By Holly Cain
NASCAR Wire Service

LEBANON, TN (June 1, 2025) – Ryan Blaney claimed his first victory of the 2025 season Sunday night in the Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway. The 2023 NASCAR Cup Series champion led a commanding, race-best 139 of the 300 laps to finally secure that all-important Playoff position.

Blaney has come so close this season to hoisting a trophy only to have random racing bad luck break his heart and challenge his resolve. But Sunday, the sport’s popular 31-year-old, third-generation racer ultimately drove his No. 12 Team Penske Ford to a 2.830-second win over 22-year-old Spire Motorsports’ Carson Hocevar in a 103-lap green flag run that closed out the race.

Blaney was so thrilled to take the win, he climbed on top of his Ford, raised his arms in triumph and then jumped off the car and ran up and into the track’s front grandstands to claim the checkered flag before handing it off to an excited young fan.

“I never gave up hope that’s for sure,’’ said Blaney, whose victory puts all three drivers of the reigning champion Penske team into the 2025 Playoffs.

“We’ve had adversity, and this hasn’t really been a good year for us in terms of good fortune, but the 12-boys are awesome. They stick with it no matter how it goes.”

Hocevar’s runner-up finish ties a career-best effort turned in at Atlanta in February.

“It just proves how strong this group is to go from the disappointment last week,” said Hocevar, who looked strong and led laps at Charlotte Motor Speedway last Sunday only to retire early with mechanical problems. “Sticking to it and having a shot, just proud of this group.

“We were one spot short again, but hopefully this is a step in the right direction,’’ he added.

Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin, who won the opening stage and led 79 laps, finished third despite his helmet hose and hydration system issues. Blaney’s Penske teammate Joey Logano finished fourth with current NASCAR Cup Series championship leader, Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron rounding out the top-five.

“Just couldn’t run with the 12 there in the super long run, after 40 laps I could maintain with him, but after that he’d just pull away and stretch it on us,’’ said Hamlin, whose fiancé Jordan is expecting to deliver the couple’s third child at any time.

Logano, the defending race winner also led laps but ultimately wasn’t able to challenge at the end giving up positions to Hocevar and Hamlin.

“The 12 was just lights out which gave them a huge lead and we just weren’t able to hold onto second, the 11 [Hamlin] got by me,’’ Logano said, adding, “Good execution and proud of Team Penske. All our cars have a win now and that’s pretty impressive to have everybody with a win. All the teams are really strong.’’

23XI Racing’s Bubba Wallace, Legacy Motor Club’s Erik Jones, Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson, 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick and JGR’s Christopher Bell rounded out the top-10. The effort marked a particularly significant comeback for Larson, who started 28th on the grid and was involved in an incident on lap 115.

There were 18 lead changes in all among nine drivers with Hamlin (stage one) and Blaney (stage two) claiming the stage wins.

New this year, the Nashville race sets the 32-car field for the inaugural NASCAR In-Season Challenge – a bracket-style tournament taking place during the TNT broadcast’s five-race stretch this summer. The tournament starts June 28 at Atlanta followed by the races at Chicago, Sonoma, Dover, and Indianapolis with the winner receiving a $1 million prize.

Now, the next three races – Michigan, Mexico City’s Autodromo Hermanos Rodriquez and Pocono – will determine the bracket seeding based on a driver’s best finish out of those races.

Former series champion Brad Keselowski claimed the 32nd position for the competition by only 21 points over Trackhouse Racing’s Shane Van Gisbergen.

Byron continues to lead the NASCAR Cup Series championship standings, now 48 points up on Hendrick Motorsports teammate Larson with 12 regular season races remaining to set the 16-driver Playoff field. Their teammate Chase Elliott, who finished 15th Sunday, is the highest-ranked driver (fifth) without a win.

The NASCAR Cup Series returns to action next Sunday afternoon in the Firekeeper’s Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway (2 p.m. ET, Amazon Prime, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Reddick is the defending winner at the two-mile speedway – traditionally one of the drivers’ favorite venues on the schedule.

By Holly Cain
NASCAR Wire Service

LEBANON, TN.  (May 31, 2025) – Justin Allgaier joked before the start of Saturday’s Tennessee Lottery 250 that he needed to win his second NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Nashville Superspeedway so he could earn another guitar trophy and have one for each of his two young daughters.

Hours later, his dominant work in the race was indeed sweet music for his title hopes. For the second time in his career, the veteran Allgaier swept both in-race stages and went on to claim victory at the 1.33-mile concrete oval – his third win of the 2025 season.

The reigning series champion had to hold off his 18-year-old rookie JR Motorsports teammate, Connor Zilisch in the closing laps, however, before ultimately driving his No. 7 Chevrolet to the win by a slight 1.289-seconds.

The two had been separated by less than half a second for much of the closing 20 laps before lapped traffic helped the Allgaier pull away in the longest green flag run – 48 laps. In all he led a race high 101 of the race’s 188-laps.

“These guys right here, they deserve this one more than anything,’’ Allgaier, 39, said, shaking hands with his JR Motorsports crew as members came up to congratulate him. “I screwed them over last week [at Charlotte] by making a [wrong] pit call with an equally as good car. But this time it was Chevrolet, which was absolutely unreal. [His wife] Ashley and the kids are here and it’s so cool to get a win here at Nashville. The fans here are incredible. This place is special to me.

“I said before the race I really wanted to get a second guitar so both kids would have a guitar. So they can fight over them. I’m really proud of JR Motorsports.”

You’d be hard-pressed to tell it was actually Zilisch’s first ever race at the concrete Nashville oval. He earned points in both stages, had good pit stops, and moved up through the field and into the top five by lap 70. He led 18 laps but his run out front was interrupted by a caution with 53 laps remaining. Allgaier took the lead in a three-wide battle up front on the ensuing restart with 48 to go and never looked back.

“I thought I might be able to get back by him, but clean air is everything and the first 20 laps of a run if you had clean air you’d prevail on a long run, just keeping your stuff cooler and not having to run as hard,’’ Zilisch said. “Congrats to Justin. He did a really good job executing on that restart. It’s the second week in a row I’ve finished second because of a re-start. It’s frustrating.

“I’m really happy with the progress we’re making and being frustrated with second [place] is a good thing,’’ he added with a smile.

Haas Factory Team’s Sam Mayer’s No. 41 Ford finished third, just in front of his teammate Sheldon Creed in the No. 00 Ford and a third JR Motorsports Chevy, driven by last week’s NASCAR Cup Series race winner, Ross Chastain.

Aric Almirola, Austin Hill, Jesse Love and rookie Carson Kvapil and Sammy Smith rounded out the top 10.

It marks the first win for a full-time Xfinity Series driver in the last three races and extends Allgaier’s points lead over Richard Childress Racing’s Hill to 92 points.

The NASCAR Xfinity Series has a rare off-week coming up before returning to competition Saturday, June 14 (4:30 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) in the Chilango 150 at Mexico City’s famed Autodromo Hermanos Rodriquez.

Update: The No. 10 has been disqualified following post-race inspection at Nashville Superspeedway for failing rear heights.

By Reid Spencer
NASCAR Wire Service

CONCORD, N.C. (May 23, 2025) – William Byron’s long rally from a speeding penalty put the driver of the No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet in Victory Lane—and left reigning NASCAR Xfinity Series champion Justin Allgaier heartbroken.

Fresh from the announcement of a four-year contract extension with HMS, Byron passed Allgaier for the lead through Turn 4 of the first lap of overtime at Charlotte Motor Speedway and stayed out front until a violent wreck involving Jeb Burton and Brennan Poole brought out the 11th caution of the race and froze the field.

By then, Connor Zilisch had taken second and Nick Sanchez third, as Allgaier faded to fourth.

But the crux of the race had occurred much earlier, when Allgaier, leading under caution on Lap 180 of 205, chose to stay on the track instead of coming to pit road for new tires.

Byron got fresh rubber under the caution. That and a spate of cautions that allowed him to move closer to the front of the field for a succession of restarts gave Byron the track position he needed to salvage the victory.

A speeding penalty during the Stage 2 break sent Byron to the back of the field for a restart on Lap 99, and it took him until the overtime to get back to the front. The victory was his fifth in the series and the first at Charlotte, his home track.

“I was somewhat confident,” Byron said of his prospects for a rally. “I felt like if we got some yellows, it would be good, but, man, it didn’t work out the way we thought it (would). Just had a lot of green-flag running and couldn’t get back to the front.”

Until the final 20 laps, that is. After a multicar wreck in Turn 1 on lap 184, Byron restarted ninth. He gained one position before an accident involving Katherine Legge and JJ Yeley slowed the field again on Lap 189.

On the subsequent restart, however, Byron gained ground and was running third when Brandon Jones’ Toyota bounced off the outside wall and collected the No. 70 Cope Family Racing Chevrolet of Leland Honeyman and the No. 28 RSS Racing Ford of Kyle Sieg.

That caution, the 10th of the race, forced overtime and gave Byron the chance to restart behind Allgaier in the bottom lane. Ultimately, the fresher tires made the difference.

“Man, it feels awesome to win at my home track,” Byron said. “It feels really good. It’s fun to be back in Victory Lane. I haven’t won in a while. I just needed to get to the front couple of rows, and I wasn’t able to get there until the last one.

“Justin got a good restart, and I was able to push him and get clear of the 88 (Zilisch) and had some clean air on the nose.”

Allgaier felt nothing but regret at the outcome.

“I should have just come down pit road,” he said. “I thought there would be a lot of games played on pit road, and if (those on fresh tires) had to travel though a lot of traffic, we were going to maybe net OK.

“And all those cautions, one after the other, it was great because we were able to hold those guys off, but they really just hurt us because they (his pursuers) were able to get a spot or two every restart.

“I’m heartbroken… My daughter, all she wanted for her birthday was a trophy, and I feel like I gave that away. That’s the hardest part.”

Allgaier led 103 laps, the most coming after Byron led 69 of his 71 laps in sweeping the first two stages. Despite the disappointment, Allgaier maintained a 72-point lead over second-place Austin Hill in the series standings.

Sammy Smith finished fifth, followed by Dean Thompson, Josh Williams, Hill, Ryan Ellis and Christian Eckes. In his 144th start, Ellis posted the first top 10 of his Xfinity Series career.

Four Sunoco rookies—Zilisch, Sanchez, Thompson and Eckes—finished in the top 10.

NOTE: The No. 8 has been disqualified following post-race inspection at Charlotte Motor Speedway for failing to meet the minimum weight requirement, resulting in a 38th-place finish.