Well, it finally happened, Michael fell back into the clutches of the "Go or Go Homers". For those who were not listening to his radio or who missed my responses to post here is what happened at Pocono that cost him. Mikey was running around 27th when the last caution was over. Mikey and Bobby Kennedy decided that they would short pit and come in when they new they could go all the way on one more stop. So that is what happened. They were about the 5th car in and changed 2 tires and went back out. Well he remained on the lead lap and the strategy looked like it was going to pan out for them. When the last of the leaders finally pitted Mikey had moved up to around the 13th position. Well, they ran their 35 laps and with 32 laps remaining they made their final pit stop. They were far enough behind the leader that they went a lap down but were just about ready to go back on the lead lap because Carl Edwards was coming in. Well as his luck has been this year just as Carl Slowed down to come into the pits for his final stop, the caution came out and Carl narrowly missed passing the cones which means he would have had to come down pit road and Mikey would have gotten his lap back and been towards the front of the field after the others came in for their pit stop. But instead Carl remained on the track and Mikey was caught a lap down.
Well as we know Pocono is not known as a track where a lot of people go a lap down, so there 34 cars on the lead lap and Mikey was 1 of 3 cars caught a lap down. So Mikey finished 37th which left him in the position to fall into the go or go homers. But Mikey will be ok and I look for him to rebound and work himself into the top 30 prior to the end of the season.
I posted the following on another thread answering my friend JustGreat and I'll stand behind what this says.
JG, you may be right about Mikey needing to step back but if you go back in history I think you will find that for any team that started out new it took at least 3 years for them to make a mark. Why is JGR more successful that MWR with the toyotas, Experience and Resources that's why. Yes they have more talented drivers but They have also been building cars a whole lot longer than MWR has. They learned what worked and what doesn't. Now that JGR is on board with Toyota I expect to see all the Toyotas benefit from this information as it gets passed around and new cars are being built. This is a tough business to get into and even tougher to become competitive, But when you look at teams such as BDR, BAM Racing, HAAS racing, I think for just being together for 1 and 1/3 seasons, MWR is doing remarkably well. Yes, I was disappointed that Mikey fell out of the top 35, but I don't think he will stay there. Him and his crew cheif are starting to hit on a few things. Mikey is learning that when this car is just a little off you don't make major changes, i.e a pound of pressure in the tires, just maybe a 1/4 pound etc., because it makes the car worse.
Do I expect Mikey to be a chase contender this year or even next season, No not really, I think David can and I think Mike McDowell can be a solid top 20 driver next season. What I do expect from Mikey next season is to finish someplace between 15 and 20th in the points. this year i expect him to finish within the top 35 hopefully between 25th and 30 or higher.
I know a lot of people like to put him down, but except for the first couple of years with DEI Mikey never really had good equipment to run with. So I am hoping that with Toyota's help he can get the equipment and start being competitive. But first he has to learn this new car and i believe it is harder for the older drivers to adjust to than the younger drivers. And besides Mikey is only 45. He has a few years left.
I will say this if Mikey struggles next season and is at least not a top 20 car by the end of next year then I will be the first to say it is time for him to hang it up. But as I pointed out no team has really come out of the box and been a top notch team. Even Ray Everham struggled the first couple of years when he brought Dodge back into the sport and he didn't have to worry about "Go or Go homers".