NASCAR Cup Series at Michigan: Everything you need to know for Sunday’s FireKeepers Casino 400

After back-to-back road course races, the NASCAR Cup Series will return to oval racing on Sunday with the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway.

Sunday’s race will last 200 laps around the 2-mile speedway with stage breaks at laps 60 and 120. Michigan International Speedway is one of the fastest tracks on the NASCAR circuit with speeds near 200mph going into the corners. Both turns have 18 degrees of banking.

NASCAR has applied resin to the racing surface in both turns in an attempt to create more racing. The sanctioning body last applied resin at Nashville Superspeedway, a concrete racing surface. Sunday’s race will be the first time resin is placed on an asphalt track instead of PJ1.

Teams will have seven sets of tires available with the Sunoco fuel window estimated around 46-51 laps.

Hendrick Motorsports teammates Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott will make up the front row to start the race. This is based on the qualifying metric, which is weighed between finishing position last week at Indianapolis (50%), points position (35%), and fastest lap from Indianapolis (15%).

Sunday’s Green flag is scheduled for 3:16 pm ET on NBCSN. Sunset is at 8:26 pm ET, but daylight shouldn’t be a factor unless unexpected weather hits the area. The Weather Channel predicts just a 15% chance of rain for the race.

The full FireKeepers Casino 400 starting lineup is below.

 

Position Driver Car Number Team
1 Kyle Larson 5 Hendrick
2 Chase Elliott 9 Hendrick
3 Ryan Blaney 12 Penske
4 Matt DiBenedetto 21 Wood Brothers
5 Martin Truex Jr. 19 Gibbs
6 Kurt Busch 1 Chip Ganassi
7 Kyle Busch 18 Gibbs
8 Kevin Harvick 4 Stewart-Haas
9 Denny Hamlin 11 Gibbs
10 Alex Bowman 48 Hendrick
11 Chris Bueshcer 17 Roush Fenway
12 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 47 JTG Daugherty
13 Erik Jones 43 Richard Petty
14 Tyler Reddick 8 Richard Childress
15 Bubba Wallace 23 23XI
16 Ryan Newman 6 Roush Fenway
17 Justin Haley 77 Spire
18 William Byron 24 Hendrick
19 Joey Logano 22 Penske
20 Brad Keselowski 2 Penske
21 Chase Briscoe 14 Stewart-Haas
22 Ross Chastain 42 Chip Ganassi
23 Aric Almirola 10 Stewart-Haas
24 Josh Berry 7 Spire
25 Michael McDowell 34 Front Row
26 Austin Dillon 3 Richard Childress
27 Cole Custer 41 Stewart-Haas
28 Christopher Bell 20 Gibbs
29 Josh Bilicki 52 Rick Ware
30 Daniel Suarez 99 TrackHouse
31 Quin Houff 0 StarCom
32 Ryan Preece 37 JTG Daugherty
33 Garrett Smithley 53 Rick Ware
34 James Davison 15 Rick Ware
35 Anthony Alfredo 38 Front Row
36 BJ McLeod 78 Live Fast
37 Cody Ware 51 Rick Ware
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