Denny Hamlin won Sunday’s (June 7) FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan, earning his third win of the 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season and tying Kyle Busch for ninth on the all-time win list.
Hamlin had to start the race at the back of the field but methodically made his way through the pack, taking the top spot with 38 laps to go after Daniel Suarez and Carson Hocevar battled for the race lead on the final restart.
“This Joe Gibbs team just keeps giving me amazing race cars,” Hamlin said. “This National Debt Toyota, it’s just amazing. At the last run there, just hammering down. Had a few good restarts, and once we got to the lead, I was going to lay it out, all I had.
“I mean, the off-season, it was rough for me, it was rough for the NASCAR family, we lost a lot of people. This week we lost Gentleman Ned, the original badass of the 11. We’re still thinking of Kyle, Samantha, Brexton, Lennix. You know, just an unbelievable feeling to be able to strap in every week, and I don’t take it for granted, this opportunity that I’m in. I just love we’re making the best of it.”
Erik Jones, Bubba Wallace, Kyle Larson, Hocevar, Suarez, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Chris Buescher and Chase Briscoe rounded out the top-10 finishers in second through 10th, respectively.
“I really think we could have won,” Jones said. “I thought we did have the best car. It didn’t work out perfect. Everything has to work out really well, and some things didn’t go right at the end. And Denny got out front, drove away, and we had to work through some traffic.”
“I don’t think anybody was going to contend with Denny there at the end,” Larson said. “He was flying. Yeah, I just had a really, really bad restart and allowed the 23 to get to my outside again, and then I just got stuck in the middle for a couple laps and some bad aero positions. Yeah, just got swallowed up and probably fell back to 13th, 14th, 15th, somewhere in there.”
My car was good, though, that last run and allowed me to drive back forward.
The biggest incident of the day occurred on lap 83 restart, as an errant push from Hocevar led to John Hunter Nemechek and Wallace tangling. That set off a chain reaction that took out the likes of Tyler Reddick and Austin Dillon. Zane Smith, Denny Hamlin, Gibbs and Joey Logano were also involved.
“What I saw, it looked like the 77 got into the 42 and turned him,” Dillon told Prime Video. “I hope at some point he figures it out. I’m mad because we had a fast race car. It’s unfortunate.”
“I’m alright. Feel like we had really good speed,” Reddick said. “Just all around bummer race, I feel like we could’ve won.”
Chase Elliott and Christopher Bell were both involved in a hard crash in turn 3 while racing for second on lap 148. The accident brought out the red flag.
“I’m fine, totally my fault,” Elliott said. “Was just trying to run in the bottom and make use of our fresh tires, at least get to second. Got in there and got free. As soon as I started to commit to spinning it hooked up.”
The red flag was displayed for just over 20 minutes.
Connor Zilisch spun on lap 3 in turn 3, making slight contact with the outside wall. He later spun on lap 9 in a crash that ended his day.
On lap 65, the caution came out for Michigan native Brad Keselowski suffering a flat left-rear tire.
AJ Allmendinger spun on the backstretch on lap 78 but managed to keep his No. 16 out of the inside wall.
Following the huge restart crash, Keselowski hit the wall on the ensuing Lap 90 restart, making hard contact in turn 1.
The next caution for cause flew on lap 142 after Smith spun and hit the wall hard in turn 1.
Following the restart for the Bell/Elliott crash, the yellow flew with 46 laps to go for a crash involving Michael McDowell, Noah Gragson, Josh Berry, Ryan Preece and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
When the checkered flag flew, Hamlin won for his second straight victory at MIS and fourth overall there.
Cup Race Results from Michigan
The Cup field next heads to Pocono Raceway on Sunday, June 14. The green flag will fly at 3 p.m. ET with TV coverage provided by Amazon Prime Video.
A member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA), Samuel also covers NASCAR for Yardbarker, Field Level Media, and Heavy Sports. He will attend the University of Arkansas in the fall of 2025.
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