Denny Hamlin led only twice for five laps at Michigan International Speedway, but the final four were the ones that mattered as he earned his third victory of the 2025 season and 57th of his career.
Hamlin, who earlier scored consecutive victories at Martinsville and Darlington, is tied with Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell for the lead in NASCAR Cup Series victories this season.
It’s Hamlin’s ninth season with at least three victories, and he became the 18th driver with at least three wins at Michigan (his 11th track with at least three Cup wins). At 5,104 days since Hamlin’s June 19, 2011 win at the 2-mile oval, it’s the longest gap between wins at a track since Kyle Busch won at Talladega in 2023 (his first win there since 2008, a stretch of 5,474 days.
The Joe Gibbs Racing driver earned his third victory of the season.
Joe Gibbs Racing got its first win at Michigan since August 2015 with Matt Kenseth. The team has six wins this season between Bell and Hamlin.
Despite running out of fuel and finishing 28th, William Byron still leads the regular-season standings by 41 points over Hendrick Motorsports teammate Kyle Larson. Hamlin improved a spot to third in the standings ahead of Bell and Chase Elliott.
The Joe Gibbs Racing star took the lead from William Byron on Lap 197 of 200.
Here is the finishing order for the Cup race at Michigan:
1. Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Toyota
2. Chris Buescher, No. 17 Ford
3. Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Toyota
4. Bubba Wallace, No. 23 Toyota
5. Kyle Larson, No. 5 Chevrolet
6. Ross Chastain, No. 1 Chevrolet
7. Zane Smith, No. 38 Ford
8. Kyle Busch, No. 8 Chevrolet
9. Ryan Preece, No. 60 Ford
10. Brad Keselowski, No. 6 Ford
11. Erik Jones, No. 43 Toyota
12. Josh Berry, No. 21 Ford
13. Tyler Reddick, No. 45 Toyota
14. Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Chevrolet
15. Chase Elliott, No. 9 Chevrolet
16. Christopher Bell, No. 20 Toyota
17. AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Chevrolet
18. Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88 Chevrolet
19. Austin Dillon, No. 3 Chevrolet
20. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Chevrolet
21. Justin Haley, No. 7 Chevrolet
22. Joey Logano, No. 22 Ford
23. Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Toyota
24. Ty Dillon, No. 10 Chevrolet
25. Riley Herbst, No. 35 Toyota
26. Cody Ware, No. 51 Ford
27. Noah Gragson, No. 4 Ford
28. William Byron, No. 24 Chevrolet
29. Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Chevrolet
30. Michael McDowell, No. 71 Chevrolet
31. Austin Cindric, No. 2 Ford
32. Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Ford
33. Todd Gilliland, No. 34 Ford
34. John H Nemechek, No. 42 Toyota
35. Cole Custer, No. 41 Ford
36. Alex Bowman, No. 48 Chevrolet
Read the full article here
