Ryan Blaney Breaks Through for First Cup Win of 2025 at Nashville

Throughout the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series campaign, Ryan Blaney has been snake-bitten by some terrible luck and circumstances out of his control. Sunday at Nashville Superspeedway, though, the Team Penske driver was able to shake all of that to win the Cracker Barrel 400.

The 31-year-old driver was able to lead a race-high 139 of 300 laps in Sunday’s event in Lebanon, Tennessee, including the final 32 circuits around the 1.33-mile Nashville Superspeedway to collect his first win on the 2025 NASCAR season.

Leading for a significant portion of the race’s final stage, Blaney was able to hold onto his track position at the top of the heap after the final cycle of pit stops, which happened under green-flag conditions.

After making his final pit stop with 53 laps remaining, Blaney held an advantage of nearly eight seconds over Carson Hocevar and Denny Hamlin, who began making significant chunks of time in the race’s closing laps as the No. 12 worked his way through a mountain of lapped traffic.

At one point during the final run of the race, Hocevar had the lead inside of two and a half seconds, before the Spire Motorsports driver started reaching some of that traffic himself, which ultimately stagnated the progress.

RACE RESULTS: 2025 Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway

Blaney would eventually make it to Lap 300 without any issues, winning the event by 2.830 seconds over second-year driver Carson Hocevar, who matched his career-best finish from earlier this season at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

“Yes, I thought it was a good call,” Blaney said about the two-tire pit stop at the end of Stage 1 that got him the race-lead. “We drove up to seventh there in the first stage, and I thought two tires were great. I thought my car was really good, and that really set us up for the rest of the race.”

Carson Hocevar, after an early-race incident with Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., managed to come home with a runner-up finish, while Denny Hamlin brought home a third-place result in his 700th start in the NASCAR Cup Series.

"I mean, it just proves how strong this group is. To go from the disappointment last week to having a really bad qualifying draw, qualifying really bad[ly], and sticking through it and having a shot,” said Hocevar. “A shot, like a straightaway. But just proud of this group, Zeigler Auto Group, everybody that puts into this racecar, they deserve good finishes."

Hamlin somehow made it to the end of the 400-mile showdown in Nashville despite having no cooling system in the racecar, after his drink system failed early in the race, and his helmet cooling system failed as the laps wound down.

"I was hot. I don't run a cool shirt or anything like that, so, that's three elements that the other drivers had that I didn't have,” said Hamlin. “So, yeah, I got hot. I had to Carson Hocevar the helmet visor up there to try to get a little air in. But just couldn't run with [Blaney] there on the super long run, right? After 40 laps, I could maintain with him, but after that, he just pulled away and stretched it on us."

Joey Logano, the defending NASCAR Cup Series champion and the defending winner at Nashville Superspeedway, finished in fourth-place after leading 10 laps earlier in the Cracker Barrel 400, while William Byron rounded out the top-five in fifth, extending his points lead.

Bubba Wallace finished sixth, after an early-race speeding penalty that required the No.. 23 Toyota Camry XSE to use a wave around on Lap 107 to get back into the game. Erik Jones was seventh for LEGACY MOTOR CLUB, with Kyle Larson, Tyler Reddick, and Christopher Bell rounding out the top-10.

Polesitter Chase Briscoe, who led the opening 39 laps of Sunday’s event, faded back throughout the second and third stages on Sunday, finishing a disappointing 17th.

Leaving Nashville, William Byron holds a 48-point advantage over Kyle Larson, who sits second in series point standings. Christopher Bell, Denny Hamlin, and Chase Elliott round out the top five heading to Michigan International Speedway next weekend.

The Firekeepers Casino 400 at Michigan International Speedway will take place on Sunday, June 8 at 2:30 PM ET on Prime Video, MRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90.

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