Good news, bad news ahead of Nashville weekend for NASCAR Cup teams
The NASCAR Cup Series begins the second half of the regular season with Sunday's trip to Nashville Superspeedway.
Ross Chastain's Coca-Cola 600 victory last weekend made him the fourth different winner in the last four points races. Kyle Larson won at Kansas, Joey Logano at Texas and Austin Cindric at Talladega in that stretch.
Here is a look at the good news and bad news for Cup teams heading into Sunday's race at Nashville Superspeedway.
23XI Racing — Good news: Tyler Reddick placed third in last year's Nashville race. … Corey Heim will drive the No. 67 car in a fourth entry for the organization this weekend at Nashville. Bad news: Bubba Wallace has finished 33rd or worse in the last three points races, dropping him from seventh to 12th in the standings. … Reddick has one top 10 in his last seven Cup points races. … Riley Herbst has finished 27th or worse in seven of the last 10 points races. … Herbst has six pit road speeding penalties, tied with Shane van Gisbergen for most in the series this year. … The team has one top-10 finish in the last five races.
Front Row Motorsports — Good news: Noah Gragson has finished in the top 15 in three of the last four races. … Gragson's five stage points in the Coca-Cola 600 were more than he's scored in the previous 12 races. … Todd Gilliland has finished 18th or better in six of the last seven races. … Zane Smith finished a Cup career-best second at Nashville last year. Bad news: Smith comes to Nashville after a 39th-place result in the Coca-Cola 600.
Haas Factory Team — Good news: Cole Custer has averaged 17.5 points per race in the last four races after averaging 9.4 points per race in the first nine races of the season. Bad News: Custer is one of four full-time drivers without a top-10 finish this season, joining Ty Dillon, Riley Herbst and Cody Ware in that category.
Hendrick Motorsports — Good news: Kyle Larson has a 4.5 average finish at Nashville, his best at all tracks. … Larson is the only driver to finish in the top 10 in all four races at Nashville. … Larson has won six of the last 11 stages. … Hendrick drivers have combined to lead 72% of the laps in the last six races. … The organization has had at least one driver finish in the top five in all 13 races this season. … William Byron's average start this season is 8.8, best of all drivers, and his average finish of 9.5 is best of all drivers. … Byron has finished in the top three in five of 13 races this season. … Chase Elliott is the only driver to finish in the top 20 in every race this season. … Alex Bowman will make his 268th career Cup start for Hendrick Motorsports, passing Ken Schrader for sixth on the team's all-time starts list. Bad news: Bowman has finished 27th or worse in five of the last seven races.
Dustin Long,
Hyak Motorsports — Good news: Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will make his 450th Cup start this weekend. … Stenhouse is in a playoff spot halfway through the regular season. … Stenhouse has four consecutive top-20 finishes. Bad news: Stenhouse has started in the top 20 only twice in the first 13 races of the season. … Stenhouse has yet to lead a lap this year.
Joe Gibbs Racing — Good news: Denny Hamlin will make his 700th career Cup start this weekend. … Chase Briscoe finished a season-best third in last weekend's Coca-Cola 600. … Christopher Bell has six top 10s in the last eight races. … Bell has three top 10s in four starts at Nashville. Bad news: Hamlin has finished 16th or worse in the last four races. … Briscoe has not finished better than 21st in four Nashville starts. … Ty Gibbs has placed 17th or worse in each of the last four races. … Bell has led eight of the 1,923 laps run in the last six races.
Kaulig Racing — Good news: AJ Allmendinger is coming off a season-best fourth-place finish in the Coca-Cola 600. … Allmendinger won a race in the Xfinity Series in 2023 at Nashville. … Ty Dillon has finished in the top 20 in six of 13 races this season. Bad news: Allmendinger is 13 points out of the last playoff spot at the halfway point in the regular season.
Legacy Motor Club — Good news: Erik Jones has placed in the top 15 in two of the last three races. … John Hunter Nemechek won the Xfinity race at Nashville last year. Bad news: Nemechek finished 31st last year at Nashville in his only Cup start there.
Richard Childress Racing — Good news: All three of Austin Dillon's top-10 finishes this season have come in the last five races. … Dillon has three top-15 finishes in four Cup starts at Nashville. … Kyle Busch has two Xfinity and two Truck wins at Nashville. Bad news: Busch has one top-10 finish in the last nine races.
Rick Ware Racing — Good news: Cody Ware's 25th-place finish in the Coca-Cola 600 is his best result since placing 24th at Phoenix in March. Bad news: Ware has started 33rd or worse in 11 consecutive races.
RFK Racing — Good news: Ryan Preece has five top-10 finishes this season, tied for the most he's had in a Cup season. … Preece has scored back-to-back top-10 results… Brad Keselowski finished a season-best fifth in the Coca-Cola 600. … Chris Buescher's crew chief, Scott Graves, returns after sitting out the past two races (Coke 600 and All-Star Race) for a violation after the Kansas race. Bad news: Nashville is the only oval that Keselowski does not have a top-10 finish. … Chris Buescher's average finish of 22.3 at Nashville his his worst among active tracks.
Spire Motorsports — Good news: Michael McDowell scored a season-best seventh-place result in last weekend's Coca-Cola 600. … Carson Hocevar has scored points in seven of the last 11 stages. Bad news: Justin Haley finished 30th or worse in each of the past two races. … Hocevar has had two blown engines this season.
Team Penske — Good news: Joey Logano is the defending winner at Nashville, taking the checkered flag after five overtimes. … Logano has three top 10s in four Nashville starts. Bad news: Austin Cindric has one top-10 finish in the last eight races. … Ryan Blaney has failed to finish five races, tied with Bubba Wallace and Brad Keselowski for most in the series.
Trackhouse Racing — Good news: Coca-Cola 600 winner Ross Chastain is finishing 20.7 positions better than he's starting over the past seven races. … Chastain has six top 10s in the last nine races. … Chastain has three top-five finishes in four Nashville starts, including a win in 2023. … Shane van Gisbergen's 14th-place result in last weekend's Coca-Cola 600 is his best finish on an oval since last October at Martinsville. Bad news: Daniel Suarez has three finishes of 33rd or worse in the last five races. … Shane van Gisbergen has six pit road speeding penalties, tying Riley Herbst for most in the series this year.
Wood Brothers Racing — Good news: Josh Berry started second in last year's Nashville race, his first Cup start there. … The 169 laps he's led this year are his most in a season. Bad news: Berry has four finishes of 26th or worse in the last seven races.
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