Denny Hamlin Wins Fuel-Mileage Showdown at Michigan

Denny Hamlin's pursuit of a spot in the Joe Gibbs Racing history books was good to the last drop on Sunday at Michigan International Speedway.

Hamlin stretched his fuel mileage to win the FireKeepers Casino 400, the third win of the season for the Virginia driver. That also marks the 57th victory of Hamlin's career in the NASCAR Cup Series, all of which have come with Joe Gibbs Racing in the No. 11.

Race Results: NASCAR Cup Series FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan

With that, Hamlin is now the winningest driver in the NASCAR Cup Series for Joe Gibbs Racing. Hamlin broke a tie with Kyle Busch for the honor.

"It's fantastic," said Hamlin after the win. "You know, Chris Gayle, this whole team has just done a great job. We've been so fast throughout the entire year and just haven't finished for one reason or another. It feels good to come here at Michigan where we've been so close over the years and get a victory for Toyota, Yahoo, Sport Clips, Shady Rays, Jordan Brand, everyone."

A lap 147 caution for an incident involving Todd Gilliland set the stage for the fight to the finish. All of the top competitors were walking the fine line between driving fast enough to compete for the win while also saving enough fuel to take the checkered flag.

Carson Hocevar took the lead on the restart, seeking his first NASCAR Cup Series win in his home state. However, he suffered a flat tire on lap 181, turning the top spot over to William Byron.

Byron maintained the top spot until Hamlin passed him with four laps to go, at which point Hamlin set sail and crossed the finish line ahead of Chris Buescher and Ty Gibbs.

"This is such a gratifying day to restart 11th, 12th, something like that and drive to the front," Hamlin said.

"I was going all-out pretty much the entire time. Once I got to the lead, that's when I started saving. He kept telling me I was good, and I knew I was gonna have to go 100 percent to get around everybody. Just worked them one by one."

Bubba Wallace finished fourth, with Kyle Larson rounding out the top five.

Byron pitted for fuel coming to the white flag, losing his spot among the front runners. He ultimately finished 28th, the last car on the lead lap, while Hocevar finished 29th after his flat tire.

The next stop for the NASCAR Cup Series is a new one for the series, Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez in Mexico City, Mexico. The event will be the first NASCAR Cup Series points event outside of the United States since 1958.

The Viva Mexico 250 takes the green flag at 3 p.m. ET. on Sunday, June 15. Coverage of the event will be on Prime Video, the Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

-Photo credit: Peter Casey, Lumen Digital Agency for Toyota Gazoo Racing