Jun 1, 2026, 12:52 PM ET

Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing won for the first time at Nashville Superspeedway in the NASCAR Cup Series on Sunday Night in the Cracker Barrel 400. It did not come easily, however, as Hamlin jumped the initial restart and had to do a pit road pass-through penalty, sending him to the back of the pack from the start. It would not be until lap 103 in the second stage that Hamlin would regain a position in the top 10. Even then, Hamlin quietly made effective use of pit strategies and had a fast enough car to make it back to fifth by the end of the second stage. In the final stage, he finally recovered to the lead after staying off pit road during the stage break and led the race until being passed by his teammate, Christopher Bell, on lap 245. Hamlin then went to pit road early before Bell on lap 257, hoping to use fresher tires to beat Bell, but was not fast enough to beat him without a caution that came up on lap 293, leading to the race's final restart on lap 297. Hamlin faced off with Bell and their other teammate, Chase Briscoe, in the closing laps, but it was on the final lap that Hamlin cleared both Bell and Briscoe to get his second victory of the 2026 season. This win kept Hamlin second in the regular season standings behind Tyler Reddick, but cut the gap between them to 97 points with 14 races completed. --Sean Engel - RotoBaller
Source: NASCAR.com