling.

"Our sport would be so much more secure, our employees would be so much more secure, our sponsors would be so much more secure, if we had 43 teams," Burton said. "There is no benefit in having [more than 43] teams. It only creates insecurity for sponsors, for car owners, for crew members.

"We need 43 teams to put on a race. If we have 43 teams that we knew were going to be in the race, then the sponsor's investment is much more secure -- and at a time when the economy is iffy, the sponsors that want to be involved in the sport want to know that they're going to be in the race."

Burton knows that NASCAR has long frowned on the idea of limiting its field to what essentially would be 43 franchises.

"I'm not even saying the F-word," he joked, laughing.

He even conceded that he understands the philosophy behind letting more than 43 cars attempt to make a race on a weekly basis. He just doesn't think it's sound business in the long term.

"The philosophy of having 48 cars all vying for 43 spots, I know that's cool and everything. Or the thought that if you're not good enough, you just go home because you don't deserve to be in the race. But that's not economically sound," Burton said.

"This is a time when you start seeing a negative side of having a bunch of teams. The sponsorships are being spread out over more cars. The cost of sponsorship is being de-valued because they have more choices. There's really no advantage in all that and our sport is less secure."

As Burton and the rest of the Sprint Cup drivers prepare for this Sunday's race in the backyard of America's Big Three automobile manufacturers, Burton's comments cast a long shadow. That significance was not lost on him.

"I think there was a time in our country where you looked at the auto manufacturers as an empire that could never go away -- and I think today we can't look at it in that fashion, which is sad," Burton said. "If you think about how big the American manufacturers are to the economy of America, it's huge. The amount of employment, the things that they do, it's unbelievable. And it's hard to see them struggling because it should be a source of pride for our country.

"They're really struggling hard. I don't think you can take them for granted anymore. ... You think they always will be involved, but they still have to be able to write the checks."

If they had fewer teams to write them to, perhaps that would help.

"Forty-three cars that are assured of being in the field is the best scenario for our sport," Burton insisted. "Professional golf being the exception, we are the only major sport that has to make the investment that we make and you don't know 100 percent that you're in the field.

"Now the top-35 rule is a tremendous step in the right direction. It's way better than it used to be, but it ought to be a 43 rule. I don't know how you go about determining whose going to get the car owners and all. I'm a driver, so I get to point at somebody else and say figure it out. But it's in our best interest to have 43 well-funded teams and sponsors that are secure in what they're doing. That's in our sport's best interest. That's my opinion."