Clint Bowyer celebrated his 39th birthday 12 days ago and Sunday afternoon, “Mother Nature” delivered a belated gift, a rain-shortened victory in the Firekeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway. After briefly dueling with Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Kevin Harvick early in the third stage, with rain approaching, Bowyer held the race lead when the yellow flag was displayed for Ricky Stenhouse, Junior’s spin. And when showers returned to the two-mile oval moments later, Bowyer and his #14 team were shown the way to Victory Lane after NASCAR called the race, the start of which had already been delayed some 2-1/2 hours by rain.
Weather halted the race 67 laps short of its scheduled distance with Bowyer recording his 10th series victory and second this season. Harvick finished 2nd and pole winner Kurt Busch ran 3rd, giving Stewart-Haas Racing Fords a sweep of the top three spots. Kyle Busch’s Toyota and Paul Menard, in another Ford, completed the top 5. William Byron was the highest-finishing rookie in 13th.
It was a banner day for Ford with 7 cars in the top 10 and a pair of stage wins for Harvick and Ryan Blaney. The manufacturer led all but 12 of the 133 laps that were contested. Bowyer’s victory snapped Kyle Larson’s three-race Michigan winning streak dating back to the summer of 2016. The Chip Ganassi Racing driver was bidding to join Bill Elliott as the only competitors in
track history to win four Cup Series races in a row. Larson finished second in yesterday’s opening stage but faded during the second half of the race and placed twenty-eighth in the thirty-nine-car field.
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– story by John Singler
www.mrn.com
Concord, North Carolina
1. Kyle Busch @ 664 points
2. Kevin Harvick (-75)
3. Joey Logano (-98)
4. Brad Keselowski (-150)
5. Clint Bowyer (-154)
6. Martin Truex, Jr. (-158)
7. Kurt Busch (-171)
8. Denny Hamlin (-196)
9. Ryan Blaney (-207)
10. Kyle Larson (-221)
For the complete driver standings, please visit the official page on nascar.com.
