The NASCAR Cup Series was at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday for the running of the FireKeepers Casino 400, which saw Joe Gibbs Racing's Denny Hamlin save enough fuel to get the win in the Irish Hills.
How the FireKeepers Casino 400 unfolded at Michigan International Speedway
Hamlin's JGR teammate, Chase Briscoe, led the field to the green after claiming his third straight pole on Saturday. William Byron, who led a race-high 98 laps, got around Briscoe to get the lead on Lap 12. He remained in control for much of the first stage until Chris Buescher eventually got around him after running close behind for multiple laps. Buescher would go on to win Stage 1.
Moments after Chase Elliott made the pass for the lead to get around Nashville winner Ryan Blaney, John Hunter Nemechek and Noah Gragson spun to bring out the race's first caution for incident on Lap 60. Similar to the Nashville race one week ago, that was the first of multiple cautions in the second stage.
Lap 67 produced the biggest incident of the race when Austin Cindric and Cole Custer got together battling for 27th in Turn 2. As Custer tried to correct his Ford Mustang, Chase Briscoe, Daniel Suarez and Alex Bowman were also collected, with Bowman taking a massive hit with the outside wall. He was evaluated and released from the infield medical center following the massive impact.
Following a red flag of 11:30 for the Lap 67 wreck, two more cautions slowed the race in Stage 2, notably for Blaney spinning at the exit of Turn 4 with 92 laps to go while running 12th. Byron got around Cindric in Turn 2 on the final lap of Stage 2 to get his seventh stage win of the season.
Denny Hamlin saves enough fuel to win at Michigan
After Todd Gilliland blew a left-rear tire with 55 laps remaining, the stage was set for a 49-lap fuel-mileage race to the finish. Carson Hocevar was closing in on his first Cup Series win when a flat left-rear tire down the backstretch ended his hopes with 19 to go.
After a tight battle for the lead, Hamlin made the winning pass on Byron with four laps to go and pulled away to win by 1.099 seconds over Buescher after Byron ran out of fuel with two to go. The win is Hamlin's 57th of his career, passing Kyle Busch for the most wins at JGR. Hamlin joins Christopher Bell and Larson as three-time winners in 2025.
FireKeepers Casino 400 finishing order and results
FireKeepers Casino 400 finishing position | Driver | Points |
|---|---|---|
Winner | Denny Hamlin | 51 |
2nd | Chris Buescher | 45 |
3rd | Ty Gibbs | 34 |
4th | Bubba Wallace | 40 |
5th | Kyle Larson | 36 |
6th | Ross Chastain | 37 |
7th | Zane Smith | 30 |
8th | Kyle Busch | 31 |
9th | Ryan Preece | 33 |
10th | Brad Keselowski | 27 |
11th | Erik Jones | 27 |
12th | Josh Berry | 31 |
13th | Tyler Reddick | 31 |
14th | Daniel Suarez | 23 |
15th | Chase Elliott | 22 |
16th | Christopher Bell | 21 |
17th | AJ Allmendinger | 20 |
18th | Shane van Gisbergen | 19 |
19th | Austin Dillon | 18 |
20th | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 17 |
21st | Justin Haley | 16 |
22nd | Joey Logano | 15 |
23rd | Chase Briscoe | 21 |
24th | Ty Dillon | 15 |
25th | Riley Herbst | 12 |
26th | Cody Ware | 11 |
27th | Noah Gragson | 10 |
28th | William Byron | 29 |
29th | Carson Hocevar | 17 |
30th | Michael McDowell | 7 |
31st | Austin Cindric | 15 |
32nd | Ryan Blaney | 10 |
33rd | Todd Gilliland | 4 |
34th | John Hunter Nemechek | 3 |
35th | Cole Custer | 2 |
36th | Alex Bowman | 1 |
The NASCAR Cup Series shifts its focus to Mexico City's Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez on Sunday, June 15 for the running of the Viva Mexico 250 (3 p.m. ET, Prime Video, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). It will be the first Cup Series points-paying race outside the United States in the modern era.