BRISTOL, Mich. — Denny Hamlin’s life hasn’t been easy recently. He’s waiting on the birth of his baby and his team is dealing with a lawsuit that could have profound impacts on how they race.
But on Sunday afternoon, none of that seemed to affect him at Michigan International Speedway in the FireKeepers Casino 400 as he claimed his 57th career NASCAR Cup Series victory, ranking him 11th on the all-time list.
Hamlin passed William Byron with three laps remaining in the race and held on as Byron ran out of fuel. Hamlin, himself, had just enough gas left for a burnout. It was Hamlin’s third career win at Michigan and his first since Aug. 21, 2011.
During his celebration after the race, Hamlin taunted a crowd – which was offering a mixture of boos and cheers – by breaking out Ohio State’s ‘O-S-U’ chant, leaning into his role as a provocateur.
Chase Briscoe led on pole at the start of the race, but it wasn’t long before William Byron took the lead. Stage 1 was a clean affair with no cautions – a statement that would not be true for the remainder of the race. Chris Buescher, who started in sixth, pursued Byron for much of the stage, eventually overtaking him at Lap 35. Buescher won Stage 1.
In Stage 2, anarchy broke out on the track. Lead changes abounded as yellow flag after yellow flag waved from the finish line. The starting order was mixed at the start as teams pitted, and one notable jump was from Carson Hocevar, a native of Portage, Michigan, who moved from 10th at the end of Stage 1 to third at the beginning of Stage 2.
Ultimately, though, that wouldn’t matter. A yellow flag followed by a red flag on a crash on Turn 2 at Lap 67 that took out Alex Bowman and Cole Custer, along with the pit changes drivers opted for, scrambled the order again and again. Byron proved steady again, winning Stage 2 as well despite all the cautions.
At one point, Michigan native Brad Keselowski was in the top four, but lost it after Ryan Blaney spun into the fence for the final caution of the second stage. Exiting that caution, Hocevar executed one of the best passes of the day, slingshotting himself into third place around both Tyler Reddick and Ross Chastain to claim third at the end of the stage.
The Portage native wasn’t done, either. More cautions came in Stage 3, but Hocevar took the lead after a rear-tire blowout from Todd Gilliland gave the field the seventh caution of the day. As fuel concerns became more prescient, Byron seemed content to sit behind Hocevar until late in the race.
He wouldn’t need to, though. On Lap 182, Hocevar suddenly began slowing, dropping place after place at Turn 3 as his tire blew out. Byron retook the lead as Denny Hamlin loomed behind him, pushing the No. 24 car to use more and more fuel.
As the laps ticked down, Hamlin kept pushing Byron, and at Lap 196, the two of them battled for the lead for an entire lap. Hamlin eventually made the pass and took the lead with three laps remaining in the race.
And with just enough gas, Hamlin crossed the finish line to win the day.