Denny Hamlin dropped to last place on the green flag of the Cracker Barrel 400 after jumping the start from the pole, and over the next 300 laps on the Nashville Superspeedway oval he rebuilt his race to win it with a pass on the final lap on his two Joe Gibbs Racing teammates. The penalty that sent him to 38th among 38 cars could have ended his night, but Hamlin climbed calmly, survived eleven cautions, and appeared at just the right moment: with four laps to go, when Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe became locked in a fight for the lead into Turn 1 on the final restart, the Toyota No. 11 slipped through on the inside lane and no one could catch him. The three crossed the line separated by 0.115 seconds with Bell second and Briscoe third, Toyota’s first 1‑2‑3 in Nashville and its first victory on this 1.33‑mile oval.

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It was his 62nd victory in the Cup Series and left him one short of the record of 63 set by Kyle Busch. The Nashville grandstand paid tribute on lap 8, standing in silence, to the driver who won four times on this oval in the lower series and who passed away last week. Hamlin summed up the night with an unadorned phrase: "Start first, drop to last and come back to first."

The finish repeated what Toyota had experienced a week earlier at Charlotte, when Bell and Hamlin battled each other in the final laps of the Coca‑Cola 600 and Daniel Suárez slipped away. This time the beneficiary was Hamlin, who watched in his mirrors as Bell and Briscoe disputed the same corner and didn't hesitate. Bell led 29 laps and finished second for the second consecutive week. "We brought a great car and I didn't get the job done," he admitted. Briscoe had started 31st and climbed 28 positions to get into the fight.

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The weather delayed the start by nearly two hours, and once the action got underway, Nashville delivered 31 lead changes among 15 drivers, although several yellow flags shared a common mechanical origin. At least five cars broke the right‑front brake rotor in almost identical fashion. Connor Zilisch was the first on lap 72, with no warning and the pedal to the floor until the impact into the Turn 1 wall. Ross Chastain said the rotor disintegrated completely and that without brakes there was no way to slow down for the corner. AJ Allmendinger had the same failure in the second stage, Chris Buescher retired with a brake issue toward the end, and Josh Berry also dropped out with the same failure. The five incidents swelled the caution count and kept the field bunched until the finish.

Zane Smith led in the Ford No. 38 of Front Row with 12 laps to go, Ryan Blaney led 46 laps before falling to eighth, and Kyle Larson led 56 laps to finish 23rd in the Chevrolet No. 5 of Hendrick. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. was fourth, and Shane van Gisbergen achieved his best oval result with fifth place.

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The championship leaves Nashville with Tyler Reddick leading on 620 points, Hamlin second with 523, and Blaney third with 446. The next event is the FireKeepers Casino 400 at Michigan on June 7.

Cracker Barrel 400 2026

Pos	Nº	driver	brand	time
1	#11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	-
2	#20	Christopher Bell	Toyota	+0.12s
3	#19	Chase Briscoe	Toyota	+0.71s
4	#47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Chevrolet	+1.08s
5	#97	Shane Van Gisbergen	Chevrolet	+1.62s
6	#45	Tyler Reddick	Toyota	+1.62s
7	#9	Chase Elliott	Chevrolet	+1.63s
8	#12	Ryan Blaney	Ford	+1.69s
9	#38	Zane Smith	Ford	+1.73s
10	#77	Carson Hocevar	Chevrolet	+1.99s
11	#43	Erik Jones	Toyota	+2.01s
12	#10	Ty Dillon	Chevrolet	+2.89s
13	#54	Ty Gibbs	Toyota	+2.96s
14	#22	Joey Logano	Ford	+5.08s
15	#71	Michael McDowell	Chevrolet	+5.26s
16	#4	Noah Gragson	Ford	+1 vuelta
17	#35	Riley Herbst	Toyota	+1 vuelta
18	#3	Austin Dillon	Chevrolet	+1 vuelta
19	#7	Daniel Suarez	Chevrolet	+1 vuelta
20	#34	Todd Gilliland	Ford	+1 vuelta
21	#41	Cole Custer	Chevrolet	+1 vuelta
22	#51	Cody Ware	Chevrolet	+1 vuelta
23	#5	Kyle Larson	Chevrolet	+1 vuelta
24	#42	John Hunter Nemechek	Toyota	+2 vueltas
25	#67	* Corey Heim(i)	Toyota	+2 vueltas
26	#2	Austin Cindric	Ford	+4 vueltas
27	#33	Austin Hill(i)	Chevrolet	+7 vueltas
28	#66	* Chad Finchum(i)	Ford	+11 vueltas
29	#17	Chris Buescher	Ford	+14 vueltas
30	#24	William Byron	Chevrolet	+69 vueltas
31	#21	Josh Berry	Ford	+86 vueltas
32	#23	Bubba Wallace	Toyota	+97 vueltas
33	#48	Alex Bowman	Chevrolet	+97 vueltas
34	#6	Brad Keselowski	Ford	+108 vueltas
35	#16	AJ Allmendinger	Chevrolet	+128 vueltas
36	#60	Ryan Preece	Ford	+210 vueltas
37	#1	Ross Chastain	Chevrolet	+219 vueltas
38	#88	Connor Zilisch #	Chevrolet	+229 vueltas