Track: Nashville Superspeedway
Location: Lebanon, Tennessee
Track length: 1.33 miles
When: Sunday, 7 p.m. ET
Where to tune in: Prime Video, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Race purse: $11,055,250
Race distance: 300 laps | 399 miles
Stages: 90 | 185 | 300
Defending winner: Joey Logano, June 2024
Starting lineup: Chase Briscoe on pole
RELATED: How to watch on Prime Video | Watch NASCAR video highlights
Nashville sets stage for regular-season run to postseason
Just like that, half of the regular season is over. It’s June, and Nashville Superspeedway is ready to propel the NASCAR Cup Series into the second half of the run to the playoffs.
Ross Chastain assured his spot in the 2025 postseason with a win at the Coca-Cola 600 one week ago, and there’s a strong chance he backs that up Sunday at Nashville, where he wheeled the No. 1 to Victory Lane in 2023 and was in contention late in 2024. But there are other big names with big teams and big dreams eager to win and secure that playoff position as Race No. 14 of 26 inches toward the green flag.
MORE: Cup Series standings | Full 2025 schedule
Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney ranks sixth in laps led (200), seventh in points (363) and eighth in average running position (14.43). Yet his 17.8 average finish is tied with two others for 14th-best, sunken by a series-high five DNFs through 13 races. Nashville has proven to be hit or miss for Blaney: In four starts, the No. 12 Ford has finished inside the top 10 twice (third, 2022; sixth, 2024) and crashed out twice (2021, 2023). And with 13 races separating us from the postseason, Blaney provisionally sits 11th in the projected 16-driver playoff field, 89 points above the elimination line — safe, but not secure.
Chase Briscoe, on the other hand, was all miss and no hits in his four trips with Stewart-Haas Racing. That can all be erased in his first trip to the concrete oval with Joe Gibbs Racing and its No. 19 team. Crew chief James Small and now-retired driver Martin Truex Jr. scored a runner-up finish at Nashville in 2023 behind Chastain, but the No. 19 Toyota has also finished outside the top 20 three times in for Nashville appearances. In fact, according to Racing Insights, JGR only has two top fives at Nashville in the four races and failed to have a car finish inside the top 10 in 2024 despite leading 203 of the 331 laps. Still, Briscoe stands 13th in the provisional postseason standings, 40 points to the good coming off a Charlotte top five.
Despite its spot smack-dab in the middle of the regular season, Nashville can play a pivotal role in the championship outcome. Last season, Joey Logano took advantage of incredible fuel saving to win after five periods of NASCAR Overtime, locking his spot in the playoffs and ultimately propelling the No. 22 Team Penske group toward its third championship season.
So who’s next? And who knows? Perhaps everything we thought we knew about this regular season could change Sunday night.
MORE: Full Saturday recap
From atop the pit box …
What do crew chiefs have in focus to win Sunday’s race?
Sure, Nashville’s party central — Broadway — is a half hour northwest of the facility, but two drinking phrases for Sunday evening will be track position and fuel mileage.
Should a caution fall on the brink of the fuel window — which varies by manufacturer, with some saying 76 laps and others saying closer to 80 — expect teams to pit, hoping to get a few caution laps to bank enough fuel and stretch their tanks. Stephen Doran, crew chief for Zane Smith in last year‘s five-overtime extravaganza, called the No. 71 Chevrolet to pit road with roughly 75 laps remaining in regulation. The race went 31 laps past its scheduled distance and Smith leaped more than 20 positions in the running order.
“We had just had a caution with like 75 to go so everyone could make it, so we knew most would stay out and didn‘t have much to lose,” Doran, now crew chief for Shane van Gisbergen, told NASCAR.com on Saturday at Nashville. “We weren‘t really thinking of fuel at the time; we were thinking of a tire advantage. As it turned out, it was a huge advantage on fuel to be able to jump everyone else that was pitting in overtime because they were out of fuel.”
Three-time Cup champion Joey Logano ultimately stretched his tank the furthest last summer, earning his first of two fuel-mileage victories in 2024 (Las Vegas, October). The No. 22 Ford pushed the limit, going 110 laps on a tank of gas with the aid of six caution flags.
“With the way the tire holds on to speed, it opens up the opportunity,” Paul Wolfe, crew chief of the No. 22 car, said. “As we go into any weekend, it‘s understanding the tire and the trends of falloff and those types of things. This weekend, a new left-side tire, a little softer, is what we‘re being told. There are opportunities to stay out with a lot of laps, and there‘s the chance for two tires, which we did as well during that race. It‘s one of those races where if you don‘t have track position, there‘s definitely opportunities to try to make some.”
It might be an outcry for another Nashville race to go five overtimes. But teams know that the race can be won or lost on restarts.
“I‘d say you‘re not going to see that again, but it is a track where the restarts are wild,” Doran stated. “It‘s hard to pass here, it‘s hard to complete a pass, so people are super aggressive on restarts to try and get track position. I think that‘s why you saw the craziness at the end of the race last year.”
— Jayski’s Dustin Albino
RELATED: See where drivers will pit for Sunday’s race
History tells us …
Watch out for the current concrete kings. According to Racing Insights, three drivers have combined to win the last six races on concrete: Hamlin, Logano and Larson. Hamlin himself owns three of those wins, including two in 2024. Larson has won each of the last two, both of which came at Bristol Motor Speedway. But will the trend continue at a different Tennessee track?
He may not be the favorite to win, but watch out for …
AJ ALLMENDINGER. The No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet has impressed much of this season, even if last week’s top five at Charlotte broke a streak of two DNFs and three finishes outside the top 20. In three Nashville Cup starts, Allmendinger has never finished outside the top 20 — 19th, 10th and 11th. With Kaulig’s improved speed, perhaps Allmendinger will find himself in the mix once again.
Fantasy update
NASCAR Fantasy Live expert Dustin Albino provides insight for your Sunday lineup.
Toyota dominated Saturday at Nashville, with Tyler Reddick leading the way in most practice metrics and Chase Briscoe winning consecutive pole awards for the first time in his career. The biggest move this weekend is jumping Briscoe into my starting lineup after listing the No. 19 car as one to stay away from earlier this week. Briscoe had steady short- and long-run speed in practice. I also bumped Bubba Wallace as my garage pick, thinking it would be a smart idea to have Toyota as the focal point of your lineup on Sunday. The bonehead move of the year could be not having Kyle Larson available, but the No. 5 car looked average in practice and qualified a season-low 28th. I also flopped RFK drivers in 36 for 36, with Brad Keselowski being my new pick.
Lineup: Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick, Ross Chastain, Chase Briscoe, Chase Elliott.
Garage: Bubba Wallace.
MORE: Get lineup advice in Fantasy Fastlane
Speed reads
Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles.
• NASCAR at Nashville: Key information, links, results through the weekend | Read more
• In-Season Challenge: How it works after 32-driver field is set after Nashville | Read more
• ‘Be a sponge’: How common thread, common goals propelled Trackhouse to Coca-Cola 600 win | Read more
• Racing Insights: Full finishing order projections for Sunday’s Cracker Barrel 400 | Read more
• Turning Point to Nashville: Larson’s ‘Double’ fallout, most successful drivers under the lights | Read more
• At-track photos: Best shots and scenes from Music City | View gallery
• NASCAR Classics: All the thrills and intense moments from Nashville | Watch races
• Paint Scheme Preview: Schemes set to shine under the Nashville lights | View gallery
