Denny Hamlin won Sunday’s (May 31) NASCAR Cup Series race at Nashville Superspeedway, beating Joe Gibbs Racing Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe in an enthralling last-lap battle to take his second victory of the 2026 season and the 62nd of his Cup career.
Hamlin started on pole but received a penalty for jumping the start.
“I definitely jumped the start, no doubt about it,” Hamlin said. “Side by side with the 20, he drove in there so deep on the last lap into 1.”
That didn’t seem to matter, though, as Hamlin got back to the front of the field and outdrove both of his teammates in the closing laps, making contact with Bell multiple times to keep him at bay.
Bell, Briscoe, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Shane van Gisbergen, Tyler Reddick, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Zane Smith and Carson Hocevar rounded out the top 10.
“I kept trying to back up my entries to get a big run and take them three-wide,” Briscoe said. “Hate that we weren’t on the better end of it. Great day for JGR to be 1-2-3. Just wish we were the ones in first.”
Bell was clearly dejected at the Prime Video desk when asked about the finish and kept placing the blame for the loss on himself.
“I got no circumstances to blame but myself,” Bell said. “I just didn’t win the race. All there is to it. I really felt like I was in a pretty good spot being on the outside. Denny [Hamlin] kept getting more and more aggressive. That brought the 19 in. I thought even when the 19 got the big run, it looked like he was going to go with me and give me a shove. Just lost the race.”
Reddick was involved in a hard crash at the finish line, but he climbed out of his car unharmed.
Bell passed Smith, who was trying to limp his No. 38 home on fumes, for the lead with 13 laps to go when the caution came out for Chris Buescher hitting the outside wall.
Bell got by Briscoe and Hamlin for the lead during the previous green flag run and seemed to be the best of the three JGR drivers on the long run.
Bell took the lead from Hamlin with 55 laps to go and retained his advantage over Briscoe and Hamlin after the final round of green flag pit stops. Bell made his final stop with 39 laps to go.
Connor Zilisch brought out the first caution for cause after his right-front brake rotor exploded. He finished last in 38th. Just eight laps later on lap 81, his Trackhouse Racing Ross Chastain also suffered a brake rotor failure and was knocked out of the race in 37th. Meanwhile, Ryan Preece finished 36th after retiring with radiator issues.
AJ Allmendinger went on to win the first stage in a one-lap shootout over Kyle Larson.
Allmendinger was the next driver to fall victim to a blown brake rotor, hitting the turn 1 wall on lap 173 after his right-front rotor also went out.
“Felt nothing until it exploded,” Allmendinger said to Prime Video. “No warning signs. Brakes weren’t soft or anything like that. It sucks; we were having a good day.”
The caution flew again on lap 183 after an incident involving Todd Gilliland, Cole Custer and Corey Heim, which led to Daniel Suarez winning stage two under yellow.
Brad Keselowski and Austin Cindric were involved in a lap 192 wreck after the field got stacked up, which led to Austin Dillon hitting Keselowski who went up the track and got into Cindric.
A big crash occurred in turn 1 on lap 203, as Bubba Wallace hit the outside wall and, having no brakes, came down the track and collected Alex Bowman. William Byron and Josh Berry were also involved.
John Hunter Nemechek and Ty Dillon spun on the frontstretch on lap 213, both getting away with little damage.
A member of the National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA), Samuel also covers NASCAR for Yardbarker, Field Level Media, and Heavy Sports. He will attend the University of Arkansas in the fall of 2025.