NASCAR Michigan takeaways: Denny Hamlin rallies for another win, pays tribute to Kyle Busch
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NASCAR Michigan takeaways: Denny Hamlin rallies for another win, pays tribute to Kyle Busch

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BROOKLYN, Mich. — From the back to the front, Denny Hamlin did it again Sunday in winning the NASCAR Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway. It was the second time in as many weeks that Hamlin overcame an early setback that dropped him from pole to the rear of the field to earn the victory.

Last week, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver was penalized for jumping the initial start that required he rally back. This week, unapproved adjustments made to Hamlin’s car Saturday forced him to vacate the preferred starting position. And yet the result remained the same.

Sunday’s triumph came by way of Hamlin executing a daring three-wide pass of Spire Motorsports teammates Daniel Suarez and Carson Hocevar to take the lead with 38 laps remaining. Not only was it a lead Hamlin wouldn’t relinquish, but he was also never challenged. He won by a whopping 11.11 seconds over second-place Erik Jones. Bubba Wallace finished third, with Kyle Larson and Hocevar completing the top five.

The win marked the 63rd of Hamlin’s career, moving him into a tie with the late Kyle Busch for ninth on NASCAR’s career wins list. Hamlin and Busch were teammates at JGR for 15 years, and Hamlin surpassing Busch comes less than two weeks after Busch shockingly died at age 41.

Paying tribute to his late friend, Hamlin held a flag out the window during his victory lap bearing Busch’s car numbers — the No. 18 Busch carried at JGR and the No. 8 he had at Richard Childress Racing. After Hamlin got out of his car, he then performed Busch’s signature victory bow.

“Great job, guys. Great car.” Hamlin said over the radio. “Unbelievable. We love you, KB.”

Hamlin joins NASCAR’s 50-50 Club

Hamlin joined an exclusive club Saturday by winning his 50th career pole position, becoming just the seventh driver in NASCAR history to have at least 50 poles and 50 career Cup Series wins.

The others are a who’s who of NASCAR legends: Richard Petty, David Pearson, Jeff Gordon, Darrell Waltrip, Bobby Allison and Cale Yarborough.

“Those are legends. And then there’s me,” Hamlin said.

But Hamlin had to start at the rear of the field after he had a flat tire in practice and damaged the underbody of his car, requiring the team to make a change — known as an unapproved adjustment in NASCAR’s eyes — and give up the No. 1 starting spot (though he retained it for official records).

– Jeff Gluck

Big crash collects several contenders

Tyler Reddick had one of the fastest cars Sunday, but the series points leader didn’t see the finish after being collected in a pileup that also ensnared several contenders. The wreck occurred on a Lap 83 restart that saw the leaders stacked up just after the green flag, causing several of them to spin with the field bearing down.

Among those involved were Reddick and Hamlin, the top drivers in points, along with Toyota teammates Ty Gibbs, John Hunter Nemechek and Wallace, plus the Chevrolets of Austin Dillon and Hocevar. Reddick and Dillon suffered the worst of it, with their cars damaged beyond repair, while the others were able to continue.

In the aftermath, fingers quickly pointed at Hocevar as the culprit. Rivals deemed he was too aggressive on the restart, attempting to jump out of line before he was able to clear Nemechek, which turned Nemechek sideways.

“Any time their eyes are that close together, it means they’ve got a small brain,” Dillon team owner Richard Childress said on the team radio.

Replays showed it may not have been entirely Hocevar’s fault, however. Just ahead of Hocevar was Larson, who seemed to lag to cause the stack-up. Nonetheless, Hocevar’s reputation as a sometimes overly aggressive driver does him no favors, thereby losing him any benefit of the doubt.

“I hope at some point (Hocevar) figures it out,” Dillon told Prime. “I know I’m not going to show anything to him for a long time.”

Regardless of who’s to blame, for Reddick it resulted in him posting his worst finish (35th) of the season. Adding to the frustration, his No. 45 car had great speed, which propelled him to the Stage 1 win, and he was well positioned to get his sixth victory. Instead, he took a big points hit that saw his lead fall from 97 to 51 over Hamlin in second place.

“We were set up with a good restart to get second there, and maybe race for the lead there, and just an all-around bummer,” Reddick said. “I wanted to come in here and have a good points day; we had really, really good speed yesterday and it showed again today. All in all, it’s a bummer. It’s a race I felt like we could have won, got away from us. All year long, we’ve done a really good job at staying out of messes like this, so it’s unfortunate to have it happen.”

– Jordan Bianchi

Chase Elliott and Christopher Bell uninjured in hard crash

Both Chase Elliott and Christopher Bell escaped injury and walked away from a violent crash that left their competitors immediately asking about their well-being.

Racing for the second position on the high-speed track, Elliott was underneath Bell as they sped through Turn 3 when Elliott’s car broke loose and spun into Bell. This caused Bell’s car to shoot up the track, where it went nose-first into the outside wall, with Elliott’s car then making heavy contact with Bell’s car. The impact was so hard it severely damaged the wall, necessitating a red flag stoppage to make repairs.

“Holy s—, please tell me that guy’s all right,” Wallace radioed his team. “My God, that was the scariest hit I’ve ever seen.”

After each driver quickly removed themselves from their car without assistance, Elliott walked over to Bell to apologize. The exchange concluded with each patting the other on the back. They were then transported to the infield care center, where they were evaluated and released.

“I’m fine; it was totally my fault,” Elliott said. “I feel really bad for Bell, just taking him out. I was trying to run on the bottom and make use of our fresh tires and at least get to second and hopefully stay side by side with him. I got in there and got free and thought I was going to spin and was committing to spin out, and as soon as I started to commit to spinning, it just hooked up and hooked a right. Unfortunately, it sent Christopher into the wall super hard, and then me shortly there behind.”

While Bell was released, his team owner, Joe Gibbs, said Bell is dealing with possible injuries to his wrist and ankle, and he will need to be monitored this week.

The caution was the 10th of the race, tying a track record. That mark fell just a short while later on the ensuing restart following the Bell-Elliott incident, when another nine-car wreck broke out mid-pack. On the day, 11 cautions slowed the race for 54 laps.

– Bianchi

Nightmare stretch

Rookie Connor Zilisch can’t get out of his own way right now.

The 19-year-old is in the midst of a terrible stretch in which he has now finished last for three straight races. Zilisch spun twice in the opening 10 laps on Sunday at Michigan, the second time doing significant damage to his No. 88 Trackhouse Racing car.

Zilisch, who entered the series with a wave of hype after winning 10 O’Reilly Series races last season, is mired in 34th in the Cup Series standings — the second lowest of any full-time driver.

– Gluck

Another sellout crowd

Though Michigan has far fewer grandstands than in its peak years, the track has seen a considerable revival and announced a sellout crowd Sunday morning after also selling out its infield camping spots in November.

Michigan is the third straight NASCAR race to announce a sellout. Charlotte’s Coca-Cola 600 was a sellout on Memorial Day weekend, and Nashville Superspeedway sold out for a fourth straight year last Sunday night.

Pocono Raceway has also been selling out in recent years, meaning NASCAR could see four straight sold-out races heading into its high-profile race on San Diego’s Naval Station Coronado in two weeks.

– Gluck



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