NASCAR Cracker Barrel 400 preview: Favorite, underdog, top storylines

On Sunday night, the stars of the NASCAR Cup Series will tackle 1.33-mile Nashville Superspeedway for the running of the Cracker Barrel 400 (7 p.m. ET, Prime Video, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Here is what you need to know ahead of the 14th race of the Cup Series season:

Favorite: Kyle Larson (+450, per DraftKings)

Despite another disappointing attempt at the Memorial Day weekend "Double" from Larson, the 2021 champion once again enters as the favorite. With his focus solely on his No. 5 Cup Series team, Larson will look to put last weekend behind him.

With a win (2021) and a top-10 finish in each of his four starts at Nashville, this weekend sets up nicely for Larson, as most typically do. If Larson has a clean race Sunday night, there is no reason to believe he won't bounce back in a big way and pick up his second win just outside "Music City."

Underdog: Ryan Preece (+2500, per DraftKings)

Having already matched a career-high in top-10s (five) only 13 races into the 2025 season, Preece finds himself holding down the 16th and final playoff spot entering Nashville (+6) over teammate Chris Buescher, who got 30 of his 60 points back from a post-Kansas penalty on Wednesday.

While the most recent Nashville race in 2024 produced a record five overtimes, Preece came away with a fourth-place finish driving for a Stewart-Haas Racing team that closed its doors at the end of the season and also has a pair of Truck Series wins there. It would not be a surprise to see him toward the front Sunday night.

Will the momentum continue for Trackhouse Racing?

Despite a career-high 283 laps led from Hendrick Motorsports' William Byron, the Coca-Cola 600 belonged to Ross Chastain, who went from last to first to score his first crown jewel win. Not only that, Shane van Gisbergen picked up his best career Cup Series finish on an oval in 14th.

Nashville is also an intermediate track, but its concrete surface and less banking will be a different test and provide a better indicator of where the Trackhouse organization stands. Chastain does have a prior win there (2023), so perhaps the momentum continues this weekend and into the summer.

Can Team Penske respond from adversity?

The Coca-Cola 600 did not go Team Penske's way with Joey Logano the best finishing driver in 17th. Austin Cindric was 31st and Ryan Blaney finished 38th after a multi-car crash in Stage 3. That followed the firings of the organization's top three executives, including Cindric's father, Tim, leading up to the Indianapolis 500.

That certainly did not help the performance on the NASCAR side either with all three teams struggling to find pace. As the defending winner at Nashville with Logano, Team Penske will look to find similar success one year later.

Will the trend of different winners at Nashville continue?

Nashville Superspeedway has played host to four Cup Series races and each have been won by a different driver. Larson led 264 laps in his 2021 win with Chase Elliott (2022), Chastain (2023) and Logano (2024) taking the other three.

There is a good chance the trend continues on Sunday, particularly from a pair of Joe Gibbs Racing drivers. Christopher Bell led 131 laps last season at Nashville while Denny Hamlin has led 70 or more laps in each of the last three races there. We could be looking at a fifth different winner at Nashville come Sunday night.