Honky-Tonk Hamlin
Cracker Barrel 400: Denny Hamlin captured the checkered flag in exciting fashion over his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe. In the waning laps of the Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway, Denny Hamlin charged past Christopher Bell with Chase Briscoe lurking in the background, waiting for his chance to capitalize. That chance for Briscoe almost happened on the white flag lap, but Denny Hamlin executed his final lap to perfection to hold off Briscoe and blow past Bell en route to his second win of the 2026 campaign. Hamlin's win was the 62nd of his Cup career and first in Music City.
This was a phenomenal race for all 300 laps. The rain delay and staying up until nearly 1 a.m. EST were absolutely worth the lack of sleep I am dealing with today. Honestly. I am not sure what more you would want out of a NASCAR race on an intermediate-style race track. Not once in the 300 laps on the concrete track was I bored or out of tune with what was happening. I was captivated from green flag to checkered flag. I'm sure part of this has to do with how great Amazon's coverage of the racing is, but this was also straight-up badass racing. There was attrition due to wrecks and parts failures which meant drivers had to manage their cars; there was multi-groove, side-by-side racing that allowed for comers and goers; there was pit strategy that kept things interesting with a mix of drivers running up front and the normal front-runners slicing their way back to the front; there were some underdog drivers challenging for the win all night; we had driver beef throughout the race, most notably Keselowski was (wrongly) pissed off at Austin Dillon; and to cap it off, we had a mad dash to the checkered flag with the best cars of the night dualing it out for the win under the lights.
Through it all, the JGR Toyotas were the class of the field. Hamlin started from the pole, but his initial start was deemed illegal. Yet, he made his charge to the front look like he was playing NASCAR '25 on easy mode. Bell and Briscoe seemed to run in the top three all night and, before the final caution, seemed like it was going to be a fight for drivers number 20 and 19 for the win. There were a smattering of other multi-lap leaders and several who crossed the double-digit threshold. And while those drivers earned their time at the front of the field, and had cautions fallen differently, they may have been more serious competitors for the win; they were always running away and trying to fend off challenges from Bell and Briscoe. And then the last caution of the night jumbled everything else up one more time. From the jump, it looked like Bell had finally gotten the lead and was going to cruise to the victory. However, Hamlin had other ideas and hung just on Bell's quarter panel to fight for the lead. Methodically, Hamlin battled Bell side-by-side and was able to outmaneuver the 20 car on the last lap to take the checkered flag.
Next up, we head to the Irish Hills of Michigan at Michigan International Speedway with action from the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series and the NASCAR Cup Series. The NASCAR O'Reilly Auto Parts Series enjoys a much-deserved week off from the track - they will return on June 13 at Pocono. The Craftsman Truck Series gets the weekend started on Saturday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. EST on FOX with the DQS Solutions and Staffing 250. The Cup Series headlines the weekend on Sunday afternoon at 3 p.m. EST on Amazon Prime with the FireKeepers Casino 400.
Michigan Picks: Trucks = Chandler Smith
NOAPS = OFF
Cup = Christopher Bell
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