Clint Bowyer Secures FireKeepers Casino 400 Victory in First Rain Shortened Cup Race of 2018

Right Place ... Right Time for Clint Bowyer on Sunday as rain forced NASCAR to call the FireKeepers Casino 400 official at 266 miles. During the final round of pit stops, Bowyer's team took two tires to put the No. 14 ahead while Kevin Harvick and everyone else behind him took four tires which would be the winning move of the race.

“It took something crazy on a restart to be able to get Kevin," said Bowyer. "That was a gutsy call. When we went out there on two tires I looked in the mirror and I was so far ahead of everybody else I was like, ‘Oh man, we are in trouble!’ The rain came just in enough time. I was trying to hold him off. I was cutting him off and taking his line away pretty bad. If it wasn’t for a win you wouldn’t be doing that. He was so much faster than me in one and two. I got down in three and just had to take his line because that bear was coming.”

Harvick came home in second, his seventh front row finish of 2018. Kurt Busch, after starting from the pole, came home in third resulting in his second best finish of the season. It's also the first time in team history that Stewart Haas Racing finished 1-2-3. Kyle Busch brought home a fourth-place finish while Paul Menard earned his first top-five finish since Daytona last July and first since joining Wood Brothers Racing.

Results from Michigan 

  1. Clint Bowyer
  2. Kevin Harvick
  3. Kurt Busch
  4. Kyle Busch
  5. Paul Menard
  6. Brad Keselowski
  7. Joey Logano
  8. Ryan Blaney
  9. Chase Elliott
  10. Jamie McMurray
  11. Aric Almirola
  12. Denny Hamlin
  13. William Byron
  14. Austin Dillon
  15. Erik Jones
  16. Alex Bowman
  17. A.J. Allmendinger
  18. Martin Truex Jr.
  19. Darrell Wallace Jr.
  20. Jimmie Johnson
  21. Ty Dillon
  22. Ryan Newman
  23. Kasey Kahne
  24. Chris Buscher
  25. Michael McDowell
  26. Ross Chastain
  27. Corey LaJoie
  28. Kyle Larson
  29. Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
  30. Daniel Suarez
  31. Gray Gaulding
  32. Landon Cassill
  33. Matt Kenseth
  34. D.J. Kennington
  35. Timmy Hill
  36. Matt DiBenedetto
  37. B.J. McLeod
  38. David Ragan
  39. Garrett Smithley
With his fourth-place finish, Kyle Busch continues to lead the playoff standings. With his second victory, Clint Bowyer moves into third on the playoff standings. There are still 10 spots remaining for winners with 11 races remaining.

The MENCS takes Father's Day off while the XFINITY and Camping World Truck Series takes the spotlight in Iowa. The MENCS returns for the Toyota Save Mart 350 at Sonoma Raceway on June 24th, the final race of the season on FOX before the series transitions to NBC.

Photo Credit: Brandon Wright/Brandon Wright Photography 

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