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.

MORE: A Michigan dad with a day job is Frankie Muniz’s NASCAR teammate this weekend

RELATED: Frankie Muniz leaves Michigan NASCAR race both ‘thrilled’ and ‘mad at myself’

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.

Hamlin took the lead from Byron with four laps to go before Byron ran out of fuel. Byron had taken the lead on lap 182 after Carson Hocevar suffered a flat tire from the top spot. Byron finished 28th, with Hocevar credited with 29th.

The next race for the NASCAR Cup Series is the Viva Mexico 250 at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez. Coverage of the event will be available on Prime Video, the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

-Photo credit: Lesley Ann Miller, Lumen Digital Agency for Toyota Gazoo Racing

Former IndyCar and NASCAR driver Danica Patrick proudly confessed to taking the “red pill” as the racing star publicly backed political activist Riley Gaines in her ongoing feud with decorated Olympian Simone Biles over transgender athletes competing in women’s sports.

“This issue has a shelf life. I truly believe common sense will prevail,” Patrick, 43, said on Instagram Sunday. “But until then, I am grateful for people like Riley Gaines who are making sure no one gets away with it. Not to mention the fact that she actually lived it.”

“Defending men in women’s sports is the woke mind virus and/or another issue that requires therapy. Either way, it is so irrational,” she added.

Patrick’s comments are the latest in an ongoing war of words between anti-trans activist and former University of Kentucky swimmer Gaines and Olympic gymnast Biles that broke out Friday – a spat that has seen cheap shots taken by both sides. 

The sparring began when Biles targeted Gaines with a seemingly unprompted tweet amid controversy over a Minnesota trans high-school softball pitcher’s shutout in the state finals Thursday that helped secure the championship.

“@Riley_Gaines_ You’re truly sick, all of this campaigning because you lost a race,” 28-year-old Biles tweeted, referencing Gaines’ tie during a race with trans University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas at the 2022 NCAA championship.  

“Straight up sore loser. You should be uplifting the trans community and perhaps finding a way to make sports inclusive OR creating a new avenue where trans feel safe in sports. Maybe a transgender category IN ALL sports!!” Biles wrote.

“bully someone your own size, which would ironically be a male,” she later added.

Gaines, 25, fired back. 

“It’s not my job or the job of any woman to figure out how to include men in our spaces. You can uplift men stealing championships in women’s sports with YOUR platform. Men don’t belong in women’s sports and I say that with my full chest,” Gaines said.

Gaines alluded to Biles’ efforts to take down former Team USA gymnastics doctor and prolific sex criminal Larry Nassar.

“All the horrific sexual abuse @Simone_Biles witnessed and spoke out against caused by one man, yet [she] believes women should be forced to strip naked in front of men to validate the man’s feelings,” Gaines wrote in another tweet.

Gaines also unearthed an old comment of Biles and used it against her in the widening dispute. 

“ahhhh good thing guys don’t compete against girls or he’d take all the gold medals !!” Biles wrote in the 2017 tweet, apparently responding to the men’s division results at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships.

“Oop don’t you hate it when your past self completely undermines your current nonsensical argument?” Gaines wrote sarcastically, retweeting Biles’ post.

“How has 2025 Simone reconciled with the fact 2017 Simone was a ‘truly sick bully’ by her own standard?” 

Patrick’s position comes after she announced she would be voting for President Trump in the last election. Last October, at a campaign event with now Vice President JD Vance Patrick announced that she would be voting for the first time at the age 42. 

“I just want to say I’ve never voted before, but this time around, I have to vote,” Patrick  said, sharing the stage with Vance. “It’s that important.”

She said she would be voting for “the good guys.”

“I just want to be clear, I want to get on record — you’re voting for us, right?” Vance then asked.

“1,000%,” Patrick replied, joking that if she “could vote twice,” she would.

Patrick retired in 2018 after the 2018 Daytona 500 and Indianapolis 500.