Infineon Info

Jeff Gordon knew he would just simply have to survive at Michigan Internation Speedway with a consistent finish, knowing that the race after is the road course known as Infineon Raceway. No driver is more successful at Infineon than the 4-time champion Jeff Gordon. He has 5 victories at the road course. The drivers listed below Jeff on the "Infineon wins list" are Tony Stewart, Ricky Rudd, and Rusty Wallace... all with just 2 wins. The only negative fact about Jeff Gordon's success at Infineon Raceway is that his last victory at the road course came in 2006.

Now after winning his 84th career race at Pocono and then struggling his way to a 17th place finish at Michigan, Jeff looks to pass Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Allison on the All-time Wins list at Infineon Raceway. However the #24 team could also use a third victory of 2011 to get Gordon inside the top 10 in the standings. He sits 12th in the standings just 17 points behind Clint Bowyer who sits 10th in the standings. So far this season is different from the most recent seasons NASCAR has had... many first time winners, Jimmie Johnson only has one win, and Jeff Gordon is showing he is a contender for the Sprint Cup Championship.

There will be a couple teams that can challenge Jeff Gordon's team for the victory at Infineon:

Tony Stewart has two wins at Infineon, but when it comes to his road course success he is best known for his 6 wins at Watkins Glen International. Tony is great on road courses and he might be the one sitting in victory lane at the end of the event. Juan-Pablo Montoya has learned lots over the past five years about how to race with a stock car on a road course. Montoya won the 2007 Infineon race and won last year's race at Watkins Glen. You could see that #42 chevrolet racing with the leaders all day long.

Kyle Busch swept the road courses in 2008 by winning both events. "Rowdy" Busch might be leading them to the finish line on the final lap. Kasey Kahne has shown us time and time again this season that he has what it takes to win, but Kasey has often experienced bad luck or handling issues which have prevented him from having a chance to win. Kasey won the 2009 Infineon race, could he possibly race that #4 Red Bull Toyota to victory?

*I would like to personally explain that Robby Gordon will not be a factor to winning the race. Although the road courses are his specialty Robby doesn't have the car and equipment to out-perform the other favorites to win. He might finish in the top 10, but no better. His days with racing in the #31 Chevrolet with Childress Racing are long over. Now we rarely see Robby get through half of a race, he earns lots of DNF's. However great job by Robby Gordon to win both road course events in the year 2003!

Questions:
1. Who do you think will win at Infineon Raceway? Or if that's too difficult then tell me of some drivers that will earn an impressive finish in the event.

2. Do you see Jimmie Johnson contending for the win? After all he won this event at Infineon last year, but it was his first road course victory in NASCAR.

Written by: Tyler McMurter