LEBANON, Tenn. — Denny Hamlin looked in his mirror and wondered why nobody else went with him when the green flag dropped at the start of the Cracker Barrel 400 on Sunday night.
He said nothing on his radio, instead paying the penalty by going to the back of the field. Then he drove his way back to the front, where he outraced Christopher Bell over the last four thrilling laps off a final restart to win a chaotic NASCAR Cup Series race at Nashville Superspeedway.
“Man, what an unbelievable day,” Hamlin said. “Starting first, going to last and back to first.”
Its was Hamlin’s second points win this year and the 62nd of his career, and he wound up leading a race-high 57 laps, including the one that mattered most.
The 45-year-old Hamlin wound up racing side by side with his Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Bell and Chase Briscoe as they went three wide before Hamlin took the lead down the back stretch to win by 0.115 second in his No. 11 Toyota.
“Well, that’s why on the last lap, I committed to just run the bottom,” Hamlin said.
Team co-owner Heather Gibbs said watching the teammates race so hard was like kids on a family vacation swatting at each other in the backseat. But she said they raced cleanly.
“We want them to race for the win,” Gibbs said. “That’s what they do, and it makes us proud.”
Hamlin is second in the standings and pulled within 97 points of leader Tyler Reddick in the season standings. Reddick, who drives the No. 45 Toyota for the 23XI Racing team co-owned by Hamlin, finished sixth while wrecking behind the lead pack as the race ended.
Hamlin said Saturday that he wanted to get his first Nashville victory in Cup Series competition “pretty badly” and was eager to collect the guitar trophy that goes to the winner. By late Sunday night, it was in his hands as confetti fell in victory lane.
In addition to his victory at Las Vegas Motor Speedway on March 15, Hamlin was the winner of the NASCAR All-Star Race on May 16 at Delaware’s Dover Motor Speedway, where he got no points but did earn a $1 million payday.
Sunday’s race started 80 minutes late after rain delayed the Cup Series for a second straight week. The wait was worth it with a record 31 lead changes among a record 15 leaders. The race also featured 12 cautions at the 1.33-mile, D-shaped oval that is NASCAR’s largest concrete track.
Bell finished second for a second straight race ahead of Briscoe. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was fourth, and Shane Van Gisbergen rounded out the top five.
“I had the best car on the race track … and we had the lead on the restart,” Bell said. “I got a great push from Denny on the restart, and I didn’t win the race.”
Hamlin now is one Cup Series victory away from matching his one-time teammate Kyle Busch, who died May 22 at age 41 from sepsis brought on by complications from bacterial pneumonia. Busch is ninth all time with his 63 Cup Series victories, and Hamlin said he certainly aspires to get there.
“It just shows how good he was for so long,” Hamlin said. “I saw the stats online where we ran together 500 and some races, and he finished ahead of me 10 more times than I beat him in the same equipment.”
Team Penske’s Ryan Blaney, trying to repeat as the race winner, led the restart trying to hold off AJ Allmendinger on a one-lap shootout for the first stage. The Kaulig Racing took the lead on the back stretch, then held off reigning Cup Series champ Kyle Larson of Hendrick Motorsports to take stage one for his first stage victory since 2024.
Trackhouse Racing’s Daniel Suarez, who won the rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600 a week earlier at Charlotte Motor Speedway, took the second stage at Nashville after staying out during a caution and taking the lead on the restart on lap 182.
Then Corey Heim drove his 23XI Racing No. 67 Toyota into the back of Todd Gilliland’s Front Row Motorsports No. 34 Ford, sending him backward into the wall on the first turn. That brought out the seventh caution, with Cole Custer of Haas Factory Team spinning out in the crash.
On the 72nd lap, the right rotor exploded on Connor Zilisch’s Trackhouse Racing No. 88 Chevrolet, sending the rookie drive into the wall and smashing the right side of his car on the first turn. Zilisch got his car into the garage with some flames coming out from under the right tire, which was stuck and nearly sideways.
He had been running 24th after starting 38th on the last row.
Trackhouse teammate Ross Chastain had his own rotor issue on lap 82, sending him into the wall between the first two turns. Spire Motorsports driver Michael McDowell spun trying to avoid Chastain. Zilisch called the rotor problems a surprise when both he and Chastain had been moving up.
“Just unfortunate circumstances,” Zilisch said. “Yeah, we’ll learn from it.”
Van Gisbergen is the third full-time Cup Series driver for Trackhouse, and his crew told him not to worry with his No. 97 Chevy running a completely different brake package.
Ryan Preece went to the garage with no water in his Penske No. 60 Ford, and his crew found a piece of rotor broken off into the radiator before he got back on the track.
Then Allmendinger, who was third, had the rotor spark and flame before his No. 16 Chevrolet hit the wall in the first turn on lap 173 — with 12 laps left in the second stage.
Chris Buescher was running 17th with 12 laps left when the right rotor in his RFK Racing No. 17 Ford went as he entered the third turn.
The series will be at Michigan International Speedway next weekend, where Hamlin will be trying to win for a second straight year and starting building an in-season streak.