The Nashville Superspeedway is a relatively young track in the NASCAR Cup Series. The 1.33-mile concrete oval was inducted into the calendar only as late as 2021 and has hosted a race every year since. As the field travels to the Music City once again, a pattern in the shape of a bow tie has emerged. A Chevrolet Camaro has been at victory lane in all three previous races. Will it be so again?
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Denny Hamlin, an ace of the concrete surfaces, could have the answer folded within his palms. The Nashville Superspeedway is one of the three all-concrete tracks on the schedule. And Hamlin won the last three races on such tracks. In Nashville, he has one top-5 and two top-10 finishes. His best result came last season when he started eighth and led 81 laps to finish in third place.
He is amongst those who can prematurely end the storyline of the track becoming a Chevrolet stronghold. He expressed his confidence to the press, “I’m optimistic about Nashville. I feel like we have had one of, if not, the best cars there for the last few years with the NextGen. It’s a track [where] I have a lot of confidence that we can run up front and get a good finish.”
One cause for worry is Hamlin’s recent form. Though he has secured three wins and multiple top-5s for the season, he has also finished outside the top 20 in the last three races, which is why he will need a perfect Sunday to have any chance of killing Chevrolet. “We need a mistake-free day and I feel like we are more than capable of doing that in Nashville,” he said.
Who could block Denny Hamlin’s charge to the Nashville victory lane?
As is the case most of the weeks, Kyle Larson is the favorite to win according to numbers from DraftKings Sportsbook. The Hendrick Motorsports star won at Nashville in 2021 and will be keen on doing so again. He has impressive opening odds of 17-4. He is followed by Hamlin with odds of 11-2. Third on the list is Hamlin’s teammate Christopher Bell with odds of 6-1.
Bell won at New Hampshire last Sunday and is red hot on momentum. Ross Chastain, who won at Nashville last season, is the fourth favorite (15-2). The top five favorites are rounded off by Chase Elliott, yet another Nashville winner (2022), with odds of 8-1. From these numbers, it appears it will fall at the hands of the Joe Gibbs Racing teammates to end Chevrolet’s winning streak.
