Ally 400 Tag

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service LEBANON, Tenn. – Ross Chastain capped off a “perfect” race weekend, hitting all the right notes in Music City to earn the winner’s guitar trophy in Sunday’s Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway – his first NASCAR Cup Series race victory of the season, a day after claiming his first career pole position. But before hoisting his new guitar, the 30-year old Chastain had a watermelon to smash – his trademark victory celebration – a nod to his family’s multi-generation watermelon farm in rural Alva,Read More

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service LEBANON, Tenn. – Ross Chastain smiled and conceded, he had no idea how having the No. 1 pit box selection would be for Sunday’s Ally 400 NASCAR Cup Series race at Nashville Superspeedway. “I’d never had it before,’’ he said smiling. Chastain certainly earned it with honors on Saturday, claiming the Busch Light Pole in the No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet with a blazing fast 160.687 mph lap in qualifying – a full 1 mph better than the field – earning the right toRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor The NASCAR Cup Series is back in Music City for the third straight year to take on Nashville Superspeedway and Sunday’s running of the Ally 400. Prior to its Cup debut in 2021, the track located on the outskirts of Nashville in Lebanon, Tennessee, was no stranger to hosting NASCAR events with both the NASCAR Xfinity Series and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series running there from 2001 to 2011 before the track was shuttered. The Nashville track serves as an oddity on the Cup Series schedule, aRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer After a Stage 3 spin, Ryan Blaney was able to bounce back to finish third in Sunday’s Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway. Throughout the 300-lap race, Blaney was consistently in the top-10 and racked up 10 stage points to his name with a third-place outing in Stage 1 being the highlight. Despite having a solid run, Blaney struggled matching the pace the Joe Gibbs Racing trio of Martin Truex, Jr., who won the first two stages, Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin, laid on the competition. TheyRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor LEBANON, Tenn. – Just call him “Concrete Chase.” Sunday’s Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway threw everything it could at Chase Elliott, but when the checkered flag flew, it was the No. 9 Chevrolet that was victorious for the second-time this season – both on concrete tracks. “Just so proud of our team because we kind of had a setback there about halfway and we were able to get our NAPA Chevy dialed back in and get back in the mix,” Elliott said. “It was a longRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor LEBANON, Tenn. – The lone off weekend of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series season could have been just what the doctor ordered for Bubba Wallace and 23XI Racing. Kicking off the year with a runner-up finish in Daytona, it’s been all downhill for Wallace and the No. 23 team since, scoring just one other top-10 finish through the first 16 races of the season, with the bad luck that seems to follow him culminating in a 36th place finish at Sonoma two weeks ago. After hisRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor LEBANON, Tenn. – With just 10 races remaining in the NASCAR Cup Series regular season, Ryan Blaney has yet to make the trip to Victory Lane in a points paying event. Though that might not be such a big deal for the driver sitting fourth in points, the debut of the Next Gen car this season has shaken things up, leading to 12 different drivers punching their ticket to the postseason with a win. As it stands, only four spots remain up for grabs to seeRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor LEBANON, Tenn. – Count Mother Nature as a Denny Hamlin fan. After Hamlin posted the fastest time in the first round of qualifying with a lap of 29.848 seconds, 160.413 mph, heavy rain moved in over the 1.333-mile concrete oval, forcing NASCAR to cancel the second round of qualifying. As a result, Hamlin’s first round speed was enough to deliver him the pole – his second of the season. “We didn’t start off practice that stellar, but with every run we made, we just kept gettingRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor LEBANON, Tenn. – Will he stay or will he go? That has been the question of late for Martin Truex Jr’s tenure in the NASCAR Cup Series. After being noncommittal on his future behind the wheel of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, the 2017 series champion announced his decision Friday at Nashville Superspeedway with three simple words. “I’ll be back.” Truex explained that over the course of the past six months, he had taken a lot of time to look back over his careerRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor LEBANON, Tenn. – Bubba Wallace has gotten his weekend in Music City off on the right foot, putting up the fastest time in the lone practice session ahead of Sunday’s Ally 400 at Nashville. While Ross Chastain put up the fast time early, it was Wallace who would come out as the fastest driver at the end of the session, taking his No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota to the top of the board with a lap of 29.609 seconds, 161.708 mph. In addition to the fastestRead More