Who Has the Most NASCAR Cup Series Wins at Michigan International Speedway?
Since NASCAR ran its first race at Michigan International Speedway in 1969, 39 different drivers have won at least one Cup Series race on the two-mile track. Of those 39, 23 have taken multiple checkered flags, while 17 have won three or more times.
Of those 17, 10 have won four or more races, and six have won five or more times. Kevin Harvick has won on the D-shaped speedway five times since 2018 and six times overall. Three have won more than six times, all of whom are members of the NASCAR Hall of Fame.
From 1969 to 2020, the NASCAR Cup Series held two races each year at Michigan International Speedway, the lone exception being 1973. Ahead of the 2021 Cup Series season, however, it was announced that Michigan had lost one race due to NASCAR adding a few new tracks to the schedule.
Bill Elliott won seven NASCAR Cup Series races at Michigan International Speedway
It took Bill Elliott 14 attempts to capture his first checkered flag at Michigan International Speedway, but once he got that first one in 1984, he owned the two-mile track for the next half-decade.
Following his two-second win at the Miller High Life 400 in June 1984, Elliott finished third in the fall race. The following year, he swept the season series in Michigan, winning the June race by an incredible 13 seconds and following it up with a four-second victory in August. In 1986, he again took both races, making him the first (and still only) driver to win four straight Cup Series races at Michigan International Speedway.
Following a 34th-place finish in the June 1987 race due to engine trouble, Elliott won for the sixth time in Michigan that August with a .76-second victory over Dale Earnhardt Sr., and captured check numbered flag number seven with a 1.99-second win over Rusty Wallace in June 1989.
Cale Yarborough won the first-ever race at the track and took eight checkered flags overall
Cale Yarborough was the first-ever winner of a NASCAR Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway, taking the checkered flag at the Motor State 500 in June 1969 by five seconds. One year later, he took his second checkered flag at the track with a .3-second victory over Pete Hamilton.
In June 1977, Yarborough scored a 10-second victory in Michigan over Richard Petty and then won again in June 1978 with a 12-second win over David Pearson. He finally scored a victory in the August race in 1980 and then took his sixth checkered flag at the track in June 1982.
The three-time Cup Series champion closed out his winning ways in Michigan in style, sweeping the two races in 1983 with a 1.01-second victory in June and a .86-second win in August.
David Pearson has the most NASCAR Cup Series victories at Michigan International Speedway with nine
David Pearson won 105 NASCAR Cup Series races over the course of his Hall of Fame career, the second-most in history, and a record nine of them came at Michigan International Speedway.
After finishing second to Yarborough in the first-ever race at the track in June 1969, Pearson won the first August race in Michigan a few months later, beating Buddy Baker by three seconds. Pearson’s second win came in June 1972 in a blowout as he bested Bobby Allison by a whopping 16 seconds. He then became the first to win three in a row in Michigan with victories in August 1972 and June 1973.
Pearson’s fifth and sixth victories came in back-to-back fashion in August 1974 and June 1975 and he went back-to-back yet again by sweeping both races in 1976. He took his ninth and final checkered flag in Michigan in August 1978 with a .32-second victory over Yarborough.
Stats courtesy of Racing Reference
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