Denny Hamlin continues to dominate at MIS, rallies for victory

Brooklyn — Denny Hamlin enjoys racing at Michigan International Speedway.

Hamlin (Joe Gibbs Racing) won for the second consecutive year at MIS — and fourth in his career — winning Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400 for his 63rd career victory.

Byron’s Erik Jones finished second.

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Hamlin’s victory tied him with Kyle Busch, who died last month after complications from pneumonia. Hamlin waved the No. 8 flag out of his window — Busch’s number — after the victory.

Hamlin’s victory mirrored last week’s win in Nashville, in that Hamlin had to regroup from the back of the field to win.

Due to repairs needed to his career, Hamlin started from the rear of Sunday’s field.

Hamlin came into Sunday’s race ranked second in the Cup Series standings behind Tyler Reddick.

Reddick, the Cup Series points leader coming into Sunday’s race, had a frustrating afternoon.

A huge crash on a restart on Lap 83 took out Reddick, among others, and sent Reddick into the worst finish of his season. Carson Hocevar (Portage) started fourth on the inside row and bumped into John Hunter Nemechek, triggering a reaction. Nemecheck bumped Bubba Wallace, who hit Ty Gibbs and ricocheted into Reddick, who suffered damage on both ends of his car.

It was the first race in 15 this season that Reddick hasn’t finished. Reddick’s previous poorest outing was a 14th place finish at Talladega. He has five victories and nine top five finishes.

“Just all around bummer,” Reddick told Prime Video. “Wanted to come in here and have a really good points day, we had really, really good speed yesterday, and it showed again today. (It’s a) race I feel like we could have won, got away from us. But all year long, we’ve done a good job of staying out of messes like this, so unfortunate it happened.”

The most violent collision of the day involved Chase Elliott and Christopher Bell — both racing for second place at the time — in Turn 3, on Lap 148.

Elliott got loose underneath Bell, resulting in both drivers to crash into the outside wall while going nearly 200 miles per hour. Bell’s No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota erupted into flames and Elliott’s No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet struck an inside barrier.

Both drivers exited their vehicles quickly and the two shared a hug before taken to the infield care enter. Both drivers were eventually released from the care center.

This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Denny Hamlin continues to dominate at MIS, rallies for victory