What Happened?
Ryan Blaney led 139 of 300 laps at Nashville Superspeedway on Sunday night (June 1) to win the Cracker Barrel 400, collecting his first guitar in the process.
Despite statistically dominating the race, Blaney had several challenges from Denny Hamlin (who finished third) and William Byron (fifth). Ultimately, it was Carson Hocevar who finished second, matching his career-best Cup Series finish. Between third-place Hamlin and fifth-place Byron was Blaney’s teammate Joey Logano, who led 10 laps en route to a fourth-place finish.
What Really Happened?
Team Penske was winless through the first nine races of the season.
Would you believe me if I told you after that ninth race at Bristol Motor Speedway that just five races later, all three Team Penske drivers would be locked into the playoffs with wins?
Yeah, I wouldn’t believe me either.
But in just five races, Team Penske’s 2025 season has completely turned around.
It started with Austin Cindric winning at Talladega Superspeedway. That was immediately backed up with a Logano win at Texas Motor Speedway. After two more points races, Blaney got his victory at Nashville.
When you consider how awful Team Penske (and to a broader extent, Ford) has been at the start of seasons since the advent of the Next Gen car, to have all three Penske cars locked in the playoffs before the halfway point of the season is incredibly impressive.
Especially considering there was a point where it looked like no Team Penske driver would do so.
Despite Blaney’s consistent ability to finish in the top five and top 10, he’s had what feels like just as many DNFs. He had three straight DNFs at Phoenix Raceway, Las Vegas Motor Speedway and Homestead-Miami Speedway — two of which were engine failures. The No. 12 has two more DNFs tacked on top of that, one at Bristol, and the other just last Sunday (May 25) at Charlotte Motor Speedway.
Logano’s issue wasn’t necessarily his ability to finish races, but rather to finish high up the running order. Prior to his win at Texas, Logano had just one top 10 finish, an eighth at Martinsville Speedway. Other than that, he consistently fought in the back half of the top 15, and even had a few finishes outside the top 20 to go along with it.
Cindric has had a similar lack of consistency, but his advantage over Logano was his two top 10s over Logano’s one. Cindric also severely lacked in stage points, which is why he’s a couple positions behind Blaney and Logano in the overall point standings.
Now all three drivers are in the top 15 — it’s not like they have had seasons from hell that have reporters sounding alarms on the team’s performance. They’ve just been unable to find the speed to compete for wins.
And now they won’t have to until September.
With the win-and-you’re-in system, the three Penske guys didn’t need to do anything more than find victory lane, even if they’re a step behind teams like Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing. Now, the team as a collective whole can go to work to find more consistent speed to make legitimate runs at the 2025 championship.
That’s the funny thing about racing — sometimes, a quick swing of momentum is all you need to turn your season around.
For Team Penske, 2025 just became a whole new season.
Who Stood Out?
While the month of May treated some well, it did not treat Bubba Wallace well at all.
Three straight DNFs at Texas, Kansas Speedway and Charlotte resulted in a slide from well inside the top 10 in points to potentially fighting on the cut line if the slide continued.
Lo and behold, the first day of June fell, and Wallace is back in the top 10 with a sixth-place finish.
It didn’t seem like it would turn out that way after the No. 23 driver was penalized for speeding on the first round of green flag pit stops. But throughout the night, Wallace continued to persevere, and with the help of his crew making his car even better as day turned into night, Wallace found himself back inside the top 10 for the first time since Talladega.
Who Fell Flat?
For the first time in 2025, a Cup Series race took the checkered flag without Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
The Hyak Motorsports driver has shown consistency all season, even putting himself in position to point his way into the playoffs (provided he doesn’t win, of course). Stenhouse looked like he’d have another solid night to build off of, but a certain sophomore driver put himself back into the spotlight of aggression.
Stenhouse backed Into the turn 3 and 4 wall off of the front bumper of Hocevar on lap 107. The pair were running 17th and 18th at the time. After spending several laps trying to repair his No. 47, Stenhouse eventually brought his Chevrolet behind the wall in frustration.
When he emerged from the care center, Stenhouse echoed the sentiment that several drivers have shared about Hocevar, in that he needs to be dealt with.
Would Stenhouse be that guy? Perhaps.
But would he wait on him like he did one time before with another competitor?
”No, that costs too much money.”
Paint Scheme of the Race
In 2021, Daniel Suarez and Trackhouse Racing rolled into the Cup Series’ inaugural race at Nashville and unveiled a new primary partner for the race in Tootsies Orchid Lounge. Tootsies, located on Broadway in downtown Nashville, partnered with the No. 99 team in what appeared to be a one-off deal.
However, the partnership quickly blossomed into a multiple-race, multiple-year affair, and that continued in 2025. It should be no surprise that Tootsies would serve as primary sponsor for Suarez in the Music City.
But the paint scheme Trackhouse brought for it? Absolutely next level.
Purple paint schemes are rarer than you think, but who knew dark purple and light purple mixed well for a paint scheme? The floral ebbs and flows all over the car really complete a beautiful-looking No. 99 Chevrolet. With Nashville being Tootsies’ home race, it wasn’t really shocking that Trackhouse brought a appropriately-special-looking paint scheme for the occasion.
Suarez qualified 32nd and finished the evening in 16th.
What’s Next?
From Music City to the Irish Hills.
The NASCAR Cup Series heads to Michigan International Speedway for its lone trip to the two-mile racetrack. From 1974 until 2020, Michigan hosted two races, in June and August. Since 2021, Michigan has only retained its August date. In 2025, NASCAR moved the race ahead to the approximate former June date its second race held.
Tyler Reddick is the defending winner of the race.
Coverage for the FireKeepers Casino 400 begins at approximately 2 p.m. ET on Sunday, June 8. You can stream the race on Amazon Prime Video, or listen to Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio for radio coverage.
Anthony Damcott joined Frontstretch in March 2022. Currently, he is an editor and co-authors Fire on Fridays (Fridays); he is also the primary Truck Series reporter/writer and serves as an at-track reporter. He has also assisted with short track content and social media, among other duties he takes/has taken on for the site. In 2025, he became an official member of the National Motorsports Press Association. A proud West Virginia Wesleyan College alum from Akron, Ohio, Anthony is now a grad student. He is a theatre actor and fight coordinator in his free time.
You can keep up with Anthony by following @AnthonyDamcott on X.