Contested over 200 laps on the 2 mile (3.2 km) D–shaped oval, it was the 23rd race of the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season.

This was the 34th career victory for Matt Kenseth, third of the season, third at Michigan International Speedway and eighth at the track for Joe Gibbs Racing.

The Pure Michigan 400 was carried by NBC Sports on the cable/satellite NBCSN network for the American television audience.

Michigan International Speedway (MIS) is a two-mile (3.2 km) moderate-banked D-shaped speedway located off U.S. Highway 12 on more than 1,400 acres (5.7 km2)[13] approximately four-mile (6.4 km) south of the village of Brooklyn, in the scenic Irish Hills area of southeastern Michigan.

[14] One change from the Indy package included an additional air duct mandated on the right–side window of the car.

[15] "I would not be surprised to see a lot of car failures this weekend, specific to heat relation as it pertains to the aero package and its kind of cause and effects," Brad Keselowski said during a teleconference Tuesday.

[19] In the first five minutes of the session, Kyle Busch's car got loose exiting turn 4, slid down through the grass and destroyed the splitter.

[20] Just as the field began rolling off pit road, Timmy Hill blew his engine and went to the garage before the green flag flew.

The first caution of the race flew the same lap when David Ragan got sideways and spun through the infield grass while heading into turn 1.

Michael Annett was tagged for having his pit crew over the wall too soon and was forced to serve a drive-through penalty.

Matt Kenseth hit pit road on lap 99 and handed the lead to Kevin Harvick.

Edwards botched the restart and teammate Kenseth shot past Austin Dillon to retake the lead.

The seventh caution of the race flew on lap 136 when Tony Stewart got loose and spun down onto pit road and Ryan Blaney, trying to avoid hitting him, made contact with the wall.

A number of cars began hitting pit road to make their final stop with 38 laps to go.

[21] The eighth caution of the race flew with 17 laps to go when Johnson got loose in turn 3 and damaged his car's splitter.

20 (Kenseth) was the class of the field today, but everybody on our Jimmy John’s team did a great job.”[28] “Yeah, we had some circumstances where we had to start at the back and had to figure out a way to get our track position back, and just got to thank my guys,” said Austin Dillon after scoring his best career finish of fourth.

That first 20 laps was no fun for us because we had to ride around and try and stay in front of the leader, but we saved gas and decided to not come down on that first competition caution for fuel, and it worked out.

20 (winner, Matt Kenseth), close at least, and it would have been nice to see if we could have fought it out with him.”[30] “I continue to applaud NASCAR for trying rule packages in an effort to improve the competition.

Drivers were skeptical all weekend about being able to pass thanks to the impact of the higher spoiler and other aero changes made to how cars handled.

It played out in Sunday’s race with passes for the lead minimal and most of the day spent calculating strategies on pit road.

While the lower downforce package received rave reviews and will be used again at Darlington on Labor Day weekend, it’s safe to say the days of the high drag aero rules are endangered to say the least.’’ Members of the NASCAR media gave their thoughts on the high-downforce package used for this race.

Pete Pistone, lead writer for MRN.com and co-host of The Morning Drive on Sirius XM NASCAR Radio, said that he continued "to applaud NASCAR for trying rule packages in an effort to improve the competition" but that "it’s apparent the high drag package used at Indianapolis and Michigan is not the right direction.

"[31] Jerry Jordan of Frontstretch.com said that "it didn’t seem to produce the desired results at Michigan International Speedway" but that he did "applaud NASCAR for trying something new and wanting to make the racing better – and safer – on the track.

"[32] Jim Utter of Motorsport.com was less kind in his opinion of the rules package in saying that it "was a complete failure at its debut at Indianapolis Motor Speedway last month and again in Sunday’s Pure Michigan 400 at Michigan International Speedway" and that "restarts were the only thing that created any drama in either race.

"[33] Monte Dutton of Bleacher Report stated that "NASCAR’s rules geniuses botched the package used in the Pure Michigan 400.

Dave Burns, Mike Massaro, Marty Snider and Kelli Stavast handled pit road on the television side.

Alex Hayden, Winston Kelley and Pete Pistone worked pit road for MRN.