NASCAR: Three winners and three losers from the FireKeepers Casino 400

Tyler Reddick may have won the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway, but he’s not our only winner.

We’re running through the three winners and the three big losers after NASCAR’s rain-delayed Cup Series event.

Winners and losers from NASCAR Cup Series’ FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan

Winner: Tyler Reddick

Tyler Reddick held onto his No. 45 23XI Racing machine through two overtime restarts and a strong challenge from William Byron to come home the winner of the FireKeepers Casino 400.

While Reddick already won a race at Talladega and therefore secured his slot in the Playoffs, this win gave him an additional boost in the regular season points. He now sits in second place, a mere five points behind leader Kyle Larson. Now, becoming the regular season champion doesn’t mean you’ll become the overall champion — since the title is determined by elimination-style playoffs — but it does give you some pretty good bragging rights.

Further, it proves that the 23XI Racing team is completely capable of battling with established teams like Hendrick and Joe Gibbs.

Loser: Kyle Busch

Kyle Busch desperately needs a win this year in order to maintain his record of most consecutive seasons in NASCAR with a victory; a win in 2024 would make it a whopping 20 seasons in a row.

Busch finished fourth at Michigan; on its face, that doesn’t sound like a terrible result, but it does mean he was just three positions away from that coveted victory.

And it also means he’s still struggling to secure his place in the Playoffs. Without the guarantee of a win, Busch has had to rely on scoring enough Playoff points to qualify for the elimination rounds leading to the title decider in Phoenix. But after Michigan, he’s still well below the cut line.

He’ll have just two more races to earn a spot in the Playoffs.

Winner: Toyota

Toyota fields the fewest cars in the NASCAR Cup Series compared to Ford and Chevrolet, but with two cars in the top three — and Ty Gibbs giving Tyler Reddick that push to the lead — the automaker has plenty to be thankful for after this race.

The win was a much-needed boost for the automaker, which had a mixed weekend overall. In ARCA, Toyota helped Venturini Motorsports make history by fielding four women in the same race — all of whom finished in the top 10. But Toyota’s engines have been giving plenty of its drivers fits in the Cup Series.

The win gives the Toyota crew an extra bump heading into Playoffs season.

Loser: NASCAR Playoffs bubble drivers

Todd Gilliland and Bubba Wallace both needed a great weekend in Michigan to bump them out of the Playoff bubble… but that didn’t happen.

The issues started with Todd Gilliland; Gilliland was one of three drivers to suffer a blown tire as Stage 2 came to an end. While Joey Logano also dropped out of contention for the race win, the problem was exacerbated for Gilliland, who hasn’t won a race and therefore needs to secure clean finishes to get into the Playoffs.

It would take a miracle now to get Gilliland into the Playoffs.

Issues for Wallace started when Kyle Larson lost control of his No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports machine; because Larson was mired in a pack of cars, his loss of control also wiped out a handful of other drivers. Bubba Wallace was one of them.

Wallace, who had been looking set to secure a top-10 or better, dropped back to be classified 26th of 36 cars at the finish. As a result, he now sits below the Playoff cut line.

Understanding NASCAR:

👉 Why so serious? Four valuable lessons F1 can learn from polarising NASCAR series

👉 How to follow an oval race: An IndyCar and NASCAR guide for F1 fans

Winner: The fans who stuck it out

Oval racing comes with the inherent threat that a particularly rainy day can result in the race being postponed until Monday. That threat came true for the fans who turned out to watch a Cup Series race at Michigan — but the folks who stuck it out were rewarded with an exceptional race.

The FireKeepers Casino 400 was packed with action, but even as cars went spinning — and flying — the quickest car of the day won in convincing fashion. The fans that didn’t have Monday morning obligations were given a great race for their patience.

Loser: Ross Chastain

From hero to zero in one green-white checker.

Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain was well placed for a strong finish in Michigan when he spun during an overtime restart — which trapped him a lap down coming to the finish after he got stuck in the wet infield grass.

Classified 25th, Chastain now sits just below the Playoff point bubble when, during the race, he had been on pace to earn a Playoffs seat.

Read next: Spongebob Squarepants 400? 30 weird and wonderful NASCAR race names F1 fans may not know about