By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service
Reddick, Hamlin bring NASCAR’s title fight to Michigan
The two season-long NASCAR Cup Series championship leaders, Tyler Reddick and Denny Hamlin arrive at Michigan International Speedway for Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 (3 p.m. ET on Prime Video, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) as the last two race winners at the two-mile track.
Hamlin, the defending race winner and driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota shows up in Michigan’s scenic Irish Hills fresh off a hard-fought victory last weekend in Nashville. His series’ best 756 laps led are a career-high for him through the opening 14 races. He is seventh all-time in multi-win seasons (15). And, he is on a streak of eight top-10 finishes at Michigan
Reddick, driver of the No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota – co-owned by Hamlin and NBA great Michael Jordan – climbs into his cockpit not only as the 2024 Michigan winner but the absolute most dominant driver of the 2026 season; his five wins through the opening 13 races have put him a remarkable 97-points ahead of Hamlin in the standings.
It’s the first time since April that Reddick, who won three of the opening four races including the Daytona 500, has led the championship by less than a 100-points and is the only driver to lead the championship in 2026. Only upcoming NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Jeff Burton (17) has had more consecutive top-15 finishes to start a season than Reddick, whose 5.57 average finish ties Richard Petty for the seventh best mark ALL-TIME through 14 races.
Even though Hamlin and Reddick have established this impressive run atop the standings and statistics, Michigan has been a Ford track historically. In just the last decade, Ford won nine races consecutively before Reddick’s 2024 win.
A victory this weekend would go a long way for the blue oval, which has celebrated only one points-paying trophy hoist this year – Ryan Blaney’s victory at Phoenix 12 races ago for Team Penske.
To his credit, the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series champion Blaney, is doing his best to keep Reddick and Hamlin honest. He sits third in the points, but is an incredible 174 points off Reddick’s total. He is responsible for the last five Ford victories – going back to last season.
Ford is the all-time winningest manufacturer at Michigan with 44 wins – 18 more than Chevrolet and 37 more than Toyota.
Of Ford’s nine most recent wins at Michigan, retired driver and upcoming NASCAR Hall of Fame inductee Kevin Harvick owns five of them and his NASCAR on FOX broadcast partner, driver Clint Bowyer another. Blaney (2021), his Penske teammate Joey Logano (2019) and Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing driver Chris Buescher (2023) fill out the recent Ford Michigan winners list.
For both Logano and Buescher – Logano especially – a win this week would go a long, long way to righting an uncharacteristically slow start to the season. Logano’s three Michigan wins are tied for most among active drivers and the RFK organization, who Buescher drives for, leads all teams historically with 14 victories.
Buescher is ranked eighth in the championship standings with six top-10s. RFK owner-driver – and Michigan-native – Brad Keselowski is 13th in the championship and his three Michigan runner-up finishes are the most for a driver without a win at the track.
Just past the regular season halfway mark, Team Penske driver Austin Cindric is holding onto that 16th position in the standings – the final transfer spot into The Chase. He holds a two-point edge on RFK’s Ryan Preece and is nine points up on 18th place Logano.
“I feel like those guys have had some pretty big misfortunes this year that has kind of put them where they are at,” the driver of the No. 12 Team Penske Ford, Blaney said of his teammates Cindric and Logano. “I think they’ve run a lot better than what it’s showing in the points.
“I know Joey and Austin are doing a really good job of trying to utilize everything they can week in and week out. I just feel like they run into some problems that really aren’t what they’re doing. And it’s really stuck.
“And I been there before, and it just kind of seems like nothing’s going your way, and those guys are kind of in that right now. But I think they’re working hard to get where they need to be, and, like I said, I think the mood is pretty good.”
Saturday’s practice (5 p.m. ET) for the FireKeepers Casino 400 followed immediately by Busch Light Pole Qualifying (6:30 p.m. ET) both will be broadcast on Prime Video, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. JGR’s Chase Briscoe is the defending pole-winner.
Michigan’s history of CRAFTSMAN Truck Series thrillers sets stage for Saturday showdown
With his victory at Nashville Superspeedway over the weekend, Front Row Motorsports’ Layne Riggs moves into the championship lead for the first time in his career after a dramatic 38-point swing in the points standings.
It’s a tough setback for Tricon Garage driver Kaden Honeycutt, whose 27th-place showing at Nashville snapped a four-race streak of top-five finishes and dropped him to second in the championship. The 22-year-old is still enjoying a career year and has been ranked first or second in points for the past eight races in only his second fulltime season.
The Truck Series wraps up a stretch of six consecutive race weekends at the two-mile Michigan International Speedway in Saturday afternoon’s DQS Solutions and Staffing 250 presented by Precision Vehicle Logistics (1:30 p.m. ET on FS1, MRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Halmar Friesen Racing’s owner-driver Stewart Friesen is the defending race winner.
Riggs has won the last two races (at Charlotte and Nashville) coming to Michigan and during this six-race stretch since May 1, the 23-year-old second generation NASCAR star has a series-best 157 laps led and amazing 6.4 average finishing position.
“You can’t let the highs get you too high or the lows get you too low, so every weekend is a new challenge,” said Riggs, driver of the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford. “We were kind of mediocre at Michigan last year, so I think we’ve got some things to work on, but we’ve been working in the Ford Racing simulator a lot. They give us all the great tools to go fast and work to be better.”
The Truck Series competition has been strong all season and Michigan looks to be no different. The track boasts a strong history of dramatic outcomes. Only three tracks have had more last lap passes for a win than Michigan (three) – Talladega, Ala. (six), Texas (four) and Daytona (four). A final lap pass for victory has happened four times already this season – a series record through 11 races.
Only seven races remain to set the 10-driver Chase field and not only is the top spot in the points still very much up for grabs with Riggs and Honeycutt leading the way, but positions eight (Tyler Ankrum) through 11th (Jake Garcia) in the standings are separated by only eight points.
One thing for sure is that Michigan has been one of the most unpredictable venues on the schedule. The last three races at the two-miler have ended in overtime and three of the last six races were decided on a last-lap pass.
Four NASCAR Cup Series regulars, including Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Ross Chastain, Christopher Bell and Michigan native Carson Hocevar are entered in the truck race. Also noteworthy, Cleetus McFarland will make his second truck series start of the season driving the No. 4 Niece Motorsports Chevy and Spencer Davis will return to the Truck Series for the first time since 2023 driving the No. 5 Tricon Garage Toyota.
Practice is at 9:30 a.m. Saturday followed by Kennametal Pole Qualifying at 10:35 a.m. Luke Fenhaus started from pole position last year.
