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Track Facts:
Banking/Turns: 18°
Distance: 2.0 miles
Shape: Tri-oval

LifeLock 400
Sunday, June 15
Michigan International Speedway
Brooklyn, MI
Sunday, 2:00 p.m. EST

Schedule
Practice
11:30 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. EST, Friday, June 13
12:00 noon - 12:45 p.m. EST, Saturday, June 14
1:20 p.m. - 2:20 p.m. EST, Final Practice Saturday, June 14

Qualifying
3:10 p.m., Friday June 13 (SpeedTV)
Two laps all positions

Race Day Sunday, June 15
2:00 p.m. EST Sunday
TV: 12:30 p.m. TNT EST
Radio: Motor Racing Network (MRN), XM Radio
2007 winner Carl Edwards

Check the SPEED Channel schedule (speedtv.com) for various programs on the race this weekend.

Race Preview
Quotes from Terry Labonte:

Terry Labonte, left discusses a practice session with younger brother Bobby, right and the #45 crew chief, Stewart Cooper, at Pocono Raceway.

Quotes from Bobby Labonte:

“I get asked about my favorite racetrack a lot.  I always say Michigan.  Your car doesn’t have to be perfect at Michigan.  You can move around the racetrack and find where you car is working the best.  So it puts the racing a little more into the hands of the driver.  It’s plenty wide enough to race and pass.  So far it has been hard to pass in these new cars.  I’m anxious to see how it does at Michigan where you have so much room.”
 
“While it has been hard to pass on the racetrack, I’ve been able to pick up a lot of spots on pit road over the last several weeks.  The No. 43 pit crew has been awesome.  Between the fast stops and the great calls that Jeff Meendering (crew chief) has been making, we’re able to pick up valuable track positions.  Pit road is a competitive place these days.  Some teams have crews that do nothing besides pit the car.  My team has been as good as any of them. 
 
“I couldn’t think of a better way to help our family celebrate Father’s Day than to have my brother as my teammate.  I hope our father will enjoy watching us race together.  Our father is the single most important reason for our driving careers.  A lot of the success that I’ve had on the racetrack is a result of coming from a racing family.  So I want to extend a Happy Father’s Day to all of the fathers and sons that are racing on the local short tracks together.  These are some of the best times of your lives.”

Race Results

1. Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Chevrolet
2. Kasey Kahne, Dodge
3. Matt Kenseth, Ford
4. Brian Vickers, Toyota
5. Tony Stewart, Toyota
29. Terry Labonte, No. 45 Marathon American Spirit Motor Oil Dodge
31. Bobby Labonte, No. 43 Marathon American Spirit Motor Oil Dodge

Dale Earnhardt, Jr. scored the win in Sunday’s Life Lock 400 at the Michigan International Speedway (MIS). In the process he picked up his first points-paying win with his new team, Hendrick Motorsports, and ended a 76-race winless streak. Kasey Kahne, Matt Kenseth and Brian Vickers placed second through fourth to give each of the four Sprint Cup manufacturers a spot inside the top-four finishers.

MIS is a two-mile, D-shaped oval that has many grooves. This allows the drivers to search for the line that their car enjoys the most. As a result, many races are completed with minimum cautions. Fuel strategy often plays a role in the final standings. Sunday’s race was no different. Many teams were a few laps short on their fuel; however, a caution with three laps left gave most of those teams a chance to come in for tires and a splash of gas. The only two cars that didn’t were the cars of Earnhardt and Kahne, as they used extreme fuel strategy to garner the top-two spots.

Terry Labonte and the No. 45 Marathon American Spirit Motor Oil Dodge team finished Sunday’s race in the 29th position. T. Labonte, making his 55th start at MIS, began the race in 36th place as a result of rain that washed out qualifying. At the drop of the green flag, T. Labonte had to deal with a car that was loose on all sections of MIS. While crew chief Stewart Cooper did not have many chances to improve the handling, due to the limited number of cautions, he was able to make adjustments to allow T. Labonte to pass several cars.

“That was a typical Michigan race, not many cautions and fuel mileage,” said T. Labonte. “The No. 45 Marathon Dodge was not far off, but the leaders set a fast pace early and we didn’t have many chances to make the car better. The car got better after each stop and that is encouraging. Stewart and the guys on pit road did a great job.”

Bobby Labonte and the No. 43 Marathon American Spirit Motor Oil Dodge team finished 31st in Sunday’s event. Like his older brother, B. Labonte was loose getting into the high-speed corners of MIS. The “high line” was the preferred way around MIS. However, B. Labonte, a three-time winner on the two-mile circuit, could not make his car work there. Crew chief Jeff Meendering made several adjustments to the car’s wedge, tire pressure and track bar to try to get B. Labonte some all-important grip. The team was set to gamble on fuel strategy late in the race, but they came down pit road when the caution flag flew with three laps remaining.

“The top was obviously the fast way today, but I just could not get comfortable up there,” said B. Labonte. “We’re still learning, trying to figure these new cars out. I think we would have been in pretty good shape to capitalize on our fuel strategy, but the late caution canceled that out. We were short by ½ a lap and I believe that Earnhardt and Kahne were shorter than that. But we had solid pit stops again and that helped us gain a few spots throughout the race.”

The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series will head to the Infineon (Ca.) Raceway next weekend for the first road course event of the 2008 season. Friday’s qualifying session will be telecast on the Speed Channel. It will be broadcast on the Performance Racing Network (PRN) and Sirius Channel 128.