On Sunday evening, the celebs of the NASCAR Cup Sequence will deal with 1.33-mile Nashville Superspeedway for the working of the Cracker Barrel 400 (7 p.m. ET, Prime Video, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).
Here’s what you must know forward of the 14th race of the Cup Sequence season:
Favourite: Kyle Larson (+450, per DraftKings)
Regardless of one other disappointing attempt on the Memorial Day weekend “Double” from Larson, the 2021 champion as soon as once more enters as the favourite. Together with his focus solely on his No. 5 Cup Sequence workforce, Larson will look to place final weekend behind him.
With a win (2021) and a top-10 end in every of his 4 begins at Nashville, this weekend units up properly for Larson, as most usually do. If Larson has a clear race Sunday evening, there is no such thing as a cause to imagine he will not bounce again in an enormous method and choose up his second win simply exterior “Music Metropolis.”
Underdog: Ryan Preece (+2500, per DraftKings)
Having already matched a career-high in top-10s (5) solely 13 races into the 2025 season, Preece finds himself holding down the sixteenth and ultimate playoff spot coming into Nashville (+6) over teammate Chris Buescher, who got 30 of his 60 points back from a post-Kansas penalty on Wednesday.
Whereas the latest Nashville race in 2024 produced a record five overtimes, Preece got here away with a fourth-place end driving for a Stewart-Haas Racing workforce that closed its doorways on the finish of the season and in addition has a pair of Truck Sequence wins there. It will not be a shock to see him towards the entrance Sunday evening.
Will the momentum proceed for Trackhouse Racing?
Regardless of a career-high 283 laps led from Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron, the Coca-Cola 600 belonged to Ross Chastain, who went from final to first to attain his first crown jewel win. Not solely that, Shane van Gisbergen picked up his greatest profession Cup Sequence end on an oval in 14th.
Nashville can also be an intermediate observe, however its concrete floor and fewer banking will probably be a unique take a look at and provide a better indicator of the place the Trackhouse group stands. Chastain does have a previous win there (2023), so maybe the momentum continues this weekend and into the summer time.
Can Workforce Penske reply from adversity?
The Coca-Cola 600 didn’t go Workforce Penske’s method with Joey Logano the perfect ending driver in seventeenth. Austin Cindric was thirty first and Ryan Blaney completed thirty eighth after a multi-car crash in Stage 3. That adopted the firings of the group’s prime three executives, together with Cindric’s father, Tim, main as much as the Indianapolis 500.
That actually didn’t assist the efficiency on the NASCAR aspect both with all three groups struggling to search out tempo. Because the defending winner at Nashville with Logano, Workforce Penske will look to search out comparable success one yr later.
Will the pattern of various winners at Nashville proceed?
Nashville Superspeedway has performed host to 4 Cup Sequence races and every have been received by a unique driver. Larson led 264 laps in his 2021 win with Chase Elliott (2022), Chastain (2023) and Logano (2024) taking the opposite three.
There’s a good probability the pattern continues on Sunday, notably from a pair of Joe Gibbs Racing drivers. Christopher Bell led 131 laps final season at Nashville whereas Denny Hamlin has led 70 or extra laps in every of the final three races there. We may very well be taking a look at a fifth completely different winner at Nashville come Sunday evening.
