Joe Gibbs Racing star Denny Hamlin secured his third NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season on Sunday night after a thrilling late battle at Michigan International Speedway.
With fuel-saving heavily at play in the latter stages of the FireKeepers Casino 400, heading into the final 15 laps, Carson Hocevar was out in the lead in the No. 77 and looking like having a serious chance of picking up his first win in the series. However, a blown tire suddenly cast him out of contention, with Hamlin and William Byron in the No. 24 going on to have an exciting battle in the final laps.
After multiple attempts to take the lead were met with blocks from Byron, Hamlin eventually passed him with five laps to go, although the No. 24 continued to fight hard on the outside until the No. 11 eventually cleared him a lap later.
Byron eventually ran out of fuel, forced to head down pit road just ahead of the white flag, with Hamlin having enough to get across the line (and do a few doughnuts post-race) to take his third victory at Michigan International Speedway.
In doing so, the 44-year-old became only the 10th driver to win a Cup Series race after hitting the 700-race milestone. It is also Hamlin’s 57th Cup Series win overall, making him Joe Gibbs Racing’s most-winningest driver ever, a record he previously held alongside Kyle Busch (56 wins).
With Byron’s fuel issue, he eventually finished 28th, with Chris Buescher coming home in second, having previously won in stage two. Ty Gibbs, Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson rounded out the top five.
Finally, it feels prudent to say that Alex Bowman has been evaluated and released from the infield care center, as confirmed by NASCAR, after his heavy wreck saw the race red-flagged for a period earlier during stage two.
With that said, let’s take a look at the race results in full!