BROOKLYN, Mich. (AP) — Denny Hamlin is pulling off quite a juggling act.

Hamlin outlasted the competition at Michigan International Speedway for his third NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season and 57th of his career, juggling his roles as a driver, expectant father and co-owner of a racing team that’s suing NASCAR.

“The tackle box is full,” Hamlin said Sunday. “There’s all kinds of stuff going on.”

Hamlin, in the No. 11 Toyota, went low to pass William Byron on the 197th of 200 laps and pulled away from the pack to win by more than a second over Chris Buescher.

“Just worked over the guys one by one, giving them different looks,” he said.

Ty Gibbs finished third, matching a season best, followed by Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson.

The 44-year-old Hamlin was prepared to leave his team to join his fiancée, Jordan Fish, who is due to give birth to their third child, a boy. If she was in labor by Lap 50 or sooner at Michigan, he was prepared to leave the track.

Hamlin said he would skip next week’s race in Mexico City if necessary to witness the birth.

To add something else to Hamlin’s plate, he is also co-owner of 23XI Racing with Michael Jordan, which is involved in a lawsuit against NASCAR.

He drives for Joe Gibbs Racing, which hadn’t won at Michigan in a decade.

“I think it’s the most underrated track that we go to,” said Hamlin, who has won three times on the 2-mile oval.

Hamlin became JGR’s winningest driver, surpassing Kyle Busch’s 56 victories, and the 10th driver in NASCAR history to win after his 700th start.

“It feels good because I’m going to hate it when I’m not at the level I’m at now,” he said. “I will certainly retire very quicky after that.”

Hamlin’s team set him up with enough fuel to win while many drivers, including Byron, ran out of gas late in the race.

“It really stings,” said Byron, the points leader, who was a season-worst 28th. “We just burned more (fuel) and not able to do much about that.”

Hamlin, meanwhile, wasn’t on empty until his celebratory burnout was cut short.

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.

Hocevar faded to a 29th-place finish, a week after he was second to match a career best at Nashville, where he created a buzz with an aggressive move that knocked Ricky Stenhouse Jr. out of the race.

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. “That was probably top of the board on hits I’ve taken.”

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.

Ram is goin’ NASCAR racin’ for the first time in more than a decade. It’s leaning into the Hemi V8’s revival by committing to the Craftsman Truck Series in 2026, which Ram CEO Tim Kuniskis confirmed is its immediate focus. However, he says “the company” has intentions to enter the Cup Series later on.

Huh?

During a Ram media event that The Drive attended virtually, Kuniskis mentioned aspirations of joining the Cup Series. He was asked to clarify later, during the Q&A session, given that Ram builds trucks. “We have cars in our company,” Kuniskis explained. “I don’t have cars. Even though everybody calls them Dodge Rams.”

Clear as mud, then. It’s obviously enough to get people talking.

I’ve written about Dodge’s potential return to NASCAR several times over the years, though for every rumor I’ve decided to cover, there have been 10 more that I passed on. The realest it ever felt was when NASCAR President Steve Phelps commented on Dodge’s supposed return back in 2021. Even then, Phelps simply said, “I won’t confirm or deny that.” Kuniskis’ cryptic statement feels about as weighty.

Even if you interpret this as an indirect confirmation of Dodge’s interest in rejoining the Cup Series, it’s no guarantee. Manufacturers throughout history have planned to join NASCAR, Formula 1, and almost every other racing discipline without following through. There’s a lot that has to go right, even beyond building a car. Finding a team, or, ideally, several teams, is crucial to fielding entries.

Speaking of teams, Kuniskis and Ram don’t have one locked in yet. He plans to have an arrangement in place by the Daytona season-opener in February 2026. And the truck that hits the superspeedway will look a lot like the Ram 1500 NASCAR Concept that just debuted.

The super-sleek race truck concept was unveiled this weekend at Michigan International Speedway. It was in a specialized “donut” trailer with folding sides that revealed it in a cloud of tire smoke. These guys are a hoot.

“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,” said Kuniskis. “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.”

You can bet NASCAR is happy about having a fourth manufacturer, too, even if it’s only in one series. It sounds like talks are happening to potentially expand that to the top-level Cup circuit.

Got a tip or question for the author? Contact them directly: caleb@thedrive.com

To see a Cup Series race in an international venue has been a long wait for NASCAR fans. So, when the racing promotion announced that the field would be racing for points in Mexico City, the hype went over the roof and now we are days away from the big event. But organizing this giant spectacle hasn’t been all sweet thus far. With every passing second, more hurdles keep coming out of the box.

Bob Pockrass reported on his X handle that Richard Childress Racing has been covering up all the advertisements of alcohol, nicotine, tobacco, and CBD on its haulers ahead of the cross-border visit. Firearm and ammo advertisements are being removed as well. And it all comes down to the strict advertising laws in Mexico.

This presents an issue for sponsors. Holding a race in such an exotic venue is a financial burden for teams. If sponsors aren’t allowed to take advantage of the situation, they aren’t going to be willing to shelve out the dollar. There are many such tricky confrontations that come to mind in light of Pockrass’ update. The NASCAR fandom revealed them without hesitation.

One fan commented, “Mexico needs to chill out a bit,” while another said, “Not fair for the money the sponsors put out. Also sounds like a major pain in the ass.” 

Logistics are already one of the biggest challenges when it comes to such events. This narrow funnel makes things even more difficult. Another fan pointed out how most of Kyle Busch’s sponsors are in the list prohibited by the Mexican government.

They joked, “Kyle Busch gonna be driving a blank race car next week. Maybe they can put his Mexico mug shot from the incident a few years ago on the hood instead.” ‘Rowdy‘ had run into trouble a few years ago for mistakenly carrying a handgun in his luggage at a Mexican airport. It became quite the hot news then.

One more expressed concern, “With every passing day, I’m believing more and more that the juice ain’t worth the squeeze. Never mind how dangerous it can be going down there.” That’s a rather pessimistic view to have ahead of one of the most crucial events in the sport’s history. If it all goes well, it would be a huge step-up for NASCAR.

And yet, a fan criticized, “Last I checked this is NASCAR. Not Formula 1.” Many would agree that the level of sophistication in Formula 1 is what NASCAR should strive to achieve. There can’t be much wrong with following in Formula 1’s footsteps.

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.”