{"id":59004,"date":"2026-06-06T16:30:39","date_gmt":"2026-06-06T21:30:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=59004"},"modified":"2026-06-06T19:39:13","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T00:39:13","slug":"nascar-saturday-michigan-notebook-9","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2026\/06\/06\/nascar-saturday-michigan-notebook-9\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Saturday Michigan Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"
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By Holy Cain, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

Michigan\u2019s Cup Drivers Look to Break Through at Home Track<\/b><\/p>\n

Michigan is the home state for three current NASCAR Cup Series competitors \u2013 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing\u2019s Brad Keselowski, Legacy Motor Club\u2019s Erik Jones and Spire Motorsports\u2019 Carson Hocevar \u2013 and all are looking for their first victory at Michigan International Speedway in Sunday\u2019s FireKeepers Casino 400 (3 p.m. ET on Prime Video, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

When it comes to competing there, the 2012 series champ Keselowski and another former champion, Hendrick Motorsports\u2019 Chase Elliott have the most runner-up finishes (three) without a win among active drivers.<\/p>\n

The owner-driver of the No. 6 RFK Racing Ford has 16 top-10s in 28 Michigan races – including four of the last five series visits. His second-place runs came in 2020, 2018 and his championship 2012 season. He does own a pair of NASCAR O\u2019Reilly Auto Parts Series victories at the track, winning in back-to-back seasons (2009-10).<\/p>\n

And his RFK team has the most wins (14) historically of any organization at Michigan.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen we go, it\u2019s a win that would really mean a lot for me to get,” Keselowski, 42, the Rochester Hills-native noting that he still has a lot of family in the area. \u201cMichigan now has those three fulltime Cup drivers, so really well-covered.”<\/p>\n

Smiling when reminded he\u2019s the only champion among the group, Keselowski grinned and said, \u201cI\u2019ve just got to be a champion in that [Michigan] race.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bell Ready To Remedy Michigan Struggles<\/b><\/p>\n

Joe Gibbs Racing\u2019s Christopher Bell is considered a perennial NASCAR Cup Series championship contender – finishing fifth or better in the title chase five of the last six seasons. He\u2019s earned 13 wins and claimed top-10 finishes in nearly half of his starts \u2013 113 top-10s in 230 races.<\/p>\n

However, the lone race track the 31-year-old Oklahoman hasn\u2019t earned a NASCAR Cup Series top-10? Michigan International Speedway.<\/p>\n

The driver of the No. 20 JGR Toyota has a best finish of 13th at Michigan \u2013 twice, including 2023 when he started from pole position. He\u2019s led only 37 laps in seven starts and crashed out in two of the last four races there.<\/p>\n

But. \u2026 he finished sixth in Saturday\u2019s NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race at Michigan, sweeping both stages and leading 37 laps. And he\u2019s very optimistic about improving his NASCAR Cup Series fortunes at the big track.<\/p>\n

\u201cMichigan, on paper, that\u2019s my worst track, but I\u2019m always super-fast and competitive there,” Bell said smiling at the irony. \u201cI\u2019m very much looking forward to going there. I\u2019m sad we\u2019re only going there once a year, but I\u2019m looking forward to trying to get a good result there. It\u2019s a fun race track. I have a lot of fun racing there.”<\/p>\n

Erik Jones Sees Progress<\/b><\/p>\n

Legacy Motor Club driver Erik Jones isn\u2019t just enthused about racing this weekend because it\u2019s in his home state, but because he seriously thinks the team\u2019s progress this season could result in a trophy soon. Perhaps even Sunday.<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old from Byron, Michigan \u2013 a half-hour drive from the Michigan track \u2013 has improved on his race finishes in the famous No. 43 Toyota four of the last five races. His best showing in 2026 are a pair of 10th-place finishes. And he\u2019s finished 11th or better in three of the last four Michigan races. Jones\u2019 best showing at the track is third in his 2017 rookie season.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think we are in a better spot,” Jones said Saturday about his Michigan expectations. \u201cIt\u2019s funny, I looked at the points position at this point last year, and we aren\u2019t a whole lot different, but I think as a group we are running consistently better.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve had a great stretch here for a month of showing up each week and having good cars and running well. A couple of execution things have kept us from a few better finishes, and some strange strategies have kept us from some stage points, especially last week in Nashville.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think overall, we are in a better spot. I think there are so many little things that we can do better still, which is frustrating but good. To have performance like we are currently having and know there are little things that we need to work on and improve, there is value in that.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me, yeah, I\u2019ve been happy with the direction, happy with my team.”<\/p>\n

Interviews:<\/h3>\n<\/div>\n

Erik Jones (No. 43 LEGACY M.C. Toyota) –<\/p>\n

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Chris Buescher (No. 17 RFK Racing Ford) –<\/p>\nhttp:\/\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/buescherMis.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n

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By Holy Cain, NASCAR Wire Service Michigan\u2019s Cup Drivers Look to Break Through at Home Track Michigan is the home state for three current NASCAR Cup Series competitors \u2013 Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing\u2019s Brad Keselowski, Legacy Motor Club\u2019s Erik Jones and Spire Motorsports\u2019 Carson Hocevar \u2013 and all are looking for their first victory at […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":58989,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11],"tags":[219,16],"class_list":["post-59004","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-michigan-international-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/GettyImages-2280208545-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-flG","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59004","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=59004"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59004\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":59007,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/59004\/revisions\/59007"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58989"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=59004"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=59004"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=59004"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}