Cracker Barrel 400: Denny Hamlin overcomes start violation, wins Nashville thriller

LEBANON, Tenn. — Joe Gibbs Racing driver Denny Hamlin’s chaotic day ended in Victory Lane after prevailing in a late-race battle against teammates Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe in the Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway.

After jumping the initial start to Sunday night’s 300-lap NASCAR Cup Series race, Hamlin had to serve a pass-through penalty and spent most of Stage 1 running 30th or worse. From there, Hamlin battled through the field to lead 57 laps to set up a thrilling finish against two of his JGR teammates.

“Well, I think the 20 (Bell) and the 19 (Briscoe) were battling so hard on the first corner, just let me get to the inside of the 20 on the first corner there on the restart,” Hamlin said. “From there, side-by-side with the 20. He drove in so deep on that last lap into 1, but it allowed me to barely clear off of (Turn) 2. Man, what an unbelievable day —  starting first, going to last, and back to first.

“I definitely jumped the start, no doubt about that. Yeah, just looking back on it, just didn’t wait quite long enough. I want to say hi to Mari and Trish from Progressive, this whole team, Sport Clips. Martha’s retiring. Happy retirement to Martha. Toyota, Jordan Brand, Yahoo, National Debt Relief, King’s Hawaiian, Bob’s Discount Furniture, just thanks to all the sponsors I’ve got. It’s been amazing. Thank you to the sellout crowd. I appreciate you all sticking around. It’s been an honor.”

Hamlin also became the first Toyota driver to win at the 1.33-mile concrete oval in the six Nashville Cup Series races.

Bell’s No. 20 JGR Toyota was the topic of conversation as he was arguably the fastest car in the final stage. On the final restart, Bell had the lead and took the white flag side-by-side with Hamlin, before ultimately giving up the lead and ending up second.

“It was great racing,” Bell said. “I hope the fans enjoyed that. It was a great show. I’m just disappointed in myself and disappointed in my team. They brought a great race car and I didn’t get the job done.”

Briscoe, in the No. 19 JGR Toyota, had his best performance at Nashville and came up just short. After starting 31st, Briscoe, like Hamlin, had to battle through the field to get a great finish.

“I kept trying to — we were running side-by-side,” Briscoe said. “I kept trying to back up my entries to get a big run and take it three wide. They kept running each other up the race track, so I kept trying to hit the bottom. Denny went to the apron. I was going to go three wide to the bottom because I knew, if I hit the bottom, they were all going to run up. He covered it, so then I went to the top and was able to get to Christopher’s right rear. We were all driving so deep that we slid up the race track. I was in no man’s land after that. Hate that we weren’t on the better end of it. We had a really, really good Bass Pro Shops Tracker Toyota, just felt like it was certainly capable of winning, ended up third. Great day for JGR, went one, two, three. Wish we were the ones in first.”

Briscoe was also one of only two drivers to earn stage points in both stages (William Byron).

Results from the 2026 Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway are listed below:

Other Race Facts

Hyak Motorsports driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was the top Chevrolet driver at Nashville Superspeedway as he finished fourth in a NOS Energy throwback paint scheme, honoring the late Kyle Busch. A four-tire strategy call on the final caution gave him his best non-drafting track oval finish since a fourth-place result at Iowa Speedway (2024) and a second-place finish at Dover Motor Speedway (2022).

“It was an up-and-down day,” Stenhouse Jr. said. “I felt like our No. 47 NOS Energy Drink Chevrolet started off really tight and we kind of fell back there. We made some adjustments and stayed out in the second stage to get good stage points. We kind of found our way back into the top 15. This team gave me a great car and we made it better throughout the race. Our brakes were good. I could hustle it really all the way through a whole stage and a whole run, and I felt like that was a benefit for us. Our pit crew did a good job there.

“We decided to take four tires so we could be on the offense. The lanes just opened up. I was hoping they were going to fight a little bit harder up there so we could back into a win. It’s just really cool to get this NOS Energy Drink Kyle Busch tribute Chevrolet in the top five at a place where we struggle at with the Next Gen car. We ran here good with the previous car and we’ve been struggling here as of late, so it’s really cool to come home with a top-five finish.”

Trackhouse Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen earned his first career top-five on an oval in the NASCAR Cup Series. The driver of the No. 97 Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge Chevrolet led 12 laps, as the Kiwi continues to make legitimate progress on ovals.

“It was a pretty awesome day for this No. 97 Tootsie’s Orchid Lounge Chevrolet team,” van Gisbergen said. “Starting up front obviously helps, but it was cool to lead some laps and battle at the front. Our Chevy was running really well all night. I really enjoyed myself tonight. I learned a lot. I learned to be comfortable moving around in (Turns) 1 and 2, which I’ve never been able to do before. We just got the balance better on the two-tire strategy. When we were on a four-tire strategy, we were lacking that. The two-tire stop at the end, we were able to get the balance back again. It was a lot of fun. It definitely feels like we’re making headway.”

Multiple drivers in the Cracker Barrel 400 experienced brake rotor issues, including Connor Zilisch, Ross Chastain and Stage 1 winner AJ Allmendinger.

All three drivers said they had no warning before their brake rotors failed.

Bubba Wallace and Alex Bowman were two drivers in the field who were having good runs before getting caught up in a late-race incident. Carson Hocevar got into Chris Buescher, who in turn got into Wallace, who then got into Bowman.

More controversy occurred between Austin Dillon and Brad Keselowski. Earlier in the 300-lap race, Keselowski slowed down in front of Dillon, which caused a check-up that sent Dillon spinning.

Later in the race, another check-up occurred, this time with Dillon running into the back of Keselowski. This sent Keselowski up the track and ended his race.

GRID RANKING

The 2026 GRID Ranking is the 10th year of the world’s premier motorsports ranking system, which was initially released on Sunday, April 5.

The official ranking includes drivers participating in seven racing series (NASCAR, IndyCar, Formula 1, Formula E, WRC, Supercars, MotoGP). Each driver earns GRID Ratings, which help determine their seeding in the GRID Ranking.

DRIVER	OLD RATING	PREVIOUS RANKING	MOST RECENT FINISH	NEW RATING	NEW RANKING
Tyler Reddick	19.92	2nd	6th	19.35	3rd
Denny Hamlin	11.50	17th	1st	13.32	10th
Chase Elliott	11.61	15th	7th	11.42	16th
Ty Gibbs	11.84	14th	13th	10.99	19th
Christopher Bell	N/A	N/A	2nd	9.20	27th

Week 9 of the GRID Ranking:

Week 9 of the GRID Ranking saw a bunch of changes for NASCAR, except at the top spot. Tyler Reddick still maintains a healthy lead. Denny Hamlin jumped from fourth to second, Chase Elliott remains third, Ty Gibbs dropped from second to fourth and Christopher Bell jumped into the NASCAR GRID Rating and GRID Ranking while Ryan Blaney fell out.

The next race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway on Sunday, June 7. Coverage will begin at 3 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime Video.

 

GRID Network