The NASCAR Cup Series took on the Michigan International Speedway today for the Firekeepers Casino 400 yesterday for 200 grueling laps in the Irish Hills of Brooklyn. Qualifying took place Saturday morning, as Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe won his third consecutive Pole Award and started alongside Kyle Busch, who’s been actively seeking his first win since 2023.
Stage 1
The Green Flag dropped just after 2:00PM EST and early on it was Briscoe and Daytona 500 winner, William Byron going wheel-to-wheel for real estate. Further in the back of the pack, defending Michigan winner, Tyler Reddick, drove from the back to 19th in just five short laps, utilizing the draft to his advantage, slicing and dicing through the pack. On Lap 12, Byron made a clean pass on Briscoe going into Turn 1, and didn’t look back, until Chris Buescher stole the top spot on Lap 34, passing Byron out of Turn 4, going into the Frontstretch. Buescher was able to win Stage 1, collecting those valuable Championship Points and that prestigious Playoff Point. During pit stops on Lap 49, last week’s winner, Ryan Blaney, beat Denny Hamlin coming out of pit road.
Stage 2
Blaney led the field to the green to start Stage 2, as Carson Hocevar laid up on Blaney’s back bumper. Chase Elliott then stole the lead from Blaney on Lap 57, as Hamlin got into Kyle Larson on the Backstretch a lap later, but no damage or caution ensued, just hard racing. The caution flew on Lap 61 due to Noah Gragson and John Hunter Nemechek colliding on the Backstretch, prompting a caution.
The race resumed momentarily, as another accident broke out on Lap 67, when Cole Custer made contact with Riley Herbst in Turn 2, causing Custer to slam into Alex Bowman and Daniel Suarez. Bowman hit the outside wall at full speed, ending his race and bringing out a Red Flag to clean up the mess. Custer and Bowman were credited with 35th and 36th-place finishes respectively.
Another caution came out on Lap 72, due to Nemechek being involved in another accident in Turn 4, this one ending his day effectively. The Green Flag waved on Lap 78, and Byron eventually reclaimed the lead from his Hendrick Motorsports teammate. Just after the halfway point of the race, Blaney spun coming out of Turn 4, scraping the wall and spinning into pit road simultaneously. This put him five laps down, taking him out of contention for the rest of the afternoon.
The race resumed with six-to-go in Stage 2, Byron charged back to the front, battling Austin Cindric, one of the few drivers who didn’t pit during the last caution. On Cindric’s back bumper was Tyler Reddick, who briefly took the lead coming out of Turn 4, but Byron made it three-wide momentarily. Byron was able to hold off Cindric and Carson Hocevar, who respectively finished 1-2-3, in that order.
Final Stage
On the Lap 127 restart, Byron led Hocevar to green. With 60 laps remaining, Byron led by 0.7 seconds, but this came to an abrupt end when Todd Gilliland blew a tire on Lap 146, slamming the outside wall of Turn 2. This prompted a caution, forcing cars to come down pit road.
with 15-to-go Hamlin challenged Byron for the lead, after overtaking Larson laps prior. Byron and Hamlin have been battled each other various times this season, including Darlington in April and at Charlotte in May. Hamlin successfully overtook Byron with about three-to-go, as Byron ran out of gas coming to the White Flag. Hamlin was able to capture the win, this being his third of the season.
Exiting Michigan, Byron is +41 above Kyle Larson, as Hamlin is -82 behind Byron. Going into Mexico City this weekend, Hamlin is still on baby watch, weeks after his son was due, and as of the time of publication, he might not fly to Mexico tomorrow for the Cup Series’ first International in over 25 years.
Post-race interviews and takeaways heading into Mexico City
A lot of drivers leave Michigan knowing there’s a lot of opportunity over the border to make something happen with an entire summer stretch of races to turn their seasons around. With Alex Bowman finishing 27th or worse in two of the last nine races, Mexico City is a huge opportunity for the #48 team. Bowman won last year’s Chicago Street Race, so he knows how to get around road courses.
“We’ve had a lot of speed and a lot of good race cars. Obviously today, we were off from where we needed to be. But just the support that we have from Rick (Hendrick), Jeff (Gordon) and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports, they’ll give us the tools we need to get turned back around.” Bowman praised. “We just needed to get pointed back in the right direction. We’re a much better race team than this” (Bowman).
Monterrey, Mexico native, Daniel Suarez, will get to compete in his home country for the first time in years in this weekend’s Mexico City showdown and the Trackhouse Racing driver is looking to bounce back after spinning out early in the Firekeepers Casino 400, despite finishing in a solid 14th-place.
“It was an OK day for the No. 99 Jockey Infinite Cool Underwear Chevrolet team. We had speed on the long run, but on the short runs, we were getting destroyed. We were not super-fast on the straights… we struggled a lot on the straights, more than I was expecting. Overall, we rescued an OK day, but we need more” (Suarez).
Runner-up, Chris Buescher, has a lot to be proud of leaving Michigan, as the Prosper, Texas driver knows momentum is everything in modern NASCAR. Second means you’re close to scoring that first win of the season.
“That was such a fast Kroger/Heinz Ford Mustang. I really appreciate everybody on this team working so hard to put us in this situation and to have a chance to win. I’m disappointed I didn’t get it done. It’s on me. I had a couple different decisions I would love to go back and make and ultimately should have had us ahead of the 11.” Buescher recalls. “We were faster on the day and I didn’t do a good enough job. We’ll certainly take the good with it. We certainly need a little bit of good luck or fortune on our side. This is a day where we kind of made our own. We were really fast and worked hard to be there and just didn’t have any bad luck, so that put us with a shot to win. After the last handful of weeks with having speed in the first stage and qualifying and not being able to get the race finish that was certainly big, but it’s frustrating to be that close and to know that we had a car that was capable of winning. I just needed to do a better job” (Buescher).
The Viva Mexico 250 takes place Sunday at 3:00PM EST/12:00PM CST on Prime. The NASCAR Cup Series hasn’t ran on an international circuit since 1998, which took place at the Suzuka Circuit in Motegi, Japan. This weekend’s race at Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez will be 100 laps and has a purse of $12,561,250 and will be on Prime Video. Amazon Prime has a 30-day free trial and if you don’t have Prime, you are missing out!
Works Cited
Bowman, Alex. Post-Race Media Notes. Nashville Superspeedway, 2025. Provided by Chevrolet.
Buescher, Chris. Post-Race Media Notes. Nashville Superspeedway, 2025. Provided by Ford Performance.
Suarex, Daniel. Post-Race Media Notes. Nashville Superspeedway, 2025. Provided by Chevrolet.
Every Man on Every Crew, LLC. 
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