By Roy J. Akers- www.skyviewsports.net
With several drivers looking to sew up the last four playoff and the smoke cooling for Austin Dillon’s win being taken away from playoff contention in Richmond, MIS is the last true track for drivers to claim a driver controlled victory. After asking Bubba Wallace if his success at Michigan, Daytona, and Darlington gives him MOJO for the last three races, Wallace was excited for his chances. The race is 400 miles long and a lot can happen. Tyler Reddick used the mental game to close out his win at MIS on Monday.
–Daytona is a restrictor plate crapshoot
-Darlington favor vets and drivers who are not regular week in and week out favorites.
Checkered Flags
Tyler Reddick was an after thought in drivers that might win the Firekeepers Casino 400 at Michigan as betting lines favored Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson. Reddick shook that off and kept himself in contention at Michigan and takes the lead on lap 188 for his second lead of the day. He took the lead cycling to the front and takes a nearly two second lead with six laps left. Martin Truex Jr. spins with six laps left creating a caution and a final overtime shootout with William Byron, Ty Gibbs and Kyle Busch. Reddick explains his mindset after the Sunday start. “We went into Sunday night kind of scratching our heads on our McDonald’s Toyota Camry. Everyone at 23XI did a really good job. We had a good mindset coming into today on what we need. I love running high, and I couldn’t yesterday. I knew that it was important for us to work on that coming into the race today. The group did a really good job at that, and we made great adjustments. Honestly, going into stage three we had a tough go of it on pit road, but they had a great catch. Great way to get redemption from one year ago here.” Reddick usually does not run well at Michigan with no top 20 finishes in three years and only 7 laps led overall. Its his second win of the year and he is now first in regular season Cup points going into Daytona next weekend.
In Contention
William Byron has had success at Michigan with a top five and a top ten in his last three MIS starts. Taking his first lead on lap 127, Byron took a less than a second lead on Ty Gibbs and retained the lead after Corey LaJoie make contact with Noah Gragson. Byron pits on lap 152 to lead the final pit stop of the race as he gambles on a march back to the front. Byron cycles back to the top five and then the top two after cars leading down the stretch had to pit and this left Byron and Reddick duel in overtime with Reddick having the faster car. After finishing second, Byron goes to Daytona already qualified for the playoffs.
Kyle Busch runs well
In his 19 year Cup career, Kyle Busch has a win in every season except this season. Running toward the front an taking the lead on lap 57 passing Chase Elliott. Busch has one top ten finish in his last three races at MIS. Busch dueled and won the S3 restart with Chastain and led the race twice for 19 laps early. Busch finishes 7th in the race.
Denny makes lemonade with a 9th place finish after spinning out on Sunday
Denny Hamlin has won twice at Michigan but not since 2011. Hamlin has three top five finishes in three races at MIS dating back to 2021. He was awarded the pole by NASCAR after the Saturday qualifying session was wiped out by rain. Kyle Larson used a side draft on lap one to pass Hamlin and Tyler Reddick pushing Hamlin to second place. On lap 34, Bubba Wallace passes both Hamlin and Kyle Larson for the lead. Hamlin is jostling for the lead with Wallace in turn four and gets loose and does a 360 in the infield on lap 49, bringing the first caution of the race. On Monday’s post rain restart, Hamlin hit the pits twice during pace laps to repair minor underbody damage sending him to the rear of the field. Hamlin limped around the racetrack for the rest of the day. Hamlin said post race that his car had heavier damage than he and his team initially thought. His 9th place finish is outstanding considering he got loose in turn four on Sunday.
Waiting until next week in Daytona
Martin Truex Jr. has been a bridesmaid four times at Michigan without winning the race. His #19 machine took the bottom lane of the track on lap 66 and went around Busch and Elliott for his first lead of the day. Double passes were popular at MIS, as Truex Jr. Wallace and Elliott were passed by MTJr. The #19 led the race until he pitted on lap 94 for fuel and tires. He cycles back to the front overtaking Larson on lap 105. Racing back in the pack picking off of few machines, the #19 takes four tires on lap 156. Truex cuts a tire on lap 194 and it effectively ended his chances for a top 5 finish. The #19 still finishes eighth. He is still looking for his first 2024 win in his final season.
Elliot’s strong Finish
Speaking with reporters before the FIrekeeper’s Casino 400, no one picked Chase Elliott to win the race at Michigan. Elliott runs so-so at Michigan with one top ten in his last three races. Elliott gambled by staying out on the track to pick up Stage one points. Elliott led the post-rain Sunday restart through lap 57 when Kyle Busch took the lead. Elliott’s next chance at the lead is right after the lap 141 restart where he passed Byron for his second lead of the day. The #9 pits on lap 162 giving up the lead gambling on the caution. Elliott fought his way back to the before fading in OT and finishes 15th He is currently 2nd in the NASCAR regular season points race.
Bubba was strong until the Larson wreck
Bubba Wallace cruised through the field in Stage 1 and caught not only pole winner Hamlin, but race leader Kyle Larson. Wallace continued to lead the race after Hamlin’s lap 39 spin and had an early race decision. Come in for fuel and give up Stage one points or win the race. Bubba chose to gamble on winning the race. Wallace did earn 7 bonus points for his fourth place S1 finish. Chris Buescher, also fighting Wallace to make the playoffs received 6 bonus points. Wallace hung near the front until lap 85 where he pitted to get fuel, two tires and a balance adjustment falling to 31st creating a chain reaction for the rest of the field to pit.
Chastain needs a good finish at Daytona
Ross Chastain likes his luck. He avoided the big one on the lap 115 restart after Kyle Larson gets loose and causes a multi-car pileup. He was dueling with Busch for the lead off the restart .His crew chief kept the #1 out of the pits and stayed to the front. His nine Stage 2 Points are critical with Chastain trying to make the playoffs. Chastain faded in S3 and his spin in the grass on the first overtime ended his run toward the end of the top ten. Before the spin, he was +12 for the playoffs. Now he is one point below the cutline.
The Rain would not go away on Sunday… Monday was great
All week long, weather forecasters had the Michigan race weekend as being a rain soaked event with showers impacting all three races. The overcast skies showed up on Friday but the race went off without a hitch. The Cabo Wabo Tequila 250 Xfinity Race had light showers but the race finished minutes off schedule. The Firekeepers Casino 400… was delayed by nearly 2.5 hours at the start with multiple rain fronts coming in on Sunday. The remainder of the race was shifted to Monday after 51 laps were run including the first six pace laps of Stage 2. With the Brooklyn/Jackson, Michigan area expecting cloudy skies with little chance of rain, Monday at Michigan is where the race will finish. Monday’s finish was beautiful and so was the crowd. While many went home, the stands were fairly full and so was the infield. Thank the sales team at MIS for that one.
Will the August NASCAR date shift to June in 2025?
The rumor on the Spanish speaking NASCAR site has the series moving the Michigan date to father’s Day in 2025. Ironically, I talked to NASCAR site officials and said if we could not have two dates again, let’s move the race to June due to all of the rain every year. Well, it looks like that might happen. latina.nascar is reporting that the series has a June Father’s Day date. NASCAR is denying this. NASCAR is rebuilding a crowd at Michigan and has had better crowds for the Xfinity and Cup dates but rain has sent people home and having Monday finishes every other year shows empty stands to a national audience.
They Said It…
Kyle Larson on his accident that ended the day for multiple cars.
Take us through what happened from your vantage point. “Yeah, I just messed up. You try to get all you can on restarts. I was just trying to funnel myself up the racetrack. I didn’t want to get stuck on the bottom three-wide. Just got myself in an awkward aero spot and lost it. It’s unfortunate. I made a mistake and cost ourselves a lot of points today.”
Top Ten Finishers
Points race update after MIS
NASCAR Cup playoff picture: Who is in, out heading to Daytona
Top 16 advance to playoffs
This season’s winners (locked into playoffs)
1: Kyle Larson (4 wins, 28 playoff points)
2. Christopher Bell (3 wins, 25 playoff points)
3. Denny Hamlin (3 wins, 21 playoff points)
4. William Byron (3 wins, 16 playoff points)
5. Tyler Reddick (2 wins, 13 playoff points, regular season points leader)
6. Ryan Blaney (2 wins, 13 playoff points)
7. Austin Cindric (1 win, 7 playoff points)
8. Chase Elliott (1 win, 6 playoff points)
9. Joey Logano (1 win, 6 playoff points)
10. Daniel Suarez (1 win, 6 playoff points)
11. Brad Keselowski (1 win, 5 playoff points)
12. Alex Bowman (1 win, 5 playoff points)
Wild card playoff points standings
13. Martin Truex Jr. (+77 ahead of Wallace)
14. Ty Gibbs (+39)
15. Chris Buescher (+16)
16. Ross Chastain (+1)
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17. Bubba Wallace (-1 behind Chastain)
18. Kyle Busch (-93)
19. Chase Briscoe (-115)
20. Todd Gilliland (-151)
NASCAR Cup Series remaining regular season schedule
- Aug. 24: Coke Zero Sugar 400, Daytona International Speedway (6:30 p.m., NBC)
- Sept. 1: Cook Out Southern 500, Darlington Raceway (5 p.m., USA Network)