Denny Hamlin is still on baby watch, but he had one more workday to take care of Sunday.

The Joe Gibbs Racing driver made his way past William Byron with four laps to go and had enough gas to hang on and win the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn, Mich.

Racing a snappy purple No. 11 Toyota, Hamlin passed Byron’s No. 24 Chevrolet with four circuits left on the two-mile track, and Byron ran out of gas coming to the white flag. The Hendrick Motorsports driver landed in 28th place.

In delivering Toyota its second straight MIS win, Hamlin beat Ford’s Chris Buescher by 1.09 seconds for his third Cup Series win this season and third at the Michigan track. His last victory there came in June 2011.

“I wanted to get the lead, (Byron) was doing a great job defending,” Hamlin said before taunting the crowd’s mixture of cheers and boos. “Daddy, I’m sorry, but I beat your favorite driver, folks.”

When asked who that driver was, Hamlin, who led just five laps, said, “All of them.”

Hamlin and fiancee Jordan Fish are expecting their third child. Hamlin said he was prepared to leave the race if she went into labor during the first 50 laps.

Hamlin won for the 57th time in his 701st career race, becoming just the 10th driver to win after making 700 starts.

“We’ve been so fast the entire year but haven’t been finishing for one reason or another,” said Hamlin, 44. “It feels good to come here to Michigan, where we’ve been so close over the years, and get a victory … Such a gratifying day to restart 11th, 12th, something like that, and then drive to the front.”

Ty Gibbs and Bubba Wallace were third and fourth, respectively. Gibbs is Hamlin’s JGR teammate and Wallace drives for 23XI Racing, which Hamlin co-owns. Kyle Larson finished fifth.

Byron grabbed the lead away from polesitter Chase Briscoe on Lap 12 of Stage 1, but Buescher passed Byron on Lap 36 of the 45-lap segment and earned his first stage win of 2025.

Byron finished second while Hamlin, Briscoe and Josh Berry completed the top five in the incident-free stage.

The first caution for cause waved on Lap 60 when Noah Gragson and John Hunter Nemechek, running just inside the top 20, spun on the backstretch to bunch up the field again, but seven laps later a hard wreck occurred in Turn 2.

Riding in the bottom lane, last week’s winner Ryan Blaney tapped Cole Custer’s No. 41, triggering a mess that ended up with Alex Bowman’s No. 48 Chevrolet crashing violently nose-first into the wall and Briscoe spinning after being clipped by Custer’s Ford. That prompted a red-flag condition for cleanup.

“Yeah, that hurt a lot,” Bowman said. “It was probably top of the board on hits I’ve taken, and, unfortunately, I’ve taken a lot of hits.”

As Stage 2 neared its end, Blaney slapped the wall on his own in the No. 12 Ford and spun down the speedway, an unfortunate fifth caution for Christopher Bell, who pitted shortly before Blaney’s mishap.

The closing laps of the stage featured a spirited battle between Byron, Tyler Reddick, Austin Cindric and Carson Hocevar. Byron made the winning pass on the final lap for the stage win while Cindric was able to hold off Michigan native Hocevar for second.

Hocevar took the point on Lap 152, but the Spire Motorsports driver suffered a flat left rear tire with 19 circuits left, turning over the lead to Byron. Hocevar finished 29th.

–Field Level Media

Michigan is known for its classic fuel mileage races and Sunday was no different, with drivers desperate to stretch the fuel tank for the final 48-lap run of the race.

As the laps clicked away, Denny Hamlin hit his fuel number and ran down the leaders who were still saving what they could. Carson Hocevar was in control and while the fuel situation was grim, he never got that far as a cut left rear tire forced him down to pit road.

Hamlin cut a path to William Byron who was now in control of the race and the two drivers battled fiercely for the race lead. As they went back-and-forth, Hamlin finally cleared Byron with about four laps to go.

Byron ran out as the field took the white flag, falling from second all the way down to 28th in the final running order. Hamlin took the checkered flag with about a second between himself and Chris Buescher in second. 

Hamlin now has 57 career wins with three this year, which matches both Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson.

“It’s fantastic,” said Hamlin. “Chris Gayle [crew chief], this whole team, has 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 to Michigan where we’ve been so close over the years. To get a victory for Toyota, Yahoo, Sport Clips, Shady Rays, the Jordan brand, everyone. This is such a gratifying day to restart 11th or 12th, something like that, and drive to the front.”

Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota

Photo by: Chris Graythen – Getty Images

Ty Gibbs finished third, Bubba Wallace fourth, and Kyle Larson fifth. Ross Chastain, Zane Smith, Kyle Busch, Ryan Preece, and Brad Keselowski filled out the remainder of the top ten.

Buescher also won the first stage of the race Byron claimed the Stage 2 win, taking home some extra stage points to help soften the blow of the bad result. Hocevar, who has been knocking on the door of his first win every week as of late, ended up 29th.

The race was nonstop action with lots of passing throughout the pack. While there were several heart-stopping moments, luck finally ran out early in the second stage as Alex Bowman slammed the outside wall head-on. Thankfully, he was okay despite it being described as one of the biggest hits of his career.

The final stage ran green until Todd Gilliland lost control and crashed. This happened just outside of the fuel window but everyone was determined to go the distance as the race resumed on Lap 152 of 200.

Hamlin restarted ninth while Hocevar took over the lead from Zane Smith, who had taken just two tires. Hamlin was cruising in fifth for several laps before finally making his charge, taking the win.

Photos from Michigan – Race

NASCAR is “very close” to a deal with another carmaker in talks to join the racing series, NASCAR EVP John Probst told SBJ, at a time when Honda has been heavily rumored to be eyeing the property alongside Stellantis. Ram, the truck brand from Stellantis, announced today that it is re-joining NASCAR in 2026, giving NASCAR its fourth OEM alongside Chevy, Ford and Toyota.

Commissioner Steve Phelps told SBJ before the season that NASCAR was making serious progress in talks to add a fourth and fifth OEM, and his remarks were validated with Ram’s decision. Now, the property will work to add the fifth in what would be a major development, as racing series rely on carmakers as one of their most important partners on and off the track. There was roughly 20 years in between NASCAR’s most recent OEM announcement before today and now, with Toyota having entered the sport back in 2004.

Asked how confident he was that the time between the fourth and fifth announcements would be quicker than the two decades in between the third and fourth, Probst, who is also the chief racing development officer of NASCAR, told SBJ: “Well, I hope it does because I’ll probably be retired if it’s 20 years again. But I feel like — we have said this 900 times to you guys and until today I didn’t have any breakthrough news to announce and today we’re proud to welcome Ram back into NASCAR.”

Probst said, “I don’t want to jinx ourselves, but I would say we are very close with one other; can’t speak for them — obviously it’s their decision to make — (but) we would love for them to decide to come into NASCAR. And even with that, there’s one or two others that we’re a little bit earlier in the discussions (with) but also looking pretty positive. But we also know an OEM deciding to come into NASCAR — it’s a big commitment for them, and it’s not something they take lightly. It requires a lot of research and approvals at the highest levels, and we’re confident right now, we like the position we’re in and think we’re a pretty good investment for an OEM.”

Chuck Schifsky, manager of Honda and Acura Motorsports for American Honda Motor Co., told SBJ: “I am not in a position to speculate as to what Mr. Probst was referring to. I can say that — Honda continues to explore multiple options for our future endeavors in U. S. motorsport. We have no news to share at this time.”

By Larry Lage, The Associated Press

BROOKLYN, Mich. — Denny Hamlin outlasted the competition at Michigan International Speedway, winning his third NASCAR Cup Series race this season and the 57th of his career on Sunday.

Hamlin, in the No. 11 Toyota, went low to pass William Byron on the 197th of 200 laps and pulled away from the pack.

The 44-year-old was prepared to leave his team to join his fiancée, Jordan Fish, who is due to give birth to their third child, a boy.

Hamlin said he would skip next week’s race in Mexico City if necessary to witness the birth. He’s also co-owner of 23XI Racing with Michael Jordan, which is involved in a lawsuit against NASCAR.

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

Pole-sitter Chase Briscoe was out front until Byron passed him on lap 12. Buescher pulled ahead on lap 36 and stayed up front to win his first stage this season.

Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott took turns with the lead before a crash involving Alex Bowman brought out the red flag on lap 67.

Byron took the lead again after a restart on lap 78 as part of his strong start and surged to the front again to win the second stage.

Carson Hocevar took the lead on lap 152 and was informed soon thereafter that he didn’t have enough fuel to finish, but that became moot because a flat tire forced him into the pits with 18 laps to go.

Rough times for Bowman

Bowman hit a wall with the front end of his No. 48 Chevrolet as part of a multi-car crash in his latest setback.

“That hurt a lot,” he said after passing a medical evaluation.

Bowman, who drives for Hendrick Motorsports, came to Michigan 12th in points and will leave lower in the standings. He has finished 27th or worse in seven of his last nine starts and didn’t finish for a third time during the tough stretch.

Reddick rallies

Defending race champion Tyler Reddick qualified 12th, but started last in the 36-car field because of unapproved adjustments and rallied to finish 13th.

Up next

NASCAR shifts to Mexico City for its first points-paying international race in modern history on June 15.

AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing