Records and facts
Last year's Ally 400
will be best remembered for the shenanigans towards the end of the race. Denny Hamlin had taken the lead from Ross Chastain with seven laps to go and was looking good to win until Austin Cindric had contact with Noah Gragson exiting turn 2 and spun to bring out a caution.
With everyone tight on fuel, that took the race into overtime. On the
restart, Kyle Larson got in the back of Chastain entering turn 1, spinning Chastain into the wall and collecting Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon and Ty Gibbs to bring out another yellow.
Another crash on the next restart extended the race even more. On GWC No. 3, Busch, Chase Elliott and Larson got wrapped up in a crash. That was it for Hamlin, who was forced to pit for fuel, giving the
lead to Joey Logano.
Ultimately, there were five overtime restarts and the extra cautions extended the race for 31 laps (41.23 miles) beyond the scheduled distance. Logano was able to hold on after the final restart to take the victory.
His margin of victory was .068 seconds over Zane Smith in a career-best second. Tyler Reddick was third, then Ryan Preece and Chris Buescher. Hamlin ended up 12th. Meanwhile, Ryan Blaney, who had made an unscheduled stop and was 33rd when Cindric spun out, ended up sixth.
At
this point, there have only been four Cup races at Nashville Superspeedway. Four different drivers (Chastain, Elliott, Larson and Logano) have won those races.
Track Facts
Track / Race Length: 1.33-mile tri-oval, 300 laps
(399 miles)
Banking: 14 degrees
Frontstretch: 2,250 ft., banked 9 degrees
Backstretch: 1,330 ft.,
banked 6 degrees
Grandstand Seating: 38,000
Pit Road Speed: 45 mph
Pace Car Speed: 55 mph
Opened: 1997
Website: http://www.nashvillesuperspeedway.com
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/NashvilleSuperspeedway/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/NashvilleSuperS
Pre-Race Schedule:
Practice: Saturday, May 31, 4:30 - 5:25 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime Video
Qualifying: Saturday, May 31, 5:40 p.m. ET on Amazon Prime Video
Say What?!
"I think the racing in
Nashville has been really good. I remember years ago, a long time back in the Xfinity days, it was a one-groove racetrack around the bottom of the racetrack. It wasn’t really conducive to a whole lot of side-by-side racing and whatnot. But the last few years it’s really been good there. The track really widens out. There’s guys that are running all the way up at the top groove. So it’s been a good show. So hopefully the fans enjoy it. I hope it’s not too hot next week. Perfect weather here this
weekend in Charlotte. So I look forward to Nashville." - Kyle Busch
"Nashville is definitely a unique racetrack. It’s considered a mile-and-a-half and an intermediate, but it races similar to a short track – not entirely, but there are some characteristics about it that you can take from the background that I’ve been in and it just kind of fits
my style. It’s definitely a place that I’ve grown to like and look forward to going to." - Ryan Preece
"There are a couple of bumps that are pretty sketchy at Nashville. Off of [turn 4], there are a couple of dips, like swells, down there. You have to stay away from those and kind of just go wide,” Gibbs said. “Last
year, we were running fourth, fifth all day, and then got caught up in a wreck near the end. So if we can stay out of the wrecks, I feel like we can win.
"You’ve got to have good track position all day, and that comes from having a well-executed day. You want to be fast, obviously, but you’ve got to have good pit stops and good
restarts, and you’ve got to stay consistently fast.
"You can come from the back a little bit, but it’s really hard to pass. People throw blocks so easily. If you can be out front, you want to stay there. That’s where guys are good." - Ty Gibbs
"Nashville is fun. I’ve been able to race there a bunch over the years with both the ARCA Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series. When I started in Cup, that was the track where we went and tested at a bunch. It’s a fun race track and it’s a challenge to get around. The race is like a hybrid of a short track and a big track, but in these cars, it’s pretty cool because you’re downshifting, up
shifting, there are a lot of opportunities. I think that it’s one of my better tracks, even though we don’t have the Cup results to show for it. Speed wise, it’s been a fun track for us. We just haven’t had the finishes, whether we got tied up in wrecks or we had a transmission explode there last year. I haven’t had great luck but felt like we’ve had good speed." - Michael McDowell
