Pit Stops : Nashville Superspeedway

• Thursday, June 27th, 2024
• NASCAR Wire Service - Holly Cain

Nashville offers great opportunity for Xfinity drivers looking for a Playoff spot

The NASCAR Xfinity Series moves to Nashville Speedway for Saturday’s Tennessee Lottery 250 (5 p.m. ET, USA Network, NBC Sports App, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), another crucial stop with 10 races remaining to the set the 2024 Playoff field.

Justin Allgaier and defending race winner A.J. Allmendinger are the only drivers in Saturday’s field with a previous win at Nashville. While Allgaier has already secured his position in the 2024 Playoffs with a victory at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway this spring, Allmendinger is ranked 10th in points and still racing for his first trophy of the year. The popular veteran would love to reignite that Nashville magic he has shown before. The Kaulig Racing driver has two top-five finishes in three starts and the win last year.

Six drivers have won races and already secured 2024 Playoff positions – Chandler Smith, Austin Hill, Sam Mayer, Shane van Gisbergen, Allgaier and Jesse Love – leaving six spots still to be decided. And the regular season championship is equally still up for grabs.

Stewart-Haas Racing’s Cole Custer continues to hold that championship points lead – 15 points ahead of Joe Gibbs Racing’s Chandler Smith – but the reigning series champ Custer is still racing for his first win of the season and that automatic Playoff bid. He led 32 laps and finished ninth last year in the Music City.

Smith’s Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Sheldon Creed earned his 10th runner-up effort last week at New Hampshire – his third of the season – tying a series record for most career runner-up finishes before a victory. The 26-year-old Californian is racing for his first top-10 in two series starts at Nashville and is currently ranked eighth in the Playoff standings.

“I’m really proud that we’ve been close these past few weeks,” said Creed, driver of the No. 18 JGR Toyota. “It says a lot about the progress we have made this season and the speed we are capable of. I would say from that standpoint, I feel more optimistic every week and I’m excited to get to the track more and more as we continue to click off these strong runs.

“I’ve developed a funny relationship with second place lately. Obviously, anytime you can leave the track with a runner-up it’s a good day, but it does get a little old to get so close winning one and still come up short. Right now, all these second places mean consistency and I’ll take that above all else going forward.”

23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick – a two-time Xfinity Series season champion – will drive the No. 26 Sam Hunt Racing Toyota in Saturday’s race. He joins an impressive list of NASCAR Cup Series regulars doing double duty this week, also including Chastain and Stewart-Haas Racing’s Noah Gragson.

• Tennessee Lottery 250
• Pole Winner: Ty Gibbs
• Age: 21
• Team : No 19 - He Gets Us Toyota
• Owner: Joe Gibbs
• Crew Chief: Seth Chavka
• Ty Gibbs won the Pole Award for the Tennessee Lottery 250 with a lap of 30876 seconds, 155072 mph
• This is his 11th pole in 63 NASCAR Xfinity Series races
• This is his second pole and fourth top-10 start in 2024
• This is his first pole in three races at Nashville Superspeedway
• Cole Custer (second) posted his 13th top-10 start of 2024 and his second in two races at Nashville Superspeedway
• Ryan Sieg (third) posted his first top-10 start at Nashville Superspeedway It is his fourth in 17 races this season
• Leland Honeyman (25th) was the fastest qualifying rookie

• Saturday, June 29th, 2024
• NASCAR Wire Service - Holly Cain

John Hunter Nemechek takes the checkered flag at Nashville Superspeedway

John Hunter Nemechek survived a steamy hot afternoon and held off a highly-motivated field to win the Tennessee Lottery 250 NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Nashville Superspeedway Saturday afternoon.

It’s the second Xfinity Series win of the season for Nemechek in the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota – and 11^th of his career in the series. The 27-year-old North Carolinian won Stage 2 and led a race best 76 of the 188 laps, including the final 46 after taking the lead on a re-start from Cole Custer, who navigated a corner too high allowing Nemechek to get by.

“Feels good to be back in the 20-machine, we’ve been close to winning a lot this year in this thing,’’ said Nemechek, who will make his first NASCAR Cup Series start at Nashville on Sunday when he competes in his fulltime ride, the No. 42 Toyota for Legacy Motor Club.

“Being able to capitalize on it is huge. … it’s great to get it done here in Nashville.

It was a Joe Gibbs Racing 1-2 with Nemechek’s teammate Chandler Smith rallying to a runner-up finish – 1.234-seconds behind Nemechek – on a day that left many in the field standing outside their cars on pit road after the checkered flag taking water and resting after in-car in-race temperatures neared 130 degrees. Several of the drivers either didn’t wear a “cool suit” or had malfunctions with the one they did use.

Much of the hard work came from the rear of the starting grid where championship contenders such as Jesse Love, Austin Hill and Sheldon Creed rallied to race up front after starting from the rear for technical issues.

Creed’s No. 18 JGR Toyota ran among the top 10 after starting at the back of the 38-car field, only to have engine issues in the closing laps.

The Richard Childress Racing teammates Love and Hill certainly had impressive hard-earned finishes in their Chevrolets despite the weather challenges and positions on the starting grid – rallying to third and fourth place finishes, respectively.

NASCAR Cup Series regular and former Xfinity Series title contender Noah Gragson rounded out the top five in the No. 30 Rette Jones Racing Ford – his second start in the car this season.

“I have no idea,’’ a smiling Love said of how he passed 69 cars on the day and finished top five when his cool suit was not working properly.

“Just proud to be part of a team that doesn’t give up,’’ he continued. “That was probably the hottest I’ve ever been. Just proud of my guys.’’

Another driver suffering from the heat when his cool suit didn’t work was Stewart-Haas Racing’s Riley Herbst, who still managed a sixth-place finish despite the circumstances. The 2023 Nashville race winner, A.J. Allmendinger finished seventh, followed by Justin Allgaier, Cole Custer and Sam Mayer.

Custer holds on to the Xfinity Series championship lead by 15 points over Chandler Smith but was – as expected – frustrated not to come away with his first victory of the season after leading an impressive 64 laps himself. He fell all the way back to fifth losing the lead to Nemechek on that race-deciding restart and ultimately had his work cut out to stay among the top 10.

“I think I over-drove on that restart a little bit into Turn 1,’’ said the Stewart-Haas Racing driver Custer. “There’s a couple things I could have done better.

“Everyone’s got dirty air and man, it was hard to make speed. I felt like we were solid when we were in the top-three cars but once we got back there it was tough to get the car to handle.

“I can’t say enough about our guys. We’re bringing cars that compete for wins every week, it’s just heartbreaking every week not to win. We’re bringing good cars and leading laps, we’ll get it eventually. We’ll keep digging.’’

• Drivers Entered: 39 (1 drivers will not make the race)
• Laps Scheduled: 188
• Margin of Victory: 0.366 Seconds
• Time of Race: 1 Hours 57 Minutes 36 Seconds
• Average Speed: 127.571
• Cautions: 3 for 17 laps
• Lead Changes: 4
• Green Flag Passes: 1,148 (6.7 passes per green flag lap)

• Tennessee Lottery 250
• Race Winner: John Hunter Nemechek
• Age: 27
• Team : No 20 - Pye Barker Fire & Safety Toyota
• Owner: Joe Gibbs
• Crew Chief: Tyler Allen
• John Hunter Nemechek won the Tennessee Lottery 250, his 11th victory in 109 Xfinity Series races
• This is his second victory and fifth top-10 finish in 2024
• This is his first victory and second top-10 finish in two races at Nashville Superspeedway
• Chandler Smith (second) posted his first top-10 finish in two races at Nashville Superspeedway It is his 11th top-10 finish in 2024
• Jesse Love (third) posted his first top-10 finish in one races at Nashville Superspeedway
• Jesse Love (third) was the highest finishing rookie