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FireKeepers Casino 400: Denny Hamlin doubles up at MIS
FireKeepers Casino 400: Denny Hamlin doubles up at MIS
Free Press staff and wire reports, Detroit Free PressSun, June 7, 2026 at 11:07 PM UTC·3 min readDenny Hamlin, continued his late mastery of Michigan International Speedway, taking his fourth career victory in the Irish Hills – and his second in a row – with a third-stage comeback in the FireKeepers Casino 400 on Saturday, June 7.
Hamlin, who won last year and then claimed the pole in qualifying, recovered well after having to start at the back of the pack due to damage suffered Saturday. The vet from Joe Gibbs racing charged early and led 40 laps, with 39 of those coming in the third stage. With the win, he became the 11th driver in MIS history with at least four NASCAR Cup Series victories there.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementIt was Hamlin's 63rd career victory, tying him for ninth all-time with the late Kyle Busch.
Hamlin cruised past Michigander Erik Jones, the Byron native who picked up his second top-five finish in 14 races in Brooklyn. Jones started 10th and led nine laps.
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Bubba Wallace finished third, followed by perennial MIS contender Kyle Larson and Carson Hocevar, who started the race at the front of the pack after Hamlin dropped back. Hocevar, a Portage native, was looking for his first win in his home state after picking up his first Cup Series win earlier this season, at Talladega in April.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementTyler Reddick, whose Toyota opened the day in third, took Stage 1, for his first stage victory of the season. His 31 laps led (out of the first 45) were nine more than he’d led in his previous seven races at MIS combined. (Though that includes a win in the 2024 edition of the FireKeepers Casino 400.) Ty Gibbs finished second in the stage, also in a Toyota, and Wallace’s Camry was fifth behind the Chevrolets belonging to Hocevar and Chase Elliott.
In Stage 2, it was Elliot taking the win ahead of Jones and Daniel Suarez. A fondness for MIS probably runs in Elliott's family: While he has three top-five finishes (in 15 previous races), his father – Bill Elliott – finished with seven wins in 61 races in Brooklyn.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementSunday's race featured 23 lead changes, a significant uptick after the 2025 edition had just 15.
Big Bad Brad? Not so much
Homestate hero (and former Cup Series champ) Brad Keselowski continued his run of futility at MIS; the Rochester Hills native finished 34th following a crash in the first half of the race (after qualifying 26th). The RFK Racing driver fell to 0-29 in the Irish Hills, though his finish was his worst at MIS since hitting 39th in the Consumers Energy 400 in August 2020. Since that race, Keselowski had four top-10 finishes in five races at MIS.
Trading paint early and late
In Stage 2, Keselowski suffered a flat left rear and lost a lap as Elliott and Larson flexed their muscle at the front in their Hendrick Motorsports Chevys after Gibbs and Wallace had a brief turn up front.
AdvertisementAdvertisementAdvertisementAs the group was getting up to speed on Lap 83, Hocevar’s car clipped and turned John Hunter Nemechek’s No. 42. The chain reaction tagged Wallace, who then hit Gibbs, and the No. 54 turned Reddick’s machine, which received major damage as did Austin Dillon’s No. 3.
With 60 laps left, Elliott led Christopher Bell by four-tenths of a second with Byron about the same distance behind Bell’s No. 20 Toyota, but Zane Smith wrecked his No. 38 Ford.
On the restart and up to full speed, Elliott got loose under Bell and the pair wrecked violently between Turns 3 and 4 to bring out a 20-minute red-flag condition with 50 to go.
This article originally appeared on Detroit Free Press: Denny Hamlin makes it 2straight at MIS with FireKeepers Casino 400 win