BROOKLYN, Mich. (WILX) – Denny Hamlin sat in fourth place with under 20 laps left but took the lead on lap 196 and held on to win the NASCAR Firekeepers Casino 400 on Sunday at Michigan International Speedway.

The win is Hamlin’s third of the season and the third of his career at MIS. Hamlin last won in Michigan in 2011.

Michigan native Carson Hocevar came in with some hype after a 2nd place finish in Nashville last weekend. Hocevar led the field late in the race but blew a tire on lap 181 and finished 29th.

William Byron took the lead after Hocevar’s tire trouble but was low on fuel and passed by Hamlin before pitting on lap 199.

Chris Buescher finished second, while Ty Gibbs finished third.

The NASCAR Cup Series is racing again next weekend in Mexico City.

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A collection of postrace driver reactions compiled through interviews and releases from manufacturers and teams:

Denny Hamlin — winner: “It’s fantastic. Chris Gayle, this whole team has just done a great job. We’ve been so fast throughout the entire year, just haven’t finished it for one reason or another. Feels good to come here at Michigan where we’ve been so close over the years. This is such a gratifying day to restart 11^th or something like that and drive through the field. I knew I was going to have to go 100 percent to get around everybody. Just worked them one by one.”

Chris Buescher — second: “That was such a fast Mustang. I really appreciate everybody on this team working so hard to put us in this situation and to have a chance to win. I’m disappointed I didn’t get it done. It’s on me. I had a couple different decisions I would love to go back and make and ultimately should have had us ahead of the 11. We were faster on the day and I didn’t do a good enough job. We’ll certainly take the good with it. We certainly need a little bit of good luck or fortune on our side. This is a day where we kind of made our own. We were really fast and worked hard to be there and just didn’t have any bad luck, so that put us with a shot to win. After the last handful of weeks with having speed in the first stage and qualifying and not being able to get the race finish that was certainly big, but it’s frustrating to be that close and to know that we had a car that was capable of winning. I just needed to do a better job.”

The Joe Gibbs Racing star took the lead from William Byron on Lap 197 of 200.

Ty Gibbs — third: “We had a very fast Toyota Camry. Wish we could’ve gone out and won, but it was not the option with the fuel spot we were in. It’s just unfortunate because I believe we had the capability to go do it, and we showed how fast enough to go do it. It’s frustrating, but it’s just part of it sometimes.”

Bubba Wallace — fourth: ““Yeah, when Charles (Denike, crew chief) comes over the radio and says be on it the whole time, that’s all you want to hear. I was doing a little bit of technique stuff on that run to pick up some fuel. When it was time to go, it was time to go. When you weren’t really gaining anything, you have to be smart on what the situation is, and I feel like we’re getting there. All-in-all, a good day.”

Kyle Larson — fifth: “I thought early I was surprised running 75-80 percent I could just kind of maintain the gap. Then those other guys started coming, and my balance was already shot by then anyway. I didn’t think I had a chance to push even if I wanted. I ran that whole last run not hitting wide open more than 2-3 seconds. Just glad to make it. It was not a pretty day, We weren’t very fast, but we were able to get a top five. . Days like today aren’t the most fun, but they feel really good, too. Proud of the whole team. Wish we could have got a win for Chevrolet, but we’ll try again next year. Days like last week and this week were very similar. We weren’t fast on speed but made the most out of it last week and today. For a point of that last run, I thought we might have a shot to win. So it just says a lot about the team and how really strong we’ve stayed through some bits of adversity. Hopefully we can just run better from now and run in the top five all day.”

Joe Gibbs Racing earns its first win at Michigan since August 2015.

Ross Chastain — sixth: “We saved fuel the whole second-half of the run, so we were fine there at the end and I was able to start pushing hard again. I couldn’t really make much more lap time. You’re off the gas for 20 laps and you think – oh, I’m giving up all this lap time, and you go and get a tenth back on a big track like this. I think we finished about where we should have. When (Denny Hamlin) passed me on that last run, I was like, I don’t have that, so hats off to those guys. They’ve been impressive. We just haven’t been quite that good to drive up and pass those guys, but it was a solid sixth-place finish for the No. 1 Chevrolet team.”

Zane Smith — seventh: “There’s a lot of positive from the speed and how my car drove today, especially when we made it better. We had positive restarts and just a lot of positives. I’m on two tires there trying to hold off guys that are on four. If I’m on four against four in the Cup Series that’s already hard enough, so I was trying my best at defending but ultimately we got beat there some. All in all, I’m proud to end up in the top 10 there with Long John Silver’s on board and everyone at FRM. I wish we could have gotten Ford a W here in their home state, but we’ll try again next year.”

Kyle Busch — eighth: “Solid weekend for this Chevrolet team. Qualifying second was a positive and it helped to start the race with clean air. We struggled with a lack of grip and speed in the race, but crew chief Randall Burnett did a good job with adjustments. We wanted more but to come out of here with a top-10 finish, we’ll take what we got.”

Brad Keselowski — 10th: “We had a really good car. I felt like we had a top two or three car and just didn’t get to see it through. I’m really disappointed. We kind of crushed ourselves on pit road with the speeding penalty and then having to go around the 45 and the 71. Every time we pitted we would lose a lot of spots. It wasn’t the pit crew’s fault, we just needed a better pit stall. I’m not really sure on the speeding penalty. I felt I was way slow, so getting called fast didn’t really add up, but we had the speed to do a lot more than we did today and I’m disappointed to not get that. Still, we’re reasonably happy with a top 10.”

Daniel Suarez — 14th: “It was an OK day for the No. 99 Chevrolet team. We had speed on the long run, but on the short runs, we were getting destroyed. We were not super-fast on the straights… we struggled a lot on the straights, more than I was expecting. Overall, we rescued an OK day, but we need more.”

AJ Allmendinger — 17th: “Just a hard fought day for our No. 16 group. I needed to be a little bit better, definitely made some mistakes for our race team and tried to get them back on the final restart. I felt like we got pretty close to where we probably should have been running, just more disappointed in myself today. I need to be a little bit better, but we fought hard and got everything out of it at the end there. We had to save a little bit of fuel, probably lost two spots in doing that, but at the end of the day, I think about 14th to 17th was about all we had. We did a fairly good job of maximizing our day and we’ll go to Mexico City and try to win the race.”

Austin Dillon — 19th: “We had a decent day in the No. 3 Chevrolet at Michigan International Speedway. We started the race too loose, but crew chief Richard Boswell was able to make adjustments at the end of the first stage to get us moving in the right direction. By the end of Stage 2, we were 13th. I felt like at times if we would have had clean air we may have finished better than 19th. We’ll take it and turn our focus to Mexico City.”

William Byron — 28th: “It was just trying to manage both. Try to keep the lead and save fuel down the straights and on exits. Ultimately, I guess maybe we had not as good mileage as the guys further back that run, and that’s the way the cautions go. That one you can’t do a lot about. It sucks. It really stings, but we had a really good car. I thought we executed well on the last stop. We just burned more and not able to do much about that. It is what it is.”

Michael McDowell — 30th: “It was a rough day across the board for the No. 71 Chevrolet team. We got some track position about midway through. We made some improvements, but we just didn’t have it for you. And then right there at the end with five laps to go, we ran out of fuel. We went from a top-15 day to a 30th-place finish. That’s no fun, but we’ve got Mexico City next weekend and we’re looking forward to that.”

Austin Cindric — 31st: “It seemed like one of those days that it wasn’t meant to be. We were just a little bit tight for the first run and that kind of took us by surprise, but we made the car a little better and took the strategy to stay out and try to win the stage on old tires. I felt more would stay, but we got passed there on the last lap. All in all, it was a good recovery from the back of the field and then we had a left-rear tire fail on that green flag run. I feel like we probably would have been able to make our way back up close to the top 10. Like I said, there was a lot of good, but a lot of bad, too. There’s plenty to clean up and ready for a new adventure in Mexico.”

Todd Gilliland — 33rd: “There was zero warning at all. Obviously, everyone is kind of pushing it. We’ve seen some left-rears down in practice, but that was a very unfortunate place for mine to go out that’s for sure. It’s just wild that you have a long time to think about hitting the wall, but it’s all good. It honestly wasn’t even a bad hit at all, so I’m proud of my guys for making my car better throughout the day. It’s unfortunate.” To be honest, I don’t know what we were, but we can both imagine that I’m sure we were pushing it. Everyone pushes it. We pushed ours a little bit too far.”

John Hunter Nemechek — 34th: ““Unfortunately, it was a tough day. Not really sure what happened, our car just snapped around on me without warning. I hate this for all the men and women who work very hard to give us fast race cars. We’ll regroup and try to get this monkey off our back.”

Alex Bowman — 36th: “That hurt a lot. That was probably top of the board on hits I’ve taken, and unfortunately, I’ve had a lot of hits. So I hate that for the 48 team. Couldn’[t really do anything except think about, ‘Oh (expletive) this is about to hurt really bad.Hate that. Hate that for our team. It’s been a rough two months. I mean, honesty, we were pretty decent (in practice), I was pretty optimistic to start today. We got super loose and just had a long pit stop trying to make an adjustment to make it better. And never really got a chance to race again after that. Confident that my guys would have gotten the car better, and we could have gotten back up through there, but unfortunately, when you get in the back like that, (expletive) gets pretty crazy, and stuff like that happens.

“We’ve had a lot of speed and a lot of good race cars. Obviously today, we were off from where we needed to be. But just the support that we have from Rick (Hendrick), Jeff (Gordon) and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, they’ll give us the tools we need to get turned back around. We just needed to get pointed back in the right direction. We’re a much better race team than this.”

Former NASCAR star Dale Earnhardt Jr has revealed which current Cup Series drivers remind him of his legendary racing father, Dale Earnhardt.

Earnhardt Sr is a NASCAR icon, having scooped a joint-record-breaking seven Cup Series championships during his career, as well as winning 76 Cup Series races.

READ MORE: NASCAR Results Today: Byron denies Team Penske star at Michigan after huge wreck sees race red-flagged

Those 76 victories included a win at the 1998 Daytona 500, just three years before a fatal crash at the same event in 2001.

Earnhardt Sr’s legacy and impact on the sport both live on, including through his son, Dale Jr, who had a fine Cup Series career himself.

These days, alongside owning an Xfinity Series team, Earnhardt Jr is in the booth covering Cup Series races for Prime Video, and recently, he was quizzed on which current drivers reminded him of his Dad.

“People are probably going to go crazy over this one, but [Carson] Hocevar a little bit is kinda like a young Dale Earnhardt in a way,” Earnhardt Jr told Prime Video.

“Makes a lot of mistakes, ruffles a lot of feathers, but he’s very fast, very aggressive.”

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Which NASCAR drivers remind Earnhardt Jr of Dale Sr?

Earnhardt Jr continued: “Ross Chastain reminds me a lot of Dad.”

“Anyone who has…even Joey Logano a little bit. Joey, he gets a little frustrated when he gets run over, but he’s one that puts the bumper to ‘em.

“He’s run a few guys up the racetrack and into the fence to win races.

“Yeah, that’s very much like Dad. He was pretty aggressive, especially at certain points in his career.

“Like I said, I’ll see that little glimpse or little peek of Dad’s style in a lot of different drivers, and I think it’s just human nature, really, what I’m seeing, but it’s comparable to Dad.”

READ MORE: Michael Jordan-owned 23XI Racing face losing ‘tens of millions’ after major NASCAR court ruling

Related

NASCAR results from Michigan International Speedway

They’re set for the green flag on NASCAR’s fastest track. The 2-mile oval of Michigan International Speedway is set to host the FireKeepers Casino 400.

View Michigan results for the NASCAR Cup Series below.

Michigan Menu
ARCA: Prac/Qual | Race
Truck: Prac | Qual | Race
Cup: Prac/Qual | Race

Michigan TV Schedule

Chase Briscoe and Kyle Busch set the front row. 200 laps of stock car racing are up next…

Michigan
Stage 1 – Report

Laps: 45 (1-45 / 200)

Green flag, they run side by side into turn one. Briscoe clears Busch via the outside lane off turn four.

Lap 4, Tyler Reddick started this race from the rear of the field after the team made repairs following practice. He’s now up to 20th.

Lap 12, William Byron has a run on Briscoe off turn two. Byron drives inside into turn three and completes the pass for the lead.

Lap 35, Buescher has a run on Byron off turn four. He sidedrafts him into turn one and Buescher takes the lead away.

Chris Buescher wins stage one at Michigan International Speedway!

Michigan Results (Stage 1) : 1. Chris Buescher; 2. William Byron; 3. Denny Hamlin; 4. Chase Briscoe; 5. Josh Berry; 6. Ryan Blaney; 7. Kyle Larson; 8. Bubba Wallace; 9. Kyle Busch; 10. Carson Hocevar

Michigan
Stage 2 – Report

Laps: 75 (46-120 / 200)

Buescher leads the field to the pit lane but it’s a slow stop for him. Ryan Blaney wins the race to the pit exit.

Green flag on stage two, Blaney clears Hamlin into turn one.

Lap 54, they form four wide for 2nd! Chase Elliott takes the spot away.

Lap 57, Elliott has a run on Blaney into turn one. He dives to the inside, Elliott to the race lead!

Lap 60, John Hunter Nemechek spins off turn two and Noah Gragson is collected. The caution is out.

Green, Elliott pinches Blaney down into turn one. Elliott leads Byron off turn two.

Lap 67, Austin Cindric tags Cole Custer in the left rear. Custer spins and collected Alex Bowman and Daniel Suarez. Bowman slams the outside wall nose first. The caution is out.

Alex Bowman crash video

Blaney leads most of the field to the pit lane but Reddick wins the race to the pit exit. Reddick restarts outside the top 10 as Elliott and Bell take over the front row.

Pit Penalties: Kyle Larson and AJ Allmendinger drop to the rear after speeding on the pit lane.

Green, Elliott clears Bell to hold the race lead.

Lap 73

Lap 73, John Hunter Nemechek is around, caution.

Elliott heads for the pit lane. Bell is handed the lead.

Green, Bell and McDowell fight for space in turn one. As they slow each other down, Byron drives under them to take the lead off turn two.

14 to go in stage two, Bell pits under green from 2nd as he can’t make it to the end of the stage on fuel.

12 to go in stage two, Ryan Blaney brushes the wall and spins off turn four. The caution is out.

Bell gets the free pass. Byron leads the field to the pit lane and pit exit. Cindric and Briscoe stay out and take over the front row.

Green with 7 to go in stage two, Byron shoves Briscoe into turn one. Briscoe wiggles and Cindric leads off turn two.

Reddick slides Cindric for the lead into turn three. Cindric crosses under him and Byron has a run on both of them into turn one. Cindric holds the lead.

2 to go in stage two, Byron dives inside of Cindric into turn three. Byron completes the pass into turn one on the final lap of the stage.

William Byron wins stage two at Michigan International Speedway!

Michigan Results (Stage 2) : 1. William Byron; 2. Austin Cindric; 3. Carson Hocevar; 4. Tyler Reddicl; 5. Ross Chastain; 6. Ryan Preece; 7. Bubba Wallace; 8. Denny Hamlin; 9. Ty Dillon; 10. Erik Jones

Michigan
Stage 3 – Report

Laps: 80 (121-200 / 200)

Cindric heads for the pit lane as most of the leaders stays out.

Green flag on stage three, Byron clears Hocevar to hold the race lead off turn two.

Lap 147, Todd Gilliland blows a left rear tire and slams the wall. The caution is out.

Byron leads the field to the pit lane. Zane Smith wins the race to the pit exit with just two tires. Hocevar is off 2nd with four tires.

Green, Larson shoves Hocevar and they form side by side off turn two. Larson sidedrafts into turn three and he drives deep to the bottom. Larson wiggles and Hocevar clears him for the lead.

27 to go

27 to go, Hocevar leads Byron and Larson. Larson is saving far more fuel than both the cars ahead.

19 to go, race leader Hocevar has a flat left rear! He heads to the pit lane under green as Byron is handed the lead.

Hamlin to 2nd.

7 to go

7 to go, Byron throws a big block on Hamlin and he holds the lead into turn one.

5 to go, Byron and Hamlin dive for the bottom into turn one. Byron gets aero loose and wiggles up the track. Hamlin works inside of him.

4 to go, Hamlin sidedrafts Byron and slides him for the lead into turn three.

Coming to the white flag, Byron heads for the pit lane as he’s out of fuel.

Denny Hamlin wins at Michigan International Speedway!

Michigan International Speedway
Race Results
June 8, 2025
NASCAR Cup Series

Pos | Driver

1. Denny Hamlin

2. Chris Buescher

3. Ty Gibbs

4. Bubba Wallace

5. Kyle Larson

6. Ross Chastain

7. Zane Smith

8. Kyle Busch

9. Ryan Preece

10. Brad Keselowski

11. Erik Jones

12. Josh Berry

13. Tyler Reddick

14. Daniel Suarez

15. Chase Elliott

16. Christopher Bell

17. AJ Allmendinger

18. Shane van Gisbergen

19. Austin Dillon

20. Ricky Stenhouse Jr

21. Justin Haley

22. Joey Logano

23. Chase Briscoe

24. Ty Dillon

25. Riley Herbst

26. Cody Ware

27. Noah Gragson

28. William Byron

29. Carson Hocevar

30. Michael McDowell

31. Austin Cindric

32. Ryan Blaney

33. Todd Gilliland

34. John Hunter Nemechek

35. Cole Custer

36. Alex Bowman

NASCAR Cup Series
Point Standings

Pos | Driver | Wins | Points

1. Kyle Larson
3 Wins

2. Denny Hamlin
3 Wins

3. Christopher Bell
3 Wins

4. William Byron
1 Win

5. Ryan Blaney
1 Win

6. Joey Logano
1 Win

7. Austin Cindric
1 Win

8. Josh Berry
1 Win

9. Ross Chastain
1 Win

10. Chase Elliott
+142

11. Tyler Reddick
+138

12. Bubba Wallace
+61

13. Chase Briscoe
+41

14. Chris Buescher
+41

15. Alex Bowman
+13

16. Ryan Preece
+0

— Playoff Cutline —

17. Kyle Busch
-0

18. Carson Hocevar
-18

19. AJ Allmendinger
-18

20. Ricky Stenhouse Jr
-20

Click here to view Regular Season point standings

Michigan International Speedway
Video Highlights

Links

Michigan International Speedway | NASCAR

What’s Happening?

After a 13-year absence, and a lot of speculation this week, it was finally made official in Motor City: Dodge is coming back to NASCAR! This is in the form of the Dodge RAM in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. During today’s live announcement, RAM CEO Tim Kuninskis unveiled the return of the Dodge RAM to the product show floor of Dodge dealers across the country as well as a new NASCAR 1500 concept race truck that will hit the Daytona high-banks in February of next year.

For more than a decade, customers and our dealer network asked about getting back into NASCAR. The desire was always there, but we didn’t have a plan that delivered the last tenth and following just didn’t fit our DNA. Now we have a solid plan that will set us apart from the field and will bring fresh new interest and engagement to America’s Motorsport.”

-Tim Kuninskis

You Need to Know:

• This announcement is part of RAM’s 25 announcements of products over an 18-month cadence. 40% of NASCAR fans are truck owners, many of them Dodge RAM owners. The timing of this announcement made sense.
• As alluded to in the quote above, Dodge has a plan to reintroduce its brand into NASCAR. Starting off, they will rejoin the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series for the first time since the 2012 season. The plan includes moving up into the NASCAR Xfinity and Cup Series eventually, though the details and specifics of that have yet to be revealed.
• Teams that will be switching to the Dodge RAM or will be debuting alongside the new manufacturer have yet to be announced. No drivers are currently linked to the new brand. However, there have been rumors this week linking YouTube star Cleetus McFarland (aka Garrett Mitchel) to the Dodge brand. Currently Mitchel’s contact is through FORD so it remains to be seen if this will actually come to fruition.

At Michigan on Sunday, it was clear that the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was going to be difficult to beat. He won a stage, collected the fastest lap bonus, and led 98 of 200 laps.

He fought hard to hang on to the race lead in the closing stages, but Byron couldn’t hold back a charging Denny Hamlin. Byron was still going to finish second or third when the car finally ran out of fuel at the exit of Turn 4, despite his best efforts to save, coming just over two miles shy of the race finish. He dove into the pits and finished 28th instead.

Never had enough in the tank

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

Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

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“No, we didn’t have enough,” said Byron when asked if there was anything different he could have done. “We were going to run out with 1.5 laps to go and I was just trying to manage both — trying to keep the lead and manage the gap and save fuel down the straight and on (corner) exit and everything. We just didn’t … ultimately, not as good mileage as the guys that were further back to start that run. And that’s just the way the cautions go and the nature of being closer to the front and burning more fuel.

“I don’t know, that one is like, you can’t really do a lot about (it). It sucks, it really stings but we had a really good car. I thought we executed well. It seemed like we waited a little bit on fuel for the last stop, and jsut burned more and not able to do much about that. It is what it is.”

Byron leads the regular season standings, but since earning victory in the season-opening Daytona 500, he’s had several almost-wins slip through his fingers. He led the most laps at Darlington, Charlotte, and now Michigan, but failed to reach Victory Lane each time

The good news is that he remains comfortably ahead in the championship, now leading teammate Kyle Larson by 41 points.

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