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NASCAR Cup Series

FireKeepers Casino 400

Michigan International Speedway

August 22nd, 2021

Race #25 of the 2021 NASCAR Cup Series Season

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Laps Scheduled: 200
Miles Raced : 400.0
Time of Race : 02 Hours 48 minutes 27 seconds
Average Speed: 142.476 mph
Margin of Victory : 00.077 seconds
Cautions: 6
Caution Laps: 29
Lead Changes: 20

Ryan Blaney takes the checkered flag to win at Michigan International Speedway — Brooklyn, Michigan - August 22nd, 2021: Ryan Blaney, driver of the #12 Menards/Cardell Cabinetry Ford,takes the checkered flag to win the NASCAR Cup Series FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway. Photo by Logan Riley | Getty Images

Driver	ST	50%	10%	FIN	HI	LW	AVG	PC D	Pass	Passed	PS D	Q PASS	Fast	%T15	TOT Led	Laps	Rating	TOT PTS
Ryan Blaney	3	10	5	1	1	25	9.3	+2	89	94	-5	54	2	95.0%	8	200	106.1	40
William Byron	18	8	1	2	1	28	8.3	+16	141	113	+28	77	25	88.5%	18	200	114.4	43
Kyle Larson	1	2	2	3	1	24	3.2	-2	85	82	+3	53	14	97.0%	70	200	132.9	51
Kurt Busch	6	11	4	4	1	24	7.5	+2	92	97	-5	52	10	90.0%	1	200	105.3	36
Denny Hamlin	9	6	3	5	1	20	5.3	+4	95	77	+18	70	20	99.0%	10	200	118.8	45
Matt DiBenedetto	4	7	17	6	1	25	8.6	-2	107	107	+0	62	9	88.5%	1	200	102.7	36
Kyle Busch	7	4	15	7	1	36	9.3	+0	108	90	+18	60	8	88.0%	13	200	101.2	42
Chase Elliott	2	1	13	8	1	20	6.3	-6	100	90	+10	61	11	94.0%	68	200	117.7	46
Brad Keselowski	20	9	12	9	1	28	12.0	+11	148	114	+34	55	4	69.0%	6	200	86.6	33
Martin Truex Jr	5	12	7	10	2	36	14.1	-5	130	138	-8	60	2	70.0%	0	200	77.7	27
Chase Briscoe	21	22	20	11	5	33	21.7	+10	146	154	-8	17	4	11.0%	0	200	60.9	26
Ricky Stenhouse Jr	12	20	21	12	8	35	20.1	+0	141	130	+11	20	2	17.5%	0	200	73.2	25
Christopher Bell	28	5	11	13	1	28	12.4	+15	96	77	+19	38	10	66.5%	3	200	83.5	33
Kevin Harvick	8	30	9	14	4	34	14.4	-6	126	121	+5	53	6	70.0%	0	200	79.3	23
Chris Buescher	11	25	16	15	2	33	20.2	-4	124	140	-16	34	2	26.5%	0	200	65.2	22
Alex Bowman	10	17	6	16	3	29	12.9	-6	107	116	-9	47	8	60.0%	0	200	78.7	21
Aric Almirola	23	16	22	17	10	31	20.1	+6	156	159	-3	14	2	6.5%	0	200	64.7	20
Erik Jones	13	26	28	18	13	32	23.7	-5	97	93	+4	6	0	8.0%	0	200	56.3	19
Bubba Wallace	15	13	24	19	3	36	18.9	-4	149	141	+8	27	4	29.0%	0	200	66.1	18
Michael McDowell	25	18	14	20	7	29	17.8	+5	131	139	-8	21	1	32.0%	0	200	68.8	17
Ryan Preece	32	19	19	21	4	33	20.8	+11	166	140	+26	9	0	10.0%	0	200	57.2	16
Daniel Suarez	30	21	25	22	4	34	21.4	+8	111	140	-29	12	0	11.5%	0	200	52.3	15
Cole Custer	27	27	23	23	8	31	25.0	+4	94	125	-31	3	1	6.5%	0	200	48.6	14
Ryan Newman	16	23	18	24	5	28	18.5	-8	117	135	-18	29	4	26.5%	0	200	63.4	13
Justin Haley	17	31	27	25	6	34	27.0	-8	87	103	-16	14	0	4.5%	0	200	42.3	0
Josh Berry	24	29	26	26	5	35	26.7	-2	114	108	+6	12	0	4.0%	0	200	43.5	0
Cody Ware	37	32	30	27	17	37	30.2	+10	44	48	-4	0	1	0.0%	0	199	37.8	0
BJ McLeod	36	33	29	28	18	36	30.8	+8	38	43	-5	0	0	0.0%	0	198	35.0	0
Tyler Reddick	14	14	10	29	3	29	11.6	-15	120	124	-4	86	3	92.5%	0	198	72.7	11
Quin Houff	31	34	31	30	12	35	32.6	+1	23	28	-5	0	0	0.5%	0	196	32.2	7
Josh Bilicki	29	36	32	31	22	36	33.6	-2	14	21	-7	0	0	0.0%	0	195	29.7	6
Garrett Smithley	33	35	33	32	32	36	34.6	+1	8	11	-3	0	0	0.0%	0	194	27.7	0
Joey Logano	19	15	8	33	2	33	11.8	-14	124	104	+20	52	4	79.0%	0	188	74.3	9
Anthony Alfredo	35	28	34	34	14	35	29.7	+1	61	63	-2	0	0	1.0%	0	178	36.5	3
Ross Chastain	22	24	35	35	8	36	27.2	-13	60	85	-25	5	0	7.5%	0	152	43.7	2
Austin Dillon	26	3	36	36	1	26	18.4	-10	59	52	+7	34	6	50.5%	2	120	83.7	14
Joey Gase	34	37	37	37	34	37	37.0	-3	0	0	+0	0	0	0.0%	0	29	23.2	0

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Race Fast Facts

Michigan International Speedway
53rd Annual FireKeepers Casino 400
Race Winner: Ryan Blaney
Age: 27
Team : No. 12 - Menards/Cardell Cabinetry Ford
Owner: Team Penske
Crew Chief: Todd Gordon
Ryan Blaney won the 53rd Annual FireKeepers Casino 400, his sixth victory in 223 NASCAR Cup Series races.
This is his second victory and 13th top-10 finish in 2021.
This is his first victory and sixth top-10 finish in 13 races at Michigan International Speedway.
William Byron (second) posted his second top-10 finish in seven races at Michigan International Speedway. It is his 16th top-10 finish in 2021.
Kyle Larson (third) posted his seventh top-10 finish in 13 races at Michigan International Speedway.
Chase Briscoe (11th) was the highest finishing rookie.
This is the seventh consecutive and 42nd overall victory for Ford in the NASCAR Cup Series at Michigan International Speedway.
Today's race was the closest margin of victory (0.077 second) in the NASCAR Cup Series at Michigan International Speedway since the inception of electronic scoring in 1993.
Stewart-Haas Racing driver Kevin Harvick has clinched a spot in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs on points.

Race Recap

Ryan Blaney puts Ford back in Victory Lane at Michigan

August 22nd, 2021

By Holly Cain - NASCAR Wire Service

Ryan Blaney took the lead on a restart with eight laps remaining and skillfully held off a frantic field to earn the victory Sunday in the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway in the penultimate race of the NASCAR Cup Series regular season.

Those eight laps out front were the only laps Blaney's No. 12 Team Penske Ford led on the afternoon but it was good enough to give him his second victory of the season – by a modern-day track record margin of .077-second over Hendrick Motorsports teammates William Byron and Kyle Larson.

Blaney credited Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kyle Busch with giving him a push from behind on the final race restart to get out front and the popular 27-year-old Blaney took it from there, using all the track to keep the field behind him.

Kurt Busch and Denny Hamlin finished fourth and fifth with Matt DiBenedetto, Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski and Martin Truex Jr. rounding out the top 10.

"We got a great push by the 18 (Kyle Busch) on the restart and were able to get clear there," Blaney said. "Michigan you pretty much run wide open and just play the air game.

"Such a huge win for Ford," he added. "I'm fired up."

Blaney conceded he didn't necessarily consider himself an odds-on favorite coming into the race but credited his team for the improvements they made to his Ford all day. He finished runner-up at Indianapolis last week giving the organization some well-timed momentum heading into the Playoffs in two weeks.

As with his late race rally at Indy, Blaney made steady gains all afternoon. Most of the early race was a battle between Larson (71 laps), Elliott (68) and Hamlin (10) – the three drivers combining to lead 149 of the 200 laps.

Different pit strategy certainly affected the final run – with some drivers getting a variation of two-tires or four-tires with their fuel. When the final stops cycled out Byron led Larson and Hamlin. A brief caution came out for rain with 21 laps remaining and another for a seven-car accident with 14 laps to go.

"Honestly I think I was maybe a little too patient behind the 12 (Blaney)," said Larson, who leads the regular season championship standings by 28 points over Hamlin with only one race left to decide the 15-point championship bonus. "Just made a couple wrong moves and allowed Blaney to get by me.

"I was never close enough to William [Byron] to help him generate a run on the 12 (Blaney)," Larson added. "Good points day. Wish we could have gotten more, but all in all, a good day.''

Stewart-Haas Racing driver Kevin Harvick finished 14th which was good enough to secure the 15th Playoff position on points heading into Daytona.

Richard Childress Racing's Tyler Reddick is in 16th place after an eventful 29th-place finish. He holds a slim 25-point edge on his teammate Austin Dillon for the 16th and final Playoff position. DiBenedetto is 18th, 120 points behind meaning he would have to win at Daytona to qualify for the Playoffs.

It all certainly makes for a compelling Coke Zero 400 next Saturday.

But for much of the Michigan race, it looked like Dillon was in position to hold the upper edge going to Daytona. He ran top five (led a pair of laps) and moved that Playoff duel into a tie following the Stage 1 break.

But contact between Brad Keselowski and Dillon just after taking the Stage 2 checkered flag spun Dillon's No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet across the track and hard into the wall. Dillon had crossed the line sixth and Keselowski seventh before the contact.

For his part, Keselowski immediately radioed his crew, "Man, I didn't want to do that, I just wanted to hold him down (track)."

After being released from the infield care center, Dillon said he watched a replay and didn't understand the hard racing after taking the Stage flag.

"I was just trying to get as many stage points as I could get," Dillon said. "Did a good job side-drafting. I was starting to come off the apron because it's so rough down there. I figured by that point, he'd give me some room.

"Just hate it. I don't know why it happened really. I thought I had a little room to come up and he just held me down there a little too long, I guess."

Daytona has been a good venue for Dillon. The grandson of team owner Richard Childress won the 2018 Daytona 500 and has eight top-10 finishes in 16 starts including a third-place back in February.

The NASCAR Cup Series regular season finale, the Coke Zero Sugar 400, will be Saturday at 7 p.m. ET (NBC, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). And William Byron is the defending race winner.