Denny Hamlin, a three-time winner this season, is on the pole for Sunday's Ally 400 NASCAR Cup Series race in Nashville.
Hamlin notched career pole No. 42 by blistering the track in 29.859 seconds (160.354 mph) in his No. 11 Toyota Camry XSE. His Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota will sit on the pole for the second time at Nashville.
Josh Berry will start second. With a new format to set the starting grid, it puts the pole winner in position one and divides the remaining drivers through the first five rows by speed and qualifying group, so Stewart-Haas Racing's Berry − who was third quickest − will start his No. 4 Ford on the outside of the front row Sunday.
Christopher Bell won last week's USA TODAY 301 in New Hampshire and will start third in Nashville. "It's good to head into Nashville having three top-10 finishes but it's been a place where I haven't been super comfortable," Bell said. − Field Level Media
At Lap 136, lightning was detected and the race was red-flagged. Kyle Busch, who has struggled early, received the free pass to get back on the lead lap.
To make the race official, it needs to reach at least the halfway point, which is 150 laps
On the restart after a caution for John Hunter Nemechek's spin-out, we have our first wide-scale yellow flag of the race.
Ty Gibbs and Alex Bowman got together, sending Gibbs' Toyota careening into the infield.
Complicating matters even further, the rain and storms in the forecast are expected to arrive in the area within a half hour.
John Hunter Nemechek spins on his own off of Turn 4 and through the grass. His right-front tire is shredding, making a mess of that part of the car.
Chase Elliott says his car is a little better on this run. He is up to 9th. Martin Truex Jr. is up to 7th. - Nashville Tennessean
Christopher Bell beat Denny Hamlin off pit road when the two Toyota teammates came in together -- and he maintained that advantage throughout the pit cycles to win the opening stage of a so-far caution-free Ally 400.
Bell led 36 of the 90 laps during the stage.
The leaders all came in to the pits to start Stage 2 with Hamlin taking only two tires to reclaim the lead as the race goes back to green.
The top 10:
- Christopher Bell
- Denny Hamlin
- Tyler Reddick
- Kyle Larson
- Brad Keselowski
- Ty Gibbs
- William Byron
- Chris Buescher
- Martin Truex Jr.
- Bubba Wallace
The first round of pit stops came a little earlier than expected on Lap 38.
Kyle Busch overshot his pit stall and had to back up just slightly before his crew could change tires. He's currently one lap down.
Not all cars on the lead lap chose to pit immediately though. Ty Gibbs and Tyler Reddick both remained out to lead a couple laps on their original tires.
On Lap 45, Michael McDowell drove his No. 34 Ford into the lead when Reddick came in to the pits.
Now 65 laps into the 90-lap first stage, 24 cars are on the lead lap.
Denny Hamlin led the first 17 laps at Nashville Superspeedway before he ran up on lapped traffic and teammate Christopher Bell was able to slip by the pole-sitter and take over the lead.
Justin Haley tried hard to fight off Hamlin as the leader came up behind him. As Hamlin checked up, Bell -- who won last week's USA TODAY 301 in New Hampshire -- sped past both cars on the outside.
Hamlin remains in second place with Brad Keselowski and Kyle Larson a couple seconds behind.
NASCAR racing may not be as familiar a pairing with Nashville as country music is, but the crowd at Nashville Superspeedway was clearly enthused as five-time ACM and two-time CMA award winner Hardy gave the command for drivers to start their engines.
Pole-sitter Denny Hamlin drove his Toyota to the front of the pack to lead the first of 300 laps around the 1.333-mile oval.
The Ally 400 starts at 3:30 p.m. ET (2:30 p.m. local) at Nashville Superspeedway in Nashville, Tennessee.
NBC is broadcasting the Ally 400.
Will there be a live stream of the NASCAR Cup race at Nashville?
The Ally 400 can be live streamed on the NBCSports website and the NBC Sports app. The race is also available to stream on Fubo.
Expect extremely hot and sticky conditions for Sunday's Ally 400 race at Nashville Superspeedway.
The AccuWeather forecast calls for a mostly cloudy and humid afternoon with a couple showers and possibly a thunderstorm. The high temperature will be around 90 with 67% humidity, making it feel like 99. The chance of rain is 65%.
The Ally 400 is 300 laps around the 1.333-mile oval for a total of 399.9 miles. The race will feature three segments (laps per stage) − Stage 1: 90 laps; Stage 2: 95 laps; Stage 3: 115 laps.
Ross Chastain started on the pole and led 99 of 300 laps, including the final 34, before holding off Martin Truex Jr. by 0.789 seconds on June 25, 2023. It was the first of 2023 two victories for Chastain, who is seeking his first win this season.
- 2023: Ross Chastain
- 2022: Chase Elliott
- 2021: Kyle Larson
(Car number in parentheses)
- (11) Denny Hamlin, Toyota
- (4) Josh Berry, Ford
- (20) Christopher Bell, Toyota
- (5) Kyle Larson, Chevrolet
- (6) Brad Keselowski, Ford
- (45) Tyler Reddick, Toyota
- (24) William Byron, Chevrolet
- (54) Ty Gibbs, Toyota
- (17) Chris Buescher, Ford
- (2) Austin Cindric, Ford
- (3) Austin Dillon, Chevrolet
- (48) Alex Bowman, Chevrolet
- (9) Chase Elliott, Chevrolet
- (34) Michael McDowell, Ford
- (77) Carson Hocevar, Chevrolet
- (10) Noah Gragson, Ford
- (19) Martin Truex Jr., Toyota
- (12) Ryan Blaney, Ford
- (14) Chase Briscoe, Ford
- (1) Ross Chastain, Chevrolet
- (7) Corey LaJoie, Chevrolet
- (41) Ryan Preece, Ford
- (47) Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Chevrolet
- (23) Bubba Wallace, Toyota
- (21) Harrison Burton, Ford
- (22) Joey Logano, Ford
- (8) Kyle Busch, Chevrolet
- (16) AJ Allmendinger, Chevrolet
- (50) Corey Heim, Toyota
- (15) Riley Herbst, Ford
- (99) Daniel Suarez, Chevrolet
- (38) Todd Gilliland, Ford
- (51) Justin Haley, Ford
- (43) Erik Jones, Toyota
- (42) John Hunter Nemechek, Toyota
- (71) Zane Smith, Chevrolet
- (31) Daniel Hemric, Chevrolet
- (66) Chad Finchum, Ford
On pole, Denny Hamlin is hoping the good starting position will translate into a solid finishing position. The three-race winner this season has finished 24th or worse in the last three races and is ready to get back on track before the summer break in competition in three weeks. Hamlin has a pair of top-10 finishes in the three-race Nashville Superspeedway history, including a best showing of third place last year.
Hamlin's No. 11 JGR Toyota turned a fast lap of 160.354 mph (29.859 seconds) around the 1.33-mile oval – only .095-seconds faster than Christopher Bell – to claim his second Nashville pole position in the four races the track has hosted.
"Felt pretty good about it all day," the 43-year-old Hamlin said, "seems like we definitely have fixed some of the things we weren't very good with last year. I definitely feel pretty good about it and we'll certainly work on it overnight to make it a little bit better and I feel pretty confident that tomorrow we'll be in contention." — Field Level Media
After being asked Saturday what needs to happen for him to regain his lofty status Kyle Busch said , "Fast cars cures all. Being able to have confidence and to go out there and run hard and run fast and put myself in positions to win, that'll certainly make a lot of gains and make everybody happy."
Busch's frustrations continued last week at New Hampshire. He struggled for most of the first half of the USA TODAY 301 on the way to dropping to two laps down.
While trying to make a move back toward the front Busch spun out on Turn 1 and slid into the wall. Later in the race Busch got bunched up with several drivers on turn 2, spun out and hit the inside retaining wall. ...
"The last three weeks have definitely not helped, that's been a huge setback," Busch said. "We just have to stop the bleeding. I think I've been saying that for the last six months and it hasn't stopped. And the last week it's been gushing pretty hard." — Mike Organ, The Tennessean
Chase Elliott pulling for more Nashville races
LEBANON – Chase Elliott might be NASCAR's biggest proponent to move a Cup race to Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway.
But he said Saturday, the day before this year's Ally 400 Cup race, that Nashville Superspeedway has surprised him. It's been more competitive over the past few years than he had imagined.
"The racing has been better here in this car than the old car for sure," Elliott said. "I still think we should be at the Fairgrounds. If we were going to have two dates in a city, I think this would be the one to do it in. You could have one here and one (at the Fairgrounds). That would be totally fine.
"This track has put on good races the last three trips." — Tom Kreager, The Tennessean
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: NASCAR race at Nashville: Highlights, live updates from Ally 400
Local Nashville, TN
Most Popular
Comments / 0