Ryan Blaney claimed his first victory of the 2025 season Sunday night in the Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway. The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion led a commanding race-best 139 of the 300 laps to finally secure that all-important Playoff position.

Blaney has come so close this season to hoisting a trophy only to have random bad luck break his heart and challenge his resolve, but Sunday the sport’s popular 31-year-old, third-generation racer ultimately drove his No. 12 Team Penske Ford to a 2.830s win over 22-year-old Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar in a 103-lap green flag run that closed out the race.

He was so thrilled to take the win he climbed on top of his Ford, raised his arms in triumph and then jumped off the car and ran up and into the track’s front grandstands to claim the checkered flag before handing it off to an excited young fan. 

“I never gave up hope that’s for sure,’’ said Blaney, whose victory puts all three drivers of the reigning champion Penske team into the 2025 Playoffs. “We’ve had adversity, and this hasn’t really been a good year for us in terms of good fortune, but the No. 12 boys are awesome. They stick with it no matter how it goes.”

Hocevar’s runner-up finish ties a career-best effort turned in at Atlanta in February.

“It just proves how strong this group is to go from the disappointment last week,” said Hocevar, who looked strong and led laps at Charlotte Motor Speedway last Sunday only to retire early with mechanical problems. “Sticking to it and having a shot, just proud of this group. 

“We were one spot short again, but hopefully this is a step in the right direction,’’ he added.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, who won the opening stage and led 79 laps, finished third despite his helmet hose and hydration system issues. Blaney’s Penske teammate Joey Logano finished fourth with current NASCAR Cup Series championship leader, Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron rounding out the top five.

“I just couldn’t run with the No. 12 there in the super long run. After 40 laps I could maintain with him, but after that he’d just pull away and stretch it on us,’’ said Hamlin, whose fiancé Jordan is expecting to deliver the couple’s third child at any time.

Joey Logano, the defending race winner, also led laps but ultimately wasn’t able to challenge at the end, giving up positions to Hocevar and Hamlin.

“The No. 12 was just lights-out which gave them a huge lead and we just weren’t able to hold onto second. The No. 11 [Hamlin] got by me,’’ Logano said, adding, “Good execution and proud of Team Penske. All our cars have a win now and that’s pretty impressive to have everybody with a win. All the teams are really strong.’’

23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace, Legacy Motor Club’s Erik Jones, Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson, 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick and JGR’s Christopher Bell rounded out the top 10. The effort marked a particularly significant comeback for Larson, who started 28th on the grid and was involved in an incident on lap 115.

There were 18 lead changes in all among nine drivers with Hamlin (stage one) and Blaney (stage two) claiming the stage wins.

New this year, the Nashville race sets the 32-car field for the inaugural NASCAR In-Season Challenge – a bracket-style tournament taking place during the TNT broadcast’s five-race stretch this summer. The tournament starts June 28 at Atlanta followed by the races at Chicago, Sonoma, Dover and Indianapolis with the winner receiving a $1 million prize.

The next three races – Michigan, Mexico City’s Autodromo Hermanos Rodriquez and Pocono – will determine the bracket seeding based on a driver’s best finish out of those races.

Former series champion Brad Keselowski claimed the 32nd position for the competition by only 21 points over Trackhouse Racing’s Shane van Gisbergen.

Byron continues to lead the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings, now 48 points up on Hendrick Motorsports teammate Larson with 12 regular season races remaining to set the 16-driver Playoff field. Their teammate Chase Elliott, who finished 15th Sunday, is the highest-ranked driver (fifth) without a win. 

The NASCAR Cup Series returns to action next Sunday afternoon in the Firekeeper’s Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway (2 p.m. ET, Amazon Prime, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Reddick is the defending winner at the two-mile speedway – traditionally one of the drivers’ favorite venues on the schedule.

RESULTS

Another weekend of NASCAR Cup Series racing is in the books, with Team Penske star and former champion Ryan Blaney winning the Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway.

Blaney had suffered a poor qualifying session on Saturday, only starting Sunday’s race in 15th, but the 31-year-old ensured he was the man on top after 300 laps of racing action to take his first victory of the season.

Earlier in the race, it had looked like being an excellent day for Denny Hamlin in the event in which he was marking his 700th Cup Series race start. However, after winning stage one, Blaney and William Byron beat him after some exciting racing in stage two, and the Joe Gibbs Racing star had to settle for third overall come the black and white checkered flag.

Carson Hocevar ultimately brought the No. 77 home in second, but in reality, it was a comfortable ending to the race for Blaney, whose hard work had been done before the latter stages.

Elsewhere at Nashville, Blaney’s Team Penske team-mate Joey Logano came home in fourth, with Byron rounding out the top five.

Meanwhile, Bubba Wallace, Erik Jones, Kyle Larson, Tyler Reddick and Christopher Bell rounded out the top 10, in that order.

With that said, let’s take a look at Sunday night’s results in full!

READ MORE: NASCAR announce driver disqualification at Nashville as official statement released

NASCAR Cup Series: Who won the Nashville race today?

NASCAR Cup Series: Nashville Stage 2 results

NASCAR Cup Series: Nashville Stage 1 results

READ MORE: NASCAR confirm triple penalty for Cup Series team after Nashville incident

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INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Kyle Kirkwood overcame front wing damage to win the Chevrolet Detroit Grand Prix presented by Lear on Sunday.

This victory marks Kirkwood’s second win of the season and his fourth career NTT INDYCAR SERIES victory. He previously won the Grand Prix of Long Beach on April 13, also held on a temporary street circuit.

“For some reason, the wing was damaged, but it wasn’t really causing that much of an issue,” Kirkwood said. “This AWS Honda was on rails all weekend long.”

Kirkwood, driving the No. 27 Siemens AWS Honda for Andretti Global, started third and finished 3.5931 seconds ahead of Santino Ferrucci, who achieved a career-best finish in the No. 14 Sexton Properties/AJ Foyt Racing Chevrolet.

Colton Herta finished third in the No. 26 Gainbridge Honda, marking the first time Andretti Global placed two drivers on the podium since last July in Toronto.

The race saw multiple incidents, including a crash involving Callum Ilott and a collision that ended Alex Palou’s race. Palou, who remains the NTT IndyCar Series points leader, won five of the season’s first six races, including last week’s Indianapolis 500.

The next NTT IndyCar Series event is the Bommarito Automotive Group 500 on Sunday, June 15, at World Wide Technology Raceway in Madison, Illinois.

Some of the biggest NASCAR news this season came out this past week when executives suggested there could be an increase in horsepower later this season. While the potential increase would only be under specific circumstances, Hendrick Motorsports is highlighting the possibility for even more.

During an appearance on SiriusXM NASCAR, Hendrick Motorsports vice president of powertrain Scott Maxim shed light on the feasibility for engine manufacturers to increase horsepower. Manufacturers already ‘have a pretty good understanding’ of what changes need to be made to get to 750 horsepower. If NASCAR wants to open the door for even more, it would require significantly more changes, but could be done.

Related: NASCAR execs suggest horsepower increase might come later this season

“If we were to have a higher target than [750] then that would require some more extensive changes, which we could do.”

Hendrick Motorsports VP of Powertrain Scott Maxim on increasing NASCAR horsepower in the Cup Series

NASCAR started reducing horsepower in 2015, with a vision of creating a more even playing field between teams. There was a progressive decline from over 800 horsepower (2014) to 750 horsepower (2015) followed by a steep reduction to 550 horsepower and then a slight increase to 670 horsepower in 2022 with the introduction of the Next Gen car.

The sport’s executives got what they wanted, with the field of cars running closer together to create the visual of closer races. However, the quality of races has decreased considerably in recent seasons, with the Next Gen car largely only performing well at mile-and-a-half tracks.

Also Read: Reporter shares when Corey Heim could become a full-time Cup Series driver

Teams, drivers and fans have been calling for a horsepower increase ever since. While NASCAR’s original idea created a more even playing field, teams like Hendrick Motorsports eventually found other advantages. So, while the top teams are winning more consistently, the quality of the races still hasn’t improved and passing remains down.

For the time being, NASCAR officials are only leaving the door open to raising horsepower to 750 on short-track courses. It’s viewed as a starting point by drivers and fans, hopefully the beginning of further increases across all tracks in 2026 and beyond.

Related: NASCAR standings for Cup Series, Xfinity Series and Truck Series

If NASCAR horsepower increases to 750 this season, it should lead to more passing and would be a good test run to see if the change should be approved for all tracks. From there, teams and NASCAR officials can have discussions this offseason about long-term changes.

At the very least, between discussions of increasing horsepower and NASCAR proposing that teams can make limited alterations to the cars for the All-Star Race, it’s clear there’s at least a chance at meaningful change. It might not mean immediate improvements, but it’s a step in the right direction after fans and drivers felt years of frustration were effectively ignored.

Also Read: Insider reveals Denny Hamlin’s future with Joe Gibbs Racing

LEBANON, TENN. — Ryan Blaney broke through at Nashville Superspeedway for his first win of the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series season.

Blaney led a race-high five times for 139 of 300 laps, including the final 33 laps. It is his 14th career win in the NASCAR Cup Series and first at Nashville Superspeedway. Most importantly, he is no longer the only other Team Penske driver who is winless on the season.

“The 12 boys are awesome. They stick with it, no matter how it goes, and it was great to finish one out tonight,” Blaney said after doing a rare burnout. “It’s nice that it’s finally happening so I’m going to go celebrate.”

Blaney’s closest competitor throughout the night was Denny Hamlin who, in his 700th start, finished third. Hamlin matched an all-time best mark Jeff Gordon set when he made his 700th start at Darlington Raceway in May 2013.

In total, Hamlin led five times for 79 laps. Toward the end, he didn’t have the pace he needed as the track changed. Worse yet, he also didn’t have any cooler air pumping in nor any water to drink.

“I got hot,” Hamlin said. “I just couldn’t run with the 12 [Blaney] in the super long run. Our best strategy was to run long, catch a caution… but then we got jumped by the 77 [Hocevar]. Then the track went through a really weird phase in the last 30 laps where everyone was pinned to the bottom. There weren’t enough cars running the middle so it threw dust up there and made it like ice so that definitely hurt the passing.”

Sandwiched between the favorites was Carson Hocevar who backed up a stellar run in the Coca-Cola 600 with a second-place finish. Hocevar pitted four laps before Blaney which put him in clean air for those laps and boosted him to second during the final green-flag pit stop cycle.

“This proves how strong this group is to go from the disappointment last week to having a really bad qualifying draw, qualifying bad, to sticking through and having a shot, like a straightaway, I’m just proud of this group. Our average with this car is 38th so this is a big upgrade,” Hocevar said.

Hocevar had a great drive Sunday night, going from 26th in the first stage to seventh in the second stage and second in the end.

STAGE 1 TOP-10 (LAP 90): Denny Hamlin, Tyler Reddick, Chase Briscoe, William Byron, Christopher Bell, Chase Elliott, Ryan Blaney, Michael McDowell, Joey Logano, Ross Chastain.

In contrast to the first stage, which went caution-free, the second stage featured four cautions.

On lap 107, Carson Hocevar ran hard into turn three and spun Ricky Stenhouse Jr. into the wall, ending his night last (39th).

Stenhouse wasn’t happy.

“A lap or two before, he tried to dive in there from around 10 car lengths. That time, I opened my entry and he drilled us in the bumper. I’d say it’s not out of the ordinary for him but I wasn’t expecting it,” Stenhouse said. “I definitely have something to do about this at some point.”

Hocevar said he needed to see a replay but defended himself.

“I’ve seen a bunch of people do that same move and get shipped. He was the only one who got wrecked. I feel like it was a common move with how big of a run I had,” Hocevar said.

On the restart seven laps later, in the same corner on lap 114, Alex Bowman got loose and bumped Noah Gragson. The contact left both of them crashed and relegated to 36th and 38th on the night.

Six laps later, on lap 120, Christopher Bell threw a block on Erik Jones as they ran well inside the top-10. Jones fought back and spun Bell around. Bell hit the wall while Jones carried on.

On lap 132, Corey Heim received a “Welcome to the NASCAR Cup Series” gesture from Brad Keselowski. Heim tried to get around Keselowski exiting turn four but wasn’t clear, causing him to hit the wall and end his night in 37th.

When the race went green again, Denny Hamlin controlled the race but Ryan Blaney kept him honest. Blaney challenged Hamlin until William Byron got by and led a lap on lap 167. Then, Hamlin led a lap before Blaney and Byron took control to the end of the stage.

STAGE 2 TOP-10 (LAP 185): Blaney, Byron, Hamlin, Logano, Erik Jones, Austin Cindric, Carson Hocevar, Zane Smith, Josh Berry, Bell.

Bell grinded out a top-10 stage finish and held on to the track position through the end of the race. Bubba Wallace rose to the top-10 after a drive-through penalty in the first stage. Kyle Larson and Tyler Reddick also made their way into the top-10 after they each had to pit under green for tire issues.

Despite all of the storylines swirling around, Blaney took control. He led 81 of the final 102 laps and took home his first win of 2025.

NASCAR CUP SERIES AT NASHVILLE SUPERSPEEDWAY TOP-10 FINISHERS (LAP 300): Ryan Blaney, Carson Hocevar, Denny Hamlin, Joey Logano, William Byron, Bubba Wallace, Erik Jones, Kyle Larson, Tyler Reddick, Christopher Bell.

Leaving Nashville, 17 drivers are within a race worth of points of the cutline — either above or below:

• Bubba Wallace: 343 (+54 points to the cutline)
• Chase Briscoe: 342 (+53)
• Alex Bowman: 334 (+45)
• Chris Buescher: 297 (+8)
• Kyle Busch: 291 (+2)
• Ryan Preece: 289 (-2 points to the cutline)
• Carson Hocevar: 287 (-4)
• Ricky Stenhouse Jr: 285 (-6)
• AJ Allmendinger: 284 (-7)
• Michael McDowell: 278 (-13)
• John Hunter Nemechek: 267 (-24)
• Todd Gilliland: 261 (-30)
• Erik Jones: 259 (-32)
• Zane Smith: 255 (-36)
• Austin Dillon: 252 (-39)
• Ty Gibbs: 236 (-55)
• Daniel Suarez: 231 (-60)

Jonathan Fjeld is the co-owner of the The Racing Experts, LLC. He has been with TRE since 2010.

A Twin Valley, MN, native, Fjeld became a motorsports fan at just three years old (first race was the 2002 Pennsylvania 500). He worked as a contributor and writer for TRE from 2010-18. Since then, he has stepped up and covered 24 NASCAR race weekends and taken on a larger role with TRE. He became the co-owner and managing editor in 2023 and has guided the site to massive growth in that time.

Fjeld has covered a wide array of stories and moments over the years, including Kevin Harvick’s final Cup Series season, the first NASCAR national series disqualification in over 50 years, Shane van Gisbergen’s stunning win in Chicago and the first Cup Series race at Road America in 66 years – as well as up-and-coming drivers’ stories and stories from inside the sport, like the tech it takes for Hendrick Motorsports to remain a top-tier team.

Currently, he resides in Albuquerque, N.M., where he works for KOB 4, an NBC station. He works as a digital producer and does on-air reports. He loves spending time with friends and family, playing and listening to music, exploring new places, being outdoors, reading books and writing among other activities. You can email him at fjeldjonathan@gmail.com

For the second consecutive week, the NASCAR Cup Series raced under the lights, this time at Nashville Superspeedway. Chase Briscoe started on the pole and led 53 laps in the early run, but Denny Hamlin came through down the back stretch of that 90-lap run to win the first stage of the night and give himself a playoff point.

On pit road after Stage 1, Ryan Blaney took gas and just two tires to take the lead off of pit road and jumped ahead at the restart while Hamlin started to tail off. At Lap 106, Rickey Stenhouse Jr went around after contact from Carson Hocevar put him into the wall and suffered rear tire damage. After trying to get back in the race, more damage was discovered and he ended with a DNF.

Seven laps later, Alex Bowman overrode the corner and collected Noah Gragson in the process, as both cars would end up out of the race a third of the way through.

On the restart, Christopher Bell went around and nearly wrecked Chase Elliott in the aftermath, but the #9 was able to avoid it. Elliott then fell through the field as far as 21st, but was very quiet on the radio about the issues he was facing.

At the end of stage 2, Ryan Blaney got the playoff point and would propel himself to a big run down the early stretch of Stage 3 as the #12 car had a 2.5-second lead over Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano, Blaney’s teammate, with 56 laps to go.

With around 55 laps to go, green flag pit stops were underway and Blaney’s crew was excellent, getting the 12 car back on the track in under 10 seconds to regain the lead once pit stops cycled through with abou 30 laps to go. However, during those final five or so laps of stops, Blaney ran into lapped traffic, which shortened the distance between himself and the second-place car of Hocevar.

Blaney was able to space his lead to over 3 seconds as the laps ran down, and he picked up the win on Sunday night in Nashville. Carson Hocevar, Denny Hamlin, Erik Jones, and William Byron round out the top 5.