BROOKLYN, Mich. — When 44-year-old Denny Hamlin recently went 11 months without winning a NASCAR Cup Series race, his most sought-after career goal seemed to be slipping away.

No, we’re not talking about a Cup championship — even though Hamlin is the best NASCAR driver never to win one. Hamlin would love a title, of course, but championships have a different meaning to some drivers these days with the playoff elimination system.

What does Hamlin want the most? To finish his career among the top 10 on NASCAR’s all-time Cup Series wins list. And reeling off three more victories in less than two and a half months, including Sunday at Michigan International Speedway, suddenly makes that goal a bit more realistic.

Hamlin now has 57 career wins, which is three away from tying Kevin Harvick for 10th on the all-time list. And the burst of momentum has left him discussing it in a slightly different way.

Initially, Hamlin repeatedly stated that the goal was to reach the 60-win mark. Then he said he’d like to win 61 so he could be in sole possession of 10th.

But listen to him now after Sunday’s win.

“At least while I’m alive, I want to be in the top 10 for the most wins,” he said.

OK, but that’s going to take even more than 61, Hamlin figures.

“I’ve got to count on possibly (Joey) Logano, more than likely (Kyle) Larson overtaking us in wins,” he said. “You’ve got to budget for at least a couple of these guys who started so much younger than I did to beat us on the win total.”

After Harvick, Kyle Busch is ninth with 63 career wins. Can Hamlin finish with more than Busch, who is still trying to add more himself? That seems like a big ask for someone who might only race for another couple of seasons.

After all, Hamlin recently passed 700 starts and said he won’t be around for 800 (there are 36 races per year).

“I’m going to hate it when I’m not at the level I’m at now,” Hamlin said. “I certainly will retire very, very quickly after that. I’m not going to hang around and do it just to do it. This is how I want to spend my last season — still winning.”

We’ve seen other drivers suddenly stop winning in their mid-40s with virtually no warning, and Hamlin is already in rare territory: Only 10 of the 20 drivers who have made more than 700 career starts have won after their 700th race (a list which now includes Hamlin) and only six have even won multiple races.

Hamlin likes his chances of getting a few more, but he’s also realistic: These races are challenging to win, and Sunday could have been it.

“You have another birthday (and) you keep wondering how long are you going to be able to keep doing this at this level?” said Hamlin, who turns 45 in November. “Listen, 57 (wins) might be it. None of us in this room knows. I’m at least going to enjoy it as if it’s my last, then I’ll go to work on Monday, just like I always have.”

Denny gets it done at @MISpeedway! pic.twitter.com/Ju16gklU3m

— NASCAR (@NASCAR) June 8, 2025

Gibbs glum

As Hamlin celebrated in victory lane, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Ty Gibbs was parked just behind the winner’s circle backdrop — and in a much less cheerful mode.

Gibbs was outright pissed. He wasn’t having any of the consolation talk from his team or family, was uninterested in the moral victory of finishing third and brushed off a rear-end smack from his grandfather, Hall of Fame football coach Joe Gibbs.

Gibbs, expected to contend for a playoff spot this year and win his first career race, has had a frustrating season. Michigan was only his second top-five finish, and he felt he was close enough to compete for the victory, especially since his teammate Hamlin was on a similar fuel strategy.

“I would rather go win,” the driver said. “I don’t come here to run third and run half-throttle on the straightaway, but it’s what they thought we needed to do.”

Gibbs was continuously instructed to save more gas, even when he was tracking down race leaders Hamlin and William Byron with four laps to go; the team urged him to back off just when it looked like he could have made a pass.

“He doesn’t know how much we saved or if we were going to run out,” crew chief Tyler Allen said. “So he’s frustrated because he could see it and he was fast enough to go take it. Unfortunately, we weren’t going to make it on fuel, and that wouldn’t have done any good to our team and our points situation.”

But Gibbs disagreed, saying he saved enough fuel to go harder and ended the race without having to flip his reserve fuel switch (indicating there was perhaps another lap or so remaining).

“I was told to save more, and it’s just frustrating for me,” Gibbs said. “I would have loved to be more aggressive there.”

The Carson convo

Carson Hocevar was again a hot topic at Michigan after he led a career-high 32 laps before getting a flat tire while leading the race. However, one thing that didn’t happen, at least for now: an on-track payback from Ricky Stenhouse Jr.

After it seemed destined for Stenhouse to retaliate against Hocevar for their Nashville incident, the two spoke last week by phone — as did their crew chiefs and Spire Motorsports owner Jeff Dickerson with Stenhouse.

The bottom line: Given their positions on the playoff bubble, it would be silly to continue the war.

“They all feel really bad about it and they can’t give us back our points that we lost,” Stenhouse said Saturday. “But if we get in a pissing match and I crash him this weekend and then we go back and forth, that does none of us good.”

Still, Stenhouse said, Hocevar is on thin ice — not just with him, but the garage.

After their Nashville incident, Stenhouse said, he received numerous texts from other competitors and team members who urged the veteran to either wreck Hocevar on purpose or fight Hocevar like Stenhouse did with Kyle Busch at last year’s All-Star Race.

“It was a lot,” Stenhouse said of the volume of texts. “It was kind of shocking. So I just told him that.”

Hocevar reminded Stenhouse they’ve had no issues previously, and they communicate on occasion when Hocevar asks Stenhouse about his sprint car team. Stenhouse agreed they haven’t had a problem before, but there’s no third chance coming.

“If it becomes a routine or it happens again …” Stenhouse said. “As fast as your cars have been, you don’t want to keep making people mad.”

One group that doesn’t seem mad? The fans at Michigan. Hocevar got one of the loudest cheers in driver introductions when walking out in front of his home crowd.

Carson Hocevar led a career-high 32 laps Sunday before a flat tire spoiled his chances at a first Cup Series victory. (Meg Oliphant / Getty Images)

Messy charter situation

23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports were dealt a blow last week when the U.S. Court of Appeals’ Fourth Circuit overturned a preliminary injunction that allowed the teams to race as charter teams in 2025. Barring any further appeals, the teams could be reduced to running as “open” cars as soon as next month.

But 23XI co-owner Hamlin said the teams remain “very confident” in their lawsuit overall, drawing a sharp distinction between the case and the preliminary injunction decision.

“That’s just such a small part of the entire litigation,” Hamlin said of the appeals court’s decision. “So I’m not deterred at all that we’re in good shape.”

What changes can be expected for the teams? Aside from taking a significant dip in money earned from each race, Hamlin said there won’t be much difference.

“Same as what we said in December: We’re committed to run this season open if we have to,” Hamlin said. “We’re going to race and fulfill all of our commitments no matter what. Our team is going to be here for the long haul, and we’re confident of that.”

As for the 23XI drivers, whose contracts allow them to become free agents if the organization does not provide them with charter cars, they were tight-lipped.

“I’m going to keep doing my part to try and show up as prepared as possible and continue winning races,” Tyler Reddick said. “… I’ve got to stay focused on what I can control. And that’s my preparation.”

Bubba Wallace cited Marshawn Lynch’s “I’m just here so I don’t get fined” and said, “You’re not going to get an answer you want to hear from us.”

“Come on, now,” Wallace said when another reporter tried to broach the topic. “Let’s talk about Michigan, dawg. You ain’t getting no comment.”

However, whether they want to discuss it or not, losing charters could have a significant long-term impact. The ripple effect if 23XI and Front Row don’t regain those charters during the legal process would last for years and threaten the organizations’ existence.

Bubba the troll

Before finishing fourth on Sunday to record back-to-back top-six finishes, Wallace had some fun on X when NASCAR released the list of its inaugural in-season tournament competitors last week — in alphabetical order, meaning his name was last.

“Bubbles last like he always is,” Wallace captioned the tournament list in a quote-tweet.

“Bubbles” is just one of the derogatory nicknames used by Wallace’s detractors, but he hasn’t relinquished his trolling nature on social media. After all, he pointed out, even his X header image is a troll post: a cartoon depiction of NASCAR’s Mount Rushmore — showing Petty, Earnhardt, Johnson and … Wallace.

Wallace said he sticks his shoe in ant hills in real life, and this is no different.

“It’s the boomers who are pissed off,” he said. “They’re probably just punching air because I beat them to their own comments. So yeah, that brings me joy.”

Pacing the field

Chase Briscoe became the first driver in more than two years to win three consecutive pole positions (Kyle Larson in spring 2024), starting first at the Coke 600, Nashville and now Michigan.

But Briscoe, who is yet to win this season, is too close to the playoff bubble for comfort after another disappointing result on Sunday (23rd). He said he’s taken note of the mentality carried by his beloved Indiana Pacers, which stunned the Oklahoma City Thunder with a Game 1 comeback in the NBA Finals before being blown out in Game 2 on Sunday night.

“It’s the ‘never give up’ part,” he said. “We’ve seen that even throughout my career. There was a time we were four laps down in one race and got back on the lead lap. It’s been fun to see a basketball team have that same mentality of never giving up.

“A lot of teams (give up) if they’re down nine points with two minutes left, but the Pacers have continued to come back from huge deficits even when the other team thinks the game is already over. There’s definitely something to that.”

(Top photo of Denny Hamlin: Chris Graythen / Getty Images)

The first show of a new month brought out a solid crowd to catch the Double Toonie/Fan Appreciation Night action on Saturday, June 7th at Peterborough Speedway.

First to take the green flag was a 20-lapper for the Trent Lakes Complete Plumbing Renegade Trucks, with Scott Jacobs and Howie Crowe on the front row. Jacobs took the early race lead, with teammates Mark Gordon and Crowe looking to run down the leader. Gordon took the lead and Stacy Switzer moved the No. 37 pick-up truck into fourth spot at around the same time as the frontrunners were starting to work through slower traffic. The runner-up in last year’s championship fight had a half track’s advantage over the closing stages and took the win in the caution-free feature. Crowe, Jacobs, Switzer and Shawn Murray completed the top-five.

Hudson Sellers and Jacob Vandebelt led the way as the Junior Late Model division rolled to the line for a 15-lap feature event. Sellers was joined at the front of the pack by Brody Coates as the field started to march through some backmarkers. A yellow flag, with four laps completed, slowed the pace and, at the halfway point, Hudson and Landon Sellers were fighting for the top spot. Another yellow flag brought the pack back together, with the duo of Hudson and Landon Sellers first to the checkered flag. Oliver Gibbons, Coates and Lucas Finnegan rounded out the top-five.

Will Gibbons and Kent Missons were the original front starters in the 20-lap SwitchTire Mini Stock feature, but a jumped start moved the duo back a row for the restart. John Lavalle and Ember Junkin were now in control of the field, with Gibbons, Mike Nelson, Mark Downer and Rob Crick heading toward the front of the pack. Gibbons took second from Junkin with eight laps complete and the leaders started to work through slower traffic with around 13 laps on the board.

Downer saw his night come to an end when the No. 26 machine erupted into a fireball with less than four laps remaining. Safety staff helped the driver from the car; he was checked and released at the track. Lavalle continued to lead after the red flag and held off a late-race charge from Nelson to take his first career feature win. Gibbons, Crick and Junkin were next across the line.

Johnnie McIntyre and reigning track champion Angelo Novis brought the Battlefield Equipment Rental Bone Stock pack from the staging area for a 20-lap feature tilt. With only three laps on the scoreboard, the No. 04 ride of Samuel Arnott – who had been using the track’s outside line – brought out the red flag when his car burst into flames. Safety crews help remove Arnott from the car, but despite being unhurt, his night was over. The leaders had started working through slower traffic past the halfway mark and survived a late-race caution flag with about a handful of laps remaining. Tegan Stanley, who had been running second, took the lead with just a lap remaining and went on to win. Alex Dallaire, Victoria McLenon, Christen Lavalle and Novis chased Stanley across the stripe.

Following an early race restart, Chad Strawn and Paul Boundy were on the front row as the Jiffy Lube Super Stocks took the Great Canadian RV green flag. Strawn was the race leader, with Dylan Wills and Boundy completing the top-three spots. Clayton Reed grabbed the runner-up spot with eight laps on the scoreboard, while Strawn was putting his No. 35 machine through its paces. Reed held onto second-place, chasing Strawn across the line for the feature win. Mark Gordon, Boundy and Kyle Gordon finished out the top-five, as another Supernova Fireworks display signified the end of another night of home track racing at Canada’s Toughest 1/3 Mile.

Heat race action earlier in the night included victories by Mark Gordon, who had a pair of Renegade Truck checkered flags, with the others going to reigning track champion Howie Crowe and Stacy Switzer. Junior Late Model preliminary rounds went to Oliver Gibbons with a pair, along with Jacob Vandebelt, Kaiden Beatty, Hudson and Landon Sellers. Last week’s feature event winner Mike Nelson scored two Mini Stock qualifying round wins, with a pair of No. 10 rides – Kent Missons and Will Gibbons – taking the others. Alex Dallaire had a couple of Bone Stock heat race wins, with the others going to Tegan Stanley, Victoria McLenon, John Bates and Angelo Novis. Clayton Reed and Chad Strawn split the Super Stock opening round wins.

All finishing positions are unofficial until verified by scoring review and post-race inspection.

Bullring Bullet Points

• Trent Lakes Complete Plumbing Renegade Trucks were on the docket for the first time in 2025, with Kyle Fetterly and Alex McGibbon making their debut in the division.
• The Junior Late Models were also in attendance for their season debut and brought 20 teams to the track.
• A trio of Mini Coopers came to play in the Battlefield Equipment Rental Bone Stock divisions, with reigning track champion Angelo Novis, Shannon Cappuccitti and Junior Late Model graduate Chase Stevenson repping the brand.
• It was a great night of close racing all around. On several occasions, transponders and online race monitoring systems were used to determine finishing positions.

Peterborough Speedway staff and officials appreciate the patience and understanding of fans during an extended red flag stoppage while personnel dealt with an emergency medical situation in the grandstand near the end of the Junior Late Model feature.

Peterborough Speedway’s season continues on Saturday, June 14th as KOD Disposal presents the APC Late Model 100 and Dayco Super Stock 50-lap main events, along with the 50-lap Bone Stock Shootout, paying $250 to win and $100 to take the green. Grandstand gates open at 3:00 p.m., with racing at 5:00.

Your source for the latest track news and schedule information is always www.peterboroughspeedway.com or through the track’s social media pages and platforms.

Following the announcement of RAM Trucks’ entry into NASCAR in 2026, John Probst, NASCAR’s executive vice president and chief racing development officer, has confirmed that the sport is in discussions with three other manufacturers for a NASCAR entry in the future.

RAM separated from Dodge in 2010, and before that, the brand had celebrated three manufacturer championships in the Craftsman Truck Series in 2001, 2003, and 2004. The team last raced in 2013.

There has been no new OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) in NASCAR since Toyota introduced the Tundra in 2004. Probst shared that, for an OEM, to participate in NASCAR was a “good investment” and revealed that Cup Series newcomers would be allowed to follow an 18-month schedule to prepare and develop their team and cars to race.

Opening up on the ongoing discussion with other automakers during the announcement of RAM’s NASCAR entry, Probst said:

“I don’t want to jinx ourselves, but I would say that we are very close with one other. Can’t speak for them. Obviously, it’s their decision to make. 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, but also looking pretty positive.

“But we all know that an OEM deciding to come into NASCAR, it’s a big commitment for them. It’s not something that they take lightly. It requires a lot of research and approval at the highest levels. We’re confident right now. We like the position we’re in, and think that we’re a pretty good investment for an OEM.”

Could Honda be one of the automakers NASCAR has been in talks with? A report by Sports Business Journal, which anticipated the arrival of RAM Trucks, stated that “Honda is also said to be eyeing a potential entry into NASCAR, though the timing of that is less clear.”

The entry of RAM would likely encourage manufacturers to consider a NASCAR entry, and push forward those that are already in talks. RAM Trucks CEO Tim Kuniskis confirmed that his team will be all set to race next year at Daytona. He said:

“We’ll be on track in Daytona in eight months, and the way we’re going to do it is unlike anyone else.”

Kuniskis hinted that RAM’s ultimate goal was to race in the Cup Series. He added:

“We’re looking for a date to the prom right now. So how am I going to get to Cup? That’s going to depend on how I get to Truck. So however we get to Truck is going to obviously weigh heavily on ‘do I have a path to Cup?’ Our intention is not to do a one-hit wonder and go to Truck and not to Cup. That’s not our plan.”

At Michigan on Sunday, it was clear that the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was going to be difficult to beat. He won a stage, collected the fastest lap bonus, and led 98 of 200 laps.

He fought hard to hang on to the race lead in the closing stages, but Byron couldn’t hold back a charging Denny Hamlin. Byron was still going to finish second or third when the car finally ran out of fuel at the exit of Turn 4, despite his best efforts to save, coming just over two miles shy of the race finish. He dove into the pits and finished 28th instead.

Never had enough in the tank

Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, William Byron, Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet

Photo by: Meg Oliphant / Getty Images

“No, we didn’t have enough,” said Byron when asked if there was anything different he could have done. “We were going to run out with 1.5 laps to go and I was just trying to manage both — trying to keep the lead and manage the gap and save fuel down the straight and on (corner) exit and everything. We just didn’t … ultimately, not as good mileage as the guys that were further back to start that run. And that’s just the way the cautions go and the nature of being closer to the front and burning more fuel.

“I don’t know, that one is like, you can’t really do a lot about (it). It sucks, it really stings but we had a really good car. I thought we executed well. It seemed like we waited a little bit on fuel for the last stop, and jsut burned more and not able to do much about that. It is what it is.”

Byron leads the regular season standings, but since earning victory in the season-opening Daytona 500, he’s had several almost-wins slip through his fingers. He led the most laps at Darlington, Charlotte, and now Michigan, but failed to reach Victory Lane each time

The good news is that he remains comfortably ahead in the championship, now leading teammate Kyle Larson by 41 points.

Photos from Michigan – Race

NASCAR’s first international Cup Series race of the modern era is all about the eyeballs, specifically new fans in the Mexico City market.

NASCAR will be on the track Friday for the first of three days of racing at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez, one of the most popular stops on the Formula 1 calendar and Ben Kennedy’s newest project.

The great-grandson of NASCAR founder Bill France Sr., Kennedy has taken the family business beyond its comfortable confines before.

Kennedy in 2022 moved the preseason exhibition Clash from its longtime home at Daytona International Speedway in Florida to a temporary track built inside Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. Kennedy this year moved the Clash to The Madhouse — the historic Bowman Gray Stadium, which had last hosted a Cup race in 1971, in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

NASCAR under Kennedy also returned to North Wilkesboro Speedway in North Carolina for the first time since 1977 when the All-Star race was moved there three years ago. He allowed dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway, a hybrid road course and oval at Charlotte Motor Speedway, alongside his biggest undertaking: NASCAR’s first street race, held in downtown Chicago.

He also had his eyes set on expanding internationally, which will come Sunday with the first points-paying international race in the Cup Series since 1958. It is only third time in 77 years that NASCAR’s top series will run an event that counts in the championship outside the United States. The last two times were in Canada; the Cup Series also has held exhibitions in Japan and Australia.

“Our biggest opportunity to grow as a sport is international,” Kennedy said when he announced Mexico City was replacing one of the two races on the schedule allocated to Richmond International Raceway.

“The U.S. is always going to be our mainstay and our next opportunity was to expand internationally,” he said. “We said we’ve wanted to do this for a long time, but also needed to make sure it was the right time, the right partners and the right location. Mexico City checked every box. To be in one of the biggest cities globally — over 20 million people that live in the city — is a massive opportunity for us to bring the sport.”

The weekend includes the second-tier Xfinity Series and the NASCAR Mexico Series. It’s a strong return to a market that devours the entire F1 weekend ticket package within an hour of them becoming available.

Mexicans have proven to be rabid motorsports fans but haven’t gotten a chance to see NASCAR’s big names since 2008, the final year of a four-year run of Xfinity races. Kyle Busch, Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. were winners during the four-year stretch.

Daniel Suarez, the former Xfinity champion and native of Monterrey, is NASCAR’s face of the event. He raced the circuit 13 times with a different layout in the NASCAR Mexico Series, and three of Suarez’s starts were wins.

“I’m super excited for the event. I’m super excited to live the moment because the first time is going to only happen once,” Suarez said. “I’m really trying to be as present as possible, enjoy the moment and try to execute the best possible weekend that we can. We know that we are capable of winning the race, but that’s not the goal. The goal is the execution of the entire weekend, and hopefully the win is the result of the execution part.”

The planning that has gone into Mexico City, one of 38 events on the Cup schedule, began about a year ago. NASCAR has worked on myriad details, beginning with how to get nearly 200 trucks hauling race cars and equipment from Michigan International Speedway into Mexico City.

NASCAR official Tom Bryant has spearheaded the organizational logistics and made multiple trips to the border crossing in Laredo, Texas, to meet with customs officials from both nations.

The drive from Michigan to Mexico City is about 40 hours, not including the tedious customs crossing, where all the equipment and tools on every NASCAR hauler must be documented on an exhaustive manifest. Cup Series teams cars were scheduled for a Monday night arrival at Laredo, with crossing scheduled for Tuesday and arrival at the track on Thursday.

“It’s been a ton of coordination moving lots of people and lots of stuff safely and efficiently across a great distance and an international border,” Bryant said on the “Hauler Talk” NASCAR podcast.

“There is a lot to it, but the key to it is you just have to define the problem. We’ve got to get these people and these things from this point to that point within a certain time period,” he said. “How do we do it in a way that’s going to best position us to be ready to go to work as soon as we hit the ground down there? Because this is a pretty tight window.”

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