Joe Gibbs Racing star Denny Hamlin secured his third NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season on Sunday night after a thrilling late battle at Michigan International Speedway.

With fuel-saving heavily at play in the latter stages of the FireKeepers Casino 400, heading into the final 15 laps, Carson Hocevar was out in the lead in the No. 77 and looking like having a serious chance of picking up his first win in the series. However, a blown tire suddenly cast him out of contention, with Hamlin and William Byron in the No. 24 going on to have an exciting battle in the final laps.

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After multiple attempts to take the lead were met with blocks from Byron, Hamlin eventually passed him with five laps to go, although the No. 24 continued to fight hard on the outside until the No. 11 eventually cleared him a lap later.

Byron eventually ran out of fuel, forced to head down pit road just ahead of the white flag, with Hamlin having enough to get across the line (and do a few doughnuts post-race) to take his third victory at Michigan International Speedway.

In doing so, the 44-year-old became only the 10th driver to win a Cup Series race after hitting the 700-race milestone. It is also Hamlin’s 57th Cup Series win overall, making him Joe Gibbs Racing’s most-winningest driver ever, a record he previously held alongside Kyle Busch (56 wins).

With Byron’s fuel issue, he eventually finished 28th, with Chris Buescher coming home in second, having previously won in stage two. Ty Gibbs, Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson rounded out the top five.

Finally, it feels prudent to say that Alex Bowman has been evaluated and released from the infield care center, as confirmed by NASCAR, after his heavy wreck saw the race red-flagged for a period earlier during stage two.

With that said, let’s take a look at the race results in full!

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NASCAR Cup Series: Who won the Michigan race today?

NOTE: The Xfinity Fastest Lap award went to William Byron in the No. 24 with a time of 37.30 seconds.

NASCAR Cup Series: Michigan Stage 2 results

NASCAR Cup Series: Michigan Stage 1 results

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BROOKLYN, MI – Dodge left NASCAR after the 2012 season, when Rochester Hills driver Brad Keselowski won the Cup Series championship driving a Dodge Charger.

Now 13 years later, Dodge’s parent company is returning to NASCAR. Ram – a sister company to Dodge – announced it will reenter the sport in time for the 2026 Craftsman Truck Series season.

The Ram 1500 concept race truck was unveiled Sunday at Michigan International Speedway before the FireKeepers Casino 400.

The concept resembles a production truck, with elements from the Ram Sport Truck lineup (Warlock, Rebel and RHO).

Eventually, Stellantis hopes to be back at the Cup Series level, too.

“Our full intention is to be back in Cup,” said Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis. “But right now, we’re on a path toward Daytona next year with truck, with our eye on when we could compete in Cup after that.”

Ram is a truck brand under Stellantis, which has its North American headquarters in Auburn Hills, Michigan.  

“If we go back to Cup, which is our intention, Ram doesn’t have a car,” Kuniskis said. “So obviously that would have to be Dodge coming back.”

When Stellantis was last in NASCAR, it raced under the Dodge name. The Dodge and Ram brands have drifted apart into their own entities.

“(This) has nothing to do with Dodge, despite the fact that everyone in the world calls it ‘Dodge Ram,’” Kuniskis said. “I get it. Sometime I screw up and I do it, as well.”

Kuniskis was with Stellantis when Dodge left NASCAR.

“And it’s bothered me ever since,” he said.

Ram is still working on figuring out which drivers and teams will race under the Ram brand.

Kuniskis said it’s like prom: They’ve got the tux and the car, they “just don’t know who the date’s going to be, yet.”

“There are 20 million rabid NASCAR fans,” Kuniskis said. “What we like about it is, half of them drive pickup trucks. So it’s a perfect venue for us. We want to be back in the sport.”

It’s another race on the Amazon Prime swing of the 2025 NASCAR schedule and we head to the Midwest for some high-speed action at Michigan International Speedway!

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Ram will return to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series in 2026.

The new Ram 1500 concept was announced Sunday in Michigan, one of 25 product announcements the Stellantis-owned company will make over 18 months. It marks Ram’s (and Dodge’s) return to NASCAR competition after a 13-year break, having left the sport in 2012 after a 17-year presence.

“For more than a decade, customers and our dealer network asked about getting back into NASCAR,” said Tim Kuniskis, CEO of Ram. “The desire was always there, but we didn’t have a plan that delivered the last tenth [which] 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.”

Kuniskis acknowledged that Ram was out of NASCAR for so long because it is a tough return on investment. Now that the company is bringing the Hemi back, in addition to other production vehicle announcements, Kuniskis said it makes perfect sense to be back in the racing space.

“The reason we’re going to do it: 20 million people are NASCAR fans,” Kuniskis said. “I’m more concerned about the people who are in the parking lot of the NASCAR races. Twenty million people, 50 percent of them drive a pickup truck. Out of the 50 percent, 20 percent of them already buy a Ram, so the lift from 20 million to 10 million to 20 percent of that, there is no ROI unless you do it differently.

“Our objective is to take 20 million and turn it into 80 or 100 million, and we have a plan. We know how we’re going to do it. We think we have a path to get to that. We think people are going to like the way we’re doing it because it’s going to be fun.”

Kuniskis gives a personal touch to Ram’s TV spots set to debut Sunday. Stellantis photo

The truck, dubbed the Ram 1500 concept, was molded by the Ram design team and resembles the production truck and elements of the Ram Sport Truck line-up. A large Ram logo is centered on the grille.

In commercial spots debuting Sunday to coincide with the announcement, viewers will see Kuniskis driving the truck and saying, in part, “We own it, we got it wrong, and we’re fixing it. You hear that? That’s our Hemi, and it’s saying, ‘I’m back.’”

The commercial was filmed at Darlington Raceway with the race truck and two production trucks. As the spot continues, Kuniskis says, “We’re back in America’s motorsport, the Hemi is back, and we aren’t going anywhere.”

Ram will unveil more of its 2026 plans at a later date, including the team line-up and drivers. Kuniskis was also adamant the company has plenty more to come and show off, including continued activation at racetracks the remainder of this season, and would not go dark between now and the 2026 season opener at Daytona.

“Ram returning to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series is a major moment for the sport, and a sign that NASCAR remains a strong platform for blue-chip brand partners,” said John Probst, NASCAR executive vice president and chief racing development officer. “We are excited to welcome Ram back to the sport. Its identity includes high performance, durability, and innovation – characteristics that embody NASCAR and, specifically, the Craftsman Truck Series.”

Denny Hamlin took the lead with three laps remaining to win a fuel-mileage battle at Michigan International Speedway.

Hamlin moved into first on Lap 197 of 200 past William Byron, who had to pit for fuel in the closing laps and finished 28th.

“Obviously, (Byron) was doing a great job of defending,” Hamlin told Prime pit reporter Kim Coon. “But Daddy, I’m sorry, but I beat your favorite driver, folks. All of them.”

Hamlin’s fiance, Jordan Fish, is expecting the couple’s third child (a boy) this week.

Chris Buescher finished second, followed by Ty Gibbs, Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson.

Ross Chastain, Zane Smith, Kyle Busch, Ryan Preece and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top 10.

Hamlin earned his third victory of the season and the 57th of his career. For his third victory at Michigan and first at the 2-mile oval since 2011, Hamlin had to slice through a lot of traffic after resarting outside the top 10 with 47 laps remaining. The race stayed green the rest of the way.

“It’s fantastic,” Hamlin said. “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.”

For the third consecutive race, Carson Hocevar had a good chance to break through for his first Cup Series victory, but the Spire Motorsports driver suffered a cut left-rear tire while leaving with 19 laps remaining. The Portage, Michigan, native was forced to pit under green and fell a lap down in 30th after leading 22 laps.

Hocevar tied a career-best finish at Nashville Superspeedway last week and was in contention for the Coca-Cola 600 before an engine failure in his No. 77 Chevrolet.

The race was stopped ror more than 11 minutes by a red flag for cleanup of a five-car crash in Turn 2 on Lap 67. Alex Bowman took the worst of it, getting turned into a head-on collision with the outside wall by contact from Cole Custer (who had been hit by Austin Cindric).

Bowman walked away from his mangled No. 48 Chevrolet, but his freefall in the points standings continued with his seventh finish of 27th or worse in the past nine races.

“That hurt a lot,” Bowman told Coon. “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 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. I’m 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.”

WILL BE UPDATED

Stage 1 winner: Buescher

Stage 2 winner: Byron

Next up: Sunday, June 15, 3 p.m. ET at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez road course in Mexico City on Prime.

Fifteen races down, 11 to go in the Cup Series’ regular season.