Chris Buescher holds off Martin Truex Jr. in Michigan

Chris Buescher held off Martin Truex Jr. for his second-straight win Monday afternoon, claiming the postponed Firekeepers Casino 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn.

The RFK Racing driver, who earned a playoff spot with a win at Richmond Raceway last Sunday, denied a pass by Truex with 13 laps to go and won by 0.152 seconds in a race that featured nine cautions and 16 leaders.

The pair ran up on the lapped car of Michael McDowell on Lap 187, but Buescher's No. 17 Ford prevailed as Truex nearly wrecked his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

It was Buescher's fourth win in 280 starts and the first win by a Jack Roush-owned car at MIS since Greg Biffle won there on June 16, 2013.

The victory marked Ford's ninth straight win at the superspeedway.

Following the duo in the top five were Denny Hamlin, Brad Keselowski and Kyle Larson.

On Monday, Truex won Stage 2 with a last-lap pass of Daniel Suarez and erased Buescher's six-second lead in the final 39 circuits.

However, the 2017 Cup champion could not make the pass of Buescher for potentially his fourth win of 2023 and third on a Monday.

In the 23rd race of the regular season's scheduled 26, Christopher Bell won the pole with a lap of 193.382 mph.

Kyle Busch (37th-place finish), Chase Elliott (36th) and William Byron (35th) all crashed out in the 74 laps run before rain stopped the 400-miler in Michigan's Irish Hills and moved the restart to Monday.

Replacing indefinitely suspended Legacy Motor Club driver Noah Gragson, Xfinity Series regular Josh Berry crashed on Lap 51 and finished 34th in the No. 42 Chevrolet.

Kevin Harvick entered the race having won five of the past seven MIS events and was the defending race winner. The six-time track victor finished eighth in his final start at the two-mile superspeedway.