You can’t keep a good driver down. Denny Hamlin proved it in Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway.
The polesitter, who was forced to start at the rear of the field due to repairs to his car following a cut tire in Saturday’s practice session, suffered a mid-race spin during a multi-car incident on Lap 84. Hamlin would snag the lead from Daniel Suarez with 39 laps remaining in an incredible move following the final restart of the race, and he wouldn’t look back.
Race Results: FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan
Hamlin would scoot away from the field, and fittingly, on the week that Ned Jarrett, a two-time NASCAR Cup Series driver who drove the No. 11 throughout his career, died at the age of 93, the driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota took the victory by a margin of 11.11 seconds over Erik Jones, the driver of the No. 43 LEGACY MOTOR CLUB Toyota.
After climbing from his race car, Hamlin credited his No. 11 team for giving him an incredible car, which made the dominant finish possible.
“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.”
The win marked the 63rd of Hamlin’s illustrious NASCAR Cup Series career, which put him into a tie for ninth all-time with Kyle Busch, who passed away tragically a few weeks ago at the age of 41.
After picking up the win, Hamlin was handed a Kyle Busch tribute flag, which he would wave to the crowd out his driver’s side window, as he performed celebratory burnouts.
When asked whether he could put into words how much the win means to him, given the tragic few weeks that the NASCAR community has endured, Hamlin said, “No. 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.”
Hamlin continued, “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.”
Jones, who felt he had a car capable of winning the race, was frustrated to come home empty-handed, but admits that if the planets don’t align perfectly, it’s hard to win in the NASCAR Cup Series.
“I think we would have won, I really think we had the best car, it just didn’t work out perfect,” Jones said. “Everything has to work out really well, and some things just didn’t go right at the end. Denny got out front, and drove away, and we had to work through some traffic.”
While he wasn’t celebrating his fourth career win on Sunday afternoon, Jones was able to secure his best finish since his win in the Southern 500 at Darlington Raceway in 2022.
Bubba Wallace was able to hang on for a third-place finish on a day when he, at times, looked capable of winning the race.
Toward the end of the race, it looked like his car faded a bit, but he came on strong on the final run to record a third-place result.
Kyle Larson would come home with a fourth-place result, just his second top-five finish in his last six starts.
Carson Hocevar, who desperately wanted to win at his home track, and possibly stepped over the line of aggressiveness at points in the day trying to make it happen, would finish fifth, driving the No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet.
Daniel Suarez, Joey Logano, Ryan Blaney, Chris Buescher, and Chase Briscoe rounded out the top-10 finishers in the race.
The race was marred by two really hard crashes, the first coming on a restart at Lap 83.
Hocevar would make contact with the rear of John Hunter Nemechek’s No. 42 Toyota as the field accelerated for the green flag. This sent Nemechek skidding into Bubba Wallace’s left rear corner, which sent Wallace into Ty Gibbs’ right rear corner.
That contact sent Gibbs into Tyler Reddick, who led 33 laps early in the race.
Reddick would spin to the inside of the track, where he would impact the inside wall very hard. That impact shot Reddick back across the track, where he would collect Austin Dillon for a second massive impact.
Big names involved in this stage 2 incident ? #NASCARonPrime pic.twitter.com/8aupQB9xpN
— Sports on Prime (@SportsonPrime) June 7, 2026
Trouble would occur near the front of the field again on Lap 148, as Chase Elliott, who was battling Christopher Bell for the runner-up position, would lose control of his No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in Turn 4. Elliott shot hard right into Bell’s No. 20 car, which sent both drivers hard into the outside wall.
Such an insane crash. Incredible impacts. Amazing that both were able to climb from their cars under their own power. #NASCAR pic.twitter.com/yUm4RXMSA8
— Toby Christie (@Toby_Christie) June 7, 2026
The impact from Bell’s car into the SAFER barrier caused damage to the wall, which led to a 20-minute red flag for repairs.
Thankfully, both drivers were able to walk away from the crash, and Elliott consoled Bell after the crash, and apologized before they were driven to the infield care center.
Chase Elliott checks in on Christopher Bell after a hard wreck at Michigan. #NASCARonPrime pic.twitter.com/kOF0G3GPJ1
— Sports on Prime (@SportsonPrime) June 7, 2026
