NASCAR at Nashville: Lineup, start time, predictions, preview, picks, how to watch the Ally 400

Just as it is known across the world for being a city synonymous with sound, Nashville is also a city known in racing as being synonymous with speed. The metropolis that the country music industry calls home has more than a century's worth of auto racing lore, as the Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway just a few miles from downtown has served as the second-oldest continually operating racetrack in the United States from 1904 onwards.

For some -- like country music legend and occasional NASCAR Cup Series driver Marty Robbins -- racing in this town was a favorite pastime. Others, from Darrell Waltrip to Sterling Marlin to Bobby Hamilton, rose from Nashville's racing ranks to NASCAR stardom. And this weekend, the newest chapter of Nashville's great racing history continues with the fourth annual running of the Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway.

Since the Cup Series returned to Nashville in 2021 after nearly 40 years away, three different drivers -- Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott and Ross Chastain -- have been able to win in Music City and earn the right to strum this track's highly-coveted Gibson Guitar. A whole host of others will look to earn that same right, including a whole host of drivers on the bubble of the NASCAR playoffs at the line between the end of June and the month of July.

How to Watch the NASCAR Cup Series at Nashville

Date: Sun., Jun. 30
Location: Nashville Superspeedway -- Lebanon, Tenn.
Time: 3:30 p.m. ET
TV: NBC
Stream: fubo ( try for free )

What to Watch

While Christopher Bell's third win of the year a week ago maintained the playoff status quo, those drivers who are currently above the cutoff line but have yet to win in 2024 are starting to be increasingly burdened with the pressure of winning and solidifying a playoff spot before potential new winners from below the cut line can bump them. Defending Cup champion Ryan Blaney spared himself of that burden by winning at Iowa, but several other big names -- including last year's Nashville winner -- are still trying to break through and get on the board this season.

Ross Chastain is one of the notable drivers who has yet to win in 2024, with his Nashville win from a season ago highlighting what he and his Trackhouse Racing team currently lack. Chastain has been exceptionally consistent all year -- he has only three finishes outside the top 15 all season -- but he has only two top five finishes compared to 15 in 2022 and 10 a year ago and has yet to finish better than fourth. Chastain's 93-point advantage to the playoff cut line seems safe, but it can still evaporate in the event that the No. 1 team's season goes haywire in the summer months.

The good news for Chastain is that he's keeping good company among drivers above the cut line who have yet to win. Martin Truex Jr. should have won Richmond earlier this year by all accounts, and Chris Buescher came as close as he possibly could to winning at Kansas and was initially scored the winner before being ruled to have run second in the closest finish in Cup Series history.

Joey Logano, who leapfrogged Bubba Wallace for the last spot above the cut line last week at New Hampshire, is still trying to break a winless streak dating back to Atlanta last March. Alex Bowman is trying to break an even longer streak that dates back to his last win at Las Vegas in the spring of 2022.

Chastain has the chance to become the first repeat Cup winner in Nashville Superspeedway history, and the first driver to win back-to-back Cup races in Nashville as a whole since Darrell Waltrip won three races in a row at Nashville Fairgrounds in the early 1980s. Meanwhile, his compatriots above the cut line will try and preserve Nashville's streak of different winners in each Cup race held there so far.

News of the Week

• In an expected development thanks to a slip-up by Christopher Bell, Joe Gibbs Racing formally announced Tuesday that they have hired Chase Briscoe to drive their No. 19 Toyota beginning in 2025. Briscoe has signed a multi-year deal to take over for the retiring Martin Truex Jr., with Bass Pro Shops continuing in its role as the No. 19's majority primary sponsor and James Small continuing as crew chief. Briscoe becomes the first Stewart-Haas Racing driver to find a new seat for 2025, presenting an interesting full circle moment. Briscoe, an Indiana native and protege of Tony Stewart, now joins the team that brought Stewart to NASCAR and with which he won two Cup titles in 2002 and 2005.
• Amid dismal performance by its Cup Series teams, Richard Childress Racing announced major organizational changes on Tuesday. Andy Petree, the team's competition director, has retired effective immediately. He will be replaced by Keith Rodden, who will assume competition director duties on an interim basis. Petree spent much of his NASCAR career at Richard Childress Racing, most notably when he won the 1993 and 1994 Cup championships as crew chief for Dale Earnhardt. The change at the execute level comes as RCR has struggled immensely, with its performance issues highlighted by one of the worst stretches of star driver Kyle Busch's career. Busch has not won a Cup race in over a year and has just five top 10 finishes all season with three 35th-place finishes in his last four starts.
• The Athletic reports that Joe Gibbs Racing issued an internal suspension to driver Aric Almirola after an alleged physical altercation between him and Bubba Wallace during a competition meeting in late May. Almirola was removed from the seat of JGR's No. 20 Toyota in the Xfinity Series before a scheduled start at Charlotte, but he is reportedly set to return to his part-time role with the team at Indianapolis. Almirola was reported to have instigated the confrontation, continuing a series of feuds between the two drivers that included Almirola shoving Wallace following an argument during a rain delay in the 2023 Coca-Cola 600.
  

Pick to Win

Martin Truex Jr. (+750) -- Truex has led 132 laps in the last two Nashville races (82 in 2022 and 50 last year), with a runner-up finish here last year serving as his best result. And despite some poor finishes in his last several races, Truex's recent performances have been more suggestive of a driver who should have a chance to win each week if his team touches up on its execution. Running out of fuel running second on the final lap at Sonoma comes to mind, as does last week when he appeared to have a car that was as fast as race winner Christopher Bell's but got set back in the field and then later crashed following issues on pit road.

A win for Truex seems bound to happen before the playoffs, and his recent announcement that he'll step away at the end of the season doesn't seem to have blunted such progression when speaking strictly of Truex's driving. It honestly feels more of a matter of where and when Truex will earn his first victory of 2024.