Kyle Busch in the garage at Michigan on Saturday. Attention he doesn’t need, he says.  (Photo: Getty Images)

Not just a lock, but a: LifeLock 400.

The model used by many other tracks: Michigan International Speedway, Brooklyn.

The incumbent: Tony Stewart enters this race both as the Sprint Cup point leader and the winner of the most recent race.

Big guns: Stewart, Jimmie Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, Carl Edwards, Ryan Newman and Greg Biffle.

Long shots: Dale Earnhardt Jr. (last year’s winner), Matt Kenseth, Jeff Burton, Mark Martin, Denny Hamlin, Juan Pablo Montoya and Brian Vickers.

The hunch here: Kyle Busch.

Just the facts, please

- Edwards is the only driver in the field who has completed every scheduled lap in his career at Michigan.

- Thirty drivers have won here since NASCAR first visited Michigan in 1969. David Pearson is the all-time leader with nine victories.

- The most successful Michigan driver in NASCAR history was Paul Goldsmith, who won nine races at the Cup level.

- A Michigan race run in 1981 featured 64 lead changes. Last year’s race had 18.

   
Snappy quotes

“I couldn’t be more proud to be aligned with Ford Motor Company. I’m not an economist. I don’t understand everything that’s going on with all the money in the country, but what I do know is that Ford is standing on its own feet.” – Carl Edwards.

“You are never ever going to have enough (passes) to where everybody says ‘whoa, that’s perfect.’ Then, when when you do, somebody (almost) gets in the grandstands and says ‘oh, we’ve got to do something about that’, you know? Everybody wants to have it both ways. They want us to race side-by-side every lap, but it’s impossible to do that.” – Jeff Burton.

“As far as the attention goes, I don’t need any more. Trust me.” – Kyle Busch.

 “I think NASCAR knew that trying it at Pocono and at Michigan were two good tracks to test it out and get some of the bugs worked out. I think it’s going to create some havoc at Sonoma …” – Jeff Gordon, on double-file restarts.

“We’ve kind of moved on to some new ideas. I’m not saying that what we used last year wouldn’t work, but you just can’t sit still.” – Jimmie Johnson.

“I wish I could say I was that smart. You’re giving me way too much credit.” – Tony Stewart, on becoming a successful owner.

 

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