During last year’s Cup Series race at Michigan International Speedway, Corey LaJoie was in the thick of the action, battling hard for position with Noah Gragson on lap 136, when things took a terrifying turn. LaJoie’s No. 7 Chevrolet Camaro clipped Gragson’s car just enough to send him spinning wildly across the track. Before anyone could blink, the car lifted off the ground, flipped onto its roof, and skidded down the backstretch with sparks flying everywhere.

After hitting the grass, the car tumbled over and over in a heart-stopping roll that left fans gasping. Miraculously, LaJoie climbed out of the wreckage without a scratch, but the image of that crash stuck with everyone who saw it. This incident started an active discussion around the community about drivers’ safety and wild flips that were becoming frequent on this car.

Now, finally, a year after that scare and just before this year’s Michigan race, there’s big news coming straight from NASCAR insiders. And it’s got everyone buzzing with anticipation. It’s a move that could change the game for superspeedway racing, and with lives potentially on the line. NASCAR isn’t taking any chances.

NASCAR’s new aero fixes aim to keep cars grounded

NASCAR journalist Nate Ryan shared some exciting updates on a recent episode of Hauler Talks, diving into the sport’s latest safety efforts after last year’s terrifying crashes. When asked if the Cup cars would be running aero extensions with the intermediate package to help keep them grounded during spins, Ryan was quick to respond: “The short answer will be yes, yessish. In our interview with Dr. Eric Jacuzzi, our lead aerodynamicist, he talks a little bit about this—what they did after we saw three blowovers in three weeks, maybe two at Daytona and another one at Michigan. So they went to work on figuring out aerodynamic parts and pieces that can be added to the car to help that lift-off speed. And what that means is to increase the miles-an-hour number needed to flip a car over. One of the things they added was some diffusers on the roof and also fabric to the right side of the roof flap.”

Those three blowovers Ryan mentioned were hard to forget, starting with the chaos at Daytona during the Coke Zero Sugar 400 on August 24, 2024. Josh Berry, piloting the No. 4 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing, was in the hunt for the lead with just two laps left when he made contact with Austin Cindric, sending his car into a spin. In an instant, it flipped upside down and crashed into the backstretch apron with a jarring impact.

Earlier in that same race, Michael McDowell’s No. 34 Ford went airborne after a hit, flipping onto its side in a stomach-churning sequence at Daytona. Both drivers walked away unscathed, waving to fans after their check-ups, but those incidents, along with LaJoie’s Michigan crash, lit a fire under NASCAR to make changes. The new fabric on the roof flaps, which Ryan noted was introduced at Talladega, works with the diffusers to raise the speed needed for a car to lift off. A tweak that’s now standard at all superspeedway races, including this weekend’s event at Michigan.

He went on to explain how these changes are already making a difference and what’s coming next: “So I am sure you’ve all seen when a car spins, those roof flaps go up, those are one of the aerodynamic bits and pieces that help keep the car on the ground, and so that fabric has added some miles per hour in speed—that wasn’t in Michigan last year, that was added in Talladega and is a part of all superspeedways races this year, so that’ll be on the car this year. But that’s only the new piece, there will be some, as we’ve talked in the past—Daytona 2. We’re gonna have the A-post flap that we’ve talked about. Some more wind tunnel testing going into that, but it’s really just fine-tuning that.”

Looking ahead, the A-post flap Ryan mentioned is a small but mighty addition near the windshield pillar, set to debut at Daytona in August. It’s designed to pop up during high-speed spins, disrupting airflow to reduce lift and help keep the car on the ground. NASCAR officials say it could increase the odds of staying planted in a 90-degree spin by 40 to 50%. This feature was brought to light after Ryan Preece’s violent Daytona 500 flip this year. It remains to be seen how effective this new flap will be. Hopefully, it has a better use case than those shark fins that were installed last year.

Declaring Michigan a superspeedway with these updates in place shows NASCAR’s concern towards driver safety, and fans are eager to see how these changes hold up at the FireKeepers Casino 400, hoping for a race that’s all about speed and strategy, not violent flips.

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Ryan Blaney eyes a second win at Michigan International Speedway

While NASCAR’s safety updates are stealing the headlines, Ryan Blaney is rolling into Michigan with his eyes on a different prize—a second win of the 2025 season. It’s been a wild year for the Team Penske driver, with more ups and downs than he’s used to. “Just been a rocky, up-and-down year for us of having really good speed, and just having some misfortune,” Blaney shared with the Free Press, reflecting on a season where DNFs have matched his top-five finishes. But his win in Nashville on June 1 was a game-changer, a “weight off our shoulders” that locked him into the playoffs and put him seventh in the standings.

The FireKeepers Casino 400 on Sunday, June 8, is a golden opportunity for Blaney to keep that momentum going. Michigan’s intermediate track reminds him a lot of Kansas Speedway, where he nabbed a third-place finish in the AdventHealth 400 back in May—one of his best runs this year. He loves how both tracks let him push the limits with high-speed, full-throttle racing, and his No. 12 car’s speed and versatility mean he can run the non-dominant lane better than most, giving him an edge. “We compare Kansas and Michigan a lot through the years of just, how do you carry speed into the corner? How does your car kind of take all the mid-corner speed when you’re not lifting much?” Blaney said, hoping to build on that Kansas run and make Michigan even better.

There’s a bit of extra pressure this weekend, though, because Michigan is Ford’s home track, and Blaney’s eager to deliver for his manufacturer, even if it’s not his personal “home race”—that honor goes to Pocono, where he and his wife have family ties. “I look forward to this big weekend for us and Ford, being right in their backyard,” he said, thinking back to his 2021 win at Michigan and dreaming of getting back to victory lane. That win would be huge, especially after such an unconventional start to the season, and it’d go a long way toward straightening out his path as the playoffs loom.

Blaney’s got the talent, the car, and the drive to make it happen, and with NASCAR’s new safety measures in play, fans can focus on cheering him on without worrying about another scary crash. Michigan’s shaping up to be a can’t-miss race, with Blaney chasing glory and the sport taking a big step toward a safer future.