LEBANON — walked as much as the media middle stage at after interviews in victory lane, took the microphone and plopped into the Cracker Barrel rocking chair sitting in the midst of the room.
Hamlin blinked his eyes, then took a deep, audible breath.
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He lastly had a second to decompress about an hour after out-gunning Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe to win the race on Might 31.
The three Joe Gibbs Racing teammates have been side-by-side-by-side in a three-wide battle going into the primary activate the final lap. Hamlin dedicated to working the underside lane on the ultimate lap to keep away from initiating any doable contact along with his teammates. Bell overdrove the nook, and Hamlin had his likelihood to clear for the lead.
“That is why I stated (to himself) on the final lap, ‘I am simply going to run the underside,’ ” Hamlin stated. “I am not going to wipe us out. I am not going to attempt to self-clear myself like I’ve executed in these conditions.”
It was a more durable drive than anticipated for Hamlin, who sat on the pole however had a Lap 1 penalty for leaping the beginning.
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Listed here are the winners and losers from the NASCAR Nashville race:
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NASCAR Nashville race finest images from Cracker Barrel 400 together with Denny Hamlin
Darkish clouds are seen on the horizon earlier than the Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway in Lebanon, Tenn., Sunday, Might 31, 2026.
(ANDREW NELLES / THE TENNESSEAN)
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NASCAR Nashville race finest images from Cracker Barrel 400 together with Denny Hamlin
Darkish clouds are seen on the horizon earlier than the Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway in Lebanon, Tenn., Sunday, Might 31, 2026.
(ANDREW NELLES / THE TENNESSEAN)NASCAR Nashville winners and losers as Toyota shines, SVG earns finest profession oval finishWinner: Toyota (once more)
What could possibly be a greater summation for the 2026 Cup Sequence season via 14 races than three Toyotas battling for the win at a observe the producer has by no means gained at.
Hamlin, Briscoe and Bell all performed properly of their three-car duel over the ultimate three laps.
All Toyota has to do for its subsequent NASCAR-related advertising push is present the final-lap picture of its three automobiles going three-wide into the primary flip for the lead. It is the type of imagery corporations need to dream up on a script or an AI program, however this occurred in actuality.
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The worst factor that occurred to Toyota within the 300-lap race was Tyler Reddick’s crash on the end line with a tough head-on hit with the surface wall. Reddick completed sixth for his troubles and nonetheless leads the factors standings by 97 factors over Hamlin.
Winner: Shane van Gisbergen
Shane van Gisbergen was annoyed by the ending end result final week in Charlotte (eleventh) however inspired by working inside the highest 10 for many of the day.
SVG obtained that end result within the wild four-lap run to the end, driving previous Chase Elliott and Reddick on the frontstretch by inches to assert fifth, his first top-5 on an oval observe of any kind.
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The driving force of the No. 97 is twelfth in factors popping out of the weekend, 44 factors forward of seventeenth.
Two road-course races (San Diego and Sonoma) loom back-to-back in two weeks, and people will probably be large probabilities to pad his cushion to the cutline.
Loser: Ross Chastain’s 2026
Chastain’s no-good 2026 season continued at Nashville Superspeedway.
The No. 1 Chevrolet misplaced a brake rotor on Lap 82 in a carbon-copy method to his teammate Connor Zilisch 11 laps earlier. Chastain smacked the wall and rode it for some time earlier than slowly returning to the storage space.
Chastain was credited with a Thirty seventh-place end. He leaves Nashville in twenty sixth in factors, unofficially 67 factors off the Chase cutline.
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That is the distinction within the dynamic between the Chase and the playoff format. As an alternative of being one good run and a race win away from the ultimate 16, Chastain has a tall job to rescue a first-half of the season to overlook.
Loser: RFK Racing’s probabilities to get three automobiles into the Chase
All three Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing drivers didn’t end at Nashville.
Ryan Preece exited the race after water stress points after the primary stage, and the crew stated it was a radiator difficulty by way of a bit of damaged brake rotor from one other automotive.
100 laps later, Brad Keselowski crashed by way of contact from Austin Dillon, backing into the surface wall on the frontstretch. Keselowski, who completed thirty fourth, was vital of Dillon after seeing a replay, telling Amazon Prime Video that “turnabout is honest play.”
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And Chris Buescher suffered a brake failure with 14 laps to go, ending in twenty ninth.
Buescher continues to be greater than a full race’s quantity of factors forward of the cutline, however Keselowski is now 43 factors forward of seventeenth. That driver just under the cutline is now Preece, two factors behind Sixteenth-place Austin Cindric.
