The NASCAR Cup race at Michigan featured some big hits, lots of fuel-saving, and Denny Hamlin’s third victory of the year as he inches closer to 60 career Cup wins. It was another missed opportunity for Carson Hocevar as a cut tire derailed his day, but the biggest story from Sunday came before the green flag even flew as Ram announced its return to the the Truck Series.

Here’s a look at the biggest winners and losers from Michigan…

WINNER: Hamlin beat your favorite driver….again

Watch: Denny Hamlin: ‘I beat your favorite driver’ in Michigan win

Denny Hamlin and the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing team did a remarkable job making it to the checkered flag with plenty of fuel to spare. Even more impressively, he restarted at the back end of the top ten, but steadily marched through the front-runners while they desperately tried to save gas. In the end, he didn’t even have to wait for the leader to run out as he took the top spot by force with just four laps to go. But the real winning move came in his post-race interview where Hamlin brought back his “I beat your favorite driver” taunt, much to the chagrin of the booing crowd.

LOSER: William Byron is running on empty

William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Photo by: Chris Graythen – Getty Images

William Byron and Kyle Larson were in a great spot on Sunday, but unfortunately, leading the pack isn’t the best place to save fuel. Their track position cost them dearly as Larson dropped back to fifth as he tried to make the distance while Byron ran out one lap shy of the finish, falling from second to 28th in the final running order. He had led 98 of 200 laps before that.

WINNER: RFK puts all three cars in the top ten

Chris Buescher, Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford

Photo by: Sean Gardner / Getty Images

RFK Racing overcame a few hiccups (including a speeding penalty) to leave Michigan with their best-combined result of the 2025 season. All three drivers finished inside the top ten with Chris Buescher second, Ryan Preece ninth, and Brad Keselowski tenth. The only negative is that Buescher appeared to have a winning car, but a loss of track position mid-race forced him to spend a lot of time making up the lost ground. Even still, it was a great rebound and Buescher’s best finish of the year.

LOSER: Bowman can’t catch a break with another big (points) hit at Michigan

Alex Bowman, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Photo by: Chris Graythen – Getty Images

Alex Bowman has had miserable luck in recent weeks as the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet free-falls down the standings. Bowman has finished 27th or worse in seven of the last nine races including five finishes of 35th or worse. At Michigan, he finished last after a head-on impact that he described as one of the worst hits of his career.

WINNER: Zane Smith gambles for his best result of the year

Zane Smith, Front Row Motorsports Ford, Joey Logano, Team Penske Ford, Bubba Wallace, 23XI Racing Toyota, Brad Keselowski, Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing Ford

Photo by: Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Zane Smith’s team rolled the dice at Michigan during the final pit stop, taking the lead for the final restart after a two-tire call. Of course, he wasn’t able to hang onto the lead, but Smith maintained a decent running position, ultimately finishing seventh. It was Smith’s best finish of the year, bettering his ninth-place finish at Phoenix in March.

LOSER: Hocevar’s first win remains just out of grasp

Ross Chastain, Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet, Tyler Reddick, 23XI Racing Toyota, Carson Hocevar, Spire Motorsports Chevrolet

Photo by: Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

Carson Hocevar has been knocking on the door of Victory Lane all year, and he’s only getting closer with every week that passes. But whenever a win is within arm’s reach, something seems to go wrong. He was in the middle of a potential pass for the win at Atlanta when the race-ending caution flew. And the young racer could have realistically won any of the last three races. Hocevar blew an engine while battling for the lead in the Coca-Cola 600, finished second at Nashville after being stuck in traffic, and a cut tire took him out of contention while leading the way late at Michigan. He was probably going to run out of fuel even without the tire issue, ensuring he was not going to get his first career win at his home track.

WINNER: NASCAR secures a fourth manufacturer in Ram

NASCAR Truck Dodge RAM

Photo by: Dodge

It was a big weekend for NASCAR as they finally brought in a fourth OEM with the return of Ram to the Truck Series in 2026. It’s an exciting moment for the sport and potentially the beginning of a path that could lead to Dodge’s return to the Cup Series. Officials also indicated that they are “very close” a fifth manufacturer coming into the sport. And while Ram didn’t do the best job at keeping the announcement secret as leaks were plentiful, the announcement itself was done well with a Ram 1500 concept race truck doing burnouts on the frontstretch at Michigan.

LOSER: The squirrel who crossed pit road in the middle of stops

We’ve all encountered a squirrel that chooses to cross our path at the worst possible moment while on the road, and one such squirrel appeared in the pit lane in the middle of pit stops at Michigan. “I think I just murdered a squirrel getting into my pit box,” radioed Ty Dillon as he was unable to avoid the unfortunate rodent. Of course, there have been plenty of tributes for the little guy on social media since then. 

NASCAR generated some excitement among fans and drivers in recent weeks with executives opening the door to a horsepower increase happening this season. With many around the sport also hoping for another manufacturer to be added to the Cup Series, there seems to be positive momentum on that front as well.

On Sunday night’s episode of “The Teardown“, Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic said the people he’s talked to inside the sport are now expecting Dodge will eventually become an OEM in the Cup Series.

“People I talk to, there is almost an expectation of it is going to happen at some point. Whether they announce it today, tomorrow or next year. Sometime in the not-too-distant future, you’re going to see a Dodge-branded car back in the Cup Series.”

Jordan Bianchi of The Athletic on a future fourth manufacturer in the Truck Series

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Read More: NASCAR execs suggests horsepower increasing coming to Cup Series

Ram made news on Sunday at Michigan International Speedway with its official announcement that it is returning to the Truck Series next season. As a result, it will become NASCAR’s first new Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) in the national series since the Toyota Tundra was added to the truck series in 2004.

In the official announcement, Ram CEO Tim Kinuskis made it clear that this is planned as just a stepping stone for the company. While there is nothing planned in the immediate future, the goal is to enter the Cup Series in the future.

“So how am I going to get the Cup? That’s going to depend on how I get to truck. So however we get to truck is going will obviously weigh heavily on do I have a path to Cup? Our intention is not to do a one-hit wonder and go to truck and not to Cup. That’s not our plan.”

Ram CEO Tim Kinuskis on his intentions with Dodge’s return to NASCAR (H/T Fox Sports)

Related: NASCAR standings for Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Truck Series

There are currently only three OEMs in the Cup Series – Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota – with the costs of operating at the highest level pushing Dodge out following the 2012 season.

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As Bianchi detailed for The Athletic, one current holdup preventing a fourth OEM from joining the Cup Series is the uncertainty regarding the new engine rule packages. NASCAR reportedly isn’t expected to finalize those rules for several years, per The Athletic

Over the weekend, NASCAR’s chief racing development officer John Probst told the Sports Business Journal that the sport is ‘very close’ to striking a deal with a new manufacturer to become the fifth OEM in the stock car series. Honda has been heavily rumored, but there is no timeline for when there could be five manufacturers in the NASCAR Cup Series.

Also Read: Denny Hamlin reveals how NASCAR In-Season Challenge will affect strategy

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By JENNA FRYER

NASCAR’s first international Cup Series race of the modern era is all about the eyeballs, specifically new fans in the Mexico City market.

NASCAR will be on the track Friday for the first of three days of racing at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez, one of the most popular stops on the Formula 1 calendar and Ben Kennedy’s newest project.

The great-grandson of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., Kennedy has taken the family business beyond its comfortable confines before.

Kennedy in 2022 moved the preseason exhibition Clash from its longtime home at Daytona International Speedway in Florida to a temporary track built inside Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Kennedy this year moved the Clash to The Madhouse — the historic Bowman Gray Stadium, which had last hosted a Cup race in 1971, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

NASCAR under Kennedy also returned to North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina for the first time since 1977 when the All-Star race was moved there three years ago. He allowed dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway, a hybrid road course and oval at Charlotte Motor Speedway, alongside his biggest undertaking: NASCAR’s first street race, held in downtown Chicago.

He also had his eyes set on expanding internationally, which will come Sunday with the first points-paying international race in the Cup Series since 1958. It is only third time in 77 years that NASCAR’s top series will run an event that counts in the championship outside the United States. The last two times were in Canada; the Cup Series also has held exhibitions in Japan and Australia.

“Our biggest opportunity to grow as a sport is international,” Kennedy said when he announced Mexico City was replacing one of the two races on the schedule allocated to Richmond International Raceway.

“The U.S. is always going to be our mainstay and our next opportunity was to expand internationally,” he said. “We said we’ve wanted to do this for a long time, but also needed to make sure it was the right time, the right partners and the right location. Mexico City checked every box. To be in one of the biggest cities globally — over 20 million people that live in the city — is a massive opportunity for us to bring the sport.”

The weekend includes the second-tier Xfinity Series and the NASCAR Mexico Series. It’s a strong return to a market that devours the entire F1 weekend ticket package within an hour of them becoming available.

Mexicans have proven to be rabid motorsports fans but haven’t gotten a chance to see NASCAR’s big names since 2008, the final year of a four-year run of Xfinity races. Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. were winners during the four-year stretch.

Daniel Suarez, the former Xfinity champion and native of Monterrey, is NASCAR’s face of the event. He raced the circuit 13 times with a different layout in the NASCAR Mexico Series, and three of Suarez’s starts were wins.

“I’m super excited for the event. I’m super excited to live the moment because the first time is going to only happen once,” Suarez said. “I’m really trying to be as present as possible, enjoy the moment and try to execute the best possible weekend that we can. We know that we are capable of winning the race, but that’s not the goal. The goal is the execution of the entire weekend, and hopefully the win is the result of the execution part.”

The planning that has gone into Mexico City, one of 38 events on the Cup schedule, began about a year ago. NASCAR has worked on myriad details, beginning with how to get nearly 200 trucks hauling race cars and equipment from Michigan International Speedway into Mexico City.

NASCAR official Tom Bryant has spearheaded the organizational logistics and made multiple trips to the border crossing in Laredo, Texas, to meet with customs officials from both nations.

The drive from Michigan to Mexico City is about 40 hours, not including the tedious customs crossing, where all the equipment and tools on every NASCAR hauler must be documented on an exhaustive manifest. Cup Series teams cars were scheduled for a Monday night arrival at Laredo, with crossing scheduled for Tuesday and arrival at the track on Thursday.

“It’s been a ton of coordination moving lots of people and lots of stuff safely and efficiently across a great distance and an international border,” Bryant said on the “Hauler Talk” NASCAR podcast.

“There is a lot to it, but the key to it is you just have to define the problem. We’ve got to get these people and these things from this point to that point within a certain time period,” he said. “How do we do it in a way that’s going to best position us to be ready to go to work as soon as we hit the ground down there? Because this is a pretty tight window.”

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There will be 37 Cup cars and 39 Xfinity cars competing in this historic event at Mexico City. The Xfinity field, which is usually capped at 38 grid spots, has been expanded to 40 for this event only. As a result, everyone on the entry list will get to compete in the big show.

The Cup field includes the usual field of 36 with all of the expected full-time drivers, and just one open entry. That will be No. 78 Live Fast Motorsports Chevrolet with Katherine Legge behind the wheel.

The Xfinity field will include a handful of Cup drivers, hoping to gain more experience on the road course. NASCAR’s top Mexican-born talent — Daniel Suarez — will be driving the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet.  A pair of Joe Gibbs Racing drivers have also entered the event with Ty Gibbs driving the No. 19 JGR Toyota and Christopher Bell driving the No. 24 Sam Hunt Racing Toyota.

Andres Perez De Lara will be the only other Mexican-born driver in the field, making his Xfinity debut in the No. 91 DGM Racing Chevrolet. No driver has been officially announced for the No. 35 yet, but the car will take part in the Xfinity race.

NASCAR Cup Mexico City entry list

NASCAR Xfinity Mexico City entry list

Each of the 13 American drivers taking part in this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours has a story to tell, a long, winding path that led them to the most prestigious and historic sports car race on the planet. But none of them are quite like 44-year-old Tennessee native Ryan Hardwick’s.

Hardwick, who is taking on this year’s 24 Hours with Porsche powerhouse Manthey in LMGT3, grew up in Knoxville. Like many, he developed a passion for motorsport – bike racing, specifically – at a young age through his father.

“I’ve been racing something since I was six years old,” Hardwick tells RACER. “I did my first competitive race on dirt bikes against kids the same age, and I had a love for racing and competing from back then. It was what my dad loved – he did endurance racing on dirt bikes. 

“I did some of that stuff too, but I never made it that good; I crashed a lot. I still ride today and have taught my sons how to drive, and now find myself in the motorcycle sales business with Mountain Motorsports. So racing in the WEC against a guy like Valentino Rossi has been surreal for me, especially when we shook hands for the first time earlier this season on the podium.”

That’s where the regular chapters of this story end, as during his teens and college years spent at the University of Tennessee, he transitioned from two wheels to racing jet skis, winning two national titles and a couple of world championships.

Photo courtesy of Ryan Hardwick

“I made it pretty far in jet ski racing,” Hardwick reflects. “I was racing all over the world, and it was the first sport I turned professional in. I learned so much from racing at a high level there, about what it takes physically and with nutrition. I stopped and went on an entrepreneurial journey. I still do it, but just for fun now.”

With that arc over and his life as a businessman on the up, he turned back to motorsport and began a climb to the top of Pro/Am GT racing back in 2017, trying his hand in Lamborghini Super Trofeo North America. While not directly transferrable, he feels the skill set he developed on the water gave him a leg up.

“My dirt bike years and jet ski years meant I came to car racing late. I didn’t grow up karting, or racing formula cars like a lot of people. But you still learn a lot from it, you learn about surface awareness and traction awareness,” Hardwick explains. “A lot of people were surprised by my ability in a race car when I started.

“I first drove a Porsche Cayman GT4 at high-performance driving events in 2015 before I did Super Trofeo. The coaches were like, ‘Ryan, this is a very high-performance car, with a lot of power and downforce, it can be intimidating.’ So I asked, ‘What sort of power does this have?’ And they were like, ‘It’s got 620 horsepower.’ 

“Well, the last jet ski I won a world championship on had 640 horsepower, with an inline four-cylinder engine, a turbo and 44 pounds of boost. It would go from 0-60 miles per hour in under two seconds. So it wasn’t so bad!

“A lot of people don’t understand, though. They’re amazed I can race against a Bronze like Ben Keating, who has decades of experience. Well, I have decades of experience in competitive racing, and that helped me ascend quickly. I’ll probably never reach a Silver or Gold level, but I feel highly competitive in this sport as a Bronze because of my foundation and because I take care of myself. I take it very seriously.”

Making your way in the world of GT racing is not easy, yet Hardwick has relished the mental, physical and financial challenges it presents. In the years since he first got the taste of high-performance circuit racing, he’s collected a number of wins and accolades stateside in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship competition.

“I learned quickly in Super Trofeo, won the national championship and the world championship and rose up the amateur ranks,” he says. “So I started GT3, and I thought I could do that pretty well. But it was eye-opening, I wasn’t as quick as I expected. I made mistakes, but learned a lot and knew that it was where I wanted to be, especially after joining Wright Motorsports, winning GTD at the Sebring 12 Hours (in 2020), the Rolex 24 Hours (in 2022) and finishing second in the championship twice.”

But the scope of his ambition didn’t stop there. Having made a name for himself in IMSA, he chose to race further afield and went on to win the European Le Mans Series’ GTE title in 2023, racing a Porsche 911 GTE RSR with Proton Competition. It was a rollercoaster season, in which he clinched the championship along with teammates Zach Robichon and Alessio Picariello in the season finale, after book-ending the campaign with wins at Barcelona and Portimao.

“I got to Le Mans through an IMSA invite, but to me, just showing up wasn’t enough,” Hardwick explains when asked about his move to racing in the ELMS. “I wanted to do it properly, so I raced in Europe, which taught me a lot of the ACO rules like full-course yellows. I had no idea how I’d stack up in a GTE. I definitely flat-spotted a lot of tires early on, but Proton were superb; we were so competitive, we even won our first race, and it grew my love for racing in Europe.”

It was that year that he made the pilgrimage to Le Mans for the first time, too. Racing in the centenary Le Mans 24 Hours, he says, was special and a real privilege, even though it didn’t go to plan.

“I watched the race roughly 15 years ago and after that, I started to learn as much as I could. I got super into it,” he reflects. “So when I was there in the flesh doing it the first time… I’ll never forget standing on the grid before the race. It was so emotional for me and my family, even though the race didn’t go well.”

Looking back, it’s clear that the DNF on debut at La Sarthe, plus last year’s struggles racing with the brand-new Ford Mustang GT3 in the first season for the LMGT3 class in WEC, lit a fire inside Hardwick. It led him on a path to where he is today, back racing the Manthey 1st Phorm-liveried Porsche in LMGT3 with Porsche stalwart Richard Lietz and rapid Italian Riccardo Pera.

Hardwick and teammates Riccardo Pera and Richard Lietz celebrate after winning the Six Hours of Imola. Jakob Ebrey/Getty Images

“Last year in the WEC was a really cool opportunity,” he says of his first WEC season and second Le Mans attempt. “I was approached by Chris (Ried, from Proton Competition) and Ford when they were trying to put a line-up together. To be approached for a first-year development program with a new car was nice. But we were on the back foot from the start. We were learning a new car, new tire, and torque sensors – it was a lot.

“And I’ll say now I feel more suited to a mid or rear-engined car. It’s why I left and came back to Porsche for this year. It was a tough decision, but to join Manthey…. They know how to prepare and win. I’m glad I made the jump, as I believe this is the car, the team, the co-drivers, the engineering group, that it would take for me to win.

“I focus on the things I can control. I can control studying data and test notes. I can control my diet and workouts. I can control how I drive when I’m on track. I can control who I race with. That’s what makes the difference at the end of the season.”

Hardwick feels Manthey’s deep line-up offers him his best chance at Le Mans glory. Jakob Ebrey/Getty Images

Heading into his third attempt at winning Le Mans, Hardwick has reason to be confident and believe this year’s edition will prove to be a case of “third time lucky” after winning the second round of the WEC season at Imola back in April and finishing in the points at Spa last time out.

“It’s clichéd, but I have two main aims: to win Le Mans and to win a world championship,” he says. “To me, this is the highest level as a Bronze. The racing in the WEC is perfect as you get a lot of drive time, and the Bronze plays a pivotal role.

“I feel like this is my home now, and I will continue to keep this as my focus until I achieve those two goals.”