Worth the wait

It took three days and a tremendous amount of patience, but the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series drivers finished the race at Michigan International Speedway on Tuesday.
There was some talk about what would happen if they couldn't get the race in. It would have altered the Chase, pushing the start of it a week back, from New Hampshite to Dover, and making the Michigan the last race of the year instead of Miami.
Jimmie Johnson, who finished third in the race at Michigan behind Kurt Busch and Martin Truex, was glad they got it in.
"We ran up in the top five all day long and just excited to get the race in and get on down the road and not have to worry about coming back on Thanksgiving," said Johnson, driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports. "So a solid performance on pit road, on the race track. I thought we had the right strategy at the end with the two tires but the tire Goodyear brought seemed to be really good for five or six laps even on old tires. They recovered well and I just didn't have enough time to get those two tires to work and get by the 1 (Truex) and 2 (Busch)."