Denny Hamlin offered a quick summary of his Cracker Barrel 400.
“Man, what an unbelievable day,” he said. “Starting first, going to last and back to first.”
That’s all true: Hamlin began on the pole and jumped the start, which sent him to the tail of the field. He eventually rebounded to win the race on May 31 at Nashville Superspeedway.
But it wasn’t that simple.
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Hamlin stayed clean through 12 caution flags, many for wrecks, as only 16 cars finished on the lead lap. And he tussled with Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe after a restart with four laps left, taking the lead from Bell before the final two turns.
Bell placed second. Briscoe settled into third.
Let’s go through three takeaways.
1. Joe Gibbs Racing will take those points every week
JGR was either going to love the finish or disaster was going to strike.
After a restart with four laps to go, Bell and Hamlin sped side-by-side for three laps. On the final go-around, teammate Chase Briscoe joined the party and made it three-wide, which had to induce a little stress for those Toyota teams on a night full of collisions.
Nothing traumatic happened, though.
The trio drag-raced into Turn 1. Hamlin grabbed the front spot from Bell off Turn 2 and held on from there.
“(Bell) drove in so deep on that last lap into (Turn) 1 that it just barely allowed me to clear off of 2,” Hamlin said.
It was his second points-paying win of the season — he captured the All-Star exhibition earlier in the month — and the 62nd of his career. He led 57 laps, one more than Kyle Larson.
Bell and Briscoe are still searching for their first triumphs of 2026, but both reside in the top 14 in points after Nashville.
Ty Gibbs, the fourth JGR driver, slotted 13th in the Cracker Barrel 400. He occupies fifth in the standings.
2. Zane Smith tries to stretch his fuel
All of the caution periods threw off the normal pit cycles.
Zane Smith tried to benefit. After fueling up on Lap 217, he attempted to stretch his tank all the way to the end, especially after he inherited the lead on Lap 270 following a stop by Erik Jones.
Smith remained ahead for 18 laps, but Bell engaged in a hot pursuit. He posted lap times consistently more than a second better than Smith’s and overtook the No. 38 machine with 12 laps left.
Moments later, the yellow flag flew. Smith headed down pit road for a splash of Sonoco and two tires.
The 26-year-old did not play a role in the final restart. He notched a ninth-place finish for his fifth top-10 of the campaign.
3. Next race on NASCAR schedule set for Michigan
Good news for those who prefer earlier bedtimes.
After back-to-back night races, the NASCAR Cup Series returns to afternoons next weekend.
The FireKeepers Casino 400 is scheduled for 3 p.m. on June 7. It will take place at Michigan International Speedway, a two-mile oval that has hosted one Cup event per season since losing its second annual date after 2020.
The 200-lap race is the third of five in a row to air on Amazon Prime Video, too.
Last year, none other than Denny Hamlin prevailed at the D-shaped track.
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: NASCAR takeaways: Joe Gibbs Racing would take Nashville finish every week
Reporting by Chris Vinel, Daytona Beach News-Journal / The Daytona Beach News-Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
