From last to first, Denny Hamlin hoisted the Guiatar Trophy of the Crackerbarrel 400 after delivering a clutch, late-race performance Sunday at Nashville Superspeedway, edging out his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe.
It was anything but smooth early for Hamlin, though.
Stage 1: Leader Penalty and Brake Rotor Issues
Starting from the pole after Saturday’s qualifying was cancelled due to rain, Hamlin was hit with a drive-through penalty for jumping the initial start. That briefly opened the door for Tyler Reddick, driver of the 45 car that Hamlin owns with 23XI Racing, who inherited the lead early and led the first 35 laps of the race.
As the yellow waved with the Lap 35 competition caution, multiple drivers made the strategy call to take just two tires and gain some positions, including Shane Van Gisbergen, who assumed the lead.
Van Gisbergen, whose performance improvement on ovals is certainly putting people on notice, led the race for 12 laps, ultimately being passed in a battle with Kyle Larson.
The stage included two more cautions. The first being Trackhouse Racing rookie Connor Zilisch, who hit the turn 1 wall after a brake rotor exploded on lap 72, shortly followed by his teammate Ross Chastain on lap 81. The debris from these incidents put a hole in Ryan Preece’s radiator, ending his race.
During those rounds of pit stops, many cars made two tire calls. AJ Allmendinger and Riley Herbst really rolled the dice, staying out.
Following Chastain’s caution, the stage was just a one-lap shootout. Allmendinger earned his first oval stage win at the Cup level, narrowly beating Larson, followed by Blaney, Elliott, Reddick, Wallace, Byron, Briscoe, Herbst, and Suarez.
Stage 2: Cautions and Cautions
Hamlin finally worked his way back into the top ten, as Larson dominated the first part of Stage 2.
During green-flag pit stops, a caution was called on Lap 145 for a spinning Austin Dillon after he had to check up, and Chris Buescher got into the back of him.
The caution flying during green-flag pit stops completely changed the running order and cost some of the fastest cars in the race, like Larson and Chase Briscoe, a lot of track position. Instead of being among the leaders following the caution, they were at the back of the top 10 as the race restarted.
This put Ryan Blaney and Chase Elliott at the front of the pack, with AJ Allmendinger having his best run in some time in third. However, that was short-lived as his race ended with a blown brake rotor.
As the race restarted from that caution, Todd Gilliland spun due to contact from Corey Heim, which also collected Cole Custer.
Following his Coke 600 win last week, Daniel Suarez won the stage under caution, followed by Bowman, Stenhouse, Cindric, Hamlin, McDowell, Byron, Briscoe, and Keselowski.
Final Stage: JGR Trio
To start the final stage, it was a new race for Hamlin, who had reassumed the lead. Yet, the chaos continued.
As cars stacked up on Lap 193, Brad Keselowski had to lift, and Austin Dillon hit him from behind, sending Keselowski into the outside wall of the frontstretch and also collecting Austin Cindric.
Keselowski’s team voiced their opinion on the radio that Dillon wrecked them on purpose, calling for NASCAR to take action.
Just 11 laps later, the caution flag flew as Bubba Wallace was sent to the outside groove and collided with Chris Buescher, collecting two Hendrick cars, William Byron, putting him in the outside wall, as well as Alex Bowman on his way back down the track.
At this point, some drivers, including Ryan Blaney, made the decision to gamble on being able to make it to the finish, being just outside the pit window. At the front, it was the trio of JGR cars, with Hamlin defending his lead from Bell and Briscoe.
With 55 laps to go and a pit stop still ahead, Bell made a move and took the lead from Hamlin, using some lap traffic to his advantage. With some strategy still in play, Bell looked like he was the car to beat, and he would reassume the lead after the pit cycle, which he did with 12 laps to go, but a caution flew for Chris Buescher on the same lap.
The race went back green with four laps to go, as the JGR trio was 1-2-3, pushing each other to the edge. As they came to the white flag, Bell had the advantage, but was door-to-door with Hamlin, with Briscoe making it three-wide into Turn 1.
Bell overdrove the corner, and Hamlin cleared him off of turn 2 and drove off with his 62nd career win, his first at Nashville despite being the best-rated driver at the track.
As the cars behind him came to the checkered flag, Tyler Reddick and Chase Elliott crashed hard after crossing the finish line, starting with a push from Blaney into Elliott. All drivers were okay, and Blaney profusely apologized.
Kyle Larson also spun onto pit lane amidst the excitement after cutting a tire on the final restart, finishing 23rd and spoiling a potential top 10 finish.
“Man, what an unbelievable day — starting first, going to last, and back to first,” Hamlin said after his win.
Hamlin noted that his experience helped him in this one.
“I just keep learning. It’s been a while since I won a shoot-out like this where I wasn’t leading. I don’t know when the last one was, but it’s been a while,” he said.
“I’ve definitely lost way more in these same situations where I’m Christopher Bell, and I do the same thing, I overdrive corners, and I just lose it. But I just wanted to be patient this time and just try something different, and it worked out.”
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