Kyle Larson extended his Michigan International Speedway win streak to three by passing the Furniture Row Racing drivers in overtime of the Pure Michigan 400.
Restarting fourth, Larson gave a shove to race leader Martin Truex Jr., then dove under him, splitting him from teammate Erik Jones in second, and took the lead heading into Turn 1. The race was all Larson’s from there, as he drove on to his fourth career victory in 134 career Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series starts.
“I was running a few options through my head of what to do if I got a good jump, and that was one of them and it worked out perfect. I can’t believe that happened. We were struggling all day. We were definitely not as good as the last two times we won here, but we preserved and had a great restart at the end.”
Truex and Jones round out the podium.
Ryan Newman and Trevor Bayne round out the top-five.
“Oh, it was just a good run for the Velveeta Shells & Cheese Chevrolet,” Newman said. “Luke (Lambert, crew chief) did a great job making the call for us to stay out and caught the break there with the No. 22’s (Joey Logano) tire. We got a couple of good restarts and make it a little bit out of nothing. We were challenged all day and struggled a little bit, but it seems like whenever we’ve got this Velveeta name on the car we end up in the top 5.”
“It’s refreshing. We’ve had a tough couple of months not getting the results we thought that we deserved. Today, to get a result feels really good,” Bayne said. “We had fast car early on. We had fuel strategy at the end. Probably gonna have a shot to beat the 78 if it stayed green. Got a caution and I was like, ‘Oh man, here goes Indy again.’ We had a good first restart. The second restart was even better. We were able to push the 42 up to the lead and getting into (Turn) 3 I tried to go for it from the top and hit the Speedy Dry, got loose, and came home fifth. Cost us a couple spots. Man, when you’re in that position you have to go for it. I wouldn’t have slept good at night if I didn’t stuff it in there and try something. It just didn’t stick. It feels really good for our team.”
Chris Buescher, Austin Dillon, Chase Elliott, Jamie McMurray and Kyle Busch round out the top-10.
RACE SUMMARY
Brad Keselowski led the field to the green flag at 3:19 p.m. He led all but three laps (Erik Jones led those three during a cycle of green flag stops) on his way to winning the first stage.
It was the mostly the same story through the second stage. Only this time, Truex, who pitted a few laps earlier than Keselowski, cycled ahead of him in the running order, took over the race lead when Kyle Busch pitted on Lap 114 and drove on to win the second stage.
Keselowski regained the lead for a lap on the Lap 129 restart, edging out Truex exiting Turn 4, but Truex took it back going into Turn 1.
Everyone started hitting pit road for the final cycle of green flag stops with 41 laps to go, with Truex doing so a lap later. Jones pitted from the lead with 39 to go, as did Keselowski, handing the lead to Denny Hamlin. He hit pit road with 23 to go, giving the lead to Busch.
Joey Logano suffered a right-front flat running down the backstretch with 15 to go, and debris from said flat brought out a caution with 14 to go. Busch pitted under the caution, handing the lead back to Truex.
He got an excellent restart with nine to go, diving down in front of Jones heading into Turn 1. But as he was pulling away from the field, caution flew for a two-car wreck in Turn 2, setting up the overtime finish.
CAUTION SUMMARY
The first caution flew on Lap 61 for the end of the first stage. The second caution flew on Lap 121 for the end of the second stage. The third caution flew when Kasey Kahne came across the nose of Daniel Suarez, sending them both into the outside wall in Turn 2 on Lap 139. The fourth caution flew with 14 laps to go for debris on the backstretch. The fifth and final caution flew for a wreck involving Michael McDowell and Paul Menard.
NUTS & BOLTS
The race lasted two hours, 40 minutes and 38 seconds, at an average speed of 150.903 mph. There were 14 lead changes among seven different drivers and five cautions for 28 laps.
Truex leaves with a 129-point lead over Larson. Elliott, McMurray and Matt Kenseth leave maintaining the final three playoff spots.
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