LEBANON – Ryan Blaney’s bad luck came to an end in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Cracker Barrel 400 on June 1 at Nashville Superspeedway.
A sold-out crowd watched the 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion in the No. 12 Penske Ford, who had five did-not-finishes in the first 13 races of the season, took the lead on a restart with 118 laps left and after pitting, regained it with 32 to go and held Carson Hocevar off for his 14th career victory.
Denny Hamlin, in his 700th career start, finished third and 2024 Cracker Barrel champion Joey Logano was fourth. William Byron was fifth.
Because of various issues Blaney failed to finish five of the first 13 races this season. Three of those races ― Phoenix, Las Vegas and Miami ― were run consecutively and the latest came at Charlotte, a week before Nashville, when on Lap 245 Daniel Suarez spun into Blaney, forcing Blaney to hit the wall.
Kyle Larson, who slipped to the back of the pack with engine issues in the first stage, made it into the top five with 55 laps to go and had the fastest lap in the field.
The race ended with 102 consecutive laps under green.
Alex Bowman, Noah Gragson crash takes both out of NASCAR Nashville race
Alex Bowman went behind the wall after a big wreck when he got loose in turn 3 on lap 114. Bowman’s No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet slid into Noah Gragson and both cars rammed into wall sustaining heavy damage to both.
Bowman eventually got back out on the track and finished 36th. Gragson’s day was done. He finished 38th.
Heading into the race, Bowman was 10th in the NASCAR Cup Series points standings and was 12th in the playoff standings.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. knocked out of NASCAR Nashville race by Carson Hocevar
Another driver who made an early exit was Ricky Stenhouse Jr. after being rammed from behind by Carson Hocevar
Hocevar caught Stenhouse on the left rear bumper and ran Stenhouse into the wall and out of the race.
“I’d say it’s not out of the norm from him, but I definitely wasn’t expecting that at that point of the race,” Stenhouse said. “It’s just a bummer for us. I felt like after that restart, I was a little bit better than I was the run before. We were just burning our right-rear tire off there throughout the run.”
Reach Mike Organ at 615-259-8021 or on X @MikeOrganWriter.
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