NASCAR
Stratta’s Six: Who can Grab the Guitar Trophy at Nashville Superspeedway?
The biggest stars of NASCAR take center stage in Nashville for a 400-mile trek around Music City. Four years of the Cracker Barrel 400 have seen four different drivers win. This trend leaves Sunday’s list of potential victors wide open. The Gibson Guitar trophy is one of NASCAR’s most unique prizes, and will have a new owner in mere days. Here are a few drivers who hope to play a victory tune in Tennessee.
Ross Chastain
Following a clutch performance at Charlotte in a backup car, can Ross Chastain possibly go back-to-back? Nashville Superspeedway is one of the Trackhouse driver’s best racetracks on the circuit. Taking the victory here two years ago, Chastain hopes to add another milestone and become this track’s first repeat winner.
“I love country music and live music, so that’s a fun time,” Chastain said. “I always stay after the race and go to Tootsies down on Broadway and that’s always a good time. Tootsies has been a longtime supporter of Trackhouse so it fun to go down there and spend time. I get to Nashville a couple of times each year, usually for sponsor things, so I’m very familiar with the area and it’s a lot fun.”
“The track is very unique. It feels like its a mile-and-a-half but its not so it takes me some time to get acclimated. But I’ve had fast cars there to be honest. If my cars aren’t good, I can’t go fast. We’ll look to build off of things we’ve learned more recently about these cars and try to keep moving the needle. I’m running the Xfinity race so that’s exciting and a challenge. I’m running a JRM car with Acceptance Insurance on Saturday night and that will allow me to get some more reps in at the track.”
In four past Nashville Superspeedway starts, Chastain owns the 2023 triumph in addition to second and fifth-place results. If not for being wrecked out in overtime last year, his average finish here would be higher than 10.3. Three of these past Nashville races also saw the No. 1 pace the field. So far this season on similar intermediates, Chastain has a 10.1 average finish. This is tied as second-best in Cup for this category. In short, another melon smash may kick off a celebration ending on Broadway.
Denny Hamlin
If not for 2024’s Nashville overtime onslaught, Denny Hamlin would have likely ended that day in victory lane. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver led 70 laps a year ago, only to run out of fuel late. Hamlin had executed a nearly flawless race to that point, only to settle for 12th-place. This ended a two-year stretch of top-10s for the No. 11 at Nashville.
2024 marked the third-straight season where the 11 led at least 70 circuits in Music City. Hamlin’s been within eyesight of the guitar trophy multiple times before. Can the stars align for a first Toyota triumph in the Cracker Barrel 400? Hamlin is perhaps best poised to erase this drought.
Ryan Blaney
The apparent bad luck cloud that’s followed Ryan Blaney all season has to run out eventually, right? Driver 12 is batting .500 in Nashville top-10s, with a third in 2022 and a sixth-place run last year. Intermediates like Nashville have seemingly been Blaney’s bread and butter track type to date in 2025.
Unforced errors have kept the Penske 12 crew out of victory lane through 2025’s opening 13 weeks. Now amidst the regular season’s second half, a breakout win should be on Blaney’s horizon. Teammate Joey Logano outlasted overtime chaos and took the guitar home from Nashville last year; Blaney will try and keep this trophy in house at Penske.
Kyle Larson
Death, taxes, and Kyle Larson being fast on intermediates appear to be 2025’s three guarantees in life. Despite a disappointing Indy 500 effort a week ago, the Hendrick 5 still led the opening lap at Charlotte, and was out front when he spun. Larson already owns two mile-and-a-half wins in 2025, but easily could have another two or three. In short, the inaugural Nashville winner from 2021 is a deserved favorite heading into this weekend.
“We’ve been good at Nashville, but we haven’t been great, which you need to be to win there,” Larson said. “I know I won in 2021, but since then I think we have some more to work on. Hopefully we can qualify well and build off of that.”
Eighth place a year ago was Larson’s worst result yet at Nashville Superspeedway, being the only man with four top-10s here. 2021’s triumph was one of Larson’s most dominant wins, with 264 laps out front. However, the 5 team has yet to lead a single lap here in the Next Gen era. Based on their performance across similar tracks this year though, expect Larson to be a strong contender on Sunday.
Christopher Bell
Only a tick off of Larson’s Nashville consistency is Christopher Bell. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver owns three top-10s here, and led 131 laps last year before an early crash. Sweeping both stages 12 months ago, Bell was on track for a banner day before an unfortunate spin. Now returning to Nashville as 2025’s winningest driver, Bell hopes to build off of this incredible run.
“Well, I think the biggest thing is just the car change,” Bell said. “Nashville, with the old car, it really raced more like a short track with the way that you passed guys, and the way that you needed your car to drive. It really reminded me of a short track. Whenever we came back with the Next Gen car, it really started racing more like an intermediate track. I would say that is the biggest change from 2021 to now. I think since the Next Gen car has been around, it has been pretty consistent, the racing style has been similar – but it was a huge change from the Gen 6 to the Gen 7 car.”
After his All-Star Race win two weeks ago, Bell did admit their intermediate package was slightly off. Coming back to a track where he’s performed very well lately, Bell eyes another shot at victory lane. Nashville will be prime opportunity for Bell to further hone his skill and perhaps pad his Playoff point cushion.
William Byron
Coming off a heartbreaking loss after dominating Charlotte, William Byron hopes to rebound in Nashville. Team 24 for Hendrick has two top-10s in four tries at the concrete oval, and will try and best their third-place result from 2021. Going off of Charlotte and Darlington, this team is as elite as anyone on intermediates. Byron did reveal though that Nashville Superspeedway is a challenging place to find speed.
“Nashville has been kind of OK for us,” Byron said. “I feel like the first year, first couple of years we went there, we were super fast. But then last year we weren’t so good, so just got to keep working on that. It seems like it has some mile-and-a-half characteristics, like the guys who are fast at mile-and-a-halves seem to be pretty strong at Nashville, even though it’s a shorter track. So we’ll see. I think we could run well there. Definitely, the expectation is obviously to go there and try to run top five and try to compete for a win. So, yeah, I think it’s just a matter of looking at what we did last year and kind of where we need to be better.”
Despite no wins since the Daytona 500, Byron retook the points lead after Charlotte. 283 laps out front only to come home second would be a stinging loss for any driver. Byron’s best chance at showing his mental strength and championship mindset will be Sunday, trying to recover from a devastating last few laps at Charlotte.
Being a 1.33-mile concrete oval makes Nashville Superspeedway truly unlike any other stop on the NASCAR schedule. The Cracker Barrel 400 will have its own distinct feel and flair that will test everyone for (at least) 300 laps. The Tennessee green flag will fly Sunday at 7 p.m. ET on Prime Video, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. Nashville quickly turned into a historic marathon last year; what drama will this season hold in Music City?
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo Credits to Sean Gardner/Getty Images
