Michigan International Speedway
History, race statistics, winners, facts, photos and race recaps.
Michigan International Speedway NASCAR Race History
CUP Race Winning Drivers
3
Kyle Larson
3
Joey Logano
2
Denny Hamlin
1
Ryan Blaney
1
Chris Buescher
1
Kyle Busch
1
Jimmie Johnson
1
Tyler ReddickCup Race Recaps
By Reid Spencer - NASCAR Wire Service
Chris Buescher seizes nail-biting victory in FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway
After the completion of the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway, we can hold the follow truths to be self-evident:
- Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing is officially “back.”
- Chris Buescher is rapidly gaining elite status as a driver.
- Ford maintained its dominance in the Irish Hills.
- Chase Elliott will have to win one of the next three races to make the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs.
- The fastest car didn’t win Sunday’s race.
In an extended, dramatic, nail-biting green-flag run to the finish, Buescher held off hard-charging Martin Truex Jr. to win his second straight Cup Series race.
With team co-owner Brad Keselowski finishing fourth and Buescher winning—the ninth straight victory for Ford drivers at the 2.0-mile speedway—RFK can claim bragging rights as the top Ford team in the Cup garage, at least for now.
When the race resumed at Lap 75 on Monday after a postponement from Sunday because of rain, Chase Elliott’s No. 9 Chevrolet wasn’t on the track, having crashed out in 36th play on Lap 35 the day before.
Elliott’s deficit to the Playoff cut line grew to 55 points; realistically, the 2020 series champion will have to win one of the next three races to avoid missing the postseason for the first time in his career.
Eight days after winning his first race of the season on the .75-mile Richmond Raceway short track, Buescher proved himself a formidable competitor lap after lap in holding off Truex, whose No. 19 Toyota arguably was the fastest car in the race.
With Truex closing the distance between the cars over the final six laps, Buescher roared off Turn 4 and crossed the finish line .152 seconds ahead of the runner-up.
“This Castrol Mustang was so good in practice, qualifying,” said Buescher, who picked up his fourth career victory. “Gave me a great car again. Had to work for that one too, hard racing at the end.
“Martin was very clean with me. I appreciate that. Get to go to Victory Lane two weeks in a row. That’s pretty awesome.”
With 13 laps to go, Truex had his best chance. Buescher slipped slightly off Turn 4, and Truex pulled alongside. The No. 19 Camry edged ahead to the inside, but Buescher doggedly kept Truex beside him for nearly two laps.
Rounding Turn 4 on Lap 188 of 400, Buescher held Truex’s car to the bottom of the track, forcing Truex to slip and lift off the gas. Truex also had to clear the lapped car of Michael McDowell as Buescher opened a gap of 10 car lengths.
That gave Buescher enough of a margin to hold off Truex for the win over the final 11 circuits.
“I think we needed maybe a little bit longer run to wear the tires some more,” said Truex, who swept the first two stages and increased his series lead to 57 points over second-place Denny Hamlin, who finished third on Monday. “I feel like we were a little better. It’s hard to pass the leader on equal tires.
“We had an unbelievable car today. Hats off to everybody that puts in the work on these things… It was a rocket. The leader in clean air is really, really hard to pass. Just didn’t quite have enough. All in all, a good day.
“Tough to get a win here. We’ve been really good in the past. Just can’t get it done. Hopefully, I don’t know, maybe next year.”
Kyle Larson finished fifth, followed by Daniel Suarez, Ross Chastain, Kevin Harvick, Ryan Blaney and Erik Jones. Ty Gibbs came home 11th and supplanted McDowell in the 16th and final Playoff-eligible position. McDowell trails Gibbs by three points, with Suarez five points back.
With Buescher winning his second race and qualifying for the postseason, all the single-race winners this season also clinched Playoff berths on Monday: Christopher Bell, Chastain, Blaney, Joey Logano, Tyler Reddick and Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Bell, the Michigan pole winner, damaged his car severely with a spin into the wall on Lap 65 on Sunday, but after repeated trips to pit road for repairs, he salvaged a 13th-place result.
By Reid Spencer - NASCAR Wire Service
Kevin Harvick breaks 65-race drought with NASCAR Cup win at Michigan
On a blustery Sunday in the Irish Hills of Michigan, Kevin Harvick saved his season.
Grabbing the lead and pulling away after a restart on Lap 166 of 200 at Michigan International Speedway, Harvick won the FireKeepeers Casino 400 by 2.903 seconds over pole winner Bubba Wallace and leap-frogged bubble-riding Martin Truex Jr. in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff standings.
Harvick’s victory ended a 65-race drought for the 46-year-old former series champion from Bakersfield, California. The win was his sixth at Michigan and his fifth in the last seven races at the 2.0-mile track.
Harvick now has 59 victories in the series, 10th-most all-time. With the win, the eighth straight at the track for Ford drivers, he is likely to qualify for the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff. Harvick is the only driver to have earned a postseason spot every year since the current elimination format was introduced in 2014, the same year he won his series title.
“Everybody who doubted us doesn’t know us,” said Harvick, who led 38 laps on Sunday, 25 more than he had led in the previous 22 races combined. “They, obviously, know we thrive in these types of situations. And a lot of things went our way today, which we haven't had all year long—have things go our way and have things fall our way.
“And then there at the end we pitted, didn't go a lap down, and the caution came out, got control of the race. That's the thing I struggled with the most today was traffic and the restarts and just having to make up ground. Once I got clear track, that baby was hunting.”
As Harvick indicated, the race broke his way. The driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford brought his car to pit road on Lap 158 for a green-flag stop. A lap later, NASCAR called the seventh caution of the afternoon when Ross Chastain’s Chevrolet and Christopher Bell’s Toyota collided in Turn 4.
Harvick remained on the lead lap and inherited the top spot when the contending cars ahead of him pitted under the yellow. With Wallace bottled up behind Joey Logano’s Ford after the Lap 166 restart, Harvick opened a gap of more than four seconds in clean air and cruised to his first win since Sept. 19, 2020 at Bristol.
Wallace was disconsolate as he replayed the final restart in his head.
“Just replaying everything I could have done,” said Wallace, who led twice for 22 laps. “Took the top there on the restart. Thought I could hang with the 4 (Harvick), and just got to racing the 5 (Kyle Larson) and the 22 (Logano). And 22 did a good job of getting another Ford contract, helping a Ford win.
“Just all in all an incredible weekend. Appreciate my team. Wished we could have got Toyota in the Victory Lane. Wish we got (sponsor) McDonald's back in victory lane. She was fast all week, man. Just I'll wear this one on my heart for a while. I failed everybody.”
Denny Hamlin finished third in arguably the fastest car in the race. On his final pit stop under caution on Lap 160, Hamlin incurred a penalty for too many men over the wall when his crew corralled a runaway tire from an adjacent pit stall.
Hamlin restarted 22nd and charged to third, 3.910 seconds behind the race winner.
Logano came home fourth, followed by Team Penske teammate Ryan Blaney. Martin Truex Jr., Larson, Erik Jones, Alex Bowman and Ty Gibbs (subbing for injured Kurt Busch) completed the top 10.
The race was delayed just over an hour due to inclement weather. That didn’t deter the fans in the grandstands, the largest crowd at Michigan International Speedway since 2016. In addition, infield camping was sold out for the weekend for the first time since 2012.
Blaney now leads Truex by 19 points for the final Playoff berth, which will be determined on points if there are no additional unique winners in the next three races.
An early nine-car accident in Turn 2 eliminated two of the top five qualifiers—Kyle Busch and Austin Cindric. Moments after a restart on Lap 25, J.J. Yeley’s No. 15 Ford got loose, checked up and turned sideways in the middle of the pack.
In the ensuing melee, Cindric’s No. 2 Ford crashed nose-first into the outside wall and Buch’s No. 18 Toyota also sustained terminal damage. The cars of Yeley, Almirola, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and rookie Harrison Burton also were knocked out of the race.
“Just chaos ensued on the restart there, and I don’t know what started it, but the 10 (Almirola) got spun in front of me, and then I got wedged between him and the wall,” said Busch, who had elected to pit on Lap 22 under a competition called because of a rainstorm that delayed the start of the race.
“When you get back there, things happen on restarts, especially when you have guys that stayed out and don’t have tires versus those that have four tires. Was not really in a hurry and knew we were coming to stage points in another 40 laps or so and it was going to be a long run to get there—and then we all just crashed.”
By Holly Cain - NASCAR Wire Service
Ryan Blaney puts Ford back in Victory Lane at Michigan
Ryan Blaney took the lead on a restart with eight laps remaining and skillfully held off a frantic field to earn the victory Sunday in the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway in the penultimate race of the NASCAR Cup Series regular season.
Those eight laps out front were the only laps Blaney's No. 12 Team Penske Ford led on the afternoon but it was good enough to give him his second victory of the season – by a modern-day track record margin of .077-second over Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron and Kyle Larson.
Blaney credited Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kyle Busch with giving him a push from behind on the final race restart to get out front and the popular 27-year-old Blaney took it from there, using all the track to keep the field behind him.
Kurt Busch and Denny Hamlin finished fourth and fifth with Matt DiBenedetto, Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr. rounding out the top 10.
"We got a great push by the 18 (Kyle Busch) on the restart and were able to get clear there," Blaney said. "Michigan you pretty much run wide open and just play the air game.
"Such a huge win for Ford," he added. "I'm fired up."
Blaney conceded he didn't necessarily consider himself an odds-on favorite coming into the race but credited his team for the improvements they made to his Ford all day. He finished runner-up at Indianapolis last week giving the organization some well-timed momentum heading into the Playoffs in two weeks.
As with his late race rally at Indy, Blaney made steady gains all afternoon. Most of the early race was a battle between Larson (71 laps), Elliott (68) and Hamlin (10) – the three drivers combining to lead 149 of the 200 laps.
Different pit strategy certainly affected the final run – with some drivers getting a variation of two-tires or four-tires with their fuel. When the final stops cycled out Byron led Larson and Hamlin. A brief caution came out for rain with 21 laps remaining and another for a seven-car accident with 14 laps to go.
"Honestly I think I was maybe a little too patient behind the 12 (Blaney)," said Larson, who leads the regular season championship standings by 28 points over Hamlin with only one race left to decide the 15-point championship bonus. "Just made a couple wrong moves and allowed Blaney to get by me.
"I was never close enough to William [Byron] to help him generate a run on the 12 (Blaney)," Larson added. "Good points day. Wish we could have gotten more, but all in all, a good day.''
Stewart-Haas Racing driver Kevin Harvick finished 14th which was good enough to secure the 15th Playoff position on points heading into Daytona.
Richard Childress Racing's Tyler Reddick is in 16th place after an eventful 29th-place finish. He holds a slim 25-point edge on his teammate Austin Dillon for the 16th and final Playoff position. DiBenedetto is 18th, 120 points behind meaning he would have to win at Daytona to qualify for the Playoffs.
It all certainly makes for a compelling Coke Zero 400 next Saturday.
But for much of the Michigan race, it looked like Dillon was in position to hold the upper edge going to Daytona. He ran top five (led a pair of laps) and moved that Playoff duel into a tie following the Stage 1 break.
But contact between Brad Keselowski and Dillon just after taking the Stage 2 checkered flag spun Dillon's No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet across the track and hard into the wall. Dillon had crossed the line sixth and Keselowski seventh before the contact.
For his part, Keselowski immediately radioed his crew, "Man, I didn't want to do that, I just wanted to hold him down (track)."
After being released from the infield care center, Dillon said he watched a replay and didn't understand the hard racing after taking the Stage flag.
"I was just trying to get as many stage points as I could get," Dillon said. "Did a good job side-drafting. I was starting to come off the apron because it's so rough down there. I figured by that point, he'd give me some room.
"Just hate it. I don't know why it happened really. I thought I had a little room to come up and he just held me down there a little too long, I guess."
Daytona has been a good venue for Dillon. The grandson of team owner Richard Childress won the 2018 Daytona 500 and has eight top-10 finishes in 16 starts including a third-place back in February.
The NASCAR Cup Series regular season finale, the Coke Zero Sugar 400, will be Saturday at 7 p.m. ET (NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). And William Byron is the defending race winner.
XFINITY Race Winning Drivers
1
Justin Allgaier
1
AJ Allmendinger
1
Austin Dillon
1
Ty Gibbs
1
John Hunter Nemechek
1
Tyler Reddick| DATE | RACE | WINNER | # | MAKE | ST | TEAM | CREW CHIEF | LAPS | TIME |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 08-2024 | Cabo Wabo 250 | Justin Allgaier | 7 | Chevrolet | 16th | JR Motorsports | Jim Pohlman | 128 | 02:21:15 |
| 08-2023 | Cabo Wabo 250 | John Hunter Nemechek | 20 | Toyota | 10th | Joe Gibbs Racing | Ben Beshore | 125 | 02:00:04 |
| 08-2022 | New Holland 250 | Ty Gibbs | 54 | Toyota | 9th | Joe Gibbs Racing | Chris Gayle | 125 | 01:45:55 |
| 08-2021 | New Holland 250 | AJ Allmendinger | 16 | Chevrolet | 2nd | Kaulig Racing | Jason Trinchere | 139 | 02:24:16 |
| 06-2019 | Lti Printing 250 | Tyler Reddick | 2 | Chevrolet | 10th | Richard Childress Racing | Randall Burnett | 125 | 01:52:29 |
| 06-2018 | LTi Printing 250 | Austin Dillon | 3 | Chevrolet | 13th | Richard Childress Racing | Nick Harrison | 91 | 01:45:57 |
| 06-2017 | Irish Hills 250 | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 125 | 02:00:19 |
| 06-2016 | Menards 250 presente… | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 125 | 01:36:11 |
| 06-2015 | Great Clips 250 bene… | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | -- | 125 | 01:53:09 |
Xfinity Race Recaps
By Holly Cain - NASCAR Wire Service
Justin Allgaier wins overtime Xfinity Series race at Michigan
Justin Allgaier used pit strategy and a fast No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet to take the lead of Saturday’s Cabo Wabo 250 at Michigan International Speedway with 16 laps of regulation remaining and then held off the field in two laps of overtime – before a caution came out ending the race for an accident mid-field.
Allgaier pit for fuel seven laps later than the next six front-runners at the time, returned to the track and ultimately – methodically – picked each car off to claim the late lead. He took the white flag signaling one lap remaining and a few moments later one of the late-race leaders Carson Kvapil hit the wall in what became a chain reaction melee involving Chandler Smith and Kyle Sieg, whose car flipped end-over-end. Sieg was able to quickly climb out of his car and walked to the waiting medical crew.
Meanwhile Allgaier took the yellow and checkered flags just ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing’s Sheldon Creed, JGR’s John Hunter Nemechek, Our Motorsports’ Anthony Alfredo and JR Motorsports’ Sammy Smith.
It’s the sixth consecutive top-10 finish in as many races for the 38-year-old Allgaier, who with the win – the 25th of his career – is now 10th on the NASCAR Xfinity Series all-time win list moving ahead of his team owner, NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Earnhardt Jr.
A bright rainbow hung in the sky as the field sat on pit road just before the overtime re-start as NASCAR track workers dried the famed two-mile Michigan track after the second brief rain shower of the day.
Asked to rally again, Allgaier proved his muster, ultimately passing his teammate Sammy Smith on the re-start and then holding off both JGR teammates Creed and defending race winner Nemechek for his second victory of the season.
“Just cannot say thank you enough to this team and all these guys standing right here,” Allgaier said. “It’s been an incredible week. We did not show up at [the last race in] Indianapolis like we wanted to and these guys have worked tirelessly through this break.
“It’s truly special, winning at Michigan.”
It was a record 11th runner-up finish for Creed – breaking a tie with current NASCAR Cup Series driver and former Xfinity Series champion Daniel Hemric and NASCAR Hall of Famer Dale Jarrett for most second-place finishes in the series without a win.
Trophy or not, it was a productive day for Creed, who started from pole position and also announced before the race that he signed a multi-year contract to drive for the new Haas Factory Team in the series next season. He was among the seven race leaders, out front for 23 laps and his rally to runner-up that more impressive considering he spun out while leading early in the race.
“This one might have frustrated me the most out of all of them so far,” Creed said. “I had a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota GR Supra as fast as Xfinity internet today, and led the beginning, got spun there and rallied back.
“I was probably too conservative behind the 20 (John Hunter Nemechek) trying to save fuel. I was a couple, few laps short on fuel there and the 7 (Justin Allgaier) was in a little bit better spot, and once the 7 got around both of us, and the 88 (Carson Kvapil), I know I needed to go. I probably set behind the 20 another two laps and then charged and was running the 7 down. Just had a really good car, but that caution for rain came at a bad time for us.”
NASCAR Cup Series regular Noah Gragson, Matt DiBenedetto, NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship contender Taylor Gray, Caesar Bacarella and A.J. Allmendinger rounded out the top-10. It marks only the third top-10 of Bacarella’s career.
With five regular season races remaining, Sammy Smith moves into the 12th place in the championship standings holding the final Playoff position by a single point over Ryan Sieg, who won Stage 1 and finished 13th on Saturday.
Cole Custer finished an uncharacteristic 30th-place after his Ford suffered damage in a mid-race accident. The defending series champion continues to lead the regular season championship, but his advantage has been trimmed now to only 12 points over race winner Allgaier.
By Reid Spencer - NASCAR Wire Service
John Hunter Nemechek scores milestone win for Joe Gibbs Racing
Overcoming an early wreck, a late caution and an angry teammate, John Hunter Nemechek claimed a milestone victory in Saturday’s Cabo Wabo 250 at Michigan International Speedway.
The NASCAR Xfinity win was the 200th in the series for Joe Gibbs Racing. For Nemechek, it was the fifth victory of the season and the seventh of his career—all at different tracks.
After Patrick Emerling pounded the Turn 3 wall to cause the seventh and final caution of the race on Lap 112, Nemechek pulled away from pole winner Josh Berry after a restart with seven of the scheduled 125 laps left.
Nemechek crossed the finish line 1.495 seconds ahead of Berry, with Brandon Jones, defending race winner Ty Gibbs and Sam Mayer finishing third, fourth and fifth, respectively.
After he took the checkered flag, however, Nemechek tempered his victory celebration with contrition for a Lap 11 incident where he, Gibbs and fellow JGR teammate Sammy Smith stacked up on the backstretch.
Nemechek slid up behind Gibbs and got Gibbs’ No. 19 Toyota loose. A tap from Nemechek sent his teammate spinning. When Nemechek checked up, Smith rear-ended the No. 20 Toyota and turned Nemechek down toward the apron.
As the cars circled under the ensuing caution, Gibbs pulled up beside Nemechek and expressed his displeasure with an angry gesture.
The wreck knocked Smith’s car out of the race and also critically damaged the No. 77 Chevrolet of Carson Hocevar, who finished two laps down in 32nd.
“I have to apologize to Ty,” Nemechek said after exiting his car. “I’ve been the one who’s been very vocal about teammates here recently. I put him in a bad aero spot. I got him loose, and he couldn’t check up.
“It’s my mistake. I hate that we both spun early, but at least we were able to rebound. I know he’s not too happy with me, and he has every right not to be.”
Berry’s No. 8 JR Motorsports Chevrolet wasn’t handling well enough to allow the polesitter to take advantage of the final restart.
“We just felt really tight that last run,” Berry said. “I was kind of inching in on him for a while (before the last caution), and then we kind of leveled out… Overall, we were a little too tight to make a run at him there.”
Berry’s teammate, Justin Allgaier, had ample reason to be the race’s most disappointed driver. Allgaier won the first 30-lap stage wire-to-wire, but a slow pit stop during the break cost him eight positions in the running order.
After Allgaier worked his way to second by the end of Stage 2, a pit road penalty for a crewman over the wall too soon during a green-flag stop on Lap 97 sent him deep in the field. Allgaier finished 14th in arguably the fastest car in the race.
With the victory, Nemechek gained a tie with Austin Hill for the series lead. Nemechek owns the potential tiebreaker with five victories to Hill’s four.
Riley Herbst, Ross Chastain, Parker Kligerman, Parker Retzlaff and Jeb Burton completed the top 10.
By Reid Spencer - NASCAR Wire Service
Ty Gibbs picks up ninth career NASCAR Xfinity win at Michigan
Taking control of the race in the final stage, Ty Gibbs sped to his NASCAR Xfinity Series-best fifth victory of the season in Saturday’s New Holland 250 at Michigan International Speedway.
The tenor of the race changed markedly near the end of the second stage when pole winner Noah Gragson opted to stay on the track and compete for the stage win on the high-speed 2.0-mile track.
Gibbs had pitted under caution on Lap 55 and inherited the lead when Gragson and others who had stayed out until the completion of the stage came to pit road during the stage break.
The race ran caution-free from the final restart Lap 68 to the finish on Lap 125, and Gibbs beat runner-up Justin Allgaier to the stripe by 1.160 seconds. Gragson worked his way up to third but trailed Gibbs by 2.472 seconds at the finish.
“I think this type of racing shows the strategy in the pit stops,” said Gibbs, who led twice for a race-high 54 laps, matching the number of his No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. “My guys did such a great job. I work out with them during the week, so I see how hard they work. They do a great job—every one of them.
“So I'm very thankful and glad to be part of the organization that motivates me like that week in and week out—not motivates, because that's temporary—but being relentless, and I feel like that's what they showed me.”
The victory was Gibbs first at Michigan and the ninth in 39 Xfinity Series starts for a remarkable winning percentage of 23.08.
Allgaier opted for the same strategy as Gibbs, but a slow green-flag pit stop on Lap 100 cost him a chance to compete for the win.
“I pitted to try and get clear of some lapped cars, and, unfortunately, we merged back on the race track right behind those same lapped cars, right before they made their pit stops,” Allgaier said. “So not only did we have to contend with getting by them, as soon as we got by them, they all pitted.
“Second place is tough, but my daughter’s birthday’s on Monday, so we’ll celebrate, even though it’s second.”
Gragson’s No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet arguably was the fastest car in the race, but strategy and the absence of cautions in the final stage doomed his prospects.
“We won the first stage and then had a caution with about five to go in the second stage and opted to stay out, won the second stage (by .035 seconds of AJ Allmendinger),” Gragson said. “Then just flipped.
“Restarted the third stage 12th, and that kind of hurt us there at the end, but overall good day for our Bass Pro Shops, Black Rifle Camaro. We were running him down—just needed more laps there at the end.”
Brandon Jones and Austin Hill finished fourth and fifth, respectively. Josh Berry, Allmendinger, Daniel Hemric, Riley Herbst and Landon Cassill completed the top 10.
By Holly Cain - NASCAR Wire Service
AJ Allmendinger's dream continues with Xfinity Series victory at Michigan
Standing in front of an enthusiastic Michigan International Speedway grandstands after his victory burnout, Kaulig Racing's A.J. Allmendinger paused and took in the cheering crowd – on its feet and chanting his name 'AJ. AJ. AJ."
It was the second time in the past week that Allmendinger earned a trip to NASCAR Victory Lane. On Saturday he prevailed in triple overtime to take the New Holland 250 win – the third of the season and the eighth NASCAR Xfinity Series win of his career. He beat Joe Gibbs Racing driver Brandon Jones to the line by a mere .163-seconds and actually thanked Jones for the push on that last restart to let the two decided the trophy between themselves.
It was a high-action day on the Michigan high-banks, with Allmendinger answering his NASCAR Cup Series win at Indianapolis last week by leading a race best 70 of the 139 Xfinity Series laps on Saturday afternoon at Michigan.
'Whoa, I'm more tired from the celebrations than I am the driving," the 39-year old Allmendinger joked after climbing out of his No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet and telling the crowd, 'Thank you so much, guys."
'When you restart on the front row, the outside was the place to be. And you also have to just hope you got a push and Brandon Jones, thank you so much. He pushed me every time.
"I don't want to wake up from this dream," Allmendinger added. And while it may have been dream-like for Allmendinger, the outcome was definitely not that for several other of the series' normal frontrunners.
The bottom of the scoreboard read like the top normally would. Championship points leader and five-race winner Austin Cindric, Daniel Hemric, Justin Haley and Myatt Snider were all involved in a Lap 36 seven-car incident. Brandon Brown, who went into the race ranked 14th, hoping to point his way into the Playoffs during the final four regular season races was also involved. Cindric, who won the opening 30-lap Stage 1, Hemric, Snider and Brown were unable to finish the race. And Haley, who is Allmendinger's Kaulig Racing teammate, was able to continue and salvage a 17th-place finish.
'We just got collected in a wreck by the cars that decided to stay out," Team Penske's Cindric said. 'I thought we had the fastest car out there today. In some ways I feel like that is a bold statement coming from me, but our guys did an amazing job on this Ford Mustang and I wish we could have contended for the rest of the race because I think we would have had a shot."
Ty Gibbs, a two-race winner even though he is only competing part-time in 2021, made a solid run for another trophy, but spun out while running top 10 in the second overtime. He said on Twitter following the race, 'Looks like I ran out a talent."
JR Motorsports drivers Noah Gragson and Josh Berry (who drove the No. 1 Chevrolet for injured Michael Annett) finished third and fourth with Berry leading an impressive 24 laps and keeping Allmendinger honest in the closing laps. Harrison Burton rounded out the top five.
Justin Allgaier, Riley Herbst, Brett Moffitt, rookie Jade Buford and NASCAR Cup Series regular Bubba Wallace rounded out the top 10.
There are now four races remaining to set the season's 12-driver Playoff field. The NASCAR Xfinity Series' next race is the Wawa 250 under the lights at Daytona International Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET on NBCSN, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
TRUCKS Race Winning Drivers
2
Brett Moffitt
1
Kyle Busch
1
Austin Hill
1
Zane Smith
1
Bubba Wallace| DATE | RACE | WINNER | # | MAKE | ST | TEAM | CREW CHIEF | LAPS | TIME |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 08-2020 | Henry Ford Health Sy… | Zane Smith | 21 | Chevrolet | 7th | GMS Racing | Bono Manion | 107 | 02:12:29 |
| 08-2019 | Corrigan Oil 200 | Austin Hill | 16 | Toyota | 6th | Hattori Racing Enterprises | Scott Zipadelli | 105 | 01:50:54 |
| 08-2018 | Corrigan Oil 200 | Brett Moffitt | 16 | Toyota | 21st | Hattori Racing | Scott Zipadelli | 100 | 01:32:11 |
| 08-2017 | LTi Printing 200 | Bubba Wallace | 99 | Chevrolet | 9th | Matthew Miller | Shane Huffman | 100 | 01:34:52 |
| 08-2016 | Careers for Veterans… | Brett Moffitt | 11 | Toyota | 6th | Tom DeLoach | Scott Zipadelli | 100 | 01:47:24 |
| 08-2015 | Careers for Veterans… | Kyle Busch | 51 | Toyota | 10th | -- | Jerry Baxter | 100 | 01:33:04 |
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Michigan Facts
- Backstretch Banking: 5-degrees
- Backstretch Length: 2,242 feet
- Frontstretch Banking: 12-degrees
- Frontstretch Length: 3,600 feet
- Track Width Straightaways: 45 feet wide with 12-foot apron
- Track Width Turns: 73 feet wide with 10-foot apron
- Turns 1 & 2 Banking: 18-degrees
- Turns 3 & 4 Banking: 18-degrees
Accupredict Similar
Track groupings used in my driver projections.
Compare the degree of track banking at this and other groups of tracks.
Michigan Trivia
- The first NASCAR Cup Series race was 500 miles in length; the second was scheduled for 600. The track was re-measured to 2.04 miles for the last race in 1970 and both races in 1971 – with the race distance being 402 miles. All other races have been scheduled for 400 miles.
- Donnie Allison won the inaugural pole at Michigan in 1969 with a speed of 160.135 mph (Ford).
- Michigan International Speedway sits on more than 1,400 acres in the "Irish Hills" of Southeastern Michigan. Ground-breaking took place on Sept. 28, 1967.
- Other than 1973, which had just one race, there have been two races each season since 1969 through until the 2021 season which had only one.
- The 2-mile speedway underwent a repave in 2012.
- The first NASCAR Cup Series race at Michigan was held June 15, 1969 – won by NASCAR Hall of Famer Cale Yarborough in the Wood Brothers' No. 21 Mercury at a speed of 139.254 mph.
- The first NASCAR Cup Series race held in the state of Michigan was at Grand River Speedrome in Grand Rapids, Michigan on July 1, 1951. The race was won by Marshall Teague from the pole in a Hudson.
- The track was known as Michigan Speedway during the time Roger Penske was the primary owner (1996 - 1999).
Michigan History
Michigan International Speedway (MIS) is a two-mile (3.2 km) moderate-banked D-shaped speedway located off U.S. Highway 12 on more than 1,400 acres (5.7 km2) approximately four-mile (6.4 km) south of the village of Brooklyn, in the scenic Irish Hills area of southeastern Michigan. The track is used primarily for NASCAR events. It is sometimes known as a "sister track" to Texas World Speedway, and was used as the basis of Auto Club Speedway. The track is owned by International Speedway Corporation (ISC).
Michigan International Speedway is recognized as one of motorsports' premier facilities because of its wide racing surface and high banking (by open-wheel standards; the 18-degree banking is modest by stock car standards). Michigan is the fastest track in NASCAR due to its wide, sweeping corners, long straightaways, and lack of a restrictor plate requirement; typical qualifying speeds are in excess of 200 mph (320 km/h) and corner entry speeds are anywhere from 215 to 220 mph (346 to 354 km/h) after the 2012 repaving of the track.
Source: Wikipedia