Shane van Gisbergen carved out a gritty recovery drive to finish 18th in a dramatic and unpredictable NASCAR Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway, a race ultimately decided by thin fuel margins and late-race heartbreak.
At the front, it was veteran Denny Hamlin who prevailed in a wild final stint. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver executed a perfect balance of pace and fuel conservation to win his third race of the season and the 57th of his Cup career in front of a roaring Michigan crowd. Hamlin only led five laps all day, but they were the ones that mattered.
“I wanted to get the lead, and obviously, Byron was doing a good job defending,” Hamlin said after sealing the win with just enough fuel to perform his post-race burnouts. He then needed a tow to victory lane, outlining just how important fuel management was in the final laps.
The 44-year-old restarted outside the top 10 with 47 laps remaining but methodically worked his way through the field, eventually overtaking a fading William Byron with three laps to go.
Byron, who had led a race-high 98 laps, was forced to pit the following lap out of fuel after pushing hard in an attempt to hold off Hamlin.
“Sorry, but I beat your favourite driver,” Hamlin joked to the crowd, acknowledging his reputation as a polarizing figure in the sport.
Behind him, RFK Racing’s Chris Buescher surged late to claim second place, followed by Ty Gibbs in the second JGR Toyota. Bubba Wallace finished fourth in the 23XI Racing entry co-owned by Hamlin, while Kyle Larson rounded out the top five.
But the most gut-wrenching moment of the race belonged to Carson Hocevar. The Spire Motorsports driver had a breakout performance, leading 32 laps and positioning himself for a maiden Cup Series victory before disaster struck.
With 19 laps to go, Hocevar, running at the front and already sweating over fuel numbers, suffered a cut left-rear tyre and was forced to pit under green. He rejoined a lap down and finished 29th.
For Hocevar, it marked a third straight week of missed opportunity after similar near-misses at Nashville and the Coca-Cola 600.
“It sucks. It really stings,” said a frustrated Byron, who inherited the lead from Hocevar only to pit for fuel with two laps remaining.
“We had a really good car. I thought we executed well. Just burned more (fuel), and not able to do much about that.”
While the focus was on the front, van Gisbergen quietly went about his business in the No.88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet.
Van Gigsbergen qualified to start 26th on the grid and ended Stage 1 in 25th and dropped to 27th by the end of Stage 2, but he mounted a strong final-stage push. In the final 49-lap green-flag run to the finish, SVG gained nine spots to finish 18th, narrowly missing a top-15 on a day that demanded both strategy and adaptability.
“That was the fastest race track that I have ever raced on in my life. Our SafetyCulture Chevrolet was pretty solid at the start, we made some adjustments, and we just couldn’t get it as comfortable as we needed. We had some decent recent starts and head home with a top-20 finish.” said Van Gisbergen.
A stronger result was likely on the cards, but he lost valuable time on pit road when he had to reverse back to his pit box so the crew could retrieve an adjustment tool left in the rear window.
His teammates, Ross Chastain and Daniel Suárez, finished sixth and 14th, respectively, giving Trackhouse a solid overall result.
“We saved fuel the whole second half of the run, so we were fine there at the end, and I was able to start pushing hard again. I couldn’t really make much more lap time. You’re off the gas for 20 laps, and you think – oh, I’m giving up all this lap time, and you go and get a tenth back on a big track like this. I think we finished about where we should have.” said Chastain
“It was an OK day for the No. 99 Chevrolet team. We had speed on the long run, but on the short runs, we were getting destroyed. We were not super-fast on the straights. We struggled a lot on the straights, more than I was expecting. Overall, we rescued an OK day, but we need more.” said Suárez
There was also high drama earlier in the race when Alex Bowman’s No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet was collected in a heavy multi-car crash on Lap 67. The incident brought out a nearly 12-minute red flag as track crews cleaned up debris and checked for surface damage.
Bowman, who was turned hard into the outside wall after contact with Cole Custer, walked away but expressed frustration after another tough outing in what has become a stretch of poor results.
“That hurt a lot,” Bowman said.
“That was probably top of the board on hits I’ve taken… Hate that for our team. It’s been a rough two months.”
There were 13 lead changes among 11 different drivers across the 200-lap contest. Stage wins went to Buescher (Stage 1) and Byron (Stage 2), while several playoff hopefuls took a hit, most notably Bowman and Hocevar, as the playoff grid tightens.
With 11 races remaining in the regular season, Byron continues to lead the championship standings by 41 points over teammate Kyle Larson. Van Gisbergen sits 33rd in the standings out of 44 drivers.
Nine drivers have won races so far this year. With unpredictable results like Michigan, the pressure is only building for those yet to visit Victory Lane.
For van Gisbergen, another clean finish and valuable experience under his belt, but the Kiwi will be hoping for more opportunities to break into the top 10 as NASCAR heads south of the border.
The NASCAR Cup Series now heads into uncharted territory. Next up is a landmark race: the inaugural event at Mexico City’s Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, scheduled for Monday, June 17 at 7 a.m. NZT.
Header Image: Shane Van Gisbergen (Facebook)
