Afterward, Greg Biffle became the leader, and would eventually lead to the race high of 66 laps.

Tony Stewart led after the final pit stops, ahead of Hamlin and Harvick.

Harvick maintained his position to claim his first Sprint Cup victory at Michigan International Speedway.

There were five cautions and nineteen lead changes among nine different drivers throughout the course of the race, Harvick's third win of the season.

[5] The standard track at Michigan International Speedway is a four-turn superspeedway that is 2 miles (3.2 km) long.

Prior to the first practice session, Extenze decided to cancel their sponsorship with Front Row Motorsports, prompting the team to replace Kevin Conway with Tony Raines.

[13] During the first practice session, Jeff Burton was quickest with a time of 38.479, ahead of Juan Pablo Montoya and Kevin Harvick in second and third.

[14] In the Saturday morning session, Biffle was quickest, ahead of Ryan Newman and Kasey Kahne in second and third.

We're a little bit slow on speed as far as qualifying, but we feel like the race stuff is pretty competitive."

Coming to the green, I felt like I was a little bit free, and it was the same through 1 and 2, but I got through there really good and carried a lot of speed down the backstretch.

[19] Clint Bowyer qualified third, Tony Stewart took fourth, and Montoya started fifth, after being scored ninth in the final practice session.

[19] The race, the twenty-third out of a total of thirty-six in the season, began at 1 p.m. EDT and was televised live in the United States on ESPN.

[21][22] Kasey Kahne held the lead going through the first corner but was passed by Jimmie Johnson before the second lap.

By lap ten, Johnson had built a 1.7-second lead over Stewart, who was passed by Biffle for second.

On lap 18, Stewart took second place from Johnson, as Kevin Harvick emerged in fourth.

[21] On lap 28, Harvick began closing in on Biffle, but before he could pass him, the first caution was called because Kurt Busch's engine had failed.

Gordon passed Johnson for seventh as Montoya and David Reutimann began a run of green flag pit stops on lap 98.

Most drivers made a pit stop for fuel only, but Elliott Sadler stayed on track to lead the race.

Sadler led on the restart, but Martin Truex Jr. and David Ragan passed him on the following lap, relegating him to third position.

On lap 169, Stewart, Harvick, Regan Smith, Scott Speed, and Hamlin stayed out on the track while the rest of the field made pit stops.

The season has gone so well from last year, but to come to Michigan and be able to run the way we did today, after the way we've run here the past three years, this shows how far the organization has come as a whole,” Kevin Harvick appeared in victory lane after his victory lap to start celebrating his third win of the season, and his first Sprint Cup win at Michigan International Speedway,[23] in front of a crowd of 105,000 people.

The last couple of times we've really committed ourselves to driving in different spots on the race track and doing different things from inside the car and trying to manage the practice as well as we can to not fool ourselves," said Harvick of his triumph.

[23] Although Denny Hamlin was leading the race near the end, Harvick passed him with eleven laps left.

"[25]Harvick spoke about the difficulty of winning at the track, saying "It's just a lot of years of getting beat by people running up there to be honest with you.

I went home and watched some tapes of Dale [Earnhardt] Jr., some of his previous races here, because he always seemed to have a good handle on running the top groove.

"[23] The race result left Harvick leading the Driver's Championship with 3,400 points, assuring him a position in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.