Denny Hamlin joins a select group of Michigan winners

The pilot of the Toyota Joe Gibbs Racing's No. 11 didn't wait long to join the club, winning his 701st Cup race! In his nearly twenty-year career, Hamlin has now amassed 57 victories in the premier class, including three in a 2025 season that is off to a similarly successful start as the previous ones, as the halfway point of the season slowly approaches.

The 44-year-old driver had to be patient and restrained to achieve this victory, which, as is often the case in Michigan, came down to fuel consumption. Hamlin methodically made his way back to the leaders late in the race before attacking until he reached the rear bumper of William Byron's Chevrolet (Hendrick Motorsports). Byron dominated the race, leading nearly half of the 200-lap race, but could only be credited with 28th place after running out of fuel with two laps to go.

Hamlin didn't suffer the same fate, managing to maintain a one-second lead over Chris Buescher (RFK Racing), who had come back from the devil at the end of the race with his Ford. After a victory lap and a few burnouts, the #11 Camry's fuel tank was quickly empty, but Denny Hamlin never doubted his ability to finish: “Not really. I wanted to take the lead, and obviously he [Byron] did a really good job of defending. The whole team stepped up. It's a good job. We've been really fast all year, but sometimes we couldn't close it out with a win. It's really nice to do that at Michigan, a track where we've been so close so many times.”

Once again, it was young Carson Hocevar (Spire Motorsports) who blew up the final whistle, taking the lead in the final quarter, before suffering a rear-left tire with 19 laps to go. While the Michigan native knew he probably couldn't finish the race on his stock fuel, a caution could have allowed him to compete for his first victory in front of his home crowd...

The platoon of NASCAR is now preparing for the long journey from Michigan in the northern United States to Mexico for the race scheduled for this weekend at the Autódromo Hermanos Rodriguez in Mexico City, which has also hosted the Mexican Grand Prix for the past ten years. Formula 1.

NASCAR – Michigan
The classification of the race

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