Ryan Blaney hangs on in final restart for FireKeepers Casino 400 win

For the first time in his NASCAR Cup Series career, Ryan Blaney has won multiple races in a season. Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway saw a restart with eight laps to go, and those were the only laps led by Blaney en route to his second win of the year.

Kyle Larson started on the pole, while Josh Berry and Joey Gase were sent to the rear for driver changes as they respectively replaced Corey LaJoie and James Davison. Larson and Matt DiBenedetto battled for the lead early on before the former held the spot through the competition caution on lap 20. Gase produced the first race-related yellow of the day on lap 32 when his right-front tyre went down and sent him into the turn two wall, and later accidents would also lead to especailly violent impacts. Chase Elliott assumed the lead after the competition yellow and held it to the stage finish ahead of Larson, Austin Dillon, Denny Hamlin, William Byron, Joey Logano, DiBenedetto, Kurt and Kyle Busch, and Brad Keselowski.

The second stage ran green in its entirety as Larson and Elliott traded the position. Green-flag stops allowed Kyle Busch to take the top spot with seven laps remaining in the stage and pull away for the win ahead of Christopher Bell, Larson, Elliott, Hamlin, Dillon, Keselowski, Tyler Reddick, Byron, and DiBenedetto. However, Dillon’s race ended immediately as the stage did as he was clipped by Keselowski upon crossing the finish, causing him to briefly go airbourne upon slamming into the wall. Keselowski apologised to Dillon afterwards.

“Watching this makes me sick to my stomach for Austin and his team,” tweeted Keselowski after the race. “He was crazy fast today and deserved better. Definitely not what either of us wanted to see…

“With a lap to go we both wanted the stage point and I should have given him more room to avoid this. Glad he is ok.”

Stage #3 commenced on lap 127 and was quickly dominated by Larson. Larson, Hamlin, Busch, and Keselowski exchanged the top position before Byron took first on lap 175. As Byron hoped to claim his second win of 2021, rain fell upon on the track and resulted in a caution on lap 181, though it subsided and the race resumed six laps later.

After barely a lap of racing, Reddick got loose in turn four after slight contact with Kurt Busch, causing him to be hit from behind by Logano. Logano, Bell, and Berry went around after hits on their rears, sending them spinning through the tri-oval grass and resulting in another yellow. Reddick would spin again on the ensuing restart but the race stayed green.

At the front, Blaney faced pressure from the Hendrick Motorsports duo of Byron and Larson with Busch in tow. Although Byron narrowed the gap to .077 seconds, he could not get by as Blaney secured his second victory of the season.

The win is Team Penske’s tenth at Michigan and the sixth of Blaney’s career. He also has more than one victory in a season for the first time as a Cup driver after riding a four-year streak of one-win campaigns.

“It’s really special to win in the Cup Series in general, no matter if it’s once a year or not,” said Blaney in his post-race press conference. “That’s just something that has been kind of bugging me. I don’t want to be a one-win guy a year. It’s cool to kind of get a couple. Hopefully we can get some more, that’s for sure. If we do the work that we did today, everyone executing the best they could, have a shot at the end there, they’re going to come. Just proud of the effort.

“But yeah, it’s nice to not have one line in that column every year, it’s nice to have a couple. Like I said, hopefully we can get a few more.”

Race results

Finish	Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer	Laps	Status
1	3	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford	200	Running
2	18	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
3	1	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
4	6	1	Kurt Busch	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
5	9	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	200	Running
6	4	21	Matt DiBenedetto	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford	200	Running
7	7	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	200	Running
8	2	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
9	20	2	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske	Ford	200	Running
10	5	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	200	Running
11	21	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	200	Running
12	12	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
13	28	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota	200	Running
14	8	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	200	Running
15	11	17	Chris Buescher	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	200	Running
16	10	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
17	23	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	200	Running
18	13	43	Erik Jones	Richard Petty Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
19	15	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota	200	Running
20	25	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	200	Running
21	32	37	Ryan Preece	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet	200	Running
22	30	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet	200	Running
23	27	41	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford	200	Running
24	16	6	Ryan Newman	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford	200	Running
25	17	77	Justin Haley*	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
26	24	7	Josh Berry*	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet	200	Running
27	37	51	Cody Ware*	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	199	Running
28	36	78	B.J. McLeod*	Live Fast Motorsports	Ford	198	Running
29	14	8	Tyler Reddick	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	198	Running
30	31	00	Quin Houff	StarCom Racing	Chevrolet	196	Running
31	29	52	Josh Bilicki	Rick Ware Racing	Ford	195	Running
32	33	53	Garrett Smithley*	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	194	Running
33	19	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford	188	DVP
34	35	38	Anthony Alfredo	Front Row Motorsports	Ford	178	Running
35	22	42	Ross Chastain	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet	152	Running
36	26	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet	120	Accident
37	34	15	Joey Gase*	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet	29	Accident

Italics – Competing for Rookie of the Year
* – Ineligible for Cup points