Kyle Larson Nabs Pure Michigan 400

By ESPN

During the last couple laps of his first Sprint Cup victory, Kyle Larson was emotional.

"I think with two to go, I was starting to get choked up," he said. "We worked really, really hard to get a win, and just haven't done it. Finally, all the hard work by everybody, hundreds of people at our race shop, people who have got me through to the Cup series, it was all paying off."

Larson took the lead on a restart with nine laps remaining and held off Chase Elliott at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday in a duel between two of NASCAR's up-and-coming standouts. Elliott had a comfortable lead before a tire problem on Michael Annett's car brought out the yellow flag. Larson had the better restart and went on to win by 1.48 seconds.

Brad Keselowski finished third. His No. 2 Ford failed the postrace laser inspection.

Larson's victory in his No. 42 Chevrolet snapped a 99-race winless streak for Chip Ganassi Racing dating to Jamie McMurray's victory at Talladega in 2013.

With the win, Larson secured a spot in the Chase for the Sprint Cup with two races left in the regular season. Elliott remains winless but is in solid shape to make the Chase field on points if need be.

It was the 99th career start for the 24-year-old Larson, who had 14 top-5 finishes before Sunday but hadn't won at the Cup level. The 20-year-old Elliott is winless in 29 starts, but this was an impressive showing for him after eight consecutive races outside the top 10.

Elliott finished second at Michigan in June as well, losing to Joey Logano.

McDowell Takes Road America 180

This ending was finally the sort that Michael McDowell can watch.

With a history of coming up short at Road America, the Richard Childress Racing driver held off teammate Brendan Gaughan on a green-white checkered dash and had enough fuel to still do an impressive burnout after winning the Road America 180 Fired Up By Johnsonville on an overcast Saturday afternoon.

“I usually watch (the past races) before I get here more to look at the line and the race and how that plays out. Last night, I shut it off with five to go. I just wasn’t going to let myself watch that last restart,” McDowell said. “It’s hard to go back and watch video and see the last green-white checkered where you got passed or didn’t get a great restart.

“Now I’ll be able to watch this and this will be awesome.”

McDowell finished second at the track in 2012 and was leading the race in 2011 when he went off the track in turn 5.

There would be no such issues this time around, though, as he led a race-high 24 laps, including the last 19 trips around the 4.048-mile road course.