Bob Pockrass

FOX Motorsports Insider

BROOKLYN, Mich. — Denny Hamlin could feel nerves during the race Sunday at Michigan International Speedway. 

Denny Hamlin waves as he is introduced during the pre-race driver introductions before the start of the NASCAR Cup Series FireKeepers Casino 400

His fiancée, Jordan Fish, was six days past due with their third child and Hamlin and his team had decided if they got past Lap 50 of the 200-lap race, he wouldn’t be told if she went into labor. 

Things worked out for Hamlin. He won at Michigan and 90 minutes after the race, was still at the track doing media. He talked about why he needs to be at the birth, baby names … and fierce taunts of the crowd in Michigan.

That’s Hamlin, living amid chaos and then creating even more for himself.

“I don’t want to be so ho-hum with winning that it’s boring because then I lose my drive,” Hamlin said.

Hamlin, who has a group of friends who are Ohio State fans, gave the “O” sign to the Michigan crowd and resurrected his line that he told his father he wouldn’t use anymore as he crowed to the crowd: “I beat your favorite driver.”

The boos reigned and Hamlin chuckled.

Denny Hamlin celebrates after winning the NASCAR Cup Series FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway

“I do thrive on it just simply because you feel like you’ve got 60,000 people that are rooting against you,” Hamlin said. “When you have that, it just feels really, really good and gratifying to prove them wrong.

“I love that feeling.” 

Hamlin had spent Saturday night in Michigan as Fish had not had any labor symptoms. Fish posted an Instagram story late in the race that she was at home.

“I felt decent enough about it,” Hamlin said. “We had to set some sort of cutoff of whether I was going to finish or not.

“So I was very nervous last night and then this morning to getting the call because I knew I had a race-winning car after yesterday.”

Hamlin is known to run well, even with outside distractions. And he has the additional drama of the race team he owns (but doesn’t drive for) 23XI Racing embroiled in a lawsuit against NASCAR. Earlier in the week, the team was dealt a blow in the U.S Court of Appeals and faces the prospect of the 23XI Racing cars not being chartered in a few weeks.

It seems that he has been able to focus when he’s at the track since that lawsuit was filed last October. The worries about missing the birth of his child, though, seemed to weigh on him more. 

With JGR simulator driver Ryan Truex at the track, in case he needed to leave, Hamlin knew the team was prepared for him to leave if Fish went into labor. He knew he had a strong car and had a good feeling about the race.

Granted, Hamlin didn’t have the fastest car. Chris Buescher probably did, but his car wiggled as he tried to run down the leaders late in the race. This cost him valuable momentum and he ended up coming across the line a second after Hamlin.

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William Byron had a strong car, but like many others, he had to save gas near the end, relinquishing the lead with less than four laps to go and then running out with a little over a lap remaining.

Hamlin’s team made sure he had enough fuel on the final stop to be on the attack at the end. And he executed flawlessly to the finish. And his wife was still at home, posting on Instagram near the end of the race.

“I was a little nervous just because we put the Lap 50 cutoff,” Hamlin said. “If it happens before Lap 50, I just go ahead and get out, just because of the time. 

“If it was after, I thought that by the time she gets her s— together and gets to the hospital, all that stuff? You just never how it all turns out. But I think I can make it, as long as I had a three-hour window.”

It marked the third win of the year for Hamlin and his 57th career victory in his 701st start. 

Now it’s on to Mexico City, and Hamlin indicated he would be willing to stay home if Fish has not given birth by the weekend. Obviously, it is a much longer flight from there than it would have been from Michigan to his North Carolina home.

NASCAR would grant Hamlin a waiver to miss a race and consider it for medical reasons, meaning he would still make the playoffs and get to keep playoff points earned during the season.

“It’s the bigger picture. You never know when you’ll ever have another one,” Hamlin said about wanting to be home for the birth of the child. “You may not. I’ve been really supportive of her, the way that she wants to have this play out, which is as natural as possible.

“Everyone asks, ‘Why don’t you just schedule, schedule, schedule?’ I don’t know. You’ve just got to let her decide in these situations. If it causes me to miss a race, it’s one of 701 races that I missed and it’s just not that big of a deal.”

His team owner, Heather Gibbs, when asked earlier about whether she was nervous for Hamlin, quipped: “It’s funny, because I have four [children]. They [husbands] don’t really do anything. When he gets home, he’ll be home. It was good.”

Hamlin’s response: “Well, that is true. I’ve been in the room before, and she needs something really hard to grab onto, and my hand is perfect for it. I’m definitely going to be there this week — hopefully — to hold her hand.”

The same could have been said for the way Hamlin grabbed the lead just when he needed to and held on for the victory.

“He kind of thrives in chaos, right?” Heather Gibbs said. “It was true, we wanted to get him in the car. … He’s as cool as they come, that’s for sure.”

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Bubba Wallace raced to a fourth-placed finish at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday, his best finish since March 30, before treating himself to some fast food

Bubba Wallace soared to a stellar top-five finish in the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway and then indulged on his private jet ride home.

The NASCAR star is facing questions over his future with 23XI Racing after a bombshell decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals in the team’s lawsuit against NASCAR. Team co-owner Denny Hamlin has already addressed fears over an exodus, while Michael Jordan previously sent a stark warning to NASCAR over its future.

The 31-year-old driver shrugged off the turmoil surrounding his team in Michigan, zooming from 18th at the final restart to claim fourth place as Hamlin celebrated the win, then immediately stirred up fan reactions post-victory lap.

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Celebrating his best result since March 30 at Martinsville, Wallace treated himself to McDonald’s chicken nuggets, a nod to one of his No. 23 car’s sponsors. McDonald’s, with an estimated value of $220 billion, serves as primary sponsor on Wallace’s car for several races each season.

Wallace posted a video post-race heading to his private aircraft bound for North Carolina with fellow racer Ryan Blaney, grinning with a pair of sodas and a McDonald’s bag, hinting at a self-reward for his efforts. His caption read: “Top 5 finish = Chicken nuggs on the plane.”

After the Nashville race result, he projected his positive outlook that the team would soon achieve consistent top performance following a challenging period.

“After those back-to-back top-three finishes, I was expecting it every week,” admitted Wallace. “I think that may have jinxed us.

“I have the utmost confidence in this team to continue getting finishes like this on a consistent matter. Not the bouncing back and forth that everyone is used to for the 23.

“We had [expletive] luck the last month. I’m glad May is over with. We will go on and see if we can continue clicking momentum.

“Getting our morale back and confidence back is big for us. We knew we could do it; we just needed to close it out, execute, and we did it tonight.”

Before the start of today’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Michigan, Elton Sawyer made sure to issue a warning to the drivers. In the Truck Series race, there were some restarts that did not go according to plan. Sawyer wanted to make sure that the Cup guys knew the deal ahead of Sunday’s start.

With the late restart wrecks and pileups in the Truck Series on Saturday, Elton Sawyer, senior VP of competition, made sure to warn his Cup Series drivers about doing the same thing. No one wants to see the mess we had late in that race on Sunday.

Dustin Long of NBC Sports reported on the warning. Sawyer “emphasized” that drivers need to stay in line during restarts until they pass the start/finish line. They also need to not lay back and create gaps in line to get a run on the car in front of them. That’s how the accordion pileups happen.

Michigan is a track that drivers are excited to race at. It is wide, fast, and passing is relatively easy in the Next Gen car compared to others on the schedule. That means today the race is in the drivers’ hands.

On the other hand, things get spread out pretty easily. There might not be that many close battles on track as this race goes green for multiple laps.

NASCAR welcomes Ram Trucks as new manufacturer

Finally! After all of the reports and leaks and teaser videos, Ram Trucks has announced a return to the NASCAR Truck Series. The 2026 season is going to have a little Hemi-power behind it! Elton Sawyer had said that V8 engines aren’t the thing anymore, but Ram has other ideas.

From an activation stage at Michigan International Speedway, Ram Trucks made it official. We have heard so much about this announcement leading up to today. Now it is here, and NASCAR fans can rejoice about the Ram and Hemi coming back to the sport.

Ram Trucks in NASCAR. This is the moment fans have waited for since Dodge left after 2012 and Ram left the Truck Series in 2014. Step one in getting the fourth manufacturer back in the sport is complete.

Stellantis is doing the whole deal. We have the Hemi V8 engine back! Ram is coming back to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series. There is so much to love about this announcement from a consumer and motorsports standpoint.

For those wondering about a Cup Series return for Dodge, that is in the works. Stellantis wants to put Dodge or another brand under their umbrella into the top-tier of the sport. However, the timeline for that remains unclear. Ideally, it would be 2027, but that would be a very quick turnaround to get a program up and running by then.

BROOKLYN, MI – A grassroots driver who lives 20 miles from Michigan International Speedway was having a quiet day – which was the goal – until he crashed hard into the Turn 3 and 4 wall.

Morgen Baird, who grew up in Grass Lake and now lives in Jackson, got sideways with 42 laps to go in Saturday’s NASCAR Truck Series race.

He hit the wall so hard, the rear of the truck crumpled and the wall was damaged.

NASCAR had to pause the race for 20 minutes to repair the wall.

Trucks were parked on the backstretch during the fix.

“That was a hard hit. Sorry to everyone involved, I really hate that that happened,” Baird told Fox Sports reporter Bob Pockrass after being checked and released from the infield care center. “I felt like we were making really good strides on our Alro F-150 up until that point.”

Driver Nathan Byrd was also collected in the crash.

Track workers took power tools to the wall, where Baird’s truck poked a hole near the “M” in the “Michigan U.S.A.” paint.

NASCAR tracks have a SAFER barrier walls, so there are two walls with foam in between to lessen crash impacts.

Saturday was Baird’s second career Truck Series race. The 32-year-old was on the lead lap around 28th place when the incident happened.

Baird finished 29th.

“I feel alright. That was probably one of the harder hits I’ve had,” Baird said. “Hopefully we’ll be back next time a little bit stronger and not wrecked.”

Baird wasn’t the only driver to crash Saturday. A 12-truck pileup took out many of the leaders with five laps left in regulation – and further crashes pushed the race into triple overtime. Stewart Friesen took the lead with two laps to go and won.

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BROOKLYN, Mich. — Here is a look at the winners and losers from Sunday’s Cup race at Michigan International Speedway.

WINNERS

Denny Hamlin — He saved enough fuel and passed William Byron for the lead with four laps left to win. Hamlin has won three of the last nine races. Villain Denny returned Sunday. He teased the crowd by saying he beat all their favorite drivers and then taunted University of Michigan fans in the stands by doing an Ohio State cheer. “I do thrive on it,” Hamlin said of being viewed as the villain, “just simply because you feel like you’ve got 60,000 people that are rooting against you.”

Denny Hamlin told fans he beat their favorite driver and did part of an Ohio State cheer in front a crowd that featured many University of Michigan fans.

RFK Racing — The organization placed three cars in the top 10 at Michigan, marking the first time RFK Racing has done so since July 2016 at Daytona. Sunday, Chris Buescher finished second, Ryan Preece ninth and Brad Keselowski 10th. Preece moved into the final playoff spot with 10 races left in the regular season. This was Buescher’s third consecutive top 10 at Michigan. He also won a stage. Both of Keselowski’s top 10s this season have come in the last three races this season.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver earned his third victory of the season.

Ty Gibbs — While frustrated after the race thinking he didn’t need to save as much fuel and could have challenged the leaders, Gibbs placed third, tying his best result of the season.

Zane Smith — His seventh-place finish is his best result of the year and gives him top-10 results in both career Cup starts at Michigan. Sunday’s result moved Smith up three positions in the standings to 22nd.

Kyle Busch — His eighth-place finish snapped a six-race streak without a top-10 result.

LOSERS

Alex Bowman — Austin Cindric and Cole Custer made contact, sending Custer’s car into Bowman’s vehicle. That turned Bowman and he hit the wall head-on. “That hurt a lot,” Bowman said after exiting the infield care center. He finished last in the 36-car field. Bowman has placed outside the top 25 in seven of the last nine races and fallen from third to 13th in the points. He sits 15th on the playoff grid and is only 13 points above the cutline.

Alex Bowman walked away from a vicious crash in Sunday’s crash at Michigan.

William Byron — He led 98 of the 200 laps, lost the lead with four laps to go and had to pit for fuel coming to the white flag. He finished 28th. This is the fourth time he’s led 80 or laps this season. He won none of those races.

Team Penske — Joey Logano finished 22nd for the organization’s best finish. Austin Cindric was 31st and Ryan Blaney placed 32nd a week after his Nashville win.