NASCAR Cup Series Highlights | 2026 Michigan International Speedway

Multiple vehicles involved and some big names. What in the world? We love this racetrack. It's big, it's fast, it's wide open, it's unpredictable. Turn 1 is one of the fastest in NASCAR. Every driver knows when you come here, speed is the name of the game. All the Toyotas are doing really, really well. The Chevrolets are getting closer though. Are they close enough to really take the fight to them today? And the Fords, where are they at? Hometown Boy, front row, leading us to the green. Time to let it rip at MIS. Restarts here are going to be wild for at least a couple of laps, a lot of 2 and 3 wide throughout the field. And it's really tough to make things work good when you're on the bottom. You get bottom down in the throttle, in the power band, can't really accelerate off the corners. You see Bubba Wallace losing a spot there, off into Turn 1 to the 17th, gains it back in the middle of the corner. But if you're stuck on the inside of somebody, Steve, off the corner, they're going to carry momentum down the straightaway, pass you right back. Here goes the 17, trying to get right back by Bubba. That's the tough part that Trevor talked about in the pre-race. Making that move to the inside, you better be able to clear the 17 here so you can get back up in the outside line down the straightaway or else he and maybe more cars go by. Oh, we got a spin. The 88. Contact. Man. Third straight week, he's had a problem early in the race. Right here, he gets to the outside and gets loose. So when you peak to the outside, the right side of the car in front of you, so he's on the outside of the 47, that will make your car extremely loose, and you've got to be ready for it. Josevar Reddick, front row. They're coming through the poet restart zone. Green again at Michigan. Very similar to the first start of the race where Josevar gets clear. Bradley Hurst jumps to the bottom three wide. The question is, it looks good now. Can he exit? Look at the top. Zane Smith in the 38 will take the 35 four wide now. Boy, a little bounce there coming through the corner for the 38 of Zane Smith. Three wide. Three wide for the lead. Ty Gibbs says, I want it. He's going to get it down low. Underneath Reddick and Josevar, but 77 wound up in the outside lane. Josevar up the racetrack. Can he finish the pass? Looks like he's going to clear Gibbs. And you know why Josevar was able to do that? He had the confidence to do that from having the laps in the truck race and running that line. That's a little bit of an advantage to anybody who ran the truck race yesterday. Send it off in there in the turn in that third lane. We've not ran above that second seam on this repave since they put the new pavement down in 2012. And now we're seeing cars get up there. Look at that patience right there with the prime on board with Chase Elliott. Had a little bit of run to the 54, but just pushes him out. He just knew if he got left, he wouldn't be able to clear him. So he's now going to run a half a lane higher, try to get that momentum. He knows, Dale, that if he pulls out of line, like you've said multiple times, he has to clear that car in front. He's almost patient to settle in fourth. Oh, we got another car spinning around. Oh, yep. Going around down the back straight. Oh, hell, it's again. Oh, man. It's going to make contact with the inside wall here. He got up the racetrack into, like, the fourth groove. Got in the dirt. Gosh, man. Oh, my God. Yeah. He's so frustrated right now. This is just the way it is. I wish I could talk to him right now and calm him down because he's just going to have bad days. Hosavar, Reddick up front. Bottom right, right with Brad Keselowski in the middle of the mess. A little bit better restart for the inside line here now. Larson with a good push on the 45 of Reddick down into turn one. Can Reddick clear? Reddick is going to clear. He's going to come up the racetrack, take the line away. He does. Great restart by Reddick on the bottom right. You see Brad stuck in the middle, the tentative around the outside. That's what's so crazy. On board with Brad, it looked like he was doing everything right, and next thing you know, he's losing spots. Where do I watch, right? I mean, there's so much to pay attention to. Couple of dirt trackers. California hooked up on the restart. Larson a shove. Reddick now has the field in tow. Hosavar settles into second. There's going to be a race to the line right here. Where's the 45 going to go? Will he chop? He does. He does a nice job. Look at the 54 lose the nose. Reddick's like, I know what you're thinking. It got tight behind Chastain. Ross going to stay on the lead lap. Reddick going to win stage one, gives his second. Unbelievable. Hosavar comes home third. Reddick's first stage win of the year. He just leads the final stage. I don't believe that stat. Yeah. Is it a real stat? Oh, wow. Yeah, and unfortunately, we just heard Martin talk about Chris Buescher. Well, they had a hood pin come out, so they came back down pit road. He was eighth in stage one. He was inside the top five after the pit stop, so talk about fluke things that can derail a day. Gibbs Wallace up front. They're making their way through the poet restart zone. We're green in stage two. Hosavar with a great push there. Puts Gibbs out in front, but Bubba's not done. He's like, man, I'm getting to the quarter panel. Down here in the corner, can Bubba clear? I think he will. Toyota dogfight at the front. Almost four wide back there with Joe Logano and a few others. Down the back straightaway. Man, that inside line's tough. Byron losing multiple spots. Reddick getting dicey. Hosavar getting aggressive. Around Gibbs, slides up. Little crossover from the 54. Yeah, Gibbs is not going to get to the inside. He's going to fall in line. Bubba trying to break the draft down the front straightaway. Great battle for the lead. Carson Hosavar driving to the inside of Bubba Wallace. And right there with him is Ty Gibbs. 13 laps into stage two. The thing I liked about Hosavar's car yesterday in qualifying was that he ran that great lap to put it on the front row, but he was losing a little bit of speed at the end of each straightaway, telling me that he's got a little more drag, a little more downforce, so this car should, in theory, have a little bit better of a handle on it late into the run. Fourth caution of the day is out at Michigan. We have a new leader. We'll get to that in a second. First, the reason for the caution, another Michigan-born driver. Problems for Brad Keselowski. Yeah, rough day for RFK. The 17 had to come in, put the hood pin back in, and now we're on board with Brad. You hear the left rear tire goes down. Very fortunate to not hit the wall. And you see the speed difference. NASCAR's no choice but to throw the car. Goodyear race off pit road. Chase Elliott wins the race off. Some strategy going on behind him, and we had contact on exit. Ty Gibbs getting out into Ryan Preece. Here we go. One easy, one lean. Keep going. So you're going to see right here, Preece coming in 54th, leaving. And when you ask, all right, so who's at fault right there? The car coming in has the right-of-way. That is how it works. When you stop in your box, as a crew chief, I'm getting you out of the box. And right there, Dale, you hope the 60 lets you out, but Preece has no, he has no reason to let you out. And to be honest, he has no idea that you're changing two or four. When you say, why didn't Preece get out of the way? Well, he, if you were on the left side, I would say, well, maybe Preece should have thought you were done with your pit stop. But when you drop it on the right side, how does Preece have any idea that that's only tires you're taking? You know, so then the driver of 54 had this come back to the team. It's a kill, dude. What are we, what the hell? What the, come on. On lane, there's no lane. Chase Elliott wins the race off pit road. Takes the outside lane, restarting next to his teammate, Kyle Larson. Row two, Bubba Wallace, Ty Gibbs. Fanning out three wide off of turn two. Kyle Larson gets the jump on the restart. Out in front of his teammate, Bubba Wallace right there with him. Solid restart, Tyler Reddick. And the worst of their cars right now is Herbst in seventh as A.J. Allmendinger goes for a ride. That's caution number five. Kept it out of the ball, but he's got flat tires, both the right front and the right rear. Trent's crew chief, Trent Owens. I understand the frustration, but I didn't see anybody really just drive across. We've seen some much closer calls around the front of a car in front of him. Obviously, A.J., a very experienced race car driver. There's something he does not feel that he's frustrated with the balance of this race car. Reddick with a really good push on the turn right at the start. Multiple vehicles involved and some big names. Tyler Reddick among them. Denny Hamlin around. Reddick is destroyed. There you see it. What in the world? Oh, Hosavar. Hosavar gets in the back. Yeah, so it starts kind of an inside lane. The 54 backs up, hits the 42. The 42 then kind of gets a shot from the 77. Just a ricochet effect. I'm sure he's banged up a little bit on the corners, but here's the 77. Yeah, bumper to bumper, and then when you got to him and angled down, that's probably what got him knocked sideways. Yeah, I kind of just tried to, like, I was like, oh, s***. Like, I thought somebody missed a shift. All Hendrick front row. Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson. I like what I see here on this inside line. Herbst pushing the five down into turn one. Can he clear? Bubba to the outside of the nine. Larson to the lead. Here comes Bubba for second. Wound up outside lane off of turn two. Oh, we got him. Brad Keselowski again. Caution number seven. Oh, here we go. Oh, the 42. 42 gets in the left rear. Yep. That's a hard hit, too. Larson, Elliott, front row. Very even launch by both lanes. A little contact right there with Herbst and Larson. Look at Bubba back to the top again. It worked last time. He's going to try it again. 23, not afraid, outside lane. Chase Elliott sneaks through to the lead. Bubba to second. Look at Logano getting with it outside lane, racing around Herbst, and Josevar right behind him in the wake, taking the draft inside lane to fourth for driver 77. Got to get up the racetrack, take that air away. Battle for the lead. Top of the screen. Bubba Wallace down into turn three. Chase doesn't shut it off all the way. They're going to be side by side off of turn four. Chase tried to get to the bottom and take the line away from Bubba, but he couldn't do it. Bubba's almost clear. Chase trying to battle back to the quarter panel. Can't get there. Aggressive slide up for Wallace who takes over the race lead. Been a great day for 2311. Chase to the bottom of the racetrack. Bubba doesn't get there. Chase is going to be able to get to the inside here. Replay of these two guys earlier. I don't think that Chase has the momentum to clear, and he's just barely clear right there. Wow. He's going to get in front of Bubba. Bubba's going to clear off of turn two with the momentum. Actually, Bubba gets tight. Larson's going to get right back to that quarter panel. Side draft. Slow him down. Pull alongside. He knew. He looked back there and saw who it was. Oh, no. Josevar's going to spin. Oh, man. What a save. Incredible job hanging onto it for Josevar. The five was sideways. He almost wrecked. Josevar just about wrecked as well. He did a heck of a job staying out of the door of the 23 car, Bubba Wallace. Larson's going to get loose first right there. Then the 77 just about gets into the 23. Bubba sees that happening. Bubba's driving up the racetrack going, oh, don't hit me. They all get away from this unscathed. What a series of events. That was awesome. Yeah, the 38 might get by. He's going to squeeze right in front, and Bubba's like, man, didn't like that. Hamlin was looking outside. Bubba goes back to the inside. 38 a little bit loose at the top of the racetrack. What's Denny do here? He's going to get down here and maybe take a three wide. He does. Two for one. Hamlin on the comeback trail again. Gets Bubba. Gets Zane. We'll see if he can complete it as they race off a turn two. Five to go in the stage. Outside lane with momentum. 38 strong. Hamlin hanging inside. So it looked like Zane was going to fly right around Denny, but Denny got to the quarter panel and made that 38 super tight. So the 38 has to get off the gas. He can't complete the pass around the top. Denny's going to be able to take that line away down here and turn three and four. Just super smart of Denny. Even though the 38 had the high line momentum, Denny stopped that car in his tracks when he got to the left for a quarter panel and made him really, really tight. Chase Elliott has led the most laps today. 45 out front. He wins stage two at Michigan in front of Eric Jones. For Elliott, second stage victory of the year. Also got a stage win, stage two at Texas, went on to win the race. Final stage coming your way at Michigan. Yeah, the pit exchange not good for Eric Jones, but he's working his way back toward the top five. Bubba Wallace there as well. Jones buried it down into three to try to commit and clear. The seven can't do it. They're side by side down the front straightaway. Wallace with a run here. What's he going to do? I think he's probably going to stay right here. Oh, no, three wide. A little bit late. If he does it, you know Josevar's going to give it a shot. It was a late move, and he knew it. He got down to the corner and just said, all right, this isn't going to work. He's going to lose a spot here. Caution number nine, tough break. Zane Smith, who's had a good day, never finished outside the top ten here, came in with lots of momentum. This is on the 23 car of Bubba Wallace. Zane was running ninth. I think he was bottoming out a little bit there. Yeah, I saw a few sparks. Big restart coming here, and it's going to happen with 53 laps to go. Byron Bell on the front row. Chase Elliott, first guy on four tires, inside of row two. The green flag is out once again at Michigan International Speedway. Good organization on the inside line for the HMS boys, and they're going to clear off into turn one. Look at Larson getting with it as well. Another driver that got four tires in that inside lane looking strong. Byron really didn't help his teammate out there. Could have got up the racetrack a little bit and gave Chase a little cleaner air through turns one and two. It allows the 20 to get back to the outside, so they're side-by-side for second down into turn three. Three wide back there. Oh, my goodness! Elliott into Bell, hard hit in the wall. Tenth yellow of the day. Window net drops on the 20. There's Christopher Bell. What a great sight. You can see this guy get out of the car. I haven't seen that hard of a hit in a long time. Chase getting out as well. The impact of that 20 car was insane. They're racing side-by-side down into turn three, and it's like Chase has a little bit of a bobble, a big moment, and he just gets a little bit loose underneath the 20 and correcting the car, makes contact, and it sends Christopher Bell hard into the outside wall. Just a violent hit for both drivers, riding with Bell. Look at that safer barrier, and it moves 50% of the way to that outside wall. I want to give NASCAR a ton of credit, all the safety inside the cars, the headrests. Man, what an exchange. I don't know if you'll see a car hit a wall harder than that. Tenth caution today ties the track record, and that caution is now turned to red as we repair the wall. Chase Elliott out of the care center. Chase, a really hard hit. First, are you okay? And then walk me through what happened. Yeah, I'm fine. Totally my fault. I feel really bad for Bell and just, yeah, taking him out. I was just trying to run in the bottom and kind of make use of our fresh tires and try and at least get to second, I was hoping, or hopefully even stay side-by-side with him. But, yeah, I got in there, got free, and thought I was going to spin and was kind of committing to spinning out, and as soon as I started to commit to spinning, it just hooked up and hooked to right and unfortunately, you know, sent Christopher in the wall super hard and me shortly there behind. So, yeah, just racing really hard. I feel like that was kind of a turning point in the race. We needed to make something happen and stepped over the line again and paid for it. 47 laps to go. Byron, the control car, as we are once again racing at Michigan. Great organization in the outside line, but the 5 and the 24 are together as well. Bowman pulling out of line. Getting to the top of the racetrack, trying to go three wide around Chastain. Hamlin making it happen in the 11. The time is now for the pole sitter who had to drop to the rear. Two for one, maybe for Hamlin. Yes, he's up to third side-by-side for the lead. He's going to have a big run on the two there, side-by-side up there. What's he doing? He's going to back it off and run the top. The 77 sends it in on the bottom. Daniel Suarez going outside for the top spot. Hamlin looking at the outside of Byron. Checks in line. Has to give up the outside to the 5. He's going to lose spots. We got a crash down the front straightaway. Multiple cars. Several cars spinning to the grass. Austin Hill through the grass. A lot of drivers taking big moments and sometimes creating crashes, creating accidents. We'll see how it starts here. Oh, contact between the 71 to the rear bumper of the 47. Yeah. I thought he had caught him in the quarter panel when I was watching out the window, but that was directly in the rear bumper. Suarez, Byron. Front row. Not a lot of organization on the inside line. No connection between anybody, really. Suarez almost clear. Look at Hosovar dive into the inside of Byron. Three wide for second. Hosovar almost battling for the lead. He is. He's on the quarter panel. What a run by Carson Hosovar through turns one and two down the back straightaway. Major motivation for this 23-year-old from Portage, Michigan. Hosovar is there. Suarez hanging outside. Hamlin clear to third. I thought Suarez was going to get him, but Hosovar not going away, and here comes Denny. Looked in the middle. Now he goes to the inside. Three wide to one. Hamlin point. Another restart delivery from the veteran. How about it? That 11 car is going to get wide. He'll be impossible to pass. Oh, yes. White flag is out. One lap to go. Sponsored by Credit One Bank. He turns 40, and all he's done is win since then. Think about everything he's done in the last five years. Two weeks in a row where he starts on the pole but has to come from behind. It's like deja vu from Nashville. He just gets better and better. Denny Hamlin going to get his fourth victory here at Michigan International Speedway. Exclamation point to finish it. In the Irish Hills for driver 11. Career win number 63. Congrats on 63, bud. Ninth all time. Matching Kyle Busch. Great job, guys. Wow. Great car. Unbelievable. We love you too, B. Back-to-back at Michigan. Back-to-back in 2026. And another run on NASCAR's ladder. And this one is special. Great moment for Denny Hamlin. Great moment for this 11 team. And a great moment for everyone at Joe Gibbs Racing.