gettyimages-2167312445.jpg
Getty Images

The NASCAR Cup Series makes its annual trip to the Michigan International Speedway for this weekend's FireKeepers Casino 400, a major stop on the tour given its meaning to the sport's automakers. For Chevrolet, Ford and Toyota, this weekend marks a chance to win in the epicenter of the American automotive industry, and each of the sport's three manufacturers will hope one of their drivers can take their cars to Victory Lane -- where the Heritage Trophy will be awaiting the winning automaker.

The last three weeks have all seen a Chevy, Ford and Toyota visit the winner's circle, with Ryan Blaney bringing Ford the checkered flag a week ago in Nashville after Ross Chastain's Coke 600 triumph for Chevy and Christopher Bell's All-Star win at North Wilkesboro for Toyota -- who won the Heritage Trophy thanks to Tyler Reddick's triumph in this race a year ago.

NASCAR 2025 race schedule, results: Complete list of Cup Series race dates, winners, tracks, locations
Steven Taranto
NASCAR 2025 race schedule, results: Complete list of Cup Series race dates, winners, tracks, locations

Where to watch the NASCAR Cup Series at Michigan

When: Sunday at 2 p.m. ET
Where: Michigan International Speedway -- Brooklyn, Mich.
Stream: Prime Video

Starting lineup

Chase Briscoe won the pole for the FireKeepers Casino 400 in qualifying on Saturday morning, posting a lap of 36.826 (195.514 MPH) to earn his third consecutive pole. Briscoe now has four poles this season after having only two in four seasons prior to joining Joe Gibbs Racing for 2025.

  1. #19 - Chase Briscoe
  2. #8 - Kyle Busch
  3. #11 - Denny Hamlin
  4. #24 - William Byron
  5. #5 - Kyle Larson
  6. #17 - Chris Buescher
  7. #21 - Josh Berry
  8. #54 - Ty Gibbs
  9. #23 - Bubba Wallace
  10. #38 - Zane Smith
  11. #2 - Austin Cindric
  12. #45 - Tyler Reddick
  13. #12 - Ryan Blaney
  14. #77 - Carson Hocevar
  15. #22 - Joey Logano
  16. #48 - Alex Bowman
  17. #9 - Chase Elliott
  18. #10 - Ty Dillon
  19. #16 - A.J. Allmendinger
  20. #1 - Ross Chastain
  21. #42 - John Hunter Nemechek
  22. #43 - Erik Jones
  23. #60 - Ryan Preece
  24. #41 - Cole Custer
  25. #20 - Christopher Bell
  26. #88 - Shane van Gisbergen (R)
  27. #6 - Brad Keselowski
  28. #3 - Austin Dillon
  29. #4 - Noah Gragson
  30. #47 - Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  31. #7 - Justin Haley
  32. #71 - Michael McDowell
  33. #34 - Todd Gilliland
  34. #35 - Riley Herbst (R)
  35. #99 - Daniel Suarez
  36. #51 - Cody Ware

Storyline to watch

Not long ago, Carson Hocevar was one of the many young race fans in the grandstands at Michigan. Now, the Portage, Michigan, native is not only a Cup driver and the 2024 Rookie of the Year, but he has also become one of NASCAR's most promising rising stars and arguably its biggest agitator -- as the events of a week ago showed.

After blowing an engine while running third for much of the Coke 600 at Charlotte, Hocevar finished second at Nashville to tie his career-best finish set earlier this year at Atlanta. But that runner-up finish came at the expense of Ricky Stenhouse Jr., who spun mid-race off Hocevar's front bumper and became one of a growing number of drivers who have been highly displeased with Hocevar's aggressive style of driving.

Adding to Stenhouse's frustration was he had yet to hear from Hocevar by Tuesday night, saying during an appearance on "Motor Stardom" that Hocevar had yet to call him to discuss the incident. That discussion has evidently now occurred as of an appearance by Stenhouse on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, but it has rekindled an ongoing discussion of whether Hocevar is the sort of aggressive young star that's good for NASCAR or if he's reckless, in over his head and needs to fall in line.

It's not as though Hocevar's current style hasn't worked for him -- after all, Hocevar is on the verge of his first Cup win and also had a highlight reel victory in the Craftsman Truck Series last month, making a last-lap save after contact with Layne Riggs and then playfully giving Riggs the finger and he drove off Turn 4 to the checkered flag. Publicly, however, Hocevar has acknowledged he can clean his driving up to avoid creating problems for himself as he has done in the past.

"Mainly just looking at it myself and then (car owner Jeff Dickerson, crew chief Luke Lambert, spotter Tyler Green) and our whole group, we don't want to change is the biggest thing I guess," Hocevar told SiriusXM. "You don't want to change and lose our edge. But as Jeff has told me multiple times, let's just round the edges off and have less moments of that and more moments of passing the other 25 cars without hitting any of them."

Whatever truce Hocevar has to come to with Stenhouse, there's a very practical reason for him to ensure he hasn't made an enemy out of the driver of the No. 47: Hocevar and Stenhouse's teams are parked right next to each other in the Cup garage this weekend.

NASCAR news of the week

  • The U.S. Court of Appeals has overturned a preliminary injunction that had forced NASCAR to recognize 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports as chartered teams despite the two teams having sued the sanctioning body on antitrust grounds stemming from failed charter negotiations last fall. The decision will not go into effect until seven days after the expiration of the time period for 23XI and Front Row to file a petition for rehearing, which would mean that on June 26 the organizations would no longer be recognized as chartered teams and would lose the financial benefits of being chartered as well as their guaranteed place in each Cup race.

    "We are disappointed by today's ruling by the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals and are reviewing the decision to determine our next steps," read a statement by attorney Jeffrey Kessler. "This ruling is based on a very narrow consideration of whether a release of claims in the charter agreements is anti-competitive and does not impact our chances of winning at trial scheduled for December 1."
  • Atlanta Motor Speedway has sold its naming rights to EchoPark Automotive, and the track will now be known as EchoPark Speedway as part of a new seven year, multi-million dollar agreement. EchoPark Automotive is one of three operating segments of Sonic Automotive Inc., which was founded by longtime Speedway Motorsports CEO and NASCAR Hall of Fame promoter Bruton Smith. The business is now run by David Smith, the brother of current Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith.
  • Speedcafe has reported that Kyle Larson has pulled out of a planned V8 Supercars debut in the series' Adelaide Grand Final in November. Larson had planned to drive for PremiAir Racing in the V8 Supercars season finale at Adelaide Street Circuit, but he has now informed key stakeholders he will not be going ahead with those plans. Larson's withdrawal comes just after his doomed Indy-Charlotte Double in which he crashed out of both the Indianapolis 500 and Coca-Cola 600.
  • Trackhouse Racing has added two more Cup races to 18-year old Connor Zilisch's schedule, as he will now drive the team's No. 87 Chevrolet at Atlanta and Watkins Glen. Zilisch made his Cup debut at Circuit of the Americas and then ran the Coke 600 at Charlotte, finishing 23rd.

Pick to Win

William Byron (+800) -- Running a narrow second to Tyler Reddick one year ago was William Byron, who led 20 laps including five prior to the final restart where Reddick took control of the race for good. That run demonstrated the high end of Byron's feast-or-famine results at Michigan, as his past four Michigan races have seen him run a narrow second twice (Byron led 18 laps before running second to Ryan Blaney in 2021), crash out early and finish 35th in 2023 and miss out on a top-10 finish in 12th in 2024.

What helps Byron is he's posted back-to-back top-five finishes and seems to be on the verge of his second win of the season and first since his second-straight Daytona 500 win in February. That, of course, almost came in the Coke 600 where he led 283 laps only to get passed for the win by Ross Chastain.