The Firekeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway has been red flagged on Lap 75 of 200 laps, with sporadic rain forcing the NASCAR Cup Series race to be postponed until Monday afternoon.
The start of the race was delayed by an hour and 43 minutes due to a shower that halted the field during pace laps. The field completed 74 of the scheduled 200 laps before additional showers again forced the cars down pit road.
NASCAR ultimately determined there was not enough sunlight remaining the properly dry the track and run the remaining laps.
Tyler Reddick is scored as the leader in the 23XI Racing Toyota ahead of Alex Bowman, who has led three times for 19 laps in the Hendrick Motorsports No. 48. Kyle Larson, Martin Truex Jr. and Erik Jones complete the current top-five at the time of the delay.
Truex won the opening stage, his fourth of the season, and has also led the most laps, 30, in the Joe Gibbs Racing #19.
The race has been noted for a tremendous amount of drama, with four drivers already retired due to crash damage, in Kyle Busch, Chase Elliott, William Byron and Josh Berry.
Elliott’s crash now leaves the 2020 champion just three races to win his way into the Cup Series playoffs. He missed six races earlier this season due to a fractured tibia suffered in a snowboarding incident in Colorado. He was also suspended for a race due to intentionally crashing Denny Hamlin in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte.
Combine the missed time with uncharacteristic pace from the Hendrick Motorsports #9 team and Elliott could not afford the crash the eliminated him from contention on Lap 34. He was running ninth at the time a tire failure sent him into the Turn 2 wall.
“I hate that it happened,” Elliott said. “It was really early in the day to have a tire blow like that. It was really weird. It‘s a bummer, but not surprised.”
William Byron, his teammate in the Hendrick Motorsports #24, only lasted 12 more laps after hitting the Turn 4 wall on the final lap of the first stage. Byron will finish 35th and the incident eliminates him from the regular season championship battle.
He was third in points, 43 markers behind Martin Truex Jr. and four behind Denny Hamlin for second.
“I just got loose trying to get stage points there,” Byron said. “We were dicing it up. We didn‘t have the best restart, so we were gaining spots back, but just tried too hard. We‘ll just regroup and try to get a good couple of weeks before the playoffs. Just made a mistake — was just trying hard and got loose.”
Christopher Bell was also involved in a crash on Lap 65 shortly after taking the lead from Alex Bowman. The incident was triggered by Bowman charging back on the outside, taking air off Bell’s spoiler and sending him backwards into the wall.
Despite the damage, Bell was able to get repairs and resume the race, running 32nd and on the lead lap at the time of the red flag for rain.
Racing is set to resume at 12:00 ET Monday August 7/03:00 Tuesday August 8 AEST.
Rain has forced cars to pit road at @MISpeedway.
The red flag is displayed on Lap 75. #FireKeepersCasino400 pic.twitter.com/oOkwEHstdI
— NASCAR (@NASCAR) August 6, 2023
Current running order
- Tyler Reddick
- Alex Bowman
- Kyle Larson
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Erik Jones
- Austin Cindric
- Brad Keselowski
- Austin Dillon
- Bubba Wallace
- Denny Hamlin
- Ty Gibbs
- Chris Buescher
- Daniel Suarez
- Harrison Burton
- AJ Allmendinger
- Ryan Blaney
- Ross Chastain
- Ryan Preece
- Corey LaJoie
- Joey Logano
- Chase Briscoe
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- Kevin Harvick
- Todd Gilliland
- Aric Almirola
- Ty Dillon
- Michael McDowell
- Justin Haley
- Austin Hill
- Cole Custer
- Josh Bilicki
- Christopher Bell
- JJ Yeley
- Josh Berry
- William Byron
- Chase Elliott
- Kyle Busch
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