Blaney Hits The Right Chord In Dominant Nashville Win

Ryan Blaney celebrates in victory lane Sunday night at Nashville Superspeedway. (HHP/Harold Hinson photo)

LEBANON, Tenn. – The traditional Gibson six-string strummed out Ryan Blaney’s tune Sunday night, after he closed out his first NASCAR Cup Series victory of the season at Nashville Superspeedway.

In the final stage of the Cracker Barrel 400, Blaney had to maintain perfect lap times through lap traffic to hold off a prowling Denny Hamlin, as well as a strong Carson Hocevar around the 1.333-mile concrete oval.

In the end, the driver of the No. 12 Menards/Cardell Cabinetry Ford Mustang Dark Horse secured his maiden victory in Music City and the 14th of his Cup Series career.

Blaney showed the way after winning stage two, and getting the second restart nailed on the outside of Team Penske teammate Joey Logano in the final stage made all the difference. Altogether, the 2023 Cup Series champion led 139 of 300 laps en route to victory.

Despite five DNFs on the season, including three straight in the month of March, Blaney never lost sight of what he knew his Jonathan Hassler-led team could achieve.

“I never gave up hope, that’s for sure,” noted Blaney. “We’ve had great speed all year, it just hasn’t been the best year for us as far as good fortune. The [No.] 12 boys are awesome; they stick with it no matter how it goes, and it was great to finish one out tonight.”

Sunday’s race stayed within the scheduled distance, much different than 2024’s quintuple overtime finish, with just seven cautions for 35 laps and most of those coming in a yellow-plagued stage two.

In fact, after a lap-194 crash by Ryan Preece shortly into the final stage, the last 102 laps went uninterrupted once the green flag returned for good.

One face who significantly rose into contention after finishing seventh in stage two was the night’s runner-up finisher, Spire Motorsports sophomore driver Carson Hocevar.

The 22-year-old was glad to see a result worthy of his team’s recent pace.

“It just proves how strong this group is, to go from the disappointment last week [of a late engine failure in the Coca-Cola 600] to having a really bad qualify[ing] draw, qualifying really badly, and sticking through it and having a shot [at winning] – a shot, like a straightaway back, I should say,” said Hocevar.

“But I’m just proud of this group, Ziegler Auto Group, everybody that puts work into this race car. They deserve good finishes,” he continued. “I think our average with this [Ziegler-sponsored] car is like 38th. So it’s a big upgrade. Jeff Dickerson, Spire, Luke [Lambert, crew chief] … everybody, they’ve done great. I was probably being a lot more vocal on the radio than I needed to be, but I was just trying so hard and trying to find something that just was not there.

“One spot short again, but at least hopefully this is a step in the right direction.”

Hocevar matched the career-best result he scored at Atlanta (Ga.) Motor Speedway back in February. It’s also the Portage, Mich. native’s first top-10 finish in two races at Nashville and his third top-10 result of the season.

He did, once again, manage to ruffle some feathers – this time those of Ricky Stenhouse Jr. early in the race – yet backed up his speed from the Coca-Cola 600 by giving Blaney a run for his money before lap traffic became more of a factor on the nose of the No. 77 late.

Overall, Hocevar seemed one of the biggest threats to the race win, despite not leading a single lap.

Leading 79 laps was third place finisher Denny Hamlin, who was at first unsure he would even be able to start the race, with he and fiancé Jordan Fish expecting their third child soon.

The Chesterfield, Va., racer took the stage one win and was a major player in giving Blaney all he could handle. Hamlin posted his third top 10 in five races on the Middle Tennessee concrete track.

Three-time and defending Cup Series champion Joey Logano came home in fourth, leading 10 laps on the night, and Hendrick Motorsports’ William Byron ended the day in fifth.

Bubba Wallace, Erik Jones, Kyle Larson, Tyler Reddick, and Christopher Bell completed the top 10.

Some other notables through the field include Trackhouse Racing’s Ross Chastain, backing up his Coca-Cola 600 win with a quiet 11th place finish in Music City in the No. 1 Busch Country Chevrolet.

Kyle Busch also put together a decent finish right behind Chastain in 12th, after having to begin the evening from 25th on the grid.

Three drivers on the running order fell to the bottom due to incident, including Stenhouse on lap 106 due to the contact from Hocevar.

Noah Gragson fell soon after on lap 113, falling victim to a loose Alex Bowman in turn three, and 23XI Racing’s Corey Heim crashed out in one of his limited Cup Series starts after squeezing Brad Keselowski out of turn four on lap 131.

The NASCAR Cup Series moves on to Michigan Int’l Speedway for the FireKeepers Casino 400 on Sunday, June 8 at 2 p.m. ET, live on Prime Video, the Motor Racing Network, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, channel 90.