What are we to expect this weekend at MIS?

Going into the Pocono race weekend is typically dreaded by NASCAR fans.. it is referred to as "boring","a snooze fest", or "too long of a race". The track even shortened the 500 miles at Pocono to 400 due to fan complaints. Even then, fans still exclaimed on Twitter that they'd like to see the race go down to a 350.. that was, until the drop of the green flag on the freshly repaved Tricky Triangle. Diving in to turn one of the first lap, we saw Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards getting dicey, resulting in a tire rub, and almost immediately after, a multi-car wreck involving Landon Cassill, A.J. Allmendinger, and Juan Pablo Montoya in turn three. With a race-total of seven cautions, and several speeding penalties on pit road, Pocono redeemed itself from being infamously known as the most boring race of the season. The repave of Pocono transformed the race completely, bringing the speeds up by about 7mph and influencing the wrecks in the formally action-deprived race.

The trend continues this weekend as we head to Michigan International Speedway, the 2-mile oval that was recently repaved along with Pocono. When the Cup drivers participated in tire tests at Michigan on the new surface, speeds topped off at about 216mph, shattering the current qualifying record of 194.232mph held by Ryan Newman. Fans and drivers alike are excited to return to MIS and see what the repave has in store, as we were all pleasantly surprised by the new Pocono.

So, what are we to expect at Michigan this weekend? A track known for going four and five wide has just been repaved. Due to the smooth new surface, according to testing, speeds have skyrocketed. We're accustomed to pretty exciting racing at Michigan, so will the repave amp up the quality of the race even more this weekend? Will it have a positive affect on Michigan, as it did Pocono? As we get ready to go 400 miles at Michigan this weekend, we will soon find out. Regardless, 216mph into turn one sounds pretty crazy to me.