After putting on a defensive driving clinic to keep a hard-charging Martin Truex Jr. behind him, Chris Buescher won the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan to earn back-to-back victories for the first time in his Cup Series career. Buescher's victory is his second in the last two weeks after his win at Richmond, and it's also the fourth of his Cup Series career.
After getting to the front on pit strategy and building a lead over a long green flag run, Buescher was able to cycle out in front of Truex's dominant car during the final round of green flag pit stops, and then spent the rest of the race making his car as wide as possible to keep Truex behind him. Buescher's efforts would pay off despite the speed of Truex's car, as he would hold on just long enough to beat Truex to the finish line by a car length.
FireKeepers Casino 400 unofficial results
- #17 - Chris Buescher
- #19 - Martin Truex Jr.
- #11 - Denny Hamlin
- #6 - Brad Keselowski
- #5 - Kyle Larson
- #99 - Daniel Suarez
- #1 - Ross Chastain
- #4 - Kevin Harvick
- #12 - Ryan Blaney
- #43 - Erik Jones
Time and again on Sunday and then again on Monday following a 19-hour rain delay, Truex demonstrated that his Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota had more speed than the rest of the field. But when a long green flag run allowed Buescher's strategy to play out after he stayed out to take the lead under caution, quick work by his RFK Racing pit crew -- combined with a catastrophic error by Tyler Reddick's crew -- gave him the lead over Truex for the run to the finish.
Buescher would not relinquish the lead, but not without several spirited charges from Truex behind him.
"This Castrol Mustang was so good in practice, qualifying. Gave me a great car again," Buescher told NBC Sports. "Had to work for that one too, hard racing at the end. Martin was very clean with me. I appreciate that. Get to go to Victory Lane two weeks in a row. That's pretty awesome."
Buescher's win marks the first time that RFK Racing has won back-to-back races since all the way back in 2010, when Carl Edwards won the final two races of the season at Phoenix and Homestead. It's also the first time that the company's No. 17 Ford has won back-to-back races since 2009, when Matt Kenseth opened the season by winning the Daytona 500 and then by winning the second race of the year at Fontana.
In addition, Buescher's win also gives Ford their ninth-straight victory at Michigan, keeping the Heritage Trophy that goes to the winning manufacturer at this track within the Blue Oval.
Hendrick's House of Horrors
Michigan has not been the kindest track to Hendrick Motorsports over the last decade, as you have to go back to Jeff Gordon's 2014 victory for the company's last win at this racetrack. But it's doubtful that anyone in the Hendrick camp could have anticipated a weekend quite as horrid as this one, with the pain especially being felt by their two drivers fighting for their playoff lives.
Chase Elliott had entered Michigan back in a position to make the playoffs on points, but that all went away when he blew a right rear tire and crashed heavily in turns one and two on lap 35. Elliott was done for the day and served a critical blow to his playoff chances, and he would soon be joined by teammate William Byron after he pounded the wall on the exit of turn four coming to the finish of stage one -- an incident which proved devastating to Byron's chances of winning the regular season championship.
As Elliott and Byron prepared to load up and head home early, Alex Bowman appeared to be on his way to a season-saving day, leading 19 laps and running second when the race was stopped on Sunday and resumed on Monday. But all of that progress that Bowman made would vanish on a lap 127 restart, when he spun and crashed as the result of a chain reaction caused by trouble for Todd Gilliland in front of him.
The lone Hendrick driver to emerge relatively unscathed was Kyle Larson, who earned a fifth-place finish. But that's of no consolation to his teammates: Elliott has now dropped back to 22nd in the Cup Series points standings, 55 points back of the cut line with three races left in the regular season. While Bowman's circumstances are somewhat less dire at 20th in points (-44), both now likely face a scenario where winning one of the final three regular season races will be their only realistic path to the playoffs.
As for Byron, he has now fallen to 96 points back of Martin Truex Jr., who has opened up his lead to 57 points over Denny Hamlin with three races left to determine the regular season championship.
Bubble watch
With three races to go in the regular season and four playoff spots still available, all 12 winning drivers this season have officially clinched a playoff spot at the end of the race in Michigan. Kevin Harvick (+180) and Brad Keselowski (+168) continue to hold sizeable gaps over the cut line, while Bubba Wallace used more chunks of stage points to open up his advantage to +58 over the cut line. But behind them, the battle for the final playoff spot has once again tightened up.
After Michael McDowell struggled with front end damage the entire race before finishing 24th, Ty Gibbs has now taken the final spot in the playoffs by three points over McDowell and five points over Daniel Suarez, who gained a big chunk of points by nearly winning stage two and then went on to finish sixth.
A botched final pit stop kept AJ Allmendinger from capitalziing on some points earned in stage 2, but he remains just 24 points back of the cut line and is poised to be very dangerous to the other playoff contenders with two straight road course races upcoming.
Race results rundown
- Among the 106 Cup races that have now been run at Michigan, none was more competitive than the 2023 edition. 16 different drivers led this race at least once, setting a new track record, while the 26 lead changes were the most this track has seen since August of 2012.
- Michigan marked a much-needed run for not only Daniel Suarez, but his Trackhouse teammate Ross Chastain as well. Chastain led the opening 16 laps of the race and went on to finish seventh, earning his first top 10 finish since his win at Nashville back in June.
- Erik Jones' turnaround continued with a Michigan homecoming he'll remember for the rest of his life: Jones got married on Wednesday, then got back to his dayjob over the weekend and spent time battling for the race lead before finishing 10th. Three of Jones' four top 10 finishes this year have now come in his last seven races, and he has an average finish of 12.5 in that timespan.
- The recovery of the race went to Christopher Bell, who demonstrated just how much raw speed was under the hood of his No. 20 Toyota: After starting on the pole, Bell was battling for the lead with Alex Bowman mid-race when he lost control of his car, spinning and backing hard into the outside wall in turn one. Despite extensive repairs to the rear of Bell's car, he was still able to make competitive lap times and eventually finished a very respectable 13th.
- Ty Dillon led two laps late in the race on the final green flag pit cycle, and his strategy would pay off with a 20th place finish -- only the third top 20 for Dillon all season and his first since a crew chief change prior to Richmond. With Corey LaJoie finishing 15th, that marks the first time Spire Motorsports has put both their cars in the top 20 since Talladega in April of 2022.
- What might have been: Tyler Reddick spent much of the penultimate green flag run stalking Chris Buescher for the lead, then got out in front of Buescher when the two made their final pit stops. That would have cycled Reddick to the lead, but a loose right rear wheel forced Reddick back to pit road and led to a torrent of F-bombs on the team radio as Reddick limped home in 30th.
- Michigan weekend saw a sudden driver change in the Legacy Motor Club No. 42, as Josh Berry was tabbed to drive the car after NASCAR indefinitely suspended Noah Gragson for liking a racially insensitive meme on his Instagram account. But the No. 42's results were little better with Berry in the car, as he finished 35th after he spun and crashed in turn four on lap 50.
Next race
Two of the final three races of the regular season are on road courses, starting with the Verizon 200 at the Brickyard from the famed Indianapolis Motor Speedway's road course next Sunday at 2:30 p.m. ET on NBC.
