Denny Hamlin Factors for Nashville Win Until Ryan Blaney's Three-Wide Pass

Although it was unclear whether Denny Hamlin would start Sunday's Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway, he ran the entire race and was one of the leading contenders for the win. After starting second, Hamlin trailed his teammate Chase Briscoe for most of the first stage before passing him on Lap 83 for the stage […]

Joey Logano Runs Better Than Expected, Still No Match for Teammate Ryan Blaney

After a string of races early in the season where Joey Logano ran well and earned a lot of stage points and laps led before ultimately finishing outside the top 10, Logano did almost entirely the opposite on Sunday as he quietly delivered one of his better runs of the year. While he was no […]

Erik Jones Delivers Best Run Since 2022 at Nashville

Erik Jones had his best run in the NASCAR Cup Series in a very long time even if it wasn't quite his best finish. After starting 14th, Jones broke into the top ten in Stage 2 where he finished 5th before slightly fading to 7th in the race's final stage. What made this even more […]

Christopher Bell Recovers From Stage 2 Crash to Finish 10th

Christopher Bell made the best of a bad situation to finish 10th at Nashville on Sunday. After finishing fifth in Stage 1 when the Joe Gibbs Racing cars were very fast, he continued to run fifth directly behind eventual winner Ryan Blaney when he was wrecked on Lap 113 by Erik Jones, the driver he […]

Ross Chastain Mildly Disappointing at Nashville but Still Runs Decently

Considering Nashville is one of Ross Chastain's tracks and he actually qualified well for once, many people expected him to be one of the favorites for Sunday's Nashville race. Although he was as usual the fastest Trackhouse Racing driver throughout the race, he was mildly disappointing, as he spent most of the race running between […]

Chase Briscoe Dominates Early but Struggles in Traffic

Although Chase Briscoe started on the pole for the second consecutive week at Nashville, Briscoe's car seemed to only run well in clean air and he eventually faded to a 17th-place finish. Briscoe dominated Stage 1 leading 51 laps before both Denny Hamlin and Tyler Reddick overtook him very late in the stage, but as […]

Tyler Reddick Likely to Run Worse Than Expected

Tyler Reddick is currently having a pretty overrated season. As compared to 2022 and to a lesser extent 2023 when he had blinding speed and was a lethal passer but was also both unlucky and mistake-prone, and 2024 when he seemed less dominant but drove more smoothly, he now seems to be combining the sloppy […]

Joey Logano's Team Will Likely Ignore Nashville After He Locked Into the Playoffs

Although Joey Logano won at Nashville Superspeedway last year, don't expect him to repeat that performance this year, as his performance in last year's race was very mediocre. He was only running 14th with two laps left in regulation when his teammate Austin Cindric won, but he ended up inheriting the lead because he could […]

Kyle Busch's Loss of Intermediate Speed This Year Will Likely Foil Him at Nashville

Although Nashville Superspeedway did not become a part of the NASCAR Cup Series schedule until after Kyle Busch's elite period ended, Busch has still been a solid performer here, even if it hasn't been reflected in his finishes. He led 10 or more laps in each of his first three starts despite never finishing better […]

Despite Improved Qualifying Speed, Chris Buescher Seems Much Slower in Races

Although 10th-place Nashville starter Chris Buescher got a bit of a reprieve as his penalty from the Kansas race was reduced from 60 points to 30, he's still having a somewhat baffling season. The once-poor qualifier is having a career year in qualifying with the second-best average start, but is simultaneously running a lot worse […]

Team Penske's Firing of Austin Cindric's Dad May Hurt the No. 2 Team's Morale

After delivering his teammate Joey Logano the ultimate gift last year in Nashville when his spinout with two laps remaining allowed Logano to climb from 14th to back into the playoffs after five overtimes, that will likely forever define his career here. Although Cindric finished 7th as a rookie, he has never had an average […]

Ryan Preece an Underrated DFS Option Given His Impressive Passing This Year

Ryan Preece has been this year's biggest positive surprise as after years of mediocrity, he has been seemingly consistently faster than his more highly-regarded teammates Chris Buescher and his boss Brad Keselowski and is even beating them in points despite being disqualified from his apparent second-place finish at Talladega. Although Preece finished fourth in last […]

Passing Will Likely Prove Too Difficult for Noah Gragson to Have DFS Value

Although Noah Gragson has had a pretty invisible season, he shockingly ran in the top 10 for most of last week's Coca-Cola 600, and this week at Nashville, he's coming to a track where he did finish in the top 10 last year. However, that deserves a giant-size asterisk in that race, as he was […]

Michael McDowell Qualifies Too Well for DFS Consideration

Although Michael McDowell starts eighth on Sunday at Nashville, this has not been one of his better tracks in general as he has never finished better than 13th nor posted a better average finish than 14th, so he will likely lose positions in the race. The Spire Motorsports cars have seemed to have a significant […]

Erik Jones Probably Starting Too Well for Place-Differential Points

Erik Jones and his Legacy Motor Club teammate John Hunter Nemechek have definitely seemed to pick up speed on intermediate tracks in recent weeks and although Jones has still been rather anonymous, he has seemed to regain his strong passing abilities from before his Talladega injury this year to some extent. He starts 14th today […]

Corey Heim Unlikely to Match 23XI Racing Teammates' Speed at Nashville

Although Corey Heim is only making his fifth NASCAR Cup Series start at Nashville on Sunday, he actually finished last year's race where he started and finished 29th. Last year's race was so chaotic and unrepresentative that it's necessary to look at average running positions to predict this year's speed. While Heim's average running position […]

Cole Custer Likely Needs Strategy Shakeup to Have DFS Value at Nashville

Cole Custer makes his return to Nashville after his two-year return to the NASCAR Xfinity Series, starting from the 29th position on Sunday evening. In his two previous starts at Nashville, Custer actually qualified pretty well, starting seventh in 2021 and 17th in 2022 before eventually falling to 31st and 26th, respectively. His average running […]

Ty Dillon Likely Needs Another Chaotic Nashville Race to Contend

Ty Dillon qualified 31st for Sunday's race at Nashville Superspeedway, which is consistent with his 31st- and 32nd-place finishes in his two previous Nashville starts in 2022 and 2023, respectively. Since he got lapped multiple times in both races, it's hard to envision Dillon gaining enough positions to obtain sufficient place-differential points to be worth […]

Christopher Bell Disappoints by his High Standards But Gains on Points Lead

Although Christopher Bell entered Sunday night's Coca-Cola 600 as one of the pre-race favorites after winning last year's race, he was mildly disappointing by his admittedly very high standards. Although he looked like a potential winner after driving from 10th to third in the opening stage, he spent most of the rest of the race […]

Chase Elliott has Another Invisible Race but Still Improves Playoff Position

Chase Elliott had another invisible run in Sunday's Coca-Cola 600, but he did what he needed to do to remain in playoff contention. Although Elliott was as usual nowhere near as fast as his teammates William Byron or Kyle Larson, he stayed out of trouble and didn't crash like Larson or his other teammate Alex […]

A.J. Allmendinger Earns Highest Oval Driver Rating Since 2011 at Charlotte

A.J. Allmendinger had one of the best oval races of his career on Sunday night in the Coca-Cola 600, where he started fifth and finished fourth. His driver rating of 112.1 was second-highest in the race, behind only William Byron, and it was Allmendinger's highest driver rating on an oval since 2011 at Phoenix, where […]

Chase Briscoe Recovers from Pit-Road Penalty to Finish Third

After winning the pole for Sunday night's Coca-Cola 600, Chase Briscoe lost the lead to Kyle Larson on the opening lap and fell to fifth before the caution came out for Larson's first spin. During the round of pit stops on that caution, Briscoe technically led one lap in the pits but had an uncontrolled […]

Chase Elliott Not the Best DFS Choice at Charlotte

Chase Elliott was definitely one of the best drivers at Charlotte Motor Speedway with the Gen-6 car, where he led over 100 laps as a rookie, won the second 2020 race, and would have won that year's Coca-Cola 600 if Alan Gustafson hadn't pitted him before an overtime restart. With the Next Gen car, his […]

Tyler Reddick Hard to Predict Going into Charlotte Race

It's hard to know what to make of Tyler Reddick's 2025 season. After showing frequent blinding speed in the early years of the Next Gen car, he seemed to trade that in for consistency in 2024. This year he seems to have neither the speed nor the consistency nor the passing ability of previous seasons, […]

Joey Logano Unlikely to Focus on Charlotte Oval Since It's Not in the Playoffs

Charlotte Motor Speedway has not been one of defending champion Joey Logano's best tracks. He only won here once in the 2015 fall event before the Roval race which replaced it even existed. Even that race (part of Logano's three-in-a-row playoff streak) wasn't that impressive. Although he led 227 laps, he only took the lead […]

After Locking into Playoffs, Austin Cindric Unlikely to Finish as Well as Expected

After being originally and erroneously typecast as a road course expert, Austin Cindric has now found his primary niche as a drafting track driver and his secondary niche as an intermediate driver. Cindric has seemingly been fast in the first stage of every intermediate race this year, even winning Stage 1 at Las Vegas and […]

Despite Being Charlotte's GOAT, Don't Expect Jimmie Johnson to Contend

Although Charlotte Motor Speedway used to be Jimmie Johnson's playground (particularly when both he and the track were sponsored by Lowe's) his record eight career wins here mean nothing since he is washed up, has never really been a contender with the Next Gen chassis, and is now driving for his own Legacy Motor Club, […]

If You Don't Think Ty Gibbs Will Lead at Charlotte, Don't Start Him

After a very slow start to the season, Ty Gibbs was trending upward for a while, particularly on the stretch from Martinsville to Talladega, none of which were very chaotic races. Gibbs seems to do best when there are long green flag runs and minimal chaos, so the fact that there are three guaranteed cautions […]

Charlotte Isn't One of Daniel Suarez's Best Intermediate Tracks

Like a modern day Jerry Nadeau, Daniel Suárez seems to be almost completely irrelevant except for intermediates and 1.5-mile ovals. He has already earned a 2nd at Las Vegas and a 10th at Texas on intermediates this year, but he tends to be better at both those tracks than he is at Charlotte. He did […]

Austin Dillon's Charlotte Prospects Worse in Reality Than They Look on Paper

In addition to winning the 2017 Coca-Cola 600 on fuel mileage, Austin Dillon has actually been a fairly consistent performer at Charlotte with three top-10 finishes in his last five starts, with one of the exceptions being the 2022 Coca-Cola 600, where he was attempting to clear Kyle Larson for the lead on an overtime […]