HLs: NASCAR Cup Series race at Michigan
Watch highlights from the NASCAR Cup Series' Firekeepers Casino 400 from Michigan International Speedway.
Video Transcript
Hometown boy, front row, leading us to the green.
Time to let it rip at MIS.
Restarts here are gonna be wild for at least a couple of laps.
A lot of two and three 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 one to the 17.
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 gonna 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.
Already.
Yeah, Conor Zilisch.
Zilisch around.
Contact.
Man.
Third straight week he's had a problem early in the race.
Yeah.
That's unfortunate.
Came so close to maybe avoiding contact there, but that's gonna- I got in the left rear that's gonna make his day extremely long.
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 ex- make your car extremely loose, and you got to be ready for it.
It's too early in the race for him to understand what was coming.
Three wide.
Look at this.
Yeah.
Three wide for the lead.
Ty Gibbs says, "I want it."
He's going to get it down low.
Underneath Reddick and Hosar, but 77 wound up in the outside lane.
Hosar up the racetrack.
Can he finish the pass?
Looks like he's gonna clear Gibbs.
And you know why Hosar 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 into turn, in that third lane.
We've not ran above that second seam.
Bubba- Oh, we got another car spinning around.
Almost.
Yep, going around down the back straight.
Oh, Zilisch again.
Oh, man.
He's gonna make contact with the inside wall here.
He got up the racetrack into, like, the fourth groove.
We're done.
Got in the dirt.
Gosh, man.
Oh my God.
Man, he's so frustrated right now, and these are This is just the way it is.
I, I wish I could talk to him right now and, and, and calm him down because you're just gonna have bad days in this sport.
It's been a tough, tough rookie year for this kid.
We know his talent is immense, and he's just got to weather the storm.
Ooh.
He tried to drive out of it.
You know, Kim reminded us during the commercial break is this is a track where Conor doesn't have much experience.
So Riley didn't race here last year.
Reddick, he's gonna clear.
Is he gonna 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 of the tent, and Ty Dillon around the outside.
That's what's so crazy.
Onboard 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.
A couple of dirt trackers from California hooked up on the restart.
Larson a shove.
Reddick now has the field in tow.
Harsa- Hosar settles into second.
Two wide behind him.
Daniel Suarez, good start to the race.
Talked about Bubba Wallace.
Ty Gibbs there with Chase Elliott and the aforementioned Larson in the five.
I am so loose.
Yeah, he just chasing the balance of this race car, but again, we mentioned it earlier in the show, he's not really had to be this far back in the field except for last week at Nashville.
But they'll work on the car.
He definitely probably needs some adjustments to be comfortable.
He's not been able to make as much ground as, say, his teammate, the 20 of Christopher Bell.
And this lapped car too, Steve, is giving this 54 a little bit better chance.
Dirty in the air a little bit for the 45 of Reddick.
Yeah, there's gonna be a race to the line right here.
Where's the 45 gonna go?
Will he chop He does.
He does a nice job, and look at the 54 lose the nose.
Reddick's like, "I know what you're thinking."
It got tight behind Chastain.
Ross gonna stay on the lead lap.
Reddick gonna win stage one.
Gibbs is second.
Unbelievably, that's- Hosar comes home third Reddick's first stage win of the year.
Race off pit road presented by Goodyear.
Plus one for Gibbs.
Plus three for Bubba Wallace.
Hosar 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.
23 all clear off of turn two.
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.
Hosar getting aggressive.
He clears.
Around Gibbs, slides up.
Little crossover from the 54.
Yeah, Gibbs is not gonna get to the inside.
He's gonna fall in line.
That's right, and a couple weeks ago when I talked with the team, they were about 60-ish points back from a chase position, and Eric told me, "If we get through the next couple of weeks and tighten up that deficit to 20 or 30, we'll feel like we're really fighting for a spot."
Well, they entered this weekend minus 36.
They're right there knocking on the door.
Great battle for the lead.
Carson Hosar driving to the inside of Bubba Wallace, and right there with him is Ty Gibbs13 laps into stage two.
The thing I liked about Hosar's car yesterday in qualifying was that he ran, 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 down force.
So this car should, in theory, have a little bit better of a handle on it late into the run.
So he's got short run speed, possibly a little more down force than most built into this car for a balance on the long 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 a 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.
So you're gonna see right here, Preece coming in, 54 leaving.
And when you ask, "All right, so who's at fault right there?"
The car coming in has the right of way.
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.
We'll see just how much damage that 54 now has as the nine pokes out of line.
Yeah, pretty interesting to see him drive down in there and try to take that spot away.
He's gonna be able to do it.
They're gonna side draft down the back straightaway and argue a little bit.
Nobody coming from behind.
Oh, they're gonna argue some more.
I love it.
It's two hard-headed guys.
They're both the same.
Really f- really giving each other a hard time, and Austin Dillon's coming.
Oh.
And the worst of their cars right now is Herbst in seventh as AJ Allmendinger goes for a ride.
That's caution number five.
He kept it out of the wall, but he's got flat tires, both the right front and the right rear.
Tired of playing defense all the time, and then a guy crosses my wake and I'm tired of crashing.
Trent's crew chief, Trent Owens.
As we get the restart with them, those HMS Chevys out front.
Reddick with a really good push on the- Oh, big crash 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?
There's a lot of aggressive pushing there, which is common with restarts here.
We see that all the time.
Oh, Hosar.
Oh.
Hosar gets in the back of the car in front of him, and just a, a push that wasn't square and it, and it turns that car.
And each car in front, you know, clips the next one, right?
Watch.
Reddick somehow just barely gets hooked by the 54.
When he hits the inside wall.
Yeah.
Oh, man.
He first Oh, man.
Oh, I think Hosar was trying to move to the left to go three wide right at the same time all those guys were sort of banging bumpers and backing up him quickly, and he c- he didn't get left quickly enough.
Nine cars involved.
Wow.
Right in here with Ty Gibbs.
Herbst pushing the five down into turn one.
Can he clear?
Bubba to the outside of the nine.
Larson to the lead, and here comes Bubba for second.
How about that?
Wow, the outside lane off of turn two.
Oh, we got a Man.
Brad Keselowski again.
Caution number seven.
Oh, here we go.
Oh, the 42.
The 42 gets in the left rear.
Yep.
That's a hard hit, too.
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 gonna 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.
If they get to racing side by side, that'll draw Larson right back into this.
Chase to the bottom of the racetrack.
Bubba doesn't get there.
Chase is gonna be able to get to the inside here, a 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.
So he's gonna get in front of Bubba.
Larson's coming though with some sp- with some speed to the outside line.
Bubba's gonna clear off of turn two with the momentum.
Actually, Bubba gets tight.
Larson's gonna get right back to that quarter panel.
Side draft, slow him down, pull alongside.
Oh, he knew.
Oh.
He looked back there and saw who it was.
Oh.
Oh no, Hosar's gonna spin.
Oh man, what a save.
Incredible job hanging onto it for Hosar.
The five was sideways.
He almost wrecked.
They all get away from this unscathed.
What a series of events.
That was awesome.
Hosar falls back to ninth in the running order, and we ride on board with him here.
Dale said it was awesome.Yeah, the 38 might get by.
He's gonna 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, the top of the racetrack.
What's Denny do here?
He's gonna get down here and maybe take them 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 of turn two.
Five to go in the stage.
Oh.
Outside lane with momentum, 38 strong.
Hamlin hanging inside.
So it looked like Zane was gonna fly right around Denny, but Denny got into 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 gonna be able to take that line away down here in 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 rear quarter panel and made him really, really tight.
Kyle the 90's just gingerly getting down into the corner there.
Yeah.
Don't want to put a lot of wheel to it.
Nope.
Chase Elliott's led the most laps today.
45 out front.
He wins stage two at Michigan in front of Erik Jones.
For Elliott, second stage victory of the year.
Also got a stage win, stage two at Texas, went on to win the race.
Tim, what looked like it was gonna be a disaster for Denny Hamlin with that spin at lap 83 turned into a really positive moment.
They came down pit road at lap 86 to get four tires.
They were able to take advantage of that on the next pit stop.
Caution number nine.
Tough break.
Zane Smith, who's had a good day.
Is wrecking into the corner.
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 team out, teammate out there.
Coulda 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.
Hosmer- Oh, my gosh.
Oh, my goodness.
Elliott into Bell, hard hit in the wall.
10th yellow of the day.
There's Christopher Bell.
What a great sight to see this guy get out of the car.
Yeah, they're racing side by side down into turn three, and it's like Chase has a little bit of a bottle- bottled big moment, and he just gets a little bit loose underneath the 20, and in correcting the car, makes contact and it sends Christopher Bell hard into the outside wall.
Just a violent hit for both drivers.
I don't know if you'll see a car hit a wall harder than that, and our drivers get out and walk away because of all of the research and development, years and years of hard work by countless individuals to make the race cars safe from- safer, the walls safer.
He's gonna 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.
Hosmer has to give up the outside to the five.
He's gonna lose spots.
We got a crash down the front straightaway.
Priest- Multiple cars and Dow.
Several cars spinning in the grass.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Austin Hill through the grass.
It looked like a very traditional Michigan wreck as they exit turn four.
It kind of funnels together there, and someone didn't look clear of someone else, and then it, they just started collecting.
This is crazy.
I mean, it really is.
We You know, when we got the point system, it was almost like a full season points, and you thought drivers, at least in the first half of the season, have been taking, taking a little bit better care of their cars, not taking risks, not doing anything that's gonna knock them out of a race and have a bad points day.
But in the last couple of weeks, it seems like there's just a lot of risk-taking, a lot of gambling, 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.
Be interested to get Ricky Stenhouse's opinion of that or if there's more to the story.
Maybe it was a misjudgment.
Maybe it was something we hadn't seen laps ago.
What about Priest?
Just a very, very light touch.
I almost want to say the 47 was a little loose before.
Couldn't tell from that angle.
Not a lot of organization on the inside line.
No connection between anybody really.
Suarez almost clear.
Look at Hosmer dive into the inside of Byron.
Three wide for second.
Hosmer almost battling for the lead.
He is.
He's on the quarter panel.
What a run by Carson Hosmer through turns one and two down the back straightaway.
Major motivation for this 23-year-old from Portage, Michigan.
Hosmer is there.
Suarez hanging outside.
Hamlin clear to third.
I thought Suarez was gonna get him, but Hosmer not going away, and here comes Denny.
Looked in the middle.
Now he goes to the inside.
Three wide into one.
Hamlin on point.
Another restart delivery from the veteran.
How about it?That 11 car is gonna get wide.
He'll be impossible to pass.
Oh, yes.
He'll be spraying that dirty air back there.
Seven's gonna clear the 77 down the back straightaway.
Logano hanging back there behind him.
Jones continues in the top 10.
Oh, into the wall, Hosar.
Hey, Tom, just get your mo- Get your momentum back.
That was the spotter.
Try to get your momentum going back in the right direction.
Sendrick right behind this group.
Came into this race dancing right around that chase cut line.
He's still right there.
Every position being a point for him is enormous.
Oh, a little bit loose right there for the five.
He tried to jump up in front of the 17, just over-correcting the car, trying to save the spin.
He was about to wreck.
Hosar quicker than Byron, trying to get b- trying to get by to move into fourth place.
Trying to rebound, regroup, battle his way back up front.
The 77 believes he can win this race.
I believe he's got the best race car of everybody right now on the racetrack.
I think the 77, Hosar, has the best chance to go battle Hamlin.
Look at the leader.
4.4 with zero concern, driving away.
4.8 for Suarez.
Bubba and the seven locked together right here.
Oh, I think he finally got him there.
Finally got him up, yep.
Finally got him off the bottom.
But that tells me that all those yellows we saw was enough to get all of these leaders comfortably to where they needed to be on fuel consumption.
'Cause Hamlin at this point can absolutely kind of turn the wick back down if he needed to and use up some of that now four and a half second lead he has over this 23 car.
Like it was almost 20 years ago to the day that he got his first career win at Pocono, which is where we go next week- Oh, yeah and we know- But he's- how good he is there.
"You could cheer my rock out there in years," wasn't that his line?
Yeah.
I mean, he's got more one-liners for winning.
Hosar has won the celebration with the burnout, but Denny has the one-liners captured.
Good battle right here with Jones trying to take the spot away from Suarez.
Hosar's up there trying to battle with Bubba Wallace as well for second.
They're side by side down into turn three.
Two battles here inside the top five, just a few laps to go.
Hosar is gonna take second, Jones into fourth.
We're coming to five laps to go.
Hamlin out front, enormous advantage as Jones now goes for second around Hosar.
With ease in that 43.
And 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 gonna get his fourth victory here at Michigan International Speedway.
Hell, yeah.
Exclamation point to finish it in the Irish Hills for driver 11.
Career win number 63.
Great job.
Congrats on 63, bud.
Ninth all time, matching Kyle Busch.
Great job, guys.
Wow.
Great car.
Unbelievable.
We love you, Tibby.
