The 2026 Firekeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway

     Welcome to the Irish hills of Brooklyn, Michigan, a track with some of the highest speeds on the calendar. Honestly, I feel like they could make this place into a superspeedway if they really wanted to. It's one of the most entertaining ovals on the schedule, with drivers being able to utilize pretty much every groove, and speeds around 200 mph. Let's dive in and see who will take the win in The Great Lakes State.     Hocevar led the first lap, but on lap 3 he would see the yellow lights flash after Connor Zilisch spun, which caused a caution to come out. Hocevar would still lead after the caution, although it came out once again when Zilisch spun for the second time, this time hitting the inside wall and incurring heavy damage, which caused his day to end early. Hocevar lost the lead to Reddick, who went on to win the stage.

     To start the second stage, Hocevar and Wallace battled each other for the lead with Hocevar coming out on top. The caution came out on lap 65 for Brad Keselowski, who possibly had a flat tire. After we got going again, there was a battle at the front of the field between the two Hendrick drivers of Larson and Elliott. Allmendinger spun on the backstretch, triggering yet another yellow. Elliott led on the restart only to be greeted with chaos that he fortunately was not involved in. Hocevar ran into the back of Nemechek on the restart, which triggered a huge accident involving many contenders, including Tyler Reddick. We tried to go green again, but Keselowski hit the wall, incurring heavy damage, but not before Larson could take the lead from Elliott. The 9 car went on to win the second stage, with Erik Jones and Daniel Suarez looking very strong, with the 43 coming second and the 7 grabbing third.

     Elliott led to start the final stage, and he led for a few laps until Zane Smith went into the wall causing a caution. Elliott lost the lead to his teammate Byron after the restart, then got loose in turns 3 and 4 and slid up into Christopher Bell, causing a very hard crash for both of them. Apparently, Bell's crash was one of the hardest in the next gen era. He ended up with a fractured wrist, although he is cleared to race in Pocono. This wreck caused a red flag to repair the SAFER barrier. After the red flag was lifted, Byron led the field to green, although he was quickly passed by Suarez. Then there was another yellow for a large incident involving Stenhouse, Gragson, Hill, and others. Suarez led the field on the restart, although he was passed by Denny Hamlin. That's pretty much it. Hamlin got his third win of the year.

     Well, this schedule is pretty weird. We're going to go from an oval to a triangle to a 15-sided naval base. Welcome to NASCAR everybody. We literately travel to pretty much every nook and cranny of the US. Crazy, huh?