Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville

Welcome to the Racing America On SI Live Race Updates page for the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway.

Be sure to refresh this post throughout Sunday’s event as the Live Race Updates story will be updated regularly with the biggest moments from the 399-mile race around the 1.33-mile concrete oval, including lead changes, crash replays, the winner of the race, finishing results, and more.

Lap 70: Blaney to Pit Road

Ryan Blaney was caught behind some lapped cars for a few laps, so he has finally made the move to pit road. His teammate Austin Cindric follows him to pit road, and Chase Briscoe has cycled out as the race leader.

Denny Hamlin is running second followed by William Byron, Tyler Reddick, and Christopher Bell.

Lap 66: Blaney Still Leading, But Briscoe Has Found Clean Air

Ryan Blaney continues to stay on track, and has yet to pit, and while he was gaining time on the drivers, who had fresher tires, Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin have finally found some clean air, and are clicking off lap times faster than Blaney’s. Blaney will have to pit, and as it stands, he is now losing time to the eventual leaders of this race.

Lap 55: Blaney Still Hasn’t Pitted

Ryan Blaney has remained on track, and is actually running faster lap times on his old tires than Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin are on their fresh tires in traffic. This could actually shake out in Blaney’s favor.

Lap 47: Tyler Reddick Pits

Tyler Reddick has finally made his pit stop on Lap 47, and that will hand the race lead to Ryan Blaney. Austin Cindric, Ty Gibbs, Justin Haley, Corey Heim, Carson Hocevar, Ty Dillon, Alex Bowman, Riley Herbst, and Cole Custer, who have all yet to pit, run inside the top-10 at Lap 47.

Lap 46: Bubba Wallace Busted for Speeding

Bubba Wallace will have to make a pass-through penalty as he was busted for speeding on pit road during his pit stop. That will be costly, as he was running inside the top-10 prior to the penalty.

Lap 41: Denny Hamlin Pits

Denny Hamlin and William Byron head to pit road, and this will hand the lead over to Tyler Reddick on Lap 41.

As Hamlin blends back onto the track, Briscoe will remain ahead of him on track and should reassume the lead once this green flag pit sequence cycles out.

Lap 40: Kyle Larson Short Pits

Kyle Larson and crew chief Cliff Daniels have kicked off green flag pit stops on Lap 40. Larson will attempt to use fresh tires to make up some of his track position. As Larson is finishing up his pit stop, Chase Briscoe is heading to pit road and has relinquished the lead to Denny Hamlin.

Lap 32: Corey Heim Movin’ On Up

After starting tonight’s race from the 33rd spot, Corey Heim has climbed up to the 23rd position.

Lap 31: Briscoe Held Off Hamlin’s Challenge

Denny Hamlin has fallen back from Chase Briscoe once again, and is now roughly 0.600 seconds behind the leader again. It appears Briscoe has held off the challenge for now.

Kyle Larson is still mired back in 30th position, and has made very little progress forward following his near incident on Lap 3.

Lap 25: Hamlin Still Working Over Briscoe

Denny Hamlin has not been able to find a way around his teammate Chase Briscoe for the lead just yet. But he has applied all sorts of pressure. If Briscoe makes a mistake, Hamlin will certainly pounce.

Allmendinger is in the free pass position should a caution come out. He has gotten around fellow lap-down cars driven by Chad Finchum and JJ Yeley, who had to go behind the wall just before the start of the race and rolled onto the track just as the field was taking the green flag.

Lap 15: Hamlin Closing the Gap

At the conclusion of Lap 15, Denny Hamlin has cut Chase Briscoe’s lead to just 0.238 seconds.

Lap 12: Briscoe Continues to Lead From Pole

Chase Briscoe has led all of the opening 12 laps of this race, and he currently sits roughly 0.600 seconds ahead of Denny Hamlin. William Byron, Tyler Reddick, and Christopher Bell are the rest of the top-five runners at the moment.

Lap 3: Larson Nearly Crashes in Stack Up

Kyle Larson got loose into Turn 1 behind Ty Gibbs’ No. 54 car. He slowed down so he wouldn’t collide with Gibbs, and received contact from behind from Zane Smith. Larson was able to hold onto the car, but that was a very close call early in this race.

Larson, who was up to 22nd has now dropped to 33rd-place.

Lap 3: Allmendinger Loses Lap

AJ Allmendinger is officially a lap down after serving his stop-and-go penalty.

7:20 PM ET: Green Flag!

The pace car has peeled off the track surface, and Chase Briscoe has accelerated to signify the start of the Cracker Barrel 400. Briscoe got a good launch and is out front by himself. Denny Hamlin was able to hold off William Byron for the second position.

AJ Allmendinger is serving his stop-and-go penalty now.

7:18 PM ET: AJ Allmendinger Has Dropped to the Rear of Field

As pace laps are ongoing for tonight’s Cracker Barrel 400, AJ Allmendinger has dropped to the rear of the field from the 17th starting spot due to unapproved adjustments to his No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet after pre-race inspection. Allmendinger will also have to perform a stop-and-go penalty on pit road after the green flag tonight.

7:09 PM ET: Engines Fired!

Four-time American Country Music Award nominee, Ernest, who was wearing a Dale Earnhardt Sr. firesuit jacket, gave an animated command to the 39 drivers in the field to start their engines, and the cars all came to life as a result. There is a sold-out crowd in attendance at Nashville Superspeedway tonight.

7:02 PM ET: Elizabeth Marino Belts Out National Anthem

Sergeant Elizabeth Marino from the 2D Marine Aircraft Wing Band delivered an excellent rendition of the Star Spangled Banner, and an AH-1Z Cobra and UH-1Y Huey from the Marine Light Attack Helicopter Squadron 773 performed a flyover. We are just about ready to hear the engines fire for tonight’s race.

7:01 PM ET: Invocation has been completed

After the United States Marines Color Guard presented the Nation’s colors,Chaplin Nathan Huffman, a 2D Combat Engineer delivered the invocation prior to Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway.

NASCAR Reveals Official Timeline of Cracker Barrel 400 Pre-Race Festivities

Cracker Barrel 400 Pre-Race Info

The Cracker Barrel 400 will be televised on Prime Video, the second of five NASCAR Cup Series races to be covered by the streaming service this season. The Prime Video pre-race show will begin at 6:30 PM ET, and the official race broadcast will kick off on Prime Video at 7:00 PM ET.

The Performance Racing Network (PRN) and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast of Sunday’s race. For subscribers of the Max streaming service, NASCAR Driver Cam, which streams live in-car camera footage from every car in the field, will be available for today’s race.

The overall race purse, which teams will fight for their portion of in Sunday’s race is a total of $11,055,250.

The race distance is 300 laps around the 1.33-mile concrete oval, which equates to a 399-mile race distance.

The Cracker Barrel 400 will be broken up into three Stages. Stage 1 will end at the conclusion of Lap 90. Stage 2 will end at the conclusion of Lap 185. And the race is scheduled to finish at the end of Lap 300, barring an Overtime finish (last year’s edition of this race featured a five-Overtime finish).

The winner of Stages 1 and 2 will be awarded one Playoff Point, and the overall race winner will be awarded five Playoff Points. The Playoff Points will be added to the reseeded point totals if the drivers make it into the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, and will be carried through each round of the Playoffs.

The top-10 finishers in Stages 1, 2, and 3 will also receive regular-season championship points. The Stage Winners will receive 10 points for the Stage Win, and the point total will decrease by one point for the top-10 finishers in each Stage.

Joey Logano is the defending winner of the Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville.

AJ Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Team Hit With Massive Pre-Race Penalties

Last week, AJ Allmendinger and the No. 16 Kaulig Racing team put in an incredible effort as they competed near the front of the field all race long in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway on their way to an impressive fourth-place finish.

That finish a week ago allowed Allmendinger to claw to within 13 points of the NASCAR Cup Series Playoff cutline. However, if the driver of the No. 16 Chevrolet is to keep moving toward a Playoff berth Sunday at Nashville, he’ll have to overcome a lot of adversity.

On Saturday, Allmendinger’s No. 16 Chevrolet passed pre-race inspection on the first attempt, but as his team rolled his car onto pit road ahead of NASCAR Cup Series practice, NASCAR Cup Series officials noticed unapproved adjustments to the front splitter of the No. 16 Kaulig car.

The No. 16 car was sent back to the garage, where it went back through the USS (underbody scanning station), which confirmed the suspicions of the officials. The team was forced to undo the adjustments, and NASCAR ejected car chief Jaron Antley for the remainder of the weekend, and NASCAR says they also confiscated the mechanic’s hard card.

NASCAR then held the No. 16 car for the opening 10 minutes of the 25-minute practice session.

At the end of the evening, NASCAR announced additional penalties for Allmendinger and the No. 16 team. The No. 16 Kaulig team lost their pit selection for Sunday’s race. Additionally, prior to the green flag of Sunday’s race, Allmendinger, who qualified 17th, will have to drop to the rear of the field, and once the race goes green, Allmendinger will be required to serve a stop-and-go penalty on pit road.

Denny Hamlin (Baby Watch) Could Miss Nashville Race; Ryan Truex on Standby

Denny Hamlin and his fiancee Jordan Fish are expecting the arrival of their third child. Fish’s due date is Sunday, June 1, and if she goes into labor on Sunday, Hamlin is prepared to leave Nashville Superspeedway to be with his fiancee to welcome their first son into the world.

“I can’t miss it,” Hamlin explained in a media bullpen session on Saturday. “I certainly got to be there for her, and that’s obviously the biggest priority. I just wish she would hang on a little bit longer.”

If Hamlin does make the start, it’ll be the 700th start of his illustrious NASCAR Cup Series career. If not, he’ll miss a NASCAR Cup Series race for the first time since the 2014 season.

If the couple’s third child is to be born on Sunday, Ryan Truex, who won three NASCAR Xfinity Series events for Joe Gibbs Racing over the last two seasons, is in line to start the race behind the wheel of Hamlin’s No. 11 Toyota. Truex last made a start in the NASCAR Cup Series during the 2014 season.

Chase Briscoe Scores Second-Consecutive Pole Position With Track Record Run

Chase Briscoe has found his stroke in qualifying as of late. The driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry XSE followed up a pole in last week’s Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway with another pole for Sunday’s Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway.

Briscoe topped Denny Hamlin, his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, with a lap time that shattered the previous Nashville Superspeedway track record. Briscoe’s lap was a 29.125-second (164.395 mph) circuit around the 1.33-mile concrete oval. Aric Almirola’s track record, which was set in 2021, was a 29.557-second (161.922 mph) lap.

Cracker Barrel 400 Starting Lineup

Click here for the full Cracker Barrel 400 starting lineup.