Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin picked up his third win of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season on Sunday at Michigan International Speedway. While the majority of the field was in fuel save mode, Hamlin had enough to get to the finish, passing Hendrick Motorsports' William Byron with four laps to go and winning by 1.099 seconds over RFK Racing's Chris Buescher.
Hamlin only led five of the 200 laps and picked up his 57th career win, passing Richard Childress Racing's Kyle Busch for the most wins in JGR's history. Sunday marked his third career win at Michigan and his ninth season with three or more wins. Behind Hamlin and Buescher in the top-five were Hamlin's JGR teammate Ty Gibbs, 23XI Racing's Bubba Wallace and HMS driver Kyle Larson.
Updated Cup Series standings after FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan
Driver Standings | Points | Behind |
|---|---|---|
1. William Byron | 576 | 0 |
2. Kyle Larson | 535 | -41 |
3. Denny Hamlin | 494 | -82 |
4. Christopher Bell | 480 | -96 |
5. Chase Elliott | 464 | -112 |
6. Tyler Reddick | 460 | -116 |
7. Ryan Blaney | 427 | -149 |
8. Ross Chastain | 414 | -162 |
9. Joey Logano | 395 | -181 |
10. Bubba Wallace | 383 | -193 |
Despite Byron's 28th-place finish after running out of fuel with two laps to go, his points lead holds steady (+41) over Larson due to his 19 stage points at Michigan. Hamlin's win moves him up a spot to third and takes 22 points off his 104-point deficit to Byron coming into Michigan.
Christopher Bell falls down to fourth after a disappointing 21-point day, while Ross Chastain's sixth-place finish was enough to leapfrog Joey Logano for eighth in the standings.
Notable drivers outside the top-10 in the overall standings include Alex Bowman (13th), Kyle Busch (15th), Talladega winner Austin Cindric (16th), Las Vegas winner Josh Berry (17th), Carson Hocevar (18th), Ty Gibbs (24th) and Brad Keselowski (32nd).
Keep in mind, a win will most likely guarantee a driver a playoff berth with 16 spots up for grabs. After Michigan, Larson, Hamlin, Bell, Byron, Ryan Blaney, Logano, Cindric, Berry and Chastain remain the season's nine winners.
After his second straight 36th-place finish, Bowman drops to 15th in the playoff standings (+13), while RFK Racing's Ryan Preece is currently tied with Busch for the 16th and final playoff spot. With 11 regular-season races remaining, things are going to change, but that is the position drivers currently find themselves in after Michigan.
One thing to keep in mind is the importance of both regular-season points standings and playoff standings. While drivers with wins vault to the top of the points standings and guarantee themselves a playoff spot, assuming there are no more than 16 winners, the overall points are equally important.
The regular-season champion by season's end will earn an additional 15 playoff points, second place will get 10 and drivers third-to-10th in points will receive points in descending order down to one point for 10th.