Denny Hamlin made a mistake, Ryan Blaney won the first stage and Bubba Wallace looks like he has the car to beat after the first stage of the NASCAR Cup Series race on Sunday at Michigan International Speedway.
However, the resolution to all these storylines will have to wait until Monday morning as persistent rain has delayed the resumption of the FireKeepers Casino 400.
But a lot happened over the first 50 laps.
Bubba looks fast
Most notably, Wallace looked like the class of the field or at least someone who could continue a surge of momentum enjoyed over the past two months. The 23XI Racing No. 23 has raced up front for six consecutive races now dating back to Nashville Superspeedway in June.
He contended in the Chicago Street Course, won a stage in the Brickyard 400 and has three consecutive top-10 finishes including two straight top-5s. He finished third in the first stage but only because he pitted when Hamlin spun behind him on Lap 38.
Six drivers chose to stay out for the short run to the stage break and Wallace passed all but two of them. Wallace doesn’t need a win to make the playoffs but having a good points day and contending for the win seem like real options for Wallace.
He first took the lead on Lap 35, with Hamlin stalling out both himself and leader Kyle Larson as they raced side-by-side, Wallace carrying all the momentum past both.
“I honestly had nothing to do with that,” Wallace said. “I just took the run but those guys, we were 20 miles per hour at the line, and that point, you take the run and hope no one pulls down to throw a crazy block.
“Our McDonald’s Camry is fast but I’m not really a fan of it right now in clean air so we need to make some adjustments. Every car we passed got us more and more free and we’ve struggled with that the past two years.
“But overall, this is a good day so far, got some stage points today and I’m ready to race it out tomorrow.”
Hamlin spins up front
Hamlin led the field to green on Sunday but never led a lap as Larson took both the pole sitter and Martin Truex Jr. three-wide to take the lead and held the top spot for the first 32 laps.
Meanwhile, Hamlin hounded Larson for the entirety of the run, spending much of the first stint nose-to-tail behind the Hendrick Motorsports No. 5. Again, Wallace was only able to take the lead because Hamlin was hounding Larson.
Once Wallace took the lead, Hamlin drove right back to the rear bumper of Wallace and rode behind him the way he did Larson. But his car was too loose in the wake and he went around with no damage and blended back into line 14th.
He was running 17th at the time of the rain break and just wishes he had accepted a runner-up result in the first stage break to the car he owns driven by Wallace.
“The car felt great,” Hamlin said. “I just got myself in a really bad aero spot and all my grip went away in an instance. It’s unfortunate. I was just trying to get some runs going. It took me forever to work over Larson and then I was trying to work over the 23 and just got too high there.”
Hamlin said his car was fine until he placed his car where he did on the track and behind Wallace.
“These cars are just really sensitive to aerodynamics and how you put yourself around other cars and I got myself in a really bad spot off Turn 4.”
How does he feel about his chances to work his way through the field?
“I just need time,” he said. “I need more than 50 laps to get back what I lost. I just hope we have enough time left to get it all back.”
Decision time
The Hamlin spin created a strategic option in which the answer largely depended on what a team needed most at this stage of the year with only three regular season races left.
The following drivers stayed out and did not come to pit road. Their running position at the time of caution is in parenthesis.
William Byron (5)
Ryan Blaney (7)
Chris Buescher (8)
Daniel Suarez (11)
Brad Keselowski (13)
Ty Gibbs (19)
They stayed out because they either wanted stage points in the pursuit of making the playoffs on points, like Buescher (+0) and Gibbs (+18) or wanted to try to get a stage point to go towards their playoffs seeding in each round.
Wallace (+3) came down pit road because his car was good enough to attack and drove back to third and scored stage points anyway.
Blaney won the stage and got that playoff point and Chase Elliott finished second after being the first off pit road with four tires. Finishing second in the stage with Larson outside of the top-10 also allowed Elliott to take over the points lead mid-race.
This is all important because the regular season champion gets 15 playoff points at the end of the year, the equivalent of three race wins, with second place in points getting two, the equivalent of two race wins, third place eight playoff points and so forth throughout the top-10 with 10th place in points getting one playoff point, the equivalent of a stage win.
“I thought our car was pretty good,” Blaney said. “I didn’t take off pretty good and I kind of struggled early and then I got better halfway through that first stage and got to fifth or sixth, something like that and [crew chief] Jonathan [Hassler] made a good decision to stay out and win the stage, which was good. We’ll pay a little bit of a penalty for it to start Stage 2, but I thought it was good to take that chance and get those playoff points.
“Hopefully our car is good enough to get back through the field. Proud of the Menards Dutch Boy Ford Mustang and hopefully we can continue to tweak on it a little bit because our speed’s pretty good.”
Buescher is fighting just to make the playoffs, currently on the bubble and he is the defending winner at the Michigan two-mile and just wants to see a long green flag run.
He’ll get it tomorrow.
“We got some stage points there and the team did a great job bringing a really fast Fifth Third Mustang,” Buescher said. “It was awesome to start 18th and get those points. It’s a big deal but it’s an even bigger deal that we’re fast. I’m having a really good time driving this car.”
He is going to start 25th because he didn’t pit the first time but he has a car that has already driven through the field once.
“I think we can do it again,” Buescher said. “I’m just excited to have a full race to the finish tomorrow instead of dancing around the rain drops because we have a really good car and we just need it to stay green.”
The race resumes at 11 a.m. and will air on USA Network. There is only a two percent chance of rain but the larger issue will be sustained wind gusts of over 10 mph throughout the day, making these loose cars handle even worse.
Current running order
Chase Elliott
Martin Truex
Bubba Wallace
Alex Bowman
Tyler Reddick
Kyle Busch
Kyle Larson
Ross Chastain
Chase Briscoe
Joey Logano
Christopher Bell
AJ Allmendinger
Corey LaJoie
Noah Gragson
Ricky Stenhouse
Todd Gilliland
Denny Hamlin
Daniel Hemric
Cody Ware
John Hunter Nemechek
Austin Cindric
Michael McDowell
Ryan Preece
Ryan Blaney
Chris Buescher
Zane Smith
William Byron
Austin Dillon
Daniel Suarez
Brad Keselowski
Ty Gibbs
Erik Jones
Harrison Burton
Carson Hocevar
Justin Haley
Josh Berry