The NASCAR Cup Series visited Michigan International Speedway on Sunday afternoon in the Firekeepers Casino 400. Chase Briscoe started the race on the pole with Kyle Busch starting second.
Chase Briscoe led the opening 11 laps. He would lose the lead to William Byron on the backstretch on lap 12. Byron led 23 laps before Chris Buescher passed Byron on lap 36. Buescher led the last 13 laps to win the first stage.
Everyone went to pit road during the caution with Ryan Blaney emerging with the lead, followed by Denny Hamlin second, and Carson Hocevar third. Ryan Blaney led the field to start the second stage on lap 57.
During the second stage, there were four cautions. The big one happened on lap 67 when Austin Cindric and Cole Custer were battling for the 27th position and Custer went around. Alex Bowman hit the wall hard head-on. Bowman did climb out of the car. Chase Briscoe and Daniel Suarez were also involved. The red flag came out as crews repaired the SAFER barrier.
Ryan led seven laps in the second stage. The other drivers to lead during the second stage were Chase Elliott, Austin Cindric, Christopher Bell, and William Byron. Byron led the last three laps to win the second stage.
William Byron led the field for the restart to start the final stage on lap 127. Byron cleared Cason Hocevar to keep the lead. Byron led 28 laps when Todd Gilliland blew a left rear tire hitting the wall at Turn 2 for the seventh caution of the afternoon. Byron, along with several other drivers went to pit road. Zane Smith pitted for two tires and was the new leader with Carson Hocevar second.
On the restart, Kyle Larson pushed Carson Hocevar to the front for the lead on lap 152. Hocevar, Smith, Larson, and Byron were all short on fuel and Denny Hamlin was sitting in fifth place. Everything started to fall into place for Hamlin. Carson Hocevar suffered a flat left rear tire on lap 182 and William Byron took the lead.
Hamlin later passed Ty Gibbs and Kyle Larson to sit in second place in lap 186. With three laps to go, Hamlin passed Byron for the lead and went on to win his third race of the season by 1.099 seconds over Chris Buescher.
The rest of the top five finishers were Ty Gibbs third, Bubba Wallace fourth, and Kyle Larson fifth. Ross Chastain, Zane Smith, Kyle Busch, Ryan Preece, and Brad Keselowski rounded up the top ten. There were seven cautions for 33 laps and 15 lead changes among 11 drivers. William Byron led 98 laps, the most of the race.
The Cup Series heads to Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City next Sunday at 3 pm on Prime Video. Purchase NASCAR Cup Series tickets today at StubHub.
