Saturday Nashville Cup Series Notebook

By David Morgan, Associate Editor

LEBANON, Tenn. – Denny Hamlin will lead the field to green in Sunday’s Ally 400 after scoring the pole in qualifying under the baking Tennessee sun on Saturday afternoon at Nashville Superspeedway.

The driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota posted the fast time of 29.859 seconds, 160.354 mph to claim the top spot over hometown hero Josh Berry as he looks to be the first non-Chevrolet driver to win on the 1.33-mile concrete oval.

“Felt pretty good about it,” Hamlin said of his lap. “Seems like we’ve definitely fixed some of the things we weren’t very good with last year. Even during practice and during the race, we fell on a terminal issue with the car we just couldn’t get fixed.

“And it seems like that was an emphasis we worked on coming back here. All day today, that was the least of my problems. I definitely feel pretty good about it and certainly, we’re going to work on it overnight and I feel very confident we’ll be in contention tomorrow.”

A year ago at this track, Hamlin finished third after leading 81 laps on the day.

Christopher Bell will start third, followed by Kyle Larson, Brad Keselowski, Tyler Reddick, William Byron, Ty Gibbs, Chris Buescher, and Austin Cindric rounding out the top-10 starters.

Defending race winner Ross Chastain will roll off from 20^th place.

Notebook

Day race or night race? That is the question.

In the three races held at Nashville Superspeedway, one has been a day race, with another being pushed to night due to weather, and last year being run fully under the lights. Should the weather cooperate on Sunday, the Ally 400 will be held under the blazing hot sun of a Tennessee afternoon, with temperatures well north of 90 degrees expected.

With that in mind, the question beckons, which is the preferred time of day to hold this race?

“Whatever is going to bring the fans out,” said Brad Keselowski. “My intuition says that’s in the night, but I don’t have all the data and stuff that NASCAR has, so I hate to speak for them. Whatever brings the fans out, they’re the priority and we can race around that.

“If the fans want us to race at three in the morning, we should race at three in the morning.”

Denny Hamlin added that the heat will play a major factor on Sunday with fatigue in the cockpit setting in as the heat ramps up throughout the afternoon.

“The men and the boys will be separated tomorrow,” Hamlin said.

“Fatigue will play a factor tomorrow. I do believe that. Certainly, everyone’s doing everything they can to hydrate themselves, but still, some people take heat better than others. I think any time that’s a factor, it has to weigh on you some way, shape or form. So, certainly, it’ll be a factor. How big of a factor, I’m not sure.”

The consensus among a number of other drivers seems to lean toward a day race providing a better race for the fans.

“The year that we won was a day race. That’s been the only year that we’ve been fast, so I would take a day race,” 2021 Nashville winner Kyle Larson said. “I enjoy day racing better. I feel like the track is slicker and harder to find grip, we usually are a little bit stronger.”

Tyler Reddick echoed Larson, but also noted how the tough conditions with the heat will be a struggle for both drivers and the fans.

“I think the racing is always going to be better during the daytime,” Reddick said. “It’s just the balance, right? Can Mother Nature work with us a little and not be so dang hot? The conditions in the car are tough, but the conditions in the bleachers for the fans are even more difficult, in my opinion. It’s a big ask.

“Obviously, we want to put on the best show, but we don’t want to be burning up our fans that come out to the races.”

Winless former Cup champions look toward hopes of making the Playoffs

Of the drivers still on the outside looking in with eight races remaining, a pair of NASCAR Cup Series champions are among them, with both Joey Logano and Kyle Busch still needing to punch their ticket into the postseason.

Logano is in the best position, sitting just 13 points back of the cut-off line heading into Nashville, as he explained that they won’t necessarily have to win a race to make it in, but will have to be conscious of the points they gain each week between now and the regular season finale at Darlington.

“We just need to get as many points as we can,” Logano said. “We don’t have to win. It’d be great to win. We’ve got to score 30 plus points every race. If we can do that, we’ll be fine.”

Asked further if there is one track that he is targeting as the best place that he and his No. 22 team can break through and join his Team Penske teammates in the win column, Logano noted that the Richmond oval will likely be their best chance.

“We’ve got to look at all of them, but Richmond stands out the most.”

As for Busch, his No. 8 Richard Childress Racing team has struggled mightily this year, and while they showed some life early in the season, with two top-five finishes and five top-10 finishes, the team has been on a skid as of late, registering three 35th place finishes in the last four races.

As a result, Busch has fallen out of the top-16 and now sits 45 points back of the cut-off line.

“Just speed and comfort. That’s the biggest thing,” Busch said of what he is missing. “Guys are busting their ass. They’re working as hard as they can work. I know that. We’re all doing everything we can, all day, every day, to get where we want, but just the feel is not there for me.

“We’re trying to get all of that better. The more comfortable that you, the more positions you can put yourself in, and take chances. I feel like I’m having a hard enough time making laps on my own to ever try and thing about making a pass on someone.”

Wallace addresses confrontation with Almirola

Per a report from The Athletic earlier this week, a confrontation between Bubba Wallace and Aric Almirola took place in a competition meeting at Joe Gibbs Racing earlier this year, which led to Almirola being pulled from the cockpit at Charlotte and indefinitely suspended as a result.

While the details of what exactly happened are still unknown, Almirola has been radio silent since then, with Wallace providing a comment about what went down on Saturday at Nashville.

“They don’t want me to get into details. Gotta keep some people’s images good,” Wallace said. “Life is good for me. That shit happened over a month ago and a lot of good has come my way and that’s what I’m focused on.

“Focused on getting our stuff turned back around. Off the race track, I’m focused on my wife and baby boy that’s just growing and growing. That’s all you can really ask for. Things are good for me off track, not so much on track, and that’s what we’re focused on right now.”

Ally 400 at Nashville Starting Lineup

Pos	Vehicle	Driver	Team	Time	Speed
1	11	Denny Hamlin	FedEx Toyota	29.859	160.354
2	4	Josh Berry #	Overstock.com Ford	29.972	159.749
3	20	Christopher Bell	DEWALT Concrete Solutions Toyota	29.954	159.845
4	5	Kyle Larson	HendrickCars.com Chevrolet	29.981	159.701
5	6	Brad Keselowski	Consumer Cellular Ford	30.012	159.536
6	45	Tyler Reddick	Monster Energy Toyota	30.000	159.600
7	24	William Byron	Valvoline Chevrolet	30.013	159.531
8	54	Ty Gibbs	Interstate Batteries Toyota	30.028	159.451
9	17	Chris Buescher	BuildSubmarines.com Ford	30.101	159.064
10	2	Austin Cindric	Discount Tire Ford	30.134	158.890
11	3	Austin Dillon	BREZTRI Chevrolet	30.223	158.422
12	48	Alex Bowman	Ally Chevrolet	30.284	158.103
13	9	Chase Elliott	NAPA Auto Parts Chevrolet	30.226	158.407
14	34	Michael McDowell	Love’s/Fleetguard Ford	30.293	158.056
15	77	Carson Hocevar #	Zeigler Auto Group Chevrolet	30.268	158.187
16	10	Noah Gragson	Bass Pro Shops Winchester Ford	30.324	157.895
17	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Bass Pro Shops Toyota	30.294	158.051
18	12	Ryan Blaney	Menards/Ideal Garage Doors Ford	30.334	157.843
19	14	Chase Briscoe	Rush Truck Centers/Cummins Ford	30.314	157.947
20	1	Ross Chastain	Busch Country Chevrolet	30.338	157.822
21	7	Corey LaJoie	Garner Trucking Chevrolet	30.350	157.759
22	41	Ryan Preece	HaasTooling.com Ford	30.437	157.309
23	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	Artesano Hawaiian/Oscar Mayer Chevrolet	30.372	157.645
24	23	Bubba Wallace	Columbia Sportswear Company Toyota	30.454	157.221
25	21	Harrison Burton	DEX Imaging Ford	30.388	157.562
26	22	Joey Logano	Shell Pennzoil Ford	30.473	157.123
27	8	Kyle Busch	zone/Thorntons Chevrolet	30.439	157.298
28	16	AJ Allmendinger(i)	Celsius Chevrolet	30.475	157.112
29	50	Corey Heim(i)	Mobil 1 50th Anniversary Toyota	30.453	157.226
30	15	Riley Herbst(i)	Monster Energy Zero Sugar Ford	30.656	156.185
31	99	Daniel Suarez	Tootsies Orchid Lounge Chevrolet	30.557	156.691
32	38	Todd Gilliland	gener8tor Ford	30.722	155.849
33	51	Justin Haley	Pinnacle Home Improvement Ford	30.577	156.588
34	43	Erik Jones	Family Dollar Toyota	30.738	155.768
35	42	John Hunter Nemechek	Massey Motor Freight Toyota	30.588	156.532
36	71	Zane Smith #	Jockey Outdoors by Luke Bryan Chevrolet	30.779	155.561
37	31	Daniel Hemric	Cirkul Chevrolet	30.594	156.501
38	66	Chad Finchum(i)	Cooper&Hunter Ford	32.706	146.395