It was one of the strangest weather weekends that the NASCAR Community has faced in history. Strange only because while NASCAR is used to the occasional rain-out postponement, they’ve seldom had to wait two straight days and run an event on a Tuesday morning. But that’s exactly what happened with the 3M Performance 400 at Michigan International Speedway this past weekend.

Bill Elliott qualified the No. 21 Little Debbie Ford in 23rd place during Friday’s qualifying session. By the time Happy Hour had ended on Saturday, a wall of steady rain was headed for the lower central Michigan area. By Sunday morning, it was raining heavily with no end in sight. NASCAR was forced to call the event for the day and asked that the teams return on Monday morning for a noon start. The heavy rain that refused to stop postponed that attempt as well. With Tuesday looking promising, NASCAR had the teams on the grid and ready to start the event at 10:00 a.m. They began the race officially with a green/yellow flag display meaning that the cars were not allowed to pass one another. This went on for 10 laps as NASCAR Control was worried about fog on the backstretch blocking the view of the team spotters high above the press box. Safety won out and NASCAR brought the cars down pit road for a 30-minute red flag period until the fog finally lifted enough to get the race underway at full speed. NASCAR informed crew chiefs that there would be a mandatory caution period at lap 30 of the 200-lap event.

Elliott restarted the event on lap 11 in 23rd place, but quickly fell back with a car that he reported was very tight in the corners from the center off. Bill was able to narrowly avoid the first accident of the day—a spinning Juan Pablo Montoya. The competition caution flag flew on lap 30 as scheduled and gave Crew Chief Michael McSwain his first attempt at loosening the car. The team changed four tires, added fuel and went up three rounds on the track bar to alter the chassis. Elliott restarted 35th on the lap 34 restart. The changes didn’t seem to help much, but Elliott reported the rear of the car was better, but that he now needed help on the front end of the car. “I think I know what’s wrong with it,” replied McSwain.

Bill Elliott made it to the next scheduled pit stop on lap 70, where the team took 1.5 rounds back out of the track bar and changed four tires. By lap 73, Elliott was running in 37th place. The car seemed to work better on the longer runs as the day wore on. A lap 87 caution allowed the team another chance to work on the car and the crew adjusted the air pressure for good measure. Elliott restarted 30th on lap 92, but the field hadn’t completed a green flag lap before the caution flag flew again for a single car accident involving Michael Waltrip. The team stayed out of the pits and restarted the race from the 30th spot again on lap 99. The team had lost a lap earlier, but was now in position to receive the Lucky Dog Pass back on the lead lap.

The car’s handling continued to be a problem, especially on the short runs, but Bill Elliott was doing the best he could. By lap 120, he’d lost two positions to 32nd. After a lap 131 pit stop, the team fell back two more spots to 34th, still one lap down to the leaders. Unfortunately, as the day went on, things didn’t get much better for the team. Elliott remained in 33rd position and unable to get back on the lead lap. It wasn’t what the team was hoping for after finishing 11th in the June race at Michigan using the same primary car.

The team pitted for the final scheduled time on lap 178 of the 200-lap event. Elliott crossed the line in 35th place at the checkered flag.

WHAT THE TEAM HAS TO SAY
Bill Elliott, driver of the No. 21 Little Debbie Ford:
“I think everything was just so different this time around that we couldn’t put together a run like we had last time. At one point, I had to say that I thought the tires sure didn’t feel like they were the same codes we ran here back in June. But again, the weather was way different which affected the track and the chassis on the car. Everything kind of stacked up against us today, but we’ll regroup and get ready for a quick turnaround for Bristol this Saturday night.”

Michael McSwain, Crew Chief of the No. 21 Little Debbie Ford:
“These kinds of days are just no fun at all. It was bad enough we had to wait around as long as we did to get the race in, but nobody expected to run this poorly. We don’t have a lot of time to dwell on it though—it’s now a really short week to Bristol this weekend. I’m just proud of all my guys for hanging in there today, especially Bill. It’s been a pretty long haul up here.”