2016 Menards 250

The 2016 Menards 250 presented by Valvoline was the thirteenth stock car race of the 2016 NASCAR Xfinity Series season, and the 25th iteration of the event. The race was held on Saturday, June 11, 2016, in Brooklyn, Michigan, at Michigan International Speedway, a 2 miles (3.2 km) permanent tri-oval shaped superspeedway. The race took the scheduled 125 laps to complete. In an exciting battle for the win, Daniel Suárez, driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, would make a last lap pass on Kyle Busch, and earn his first career NASCAR Xfinity Series win. He would become the first Mexican driver to win a NASCAR national series race. Busch mainly dominated the race, leading 88 laps. To fill out the podium, Paul Menard, driving for Richard Childress Racing, would finish in third, respectively.

Background
Michigan International Speedway is a 2 mi moderate-banked D-shaped speedway located off U.S. Highway 12 on more than 1400 acre approximately 4 mi south of the village of Brooklyn, in the scenic Irish Hills area of southeastern Michigan. The track is 70 mi west of the center of Detroit, 40 mi from Ann Arbor and 60 mi south and northwest of Lansing and Toledo, Ohio respectively. The track is used primarily for NASCAR events. It is sometimes known as a sister track to Texas World Speedway, and was used as the basis of Auto Club Speedway. The track is owned by NASCAR. Michigan International Speedway is recognized as one of the motorsports' premier facilities because of its wide racing surface and high banking (by open-wheel standards; the 18-degree banking is modest by stock car standards). Michigan is the fastest track in NASCAR due to its wide, sweeping corners, long straightaways, and lack of a restrictor plate requirement; typical qualifying speeds are in excess of 200 mph and corner entry speeds are anywhere from 215 to 220 mph after the 2012 repaving of the track.

Entry list

 * (R) denotes rookie driver.
 * (i) denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.

First practice
The first practice session was held on Friday, June 10, at 12:30 PM EST. The session would last for 55 minutes. Erik Jones, driving for Joe Gibbs Racing, would set the fastest time in the session, with a lap of 37.482, and an average speed of 192.092 mph.

Final practice
The final practice session was held on Friday, June 10, at 3:00 PM EST. The session would last for 55 minutes. Joey Logano, driving for Team Penske, would set the fastest time in the session, with a lap of 37.534, and an average speed of 191.826 mph.

Qualifying
Qualifying was held on Saturday, June 11, at 10:00 AM EST. Since Michigan International Speedway is at least 2 mi, the qualifying system was a single car, single lap, two round system where in the first round, everyone would set a time to determine positions 13–40. Then, the fastest 12 qualifiers would move on to the second round to determine positions 1–12.

Alex Bowman, driving for JR Motorsports, would win the pole after advancing from the preliminary round and setting the fastest lap in Round 2, with a lap of 37.581, and an average speed of 191.586 mph.

Standings after the race

 * Note: Only the first 12 positions are included for the driver standings.