What Happened?
For the second race in a row, Denny Hamlin started on the pole, dropped to the rear and recovered to win, this time in the Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday (June 7).
Erik Jones finished second, Bubba Wallace finished third, Kyle Larson finished fourth and Carson Hocevar rounded out the top five.
Daniel Suarez, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Chris Buescher and Chase Briscoe finished in the sixth to 10th positions.
What Really Happened?
After dropping to the back of the field at the start of the race and spinning out during a crash in the second stage, Hamlin took control on the final run of the race to win his second straight race and third of the Cup season.
Hamlin struggled at first to get back up to the leaders during the first stage of the race, but some altering strategy helped position him near the front during a stage two restart.
On that restart, Hamlin found himself looped around. But luckily for him, his other competitors all managed to avoid his spinning No. 11 Toyota, and he was able to continue with little damage.
The same couldn’t be said for the guy he’s currently chasing in the standings, who happens to drive one of his 23XI Racing Toyotas.
Tyler Reddick has led the Cup points the entire season, fueled by three wins in the season’s first three races and owner of five wins overall. He came into the day 97 points ahead of Hamlin for the points lead.
While Hamlin battled to get back into contention early on, Reddick got off to a hot start in Michigan, leading 33 laps and winning his first stage of the campaign.
However, Reddick crashed out of the race in that restart incident on lap 83, giving Reddick not only his first DNF of the season but his first finish outside the top 15 too.
For the first time all year, we now have some drama atop the standings.
For the past couple offseasons, it seems like everyone has been waiting for Hamlin to fall off in performance. Father Time is undefeated after all.
Especially after last year’s championship heartbreak and family tragedy, there were questions asked about if Hamlin would be ready for the start of the 2026 season, and if he had any juice left in him to once again fight for his first title.
It’s safe to say he has picked up right where he left off and is one of the two favorites to go into The Chase as the top seed.
Hamlin has now closed the gap from Reddick to 51 points, less than a full race behind in points. With the way he has been tearing it up, Hamlin could cut into the deficit even more.
Hamlin has won three times over the last month, getting the million dollar prize in the All-Star race at Dover, and now back-to-back points race wins at Nashville Superspeedway and Michigan. This weekend’s win was also an emotional one for Hamlin as he tied his longtime teammate Kyle Busch for ninth the all-time Cup wins list at 63, and he paid tribute to the late legend during his celebration.
How could this stretch get even better for the No. 11 team?
Next week, the Cup Series heads to Pocono Raceway, the track where Denny Hamlin has won the most times in his career. He is the all-time Cup Series wins leader at The Tricky Triangle with seven victories.
The Toyotas as a whole have shown the best speed of all the manufacturers, but right now, Reddick and Hamlin are head and shoulders above the rest.
I look forward to seeing them duke it out for the regular season title the rest of the way.
Who Stood Out?
The Spire Motorsports duo of Hovevar and Suarez continued to impress, as they both led laps and finished fifth and sixth, respectively.
Hocevar now sits seventh in the standings with Suarez 10 points behind his teammate in ninth, six points behind Chris Buescher in eighth.
Hocevar wasn’t the only Michigan native to have a great performance at his home track. Jones finished runner-up, giving Legacy Motor Club and Jones their best finish as an organization since the 2022 Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway.
Jones earned 44 points, which moved him up to 18th in the standings, just 18 points behind the final Chase spot.
Who Fell Flat?
The abysmal rookie season for Connor Zilisch continued at Michigan, as he finished last for the third straight race after crashing twice in the first nine laps of the event.
Brad Keselowski wrecked out of his second straight race, while his RFK teammate Ryan Preece crashed out of his third race in a row. Keselowski is now only 21 points above the cut line for the Chase, and Preece is now 19 points outside the 16-driver field.
Christopher Bell had another solid run end with a finish he didn’t deserve. His race ended with 52 to go after he and Chase Elliott got together, resulting in a hard crash into the outside wall that caused a red flag to fix it.
Bell and Elliott both walked away from their cars, but Bell is a bit banged up heading back home.
Paint Scheme of the Race
It has been a difficult season for Alex Bowman, and this week, the No. 48 team revealed a new look to their Ally Chevrolet going forward.
Bowman finished 19th, and time will tell if this new scheme will be a good luck charm for the rest of the season.
What’s Next?
The NASCAR Cup Series will head to the Pocono Mountains next Sunday (June 14) for the Great American Getaway 400 at Pocono Raceway.
It will be the 16th race of the Cup season, and it will start at 3 p.m. ET with coverage on Prime Video. Briscoe won the race at Pocono last season.
Michael Bellifemini joined Frontstretch in February 2026 as a contributor. Bellifemini was born and raised in New Jersey and graduated from Seton Hall University. He called Seton Hall men's and women's basketball games for their college radio station, 89.5 FM WSOU, and continues to broadcast in the area. Outside of covering NASCAR, Bellifemini is also an avid baseball, football, basketball, and hockey fan and enjoys watching different sports leagues on a daily basis.
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