After the Watermelon King picked up a Crown Jewel victory in the Queen City last weekend, the stars of the NASCAR Cup Series look ahead to their trip to the Music City for today’s Cracker Barrel 400.
A circuit that lay dormant for a spell, Nashville Superspeedway made its grand return to the NASCAR schedule by earning its first Cup race in 2021, and ever since, the track routinely rocks competitors of all skill levels.
In last year’s race, it looked like Denny Hamlin had it wrapped up by the end of the 300-lap journey, but a late Austin Cindric spin set up a flurry of encores that ultimately had the series break its record for overtimes when Joey Logano stretched his fuel mileage the best by winning in the fifth overtime.
Since the track reappeared, four different drivers rolled away from the Music City with a brand-new guitar slung over their shoulders, so will we see a fifth driver rip their way through the field and shred their way to victory?
Find out tonight under the lights as NASCAR goes primetime on Amazon Prime for 300 laps over 400 miles right outside of Nashville, Tenn.
Last Week at Charlotte…
If you’re looking for a detailed recap of last week’s race, look no further as I handled race reviewing duties for the vaunted Coca-Cola World 600. Here’s a link to the recap.
This Week in NASCAR
The 23XI and Front Row vs. NASCAR lawsuit rages on as June 12 has been set for the date for the two sides to meet and discuss the motion to dismiss NASCAR’s countersuit against the teams where the sanctioning body alleges that the teams have actually been violating antitrust laws.
Kaulig Racing committed to fielding a third car for the Chicago street race. Reigning Australian Supercars champion Will Brown will get behind the wheel of the No. 13 Kaulig Racing Camaro where he will make his second career start after his 31st-place debut at Sonoma with Richard Childress Racing last season.
NASCAR lost out in their appeal with RFK Racing this week as the team got their penalties reduced from the standard L1 penalty they were levied last week. Now, Chris Buescher and the 17 team recouped 30 of their 60 points while the rest of the penalty parameters stands.
Alex Zietlow of the Charlotte Observer broke news this week by pointing out a new push by Rockingham Speedway’s ownership to sell the refurbished facility.
In the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, the hungry field of racers entered Nashville for the Rackley Roofing 200 where Layne Riggs and Corey Heim swapped the top-2 positions through the first two stages, but in the final stage, it was all about the third-place finisher in both stages: Rajah Caruth.
A lightning-fast stop from his No. 71 Spire Motorsports pit crew put him in control of the final restart, and Caruth fended late challenges from Heim to earn his second career Truck Series victory and put his Chevy Silverado in the playoffs.
In yesterday’s Xfinity Series race, defending series champion Justin Allgaier put on a clinic in Tennessee’s capital as he led 101 of the race’s 188 laps, swept the stages, and claimed the Xfinity Fastest Lap on his way to his third victory of the 2025 season.
For the second straight week, Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chase Briscoe put his No. 19 Bass Pro Shops Toyota Camry on pole position for this weekend’s Cracker Barrel 400. Here’s a link to today’s starting lineup.
After completing post-qualifying technical inspection, the car chief for AJ Allmendinger’s No. 16 Kaulig Chevy lost his hard card after he was found to have illegally adjusted the splitter, allegedly by jumping on it. At the start of the race today, Allmendinger will start from the back and perform a pass-through penalty on lap 1.
Jey and I returned for another edition of our Cup Series power rankings, so if you’re interested in taking a look at the 10 best drivers in the sport this week, take a look at our latest ranking.
The Race
Today’s Cracker Barrel 400 will be broadcast tonight at 7pm Eastern time on Amazon Prime Video with Adam Alexander, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Steve Letarte in the booth.
Today’s 400-mile race gets broken up into 300 laps by virtue of Nashville Superspeedway being a 1.33-mile oval, and those 300 laps get further broken up into stages ending on the following laps: 90-185-300.
As for a typical Nashville race, there isn’t much data to go off of, but it looks something like this: 10 cautions for 55 caution laps, 18 lead changes, and an average duration of 3 hours and 32 minutes. Expect the final caution to come somewhere around lap 252 or 49 laps to go.
Writer’s Pick
Last week’s writer’s pick was Tyler Reddick. After finishing in the top-5 in each of the first three stages, Reddick got penalized on pit road and then further ruined his day by smashing his The Beast Unleashed Toyota into the outside wall, ending the day 26th and two laps down.
This week, I’m siding with his car owner, Denny Hamlin.
In last year’s race, Hamlin made the race-winning pass on Ross Chastain with less than 10 laps to go, or so we all thought because Austin Cindric’s spin with two laps to go sent the field into seemingly unlimited overtimes where Hamlin’s nemesis, Joey Logano, came away with the victory.
In the NextGen era, Hamlin was on pace to earn his third consecutive top-6 finish at Nashville last season, but the endless stream of cautions forced him to pit, something that still gets under his skin.
With a baby on the way and charged up from last year’s (and last week’s) loss, Hamlin possesses plenty of internal fuel that can power him to a victory in today’s race.
(Top Photo Credit: Wade Payne/AP Photo)
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