Denny Hamlin Masters Fuel Mileage, Claims 3rd Win of 2025 at Michigan

Denny Hamlin celebrates his third victory of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season after winning the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway. (Photo Credit: Aspen Marcheschi | The Podium Finish)

BROOKLYN, Mich. — Denny Hamlin mastered his fuel-saving skills late during Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway, as the top contenders fell victim to issues, Hamlin capitalized to shoot his way into victory lane, besting Chris Buescher by just over a second.

Hamlin passed William Byron, who had led a race-high 98 of the 200 laps, with four remaining in the event. Byron then dove down pit road for fuel after nearly running out, forcing him to settle for a 28th-place finish.

The first stage saw a duel for the lead early with pole sitter Chase Briscoe, Byron, and Buescher, in which Buescher got by late, coming to the end of Stage 1 to pick up the Stage 1 win.

Stage 2 intensified as the race featured a fierce battle for the lead, along with a serious accident involving the driver of the No. 48 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports, Alex Bowman. He made contact with Cole Custer while entering Turn 1, which sent his car crashing head-on into the outside SAFER barrier wall, resulting in severe damage to the front end of the vehicle down to the firewall. Fortunately, Bowman was able to exit the race car under his power.

After the incident was cleaned and the event went back under the green flag, Byron took back command of the race lead, and despite yellow flag after yellow flag coming out for following crashes, Byron held off both Austin Cindric and Carson Hocevar to claim victory in Stage 2.

For the final 80 laps of the race, Multiple other drivers began to fall into the mix of the race alongside Byron, setting up for a tense and exciting finish at the 2.0-mile oval, as Hocevar became a player for the victory once again.

With just under 50 laps remaining, Hocevar had shot out of a cannon, taking a demanding lead over Byron late in the race, but just as Hocevar started driving off into the sunset, another racing gremlin got the best of the Michigan native, as Hocevar’s right rear tire got cut down in the final 20 laps, putting an end to another potential first Cup Series victory for the young driver, and allowing Byron to take command of the race yet again, additonally allowing for Hamlin to sneak into the conversation to strike gold.

Denny Hamlin (No. 11) goes door-to-door with Joe Gibbs Racing teammate of Chase Briscoe (No.19) early in the 2025 FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway. (Photo Credit: Paul Sancya | AP Photo)

As Byron was burning fuel at the front, Hamlin continued to conserve fuel while moving up the leaderboards with just under five laps remaining. Hamlin made his winning move of the race, as he slotted past Byron, resulting in Byron having to service his No. 24 Chevrolet for fuel.

It was all clean and green the rest of the way for Hamlin, as he collected his third win of the 2025 season, tying Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell for the most wins this season.

The victory not only marked Hamlin’s first trip to victory lane since 2011, but it also saw the return of his infamous taunt that has given him a reputation in the past: “I beat your favorite driver.”

“This whole team just stepped up,” Hamlin said following his third Michigan International Speedway win. “We’ve been so fast this entire year, just haven’t finished it for one reason or another, so it feels good to come to Michigan, where we’ve been so close the last couple of years.”

Hamlin showed resilience during his fuel-saving run, as he let the chaos play out in front of him, as well as aboard his No. 11 Toyota Camry XSE.

Was going all out pretty much the entire time. Once I got to the lead, that’s when I started saving. He (Chris Gayle) kept telling me I was good. I knew I was going to have to go 100% to get around everybody. Just worked them one by one.”

Byron, who ultimately settled for a 28th-place finish after his unscheduled pit stop for fuel left the No. 24 team scratching their heads about what could’ve played out differently.

“Ultimately, maybe not as good mileage as the guys farther back to start that run, and that’s just the way the cautions go and the nature of being closer to the front and burning a lot of fuel, but we had a good car. I thought we executed well. It seemed like we waited a little more on fuel on that last stop and just burned more, not able to do much about that. So it is what it is.”

Closing out the top 5 finishing spots was Buescher, who had claimed victory in Stage 1 was unable to track down Hamlin for the victory, followed by Ty Gibbs, tying his best finish of the season in third, with Bubba Wallace in fourth, and Larson finishing in the fifth spot.

Ross Chastain, Zane Smith, Kyle Busch, Ryan Preece, and Brad Keselowski rounded out the top 10.

Hamlin currently sits 13th in the Cup Series standings as the next journey on the 2025 calendar takes us just South of the United States border for the inaugural running of the Viva Mexico 250 at the famed Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez on Sunday, June 15.

Stage 1 Results
1. Chris Buescher
2. William Byron
3. Denny Hamlin
4. Chase Briscoe
5. Josh Berry
6. Ryan Blaney
7. Kyle Larson
8. Bubba Wallace
9. Kyle Busch
10. Carson Hocevar

Stage 2 Results
1. William Byron
2. Austin Cindric
3. Carson Hocevar
4. Tyler Reddick
5. Ross Chastain
6. Ryan Preece
7. Bubba Wallace
8. Denny Hamlin
9. Ty Dillon
10. Erik Jones

FireKeepers Casino 400 Michigan International Speedway NASCAR Cup Series Results