In the five NASCAR Cup Series races held at Nashville Superspeedway, Joe Gibbs Racing has dominated by leading 727 laps — just under half of the 1,531 laps run in the last half decade.
That percentage only soars in the Next Gen era, as the team has led a whopping 58.2% of the laps (717 of 1,231) run at Nashville since 2022.
Nashville has become JGR’s playground in the Next Gen era, and the team has done nothing but dominate. In addition to leading more than half the laps, JGR has scored three poles in the last four races at the track.
And with all those exceptional displays of dominance and speed, JGR must have at least one, if not multiple, guitars in its trophy case, right?
Right?
As baffling as it sounds, JGR has yet to pick up at Cup win at Nashville after a half-decade of dominance.
Kyle Larson was absolutely untouchable in the lone Gen 6 race at Nashville 2021, but every race since then has been missed opportunity after missed opportunity for Toyota’s flagship team.
The 2022 event was JGR’s most dominant performance across the board, as Denny Hamlin, Martin Truex Jr. and Kyle Busch combined to lead 250 of the 300 laps. They dominated every stage of the race except the very end, when Chase Elliott passed and ran away from the JGR trio in the final 40 laps.
| Year | Laps led by JGR | Winner | Winning Team | Winning Make |
| 2022 | 250 | Chase Elliott | Hendrick | Chevy |
| 2023 | 134 | Ross Chastain | Trackhouse | Chevy |
| 2024 | 203 | Joey Logano | Penske | Ford |
| 2025 | 130 | Ryan Blaney | Penske | Ford |
Truex and Hamlin combined to led 131 laps at Nashville in 2023, but they had an equally formidable challenger in Ross Chastain, who dominated the final stage; JGR had to settle for a 2-3 finish.
Christopher Bell dominated last year until he lost track position and wrecked his car on a restart in the final stage. Hamlin won the pole and had the best car late, making what would’ve been the winning pass on Chastain with seven laps to go until an Austin Cindric spin with two to go triggered five overtime restarts that saw Hamlin and all the other frontrunners run out of fuel.
JGR dominated the first half of Nashville once again on Sunday night (June 1), as Chase Briscoe (the polesitter) and Hamlin combined to lead 130 laps. But neither could keep pace with Ryan Blaney, who dominated the second half of the race in a contest that wasn’t even close.
In Nashville’s five years on the Cup schedule, only six drivers have managed to lead at least 100 laps. Making up the six are three former winners and three winless JGR drivers.
| Driver | Laps Led | Wins |
| Denny Hamlin | 344 | 0 |
| Kyle Larson | 264 | 1 |
| Ryan Blaney | 166 | 1 |
| Ross Chastain | 148 | 1 |
| Christopher Bell | 134 | 0 |
| Martin Truex Jr. | 132 | 0 |
For every track, there’s at least one “tough luck” driver that consistently dominates to no avail. Hamlin has been that driver for Nashville, as he’s led more laps than anyone else by a wide margin. In the one race (2024) where it looked like he would finally earn the first guitar for himself, Toyota and JGR, the Racing Gods ultimately had other plans.
As the saying goes, there’s always next year. But all those heartbreaks and near-misses in Music City are adding up in a hurry.
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Find Stephen on Twitter @stephen_stumpf