Cracker Barrel 400: Ryan Blaney seals the deal, wins at Nashville

LEBANON, Tenn. — Ryan Blaney had one of his best performances of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season as he led a race-high 139 laps en route to Victory Lane in the Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway.

After taking the lead in Stage 2 and winning the second stage, there was seemingly no match for the driver of the No. 12 Menards/Cardell Cabinetry Ford, who picked up his 14th career Cup Series win and first guitar trophy in Music City.

“I never gave up hope, that’s for sure,” Blaney said. “We’ve had great speed all year, just hasn’t been the best year for us as far as good fortune. The 12 boys are awesome; they stick with it no matter how it goes, and it was great to finish one out tonight.

He also credited crew chief Jonathan Hassler for a great strategy call that ultimately put him in the position to win the race.

“We drove up to seventh there in the first stage, and I thought two tires were great,” Blaney added. “I thought my car was really good, and that really set us up for the rest of the race, so great job by him, as always, all the 12 boys, appreciate what they do pit crew was great. Appreciate Menard’s, Cardell, Ford, Ford Motor Company, Roush Yates Engines, Discount Tire, Wabash, Worth, Snap-on, DEX Imaging, Body Armour, Advance Auto Parts. It’s nice that it’s finally happening, so I’m ready to go celebrate.”

Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar put on quite the performance as well, as the 22-year-old driver matched a career-best second-place finish. Hocevar finished 26th in the first stage, but slowly made his way through the field in the latter portion of the race.

The driver of the No. 77 Zeigler Auto Group Chevrolet now has two second-place finishes in 2025 (Atlanta, Nashville), as the sophomore driver inches closer and closer to his first win at NASCAR’s top level.

“Either I’m really dramatic or they’re really good on adjustments… probably a little bit of both,” Hocevar said. “I’m proud of this No. 77 Zeigler Auto Group Chevrolet team and proud of this car. Nashville Superspeedway is a really, really difficult place to pass, and we were able to go from 26th to second and have a shot at it. Just really proud of this group. After how last weekend ended, this was a really good reset being able to put together a good and deserved finish.”

Denny Hamlin was one of the most talked about drivers entering the race because he was on baby watch. His fiancé, Jordan Fish, is due to have their third child at any moment.

Many were unsure if Hamlin would compete in the race, and Joe Gibbs Racing had Ryan Truex on standby just in case Hamlin had to leave Nashville. But it was a good thing that Hamlin got to compete in his 700th career Cup Series start as he won Stage 1, finished third in Stage 2, earned the Xfinity Fastest Lap and a third-place finish.

Those 53 points earned were the second most in the race and could go a long way in the battle for the Regular-Season Championship.

“We just needed to be a little bit faster there at the end,” Hamlin said. “The 12 (Blaney) had exceptional long run speed there — just couldn’t hang with him after about 40 laps on a set of tires. They just had a lot of speed. We were just kind of next best there with our Progressive Camry, so we just went long there to kind of gain a tire advantage just in case a caution came out — we line up right behind them if we don’t pit for tires, and then in the end, the track — just a weird thing — everyone went to the bottom, and it created a lot of dust for the middle and top grooves, and we couldn’t get off of the bottom — so everyone just kind of freight trained that last 30 laps.”

Hamlin also tied Jeff Gordon with the best finish for a driver’s 700th career start in the premier series.

Results from the 2025 Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway are listed below:

Other Race Facts

Multiple Toyota drivers had things go wrong for them during the 14th race of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season, including Bubba Wallace (pit-road speeding penalty), Tyler Reddick (tire going down) and Christopher Bell (wrecked after making contact with Erik Jones).

However, all three of these drivers battled back for top-10 finishes as Wallace finished sixth (best finish since Martinsville), Tyler Reddick finished ninth (best finish since Darlington) and Bell finished 10th.

Speaking of Jones, with his seventh-place finish, he now has two top 10s in the last four races. That equals the same amount of top 10s he had in 2024.

With the victory, Team Penske now has 153 Cup Series wins, which ties Junior Johnson & Associates for fourth on the all-time team wins list.

Chase Briscoe has now led more laps in 2025 with Joe Gibbs Racing than he did in 2024 with Stewart-Haas Racing.

The 32 drivers for the inaugural NASCAR In-Season Challenge are set. They will compete for the next three weeks to determine their seeding before it begins at Atlanta Motor Speedway on Saturday, June 28. The four full-time drivers who failed to make it are Shane van Gisbergen, Cole Custer, Riley Herbst and Cody Ware.

 

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