The Xfinity and Cup series will be on the concrete of Nashville Superspeedway for nearly eight hours of nonstop practice, qualifying and racing Saturday.

The action on the 1.333-mile oval will begin at 2 p.m. with Xfinity practice leading into qualifying. The Cup cars will be on track from 4:35-6:30 p.m. for practice and qualifying for Sunday’s race.

The Xfinity race will begin at 7:30 p.m. Defending winner John Hunter Nemechek is absent from the entry list, but 2022 winner Justin Allgaier is in the field along with Cup veteran Ross Chastain, who won the Coca-Cola 600 this past Sunday.

Nashville Superspeedway schedule

(All Times Eastern)

Saturday, May 31

Garage open

• 11 a.m. – 7 p.m. — Cup
• 12:30 p.m. – 12:45 a.m. — Xfinity

Track activity

• 2 – 2:55 p.m. — Xfinity practice (CW App)
• 3:05 – 4 p.m. — Xfinity qualifying (CW App)
• 4:35 – 5:35 p.m. — Cup practice (Prime, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
• 5:45 – 6:30 p.m. — Cup qualifying (Prime, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
• 7:30 p.m. — Xfinity race (188 laps, 250.04 miles, Stage 1 at Lap 45, Stage 2 at Lap 90; CW, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)

Weather

Saturday: Mainly sunny with a high of 83 degrees and winds from the north-northwest at 10 to 15 mph. It’s expected to be 79 degrees with a 7 percent chance of rain at the start of the Xfinity race.

The wagering public is betting that Kyle Larson has turned the page.

Rajah Caruth has won his second career race in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck series winning at Nashville Motor Speedway on Friday night. The HBCU graduate from Winston-Salem State University snapped a 32-race winless streak dating back to Las Vegas in the spring of 2024. With the win, Caruth automatically qualifies for the NASCAR playoffs and will be eligible to compete for the championship at the end of the season.

Caruth came out of the pits in first place after the second stage of the race thanks to quick work by his pit crew. He entered the pits in third place, and after gaining those two crucial spots he never relinquished the lead. But it was close and drama-filled as the laps unfolded.

In a race where Chevrolet’s “Bowtie” looms large atop GM’s Renaissance Center situated in the middle of the downtown street circuit, crosstown rivals Ford’s “Blue Oval” have the best Grand Touring Daytona Pro (GTD PRO) starting positions for Saturday’s Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic. The pair of Ford Multimatic Motorsports Ford Mustang GT3s swept the front row in qualifying for the fourth round of the 2025 GTD PRO season in the IMSA WeatherTech SportsCar Championship, the only 100-minute street course sprint race for the class.

Seb Priaulx fired his No. 64 Ford Mustang GT3 around Detroit’s tricky but short 1.654-mile street course with a best time of 1 minute, 10.922 seconds (83.500 mph). Priaulx led teammate Christopher Mies by 0.329 of a second as times began to tumble in the 15-minute qualifying session, with most of the 10-car field steadily improving every lap.

However, the gains came to an end for most following an incident for the No. 81 car that lost control exiting Turn 3, hitting the Turn 4 concrete barrier. IMSA officials red-flagged the session with less than one minute remaining of the 10-minute guaranteed green flag time, bringing the field to the pits before an ultimate restart for a singular lap to fulfill that time. With no one able to improve, the grid was essentially set by what occurred before the red flag.

Pole and a front-row lockout for Ford – their second of the season after also doing so at the Rolex 24 At Daytona in January, also with the No. 64 car on pole – was particularly important to Priaulx and the Dearborn-based manufacturer. Priaulx will share his car with Mike Rockenfeller.

“For sure, you know Flat Rock (Michigan, where the Mustang assembly plant is located) is just down the road so it feels like I’m on my home soil here,” said Priaulx, who won his second career WeatherTech Championship pole (2024 Rolex 24, also in GTD PRO) and was part of the winning GTD PRO entry in Detroit last year (aboard the No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R).

“It’s amazing. I’m really happy, the team gave me a great car today. It’s a great start to hopefully a great weekend. I know around here, a street track, you have to be aware that it’s going to go red at some point. I was really pushing hard. I knew I had to get past the Ferrari. That lap, I felt like I had to get it in.

“I mean ‘round here, we have a big car so hopefully we can keep our doors wide open. I felt like our race pace was really strong, so it’s just head down and look forward and we’re in the best space to win. We just need to get the flag now.”

Mies and co-driver Frederic Vervisch will roll off second in the No. 65 Mustang. Entering the weekend, the No. 65 pair sat fourth in the GTD PRO championship standings (107 points behind leading entry) and the No. 64 duo were seventh (156 points back).

The No. 14 Vasser Sullivan Racing Lexus RC F GT3 qualified third, but will be moved to the rear of the field following post-qualifying technical inspection which found the car to have ground clearance less than the minimum allowed. That brings the pair of Paul Miller Racing BMW M4 GT3 EVOs – the No. 1 of Neil Verhagen qualifying ahead of the No. 48 of Dan Harper – up to third and fourth, with the best of the Corvettes, Tommy Milner in the No. 4 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R, in fifth.

The championship-leading No. 77 AO Racing Porsche 911 GT3 R, qualified by Klaus Bachler, will start seventh – one spot ahead of their closest championship rivals, the No. 3 Corvette Racing by Pratt Miller Motorsports Corvette Z06 GT3.R of Antonio Garcia, in eighth. The AO Porsche, the defending Detroit winners and winners of three straight WeatherTech Championship races across both GT classes, leads the No. 3 Corvette by 70 points entering the weekend.

Teams have a 20-minute final practice session at 10:35 a.m. ET Saturday before flag-to-flag coverage of the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic begins at 3:30 p.m. on Peacock (internationally via IMSA.TV and IMSA Official YouTube channel).

Teams have a 20-minute Practice 3 at 10:35 a.m. ET Saturday before flag-to-flag coverage of the Chevrolet Detroit Sports Car Classic begins at 3:30 p.m. on Peacock (internationally via IMSA.TV and IMSA Official YouTube channel).

IMSA Wire Service PR

Rajah Caruth has earned his first victory of the 2025 season and just the second of his career, fending off both Corey Heim and Layne Riggs in the closing laps at Nashville.

Driving the No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, Caruth grabbed the lead on pit road at the end of the second stage. The driver made the most of what his pit crew did for him, never surrendering the race lead. 

“I didn’t expect that at all,” said Caruth. “Those guys were breathing down my neck the whole run. My pit crew won that race — Jarius, Zico, Dawson, Josh, Cody — they won that race for us. Thanks to them, thanks to everyone at HendrickCars.com, the men and women at Spire Motorsports. We’ve been off this year but good to get a dub tonight, man. I’m out of breath.”

Heim is the winningest driver of the 2025 season with four wins in the first 11 races, including last weekend’s event at Charlotte Motor Speedway. Speaking on the runner-up finish at Nashville, he said, “I feel like clean air was the thing (we needed) tonight. With the third stage being so straightforward, and the lack of strategy going green there, it was tough to come back from not having the lead. I slid through my box in the last stop and didn’t do my guys any favors. Just something to reflect on — on my part.

“But big congrats to Rajah. He did an awesome job managing from the lead and I was really free behind him and he made pretty much the right choice every time as for where I was gonna go. It’s nice racing against people that aren’t going to wreck you, racing for the race lead.”

Layne Riggs finished a close third with Daniel Hemric fourth and Corey Day fifth. Kaden Honeycutt, Chandler Smith, Ty Majeski, Bayley Currey, and Grant Enfinger filled out the remainder of the top ten. 

Kyle Busch, who had to fight back from a penalty for a restart violation, finished 15th.

A straightforward race

Rajah Caruth, Spire Motorsports Chevrolet

Photo by: Sean Gardner / Getty Images

The race itself got off to a slow start after Frankie Muniz’s #33 truck dumped oil all over the track, with Muniz forced to pull out of the race without completing a single lap under speed. The only on-track accident occurred on Lap 55 when Jack Wood and Akinori Ogata spun.

Riggs went on to win the opening stage while Heim claimed the Stage 2 win, adding another playoff point to his impressive total. 

While Caruth never lost the lead in the final 47-lap run, Heim certainly came close as he got to the outside of him with just six laps to go. Caruth ran him high and Heim chose to lift. From that point onward, he had his hands full with Riggs in the battle for second and never got back alongside Caruth.

Photos from Nashville – Race

Country music star and and former NASCAR pit crew member Chase Rice will take the wheel as the honorary pace car driver for the Cracker Barrel 400 this Sunday at Nashville Superspeedway.

“A show like the Cracker Barrel 400 with this much horsepower deserves plenty of star power, too,” said Nashville Superspeedway general manager Matt Greci. “We are looking forward to welcoming Chase as our honorary pace car driver. His high-energy style and connection with fans make him the perfect fit to lead the field and kick off our celebration of ‘Guitars and Fast Cars.’”

With more than 2.8 million albums sold and over 2.9 billion total streams, plus a legion of passionate fans at his high-energy concerts across the globe, Rice has established himself as a powerful force in Nashville and beyond.

With independent album Go Down Singin’ available everywhere now as the follow-up to the critically acclaimed I Hate Cowboys & All Dogs Go To Hell, and both brought together on the songwriter-focused Fireside Sessions, Rice’s sound continues to evolve to reflect the realities of his life; from emotional reckoning to an admiration of the American West. The new music serves as a follow up to his three-part project, The Album, which featured his latest Platinum-certified No. 1 hit, “Drinkin’ Beer. Talkin’ God. Amen.” and the Platinum-certified Top 10 hit “Lonely If You Are.”

This is the same gravelly-voiced Rice fans first fell in love with years ago – but better, freer; unbeholden and uninhibited. The new music builds upon the success of his sophomore album, Lambs & Lions, which featured the three-time Platinum, two-week chart topper “Eyes On You” – Rice’s first No. 1 as an artist and the most-streamed song of his career. Lambs & Lions followed Platinum-certified Ignite the Night, which debuted at No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums and No. 3 on the all-genre chart, producing a pair of Top 5 hits; Platinum-certified “Gonna Wanna Tonight” and double Platinum “Ready Set Roll.”

In addition to guesting on sold-out stadium shows with Kenny Chesney and Garth Brooks, Rice consistently sells out venues on his own headlining tours across the U.S. and beyond, with the Go Down Singin’ International Tour underway now.

College football career – Rice was a linebacker for the University of North Carolina, playing for the Tar Heels 2005-2008.

Racing background – Rice was a pit crew member for Hendrick Motorsports, specifically working as the rear tire carrier for Ryan Newman’s Nationwide Series car and also on Jimmie Johnson’s Sprint Cup Series car. He also worked on Jimmie Johnson’s Sprint Cup Series car and won two championships with the Lowe’s team.

Serving in Sunday’s role of honorary starter will be Cracker Barrel chief marketing officer Sarah Moore.

Moore joined Cracker Barrel, Nashville Superspeedway’s NASCAR Cup Series race entitlement partner, in 2024 and is responsible for leading all activities in the company’s marketing function including culinary innovation, menu strategy, advertising and digital media, loyalty, creative development, marketing communications and guest relations.

For more information, visit ChaseRice.com and follow Rice on Facebook, X and TikTok @ChaseRiceMusic and on Instagram @ChaseRice.

The Cracker Barrel 400 anchors a triple-header race weekend at Nashville Superspeedway, featuring NASCAR Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Craftsman Truck Series races from May 30 to June 1. A limited number of tickets are on sale now at NashvilleSuperspeedway.com or by calling 866-RACE-TIX.