Multi-car crashes are rare at the two-mile Michigan International Speedway, but in Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400, two accidents in the 200-lap event gobbled up 18 cars.
The first nine-car crash occurred on a restart on lap 83 when Carson Hocevar, who was third from the front on the inside line, hit John Hunter Nemechek in the rear and turned him sideways at the front of the field. That sent numerous cars spinning into each other and the wall like a break on a billiard table. Austin Dillon’s Chevrolet slammed into Tyler Reddick’s Toyota, eliminating both from the event. It was Reddick’s first DNF this season.
“We almost got through it,” an angry Dillon said. “I saw the (No.) 11 (Denny Hamlin) coming down. I kind of gassed up to get past him, but the (No.) 45 (Reddick) was there.
“I’m frustrated because we had a fast car. I hope at some point he (Hocevar) figures it out, but I know I’m not going to show anything to him for a long time. I’m mad because we had a fast race car. That truly sucks!”
Reddick drove his mangled Toyota to the garage, exited it and then walked away coughing.
“It was a bit smoky in there,” Reddick said. “I’m all right.”
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Tyler Reddick suffered his first DNF of the season.
Before the crash, Reddick led 33 laps and won the first Stage. He entered the event with a 97-point lead over Hamlin, but with the Joe Gibbs Racing driver’s second consecutive victory, third this year and 63rd of his career, that margin was cut to 51 points.
“I wanted to come in here and have a good points day,” said Reddick, who finished 35th. “We had really, really good speed yesterday (Saturday) and it showed again today (Sunday). 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.”
“He’s fast. He’s going for every move, every second, and it’s not worth it. He’s creating a lot of enemies.”
Bubba Wallace, who finished third after being involved in the first nine-car crash, sat on the pit wall with Hocevar after the race and had an intense conversation with the young driver.
“Kevin Harvick told me whenever I was hitting shit four or five years ago, he said, ‘Stop hitting shit and your finishes will show.’ That’s what I was trying to tell him,” Wallace said about his conversation with Hocevar.
“He’s fast. He’s going for every move, every second, and it’s not worth it. He’s creating a lot of enemies. I just told him you’re fast. A lot of us are jealous of what you have and what you’re able to do, but we’re beating you because we can put a race together better than you.”
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Shane van Gisbergen dropped to 14th in the standings.
Others involved in the first multi-car crash were Kyle Larson, Joey Logano and Ty Gibbs.
The second-nine car crash occurred on lap 154 when Michael McDowell got into Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on the front stretch. Others involved were Shane van Gisbergen, Josh Berry, Cody Ware, Noah Gragson, Ryan Preece, Ty Dillon and Austin Hill.
“It’s a shame to have this kind of day after building such great momentum the last couple of weeks,” said Van Gisbergen, who dropped from 12th to 14th in the standings with his 30th-place finish.
Hill, who placed 20th, described the race as a “learning day.”
“The way the Cup car reacts to the air and how you use the pedals to carry momentum are so different than what I’m used to in the O’Reilly car,” Hill said. “The car would get loose at times and then tight at times, but anytime I got to the right side of someone, I would get immediately loose on entry.”
Vicious Crash Stops Race
A vicious crash involving Chase Elliott and Christopher Bell halted Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino for 20 minutes 31 seconds while NASCAR repaired the fourth turn’s SAFER barrier at the two-mile Michigan International Speedway.
The wreck occurred on lap 148 of the 200-lap race when Elliott attempted to pass Bell for second. Elliott’s Chevrolet wiggled and then his car shot up the track and collected Bell’s Toyota, slamming both cars into the wall. Elliott walked over to check on Bell after both men exited their cars.
Bell declined comment after leaving the infield care center, but The Athletic reported the Joe Gibbs Racing driver suffered wrist and ankle injuries.
“It was totally my fault,” Elliott said. “I feel really bad for Bell, just taking him out. I was trying to run the bottom, make use of our fresh tires and at least get to second, I was hoping, and stay side-by-side with him. I just got in there and got free. I thought I was going to spin and was kind of committing to spinning out. As soon as I was committed to spinning, it just hooked up and, unfortunately, sent Christopher into the wall really hard and me shortly thereafter.
“It was totally my fault. I feel really bad for Bell, just taking him out.”
“We were just racing really hard. I thought it was a turning point in the race to make something happen but just stepped over the line and paid for it.”
Elliott maintained fourth in the standings, but Bell dropped from seventh to 10th.
Jones Records Best Finish This Season
After having to go to the rear for the start of the race due to unapproved changes to his Toyota after qualifying, Erik Jones stayed out of trouble and recorded his first top five this season.
“I really think we could have won,” Jones said after finishing second, 11.110 seconds behind winner Denny Hamlin. “I thought we did have the best car. It didn’t work out perfect. Everything has to work out really well, and some things didn’t go right at the end. Denny got out front, drove away, and we had to work through some traffic.
Brett Farmer//Getty Images
Erik Jones.
“It’s frustrating, but at the same time, the last month and a half has been good for us. We’ve had fast cars. We haven’t quite got the finishes we deserved. Today, obviously, we got the finish we deserved, almost, I think.”
Wallace Snares First Top 5 Since April
Prior to Michigan, Bubba Wallace’s last five races had been frustrating. His best finish in that time span was ninth, with the other four being 22nd or worse.
However, his third-place finish in Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400, allowed him to gain four positions in the driver standings, moving from 15th to 11th.
“We’ve gone through a month of hell,” Wallace said. “It’s hard to be happy with a third place because this is what should be happening when we’re executing like we are and we just get blindsided by something. At the end of the day, it’s no excuses, I just need to be better.”
Wallace said his Toyota suffered splitter damage when he was involved in the first nine-car accident that occurred on lap 83.
Spire Motorsports Records 2 Top 10s
Two of Spire Motorsports’ three drivers continued top 10 performances in the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway.
Carson Hocevar, who finished fifth, led twice for 21 laps in the 200-lap race, while teammate Daniel Suarez led twice for 10 laps before settling for sixth. Hocevar has now recorded four top-five and seven top-10 finishes, while Suarez possesses two top-five and five top-10 finishes. Both men own a victory this year.
Brett Farmer//Getty Images
Michigan native Carson Hocevar holds up the Michigan state flag during introductions.
“We definitely had a Chevrolet that could contend all day long,” said Suarez, who gained one position in the standings, moving from 10th to ninth. “I felt like we had a top-five car on the short run and a top-10 car on the long run. Our strength was definitely the short-middle part of the run. After three laps, I would fire off really quickly.
“I feel like on the short run, I was a little bit better than the (No.) 11 (winner Denny Hamlin). Once we lost control of the race, I knew it was going to be a little tough.”
Hocevar’s performance allowed him to jump from ninth to seventh in the standings.
“There’s a few moves that didn’t work out,” Hocevar said about his race. “I was trying to get two and stuff. I probably should have just done one. It’s hard to be on kill and just go on instinct to get eight spots and then turn it off and get one at a time. You just want to keep going with momentum and see an opportunity to get two and make it easy on yourself. I just felt the race was either won or lost with how good of a restart I had.”
Ford Notches 3 Top 10s
Ford drivers have struggled this year with Ryan Blaney securing the manufacturer’s lone victory this season.
However, in Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400, Ford drivers secured three top-10 positions for the second time in the last three races. In the Michigan race won by Toyota driver Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano finished seventh, Blaney took eighth, and Chris Buescher placed ninth.
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“It was a scrappy day and, honestly, not very good, but we kept working on it and got it a little bit better all day,” Blaney said. “We’re still looking for the speed that we need to contend. We were just kind of stuck in the 15th to 25th range, depending on where you dropped us.”
Logano agreed with his Team Penske teammate that they needed to find more speed.
“These are the type of tracks that everything is gonna show up,” Logano said. “We executed a really good race. I executed one restart good. All the rest of them I was hanging on, but, overall, we’re at the point where we’re proud of top 10s, which is not a good place to be, but we’re proud of a top 10. There’s no sense of panic or throw caution to the wind type moments. You just have to keep your head down and keep grinding and get whatever you can get.”
Buescher said it was a “roller-coaster of a day” for his RFK Racing team.
“We ended up on pit road about twice as much as we wanted to and lost track position consistently,” Buescher said. “The first pit stop we had to do a little bit of nose repair. Then we had it happen two more times with just checking up for wrecks and we were constantly having to put tape on to try and protect this thing. It was certainly a tough day and not anything like we needed it to go.”
Blaney held on to third in the standings, while Buescher kept eighth. Logano is 17th in the standings, three points behind Penske teammate Austin Cindric in 16th.
Short Day For Zilisch
Connor Zilisch’s tough rookie season in NASCAR’s Cup Series continued at Michigan International Speedway with the Trackhouse Racing driver wrecking twice in the race’s first nine laps.
“I was very loose and I just couldn’t save it,” said Zilisch, who finished last in the 37-car field. “It’s been a tough few weeks.”
The 19-year-old Zilisch’s best finish in the last three races has been 37th. His last top 20 came at Watkins Glen in May. His best finish this year came in the season’s third race when he placed 14th at Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
FIREKEEPERS CASINO 400—RACE RESULTSMichigan International Speedway—Brooklyn, Michigan, June 7, 2026Pos/Driver/Team/Laps/Status/Pts
1. Denny Hamlin, National Debt Relief Toyota, Running (200 laps), 58
2. Erik Jones, Dollar Tree Toyota, Running (200 laps), 44
3. Bubba Wallace, Columbia Toyota, Running (200 laps), 40
4. Kyle Larson, HendrickCars. com Chevrolet, Running (200 laps), 44
5. Carson Hocevar, Zeigler Auto Group Chevrolet, Running (200 laps), 45
6. Daniel Suarez, NationsGuard Chevrolet, Running (200 laps), 40
7. Joey Logano, Autotrader Ford, Running (200 laps), 32
8. Ryan Blaney, Menards/Richmond Water Heaters Ford, Running (200 laps), 29
9. Chris Buescher, Kroger/Oscar Mayer/The Rustik Oven Ford, Running (200 laps)31
10. Chase Briscoe, Bass Pro Shops Toyota, Running (200 laps), 27
11. Austin Cindric, Discount Tire Ford, Running (200 laps), 26
12. Cole Custer, Air Lift Chevrolet, Running (200 laps), 25
13. Riley Herbst, Monster Energy Zero Sugar Toyota, Running (200 laps), 26
14. John Hunter Nemechek, Pye-Barker Fire & Safety Toyota, Running (200 laps)23
15. Josh Berry, Motorcraft/Quick Lane Ford, Running (200 laps), 22
16. Ross Chastain, Busch Light Chevrolet, Running (200 laps), 21
17. AJ Allmendinger, Grizzly Nicotine Pouches Chevrolet, Running (200 laps), 20
18. William Byron, Axalta Solar Boost Chevrolet, Running (200 laps), 25
19. Alex Bowman, Ally Chevrolet, Running (200 laps), 18
20. Austin Hill (i), Rebel Bourbon Chevrolet, Running (200 laps), 0
21. JJ Yeley (i), Fanatics Casino Chevrolet, Running (199 laps), 0
22. Todd Gilliland, Love’s Travel Stops Ford, Running (199 laps), 15
23. Cody Ware, Super. com Chevrolet, Running (198 laps), 14
24. Ty Dillon, Patriot Mobile Chevrolet, Running (196 laps), 13
25. Ty Gibbs, Monster Energy Toyota, Accident (187 laps), 21
26. Michael McDowell, Garner Trucking Chevrolet, Accident (158 laps), 11
27. Noah Gragson, Ribbiot Ford, Accident (156 laps), 10
28. Ryan Preece, BuildSubmarines. com Ford, Accident (155 laps), 9
29. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. , Pylon Aviation Chevrolet, Accident (154 laps), 8
30. Shane Van Gisbergen, SafetyCulture Chevrolet, Accident (154 laps), 7
31. Christopher Bell, Rheem Toyota, Accident (147 laps), 11
32. Chase Elliott, NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet, Accident (147 laps), 22
33. Zane Smith, Aaron’s Rent To Own Ford, Accident (141 laps), 10
34. Brad Keselowski, Solomon Plumbing Ford, Accident (89 laps), 3
35. Tyler Reddick, Rockstar Energy Drink Toyota, Accident (83 laps), 12
36. Austin Dillon, Dow Mobility Services Chevrolet, Accident (82 laps), 1
37. Connor Zilisch, WeatherTech Chevrolet, Accident (8 laps), 1
Fastest Lap: Carson Hocevar (No. 77 Chevrolet)—Lap 167, 37.473 seconds.
Time of Race: 3 hours, 13 minutes, 39 seconds
Average Speed: 123.935 mph
Margin of Victory: 11.110 seconds
Stage 1 Top 10: Tyler Reddick, Ty Gibbs, Carson Hocevar, Chase Elliott, Bubba Wallace, Zane Smith, Kyle Larson, Chris Buescher, Riley Herbst, Daniel Suarez.
Stage 2 Top 10: Chase Elliott, Erik Jones, Daniel Suarez, Kyle Larson, William Byron, Christopher Bell, Carson Hocevar, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, Zane Smith.
Race Winner: Denny Hamlin, No. 11 National Debt Relief Toyota. Hamlin led 40 laps and earned his 63rd NASCAR Cup Series victory, his third win of the 2026 season and his fourth career victory at Michigan International Speedway.
Race Notes: Erik Jones finished second for his third top-10 finish of the season. Bubba Wallace finished third, recording his fourth top-10 finish at Michigan. Connor Zilisch was the highest-finishing rookie. Tyler Reddick continues to lead the NASCAR Cup Series points standings, 51 points ahead of Hamlin.
Caution Flags: 11 cautions for 54 laps.
Lead Changes: 22 among 11 drivers.
Next Race: June 14, 2026—Pocono Raceway.
NASCAR CUP SERIES DRIVER STANDINGS
After the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway
Pos/Driver/Points
1. Tyler Reddick, 669
2. Denny Hamlin, 618
3. Ryan Blaney, 512
4. Chase Elliott, 482
5. Ty Gibbs, 470
6. Kyle Larson, 453
7. Carson Hocevar, 428
8. Chris Buescher, 424
9. Daniel Suarez, 418
10. Christopher Bell, 410
11. Bubba Wallace, 378
12. William Byron, 377
13. Chase Briscoe, 370
14. Shane Van Gisbergen, 355
15. Brad Keselowski, 350
16. Austin Cindric, 332
17. Joey Logano, 329
18. Erik Jones, 314
19. Ryan Preece, 313
20. Michael McDowell, 286
21. AJ Allmendinger, 286
22. Zane Smith, 282
23. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 271
24. Ross Chastain, 260
25. Todd Gilliland, 255
26. Riley Herbst, 250
27. Austin Dillon, 245
28. John Hunter Nemechek, 236
29. Noah Gragson, 212
30. Josh Berry, 196
31. Ty Dillon, 190
32. Alex Bowman, 178
33. Cole Custer, 175
34. Connor Zilisch, 148
35. Cody Ware, 131
36. Casey Mears, 9
37. Katherine Legge, 8
38. BJ McLeod, 3
39. Corey Heim (i), 0
40. Austin Hill (i), 0
41. JJ Yeley (i), 0
42. Justin Allgaier (i), 0
43. Daniel Dye (i), 0
44. Jesse Love (i), 0
45. Chad Finchum (i), 0
46. Joey Gase (i), 0
47. Anthony Alfredo (i), 0
48. Josh Bilicki (i), 0
49. Timmy Hill (i), 0
50. Corey LaJoie (i), 0
51. Chandler Smith (i), 0
52. Jimmie Johnson, 0
Points Leader: Tyler Reddick leads the NASCAR Cup Series standings with 669 points, 51 points ahead of Denny Hamlin.
(i) ineligible for driver’s points.
A North Carolina native, Deb Williams is an award-winning motorsports journalist who is in her fourth decade covering auto racing. In addition to covering the sport for United Press International, she has written motorsports articles for several newspapers, magazines and websites including espnW.com, USA Today, and The Charlotte Observer. Her awards include the American Motorsports Media Award of Excellence, two-time National Motorsports Press Association writer of the year, and two-time recipient of the Russ Catlin award. She also has won an award in the North Carolina Press Association’s sports feature category. During her career, Deb has been managing editor of GT Motorsports magazine and was with Winston Cup Scene and NASCAR Winston Cup Scene for 18 years, serving as the publication’s editor for 10 years. In 2024 she was inducted into the NMPA Hall of Fame.