Ryan Blaney locked Team Penske into the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series playoffs, leading a race-high 139 of 300 laps and cruising to a victory at Nashville Superspeedway.
Carson Hocevar finished second, followed by Denny Hamlin, Logano and William Byron. Bubba Wallace, Erik Jones, Kyle Larson, Tyler Reddick and Christopher Bell rounded out the top 10.
The Team Penske driver becomes the ninth driver to win in the 2025 season.
With his first win of the season, Blaney joined Joey Logano (Texas) and Austin Cindric (Talladega) as winners who have earned berths in the 10-race championship for NASCAR’s premier series. Josh Berry (Las Vegas) also has won in the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford that is in a technical alliance with Team Penske.
Blaney becomes the ninth winner to capture a spot in the 16-driver field for the playoffs. He rebounded from a 38th in the Coca-Cola 600, the most recent of four finishes of 28th or worse this year.
“I never gave up hope, that’s for sure,” Blaney told Prime’s Marty Snider. “We’ve had great speed all year, just hasn’t really been the best year for us as far as good fortune. The 12 boys are awesome. They stick with it no matter how it goes, and it was great to finish one out now.”
Quotes from the longest concrete track on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule.
With his runner-up finish, Hocevar tied a career best that he set in February at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
“It just proves how strong this group is to go from the disappointment last week and having a really bad qualifying draw, qualifying really bad, sticking through it and having a shot (to win),” said Hocevar, who suffered an engine failure last week after running well in the Coca-Cola 600. “Just proud of this group. I think our average with this car is 38th. So it’s a big upgrade.”
The 300-lap race ended with a 102-lap run under green after seven caution flags in the first 198 laps. Blaney, who won Stage 2, led 111 of the final 132 laps in his No. 12 Ford.
A flurry of Stage 2 caution laps was triggered by Hocevar punting Ricky Stenhouse Jr. with a left-rear tap into the Turn 4 wall on Lap 106.
Stenhouse, who is hovering around the playoff cutline, was eliminated in last place after completing 110 laps.
“Lap or two before, he tried to dive in there from about 10 car lengths back,” Stenhouse told Prime’s Marty Snider. “That time, I just opened my entry a little bit, he overcharged the corner and just drilled us in the rear bumper. I’d say it’s not out of the norm for him, but I definitely wasn’t expecting that at that point in the race.
“Bummer for us. Our Camaro wasn’t great, but we were making changes, and I felt like that restart, I was a little better than the run before. We were just burning our right rear tire off throughout the run. Bummed that our day ended like that. I’ll definitely have something to do about it at one point.”
After the race, Hocevar brushed off Stenhouse’s frustration.
“I’ve seen a bunch of people do that same sort of move and get shipped, and I think he was the one for me to wreck them,” Hocevar said. “But I felt like that was just a common move with how big of a run I had, but I didn’t see it. I’m sure he’ll want to talk about. I’ll talk about it. We’ll look at the replay. But I have no idea until I see it.”
On the Lap 112 restart, Noah Gragson and Alex Bowman sustained heavy damage in an incident that also collected Kyle Larson.
The race went green again on Lap 119, but the yellow flag immediately flew for Bell, who lost control of his No. 20 Toyota after colliding multiple times with Jones’ No. 43 Toyota.
On the Lap 124 restart, Larson (loose wheel) and Tyler Reddick (flat tire) both made unscheduled pit stops, and then the caution flew again as Corey Heim smacked the wall in Turn 4 after misjudging his exit and colliding with Brad Keselowski.
Stage 1 winner: Hamlin
Stage 2 winner: Blaney
Next up: Sunday, June 8, 2 p.m. ET at Michigan International Speedway on Prime.
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