What Happened?
Denny Hamlin captured his second win of the Cup Series season after a thrilling finish with his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe at Nashville Superspeedway in the Cracker Barrel 400 on Sunday night (May 31).
Behind the 1-2-3 JGR finish, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Shane van Gisbergen rounded out the top five.
Tyler Reddick, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Zane Smith, and Carson Hocevar comprised the remainder of the top 10.
What Really Happened?
The JGR trio of Hamlin, Bell, and Briscoe combined to lead 100 of the 300-lap event, and Hamlin rebounded from his lap 1 penalty for jumping the initial start.
If you add in Reddick’s 42 laps led, those four contending Toyotas led nearly half the race. Four of the top seven drivers in the points standings drive Toyotas, and they have won eight of the first 14 races of the season.
As of now, this looks like Toyota’s title to lose. Whether it’s Reddick, Hamlin, or another driver catching fire down the stretch in The Chase, the Toyotas are dialed in over the top Chevrolet and Ford teams.
Hendrick Motorsports and the up-and-coming Spire Motorsports are filling the top 10 in points with solid campaigns from several drivers, but it is clear that in most races, those teams are a step behind Toyota.
As for Ford, most cars are not even close to contending for wins. Blaney’s win at Phoenix Raceway remains the lone win for the blue ovals this season. Blaney won the race at Nashville last year. He put together a solid race this year, leading 46 laps on the night, but he was not the best car, so he tried to stretch it on fuel in the final stage. However, the No. 12 team brought him in to pit when they believed they wouldn’t make it to the end.
Another Ford driver did attempt to go all the way on fuel, and that was Zane Smith, but he was passed by Bell for the lead with roughly 10 laps to go.
A late caution allowed Blaney and Smith to regroup, and they both finished inside the top 10. However, their creative strategies did not quite work out, and Ford came up empty-handed once again.
Outside of Blaney and Smith, it was a rough night for Ford drivers. That late caution that set up the final restart was caused by Chris Buescher losing his brakes, one of the handful of drivers to crash out of the race due to rotors blowing out.
It was a difficult night for RFK Racing as a whole, with Brad Keselowski getting caught up in a crash after contact with Austin Dillon, and Ryan Preece falling out of the race early on due to a radiator issue.
Other Fords that ran into trouble included Austin Cindric, who was clipped by Keselowski in his incident with Dillon, and Josh Berry, who got caught up in a crash later in the race when he had nowhere to go to avoid it.
After Nashville, there are only four Fords in Chase spots, and there are three Ford drivers fighting for the final spot, with Cindric holding a small lead over Preece and his Penske teammate Joey Logano.
Who Stood Out?
Shane van Gisbergen put together another great performance on an oval, earning a top five after he led 12 laps in the race. Van Gisbergen is now up to 12th in points, 44 points above the cut line.
Another big surprise in the race were the two stage winners. Late cautions in both stages allowed for some mixed strategies, and this allowed AJ Allmendinger and last week’s winner Daniel Suarez to see the green and white checkered flag first.
Suarez ended up 19th, and unfortunately, Allmendinger was one of the victims of brake failures as his crash occurred while he was running in the third position.
Who Fell Flat?
Although Trackhouse got a top five finish from SVG, they also saw their other two drivers finish in the last two positions of the race.
Connor Zilisch and Ross Chastain both suffered brake failures of their own in the first stage as Zilisch’s rough rookie season continues and Chastain falls further away from Chase contention.
William Byron and Bubba Wallace were two more drivers in position to make The Chase who found trouble during the event, as they both got caught up in a crash in the early part of the final stage.
With all the carnage, Byron actually moved up a spot in points, but he still only has a 48-point advantage over the bubble. Wallace, on the other hand, dropped down to 15th in points, 34 points ahead of 17th.
Paint Scheme of the Race
It was only fitting for Stenhouse to run well while donning a Kyle Busch NOS Energy tribute scheme.
Busch had his success in The Music City while driving a NOS-sponsored car, including his O’Reilly Series win where he smashed the guitar trophy in victory lane.
Stenhouse was able to navigate his way to a fourth-place run after a strong final restart of the race.
What’s Next?
The NASCAR Cup Series will head to Michigan International Speedway next Sunday (June 7) for the Firekeepers Casino 400.
It will be the 15th race of the season, and it will start at 3 p.m. ET with coverage on Amazon Prime Video. Hamlin won the race at Michigan last season.
Michael Bellifemini joined Frontstretch in February 2026 as a contributor. Bellifemini was born and raised in New Jersey and graduated from Seton Hall University. He called Seton Hall men's and women's basketball games for their college radio station, 89.5 FM WSOU, and continues to broadcast in the area. Outside of covering NASCAR, Bellifemini is also an avid baseball, football, basketball, and hockey fan and enjoys watching different sports leagues on a daily basis.
Nascar picks the Aero Package and the Horsepower Packages which dictates race results !
when i saw the pole winner, well how nascar set the field since mother nature got in the way, i thought hamlin would win. it was just a feeling i had.
Michael, some constructive feedback. I am a long term reader of this column regardless of what the site was named and who wrote it. Please lean into “Thinking Out Loud” part of this column, a summary run down of what happened is great, but what did you see as the pivotal moment of the race?, who really excelled or choked?, what calls were right or wrong?, etc. What did you think? Show you are a true fan, not just a desk reporter. Lots of comments – good!
Nothing ruins a nice Sunday afternoon of race watchin’ like a rain delay. I tuned in late, just in time to see Brad get run over by Austin Dillon. It’s not the first run-in between these two veterans. I don’t think they like each other very much.
Those last few laps with Bell, Briscoe, and Hamlin were thrilling. I’ve never been a Hamlin fan, but I do like seeing the older drivers schooling the younger ones from time to time. These days, my dislike for Hamlin has been largely replaced with my…. let’s just say I’m not a fan of the Gibblet.
Connor Zilish has 30 more points than Cody B. Ware.