How to watch the NASCAR Cup Series race from Michigan for FREE: Time, channels, details

Denny Hamlin will start from the pole position when the FireKeepers Casino 400 gets underway on Sunday afternoon in Brooklyn, Michigan.

The race at Michigan International Speedway is scheduled to begin at 2:30 p.m. EDT and will be broadcast on USA Network and live streamed on FuboTV (free trial), SlingTV (low introductory price) and DirecTV Stream (free trial).

Rain showers and thunderstorms flooded qualifying on Saturday and also affected the Xfinity race. The weather forecast for Sunday calls for more rain showers and thunderstorms after 2 p.m., so there is a possibility the race will be postponed.

Tyler Reddick starts second, with Christopher Bell and Kyle Larson on the second row. Click this link to see the full lineup.

All eyes will no doubt be on Austin Dillon, who brought drama and controversy to an otherwise uneventful race at Richmond by spinning out Joey Logano and sending Hamlin into the wall at the end to win in overtime and secure a playoff spot. Well, at least for a few days, until NASCAR later stripped him of his automatic starting spot.

Larson finished seventh and is just five points ahead of Tyler Reddick in the overall standings, with Chase Elliott in third place, six points behind. Hamlin (three wins) finished second and is 21 points behind in fourth place. Logano is in 15th place after finishing 19th.

Dillon later told the Associated Press that he did not regret the move.

“You don't hate the player,” Dillon said Saturday, a day before the Firekeepers 400 was scheduled to take place at Michigan International Speedway. “You hate the game.”

The game – or the system, as many Cup Series drivers call it – features high-stakes, risk-reward races for competitors who must win to secure a spot in the 16-car playoffs.

Dillon was and is one of those desperate drivers and NASCAR concluded that he had “gone too far” and driven too far.

Dillon and the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing team had points deducted in both the Drivers' and Owners' Championships, dropping from 26th to 31st in the Drivers' Championship.

Brandon Benesch, Dillon's spotter, was suspended for three races for shouting “break him!” over the radio as the driver faced Hamlin on the home stretch.

RCR is appealing NASCAR’s decision.

Meanwhile, NASCAR received a $50,000 transfer from Logano to pay a fine for smoking his tires while driving past Dillon and his team on pit road.

All of this leads into a race on the 2-mile, moderately banked D-shaped racetrack won last year by Chris Buescher, who led the final 12 of 52 total laps after starting fourth and taking the win. Martin Truex Jr. led 47 laps and finished second, with Hamlin third, followed by Brad Keselowski and Larson.

After Michigan, there are two more races left in the NASCAR regular season, with Daytona and Darlington following next.

While Toyota took four of the top six places at Richmond, racing at Michigan was dominated by Ford, which won its last 10 starts there, including season victories from 2018 to 2020, when the track hosted two races annually.