From a NASCAR Fan’s View
It looks like things may be changing as the Cup Teams take on the Nashville Superspeedway. Now, why would I say that? Well, for one thing, this is the actual start of the second half of the 2025 season and things always seem to change as we enter the summer months. It also looks like more teams other than Chevy teams have shown up with speed and the practice and qualifying yesterday showed that.
Just a quick glance at the top ten starters shows three Toyotas, three Fords and only two Chevys. It also isn’t the usual Hendrick Chevys. Well, I guess it is one of the usual Chevys from the Hendrick camp and one from Track House Racing. So, does that mean the Chevys don’t have speed? No, it doesn’t, but several Toyotas and Fords look like they could give the Chevys a good run for their money today.
For the second week in a row, Chase Briscoe won the pole position and Denny Hamlin sits outside pole. Both of them are from the JGR Toyota camp and both of them looked to have good speed. Of course, you know there’s not a lot that can be assumed from qualifying, but they did both look good in practice, too.
Add to the top ten starting lineup two more Toyotas and you see a pattern forming. In fact, let’s drop all the way back to fourteenth. Do the names Tyler Reddick, Bubba Wallace, Christopher Bell and Erik Jones ring a bell? Reddick starts fourth, Bell starts seventh, Wallace starts twelfth and Jones starts fourteenth. That appears to suggest the Toyotas definitely came out looking to make a difference to start this half of the season.
Those two Chevys starting in the top five I mentioned are William Byron and Ross Chastain. Byron is now the points leader and Chastain is last week’s winner of the Coke 600. Both of them look to have speed and either of them could likely be at the front of the pack when it comes down to the last laps. Not saying they will, but the opportunity does present itself in this fan’s opinion.
The Fords of Brad Keselowski, Joey Logano and Chris Beuscher all start in the top ten, although none in the top five. Kes starts sixth and has been showing speed lately, along with his teammate, Beuscher, who starts tenth. In ninth is the always dangerous, Joey Logano. When I say dangerous, I mostly point to his tendency lately to be at or near the front when it counts. For the other drivers in the field, that makes him dangerous.
The dark horse in the top ten is Michael McDowell. There is no way this fan can rule out the possibility of him pulling off the win this evening and I won’t do that. He hasn’t been running all that badly this year and he just might be due for taking a win.
Just looking at the top ten says there are at least ten drivers that could pull off the victory tonight, but why stop there? The possible winners are spread throughout the field. Some are surprisingly far back in the field and others are in the middle of the pack. In particular, the fifteenth to thirtieth spots are chock-full of possible win-takers. I could name a bunch of them but I won’t go through the whole list. A few that stand out are, Ryan Blaney, Austin Cindric, AJ Allmendinger, Josh Berry and a lot of others.
There’s Ryan Preece, starting nineteenth, Ty Gibbs, starting twenty-second, Kyle Bush, starting twenty-fifth, and Carson Hocevar, starting twenty-sixth. Yeah, sure. I know I skipped over a lot of names, but like I said, there are a bunch of drivers hungry and capable of winning this Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway. I just don’t want to list the whole field.
There is one driver I just have to mention here, though. He had one of his career-worst days last weekend. Of course, you know I’m talking about Kyle Larson. He went for the double and it didn’t go well for him at all. You already know his story and how he basically wrecked or got wrecked out of both of them. It doesn’t look like this weekend has started out much better for him because he didn’t really show that much speed in practice or qualifying and he did qualify in the twenty-eighth starting position. From this fan’s view, if he wants to make up what last weekend cost him in Cup, he has his work cut out for himself. Am I going to rule him out? No, but it will be a tough battle to get up front and stay there. I will say this, though. If anyone can do it, he can…
Hey, this is Russ and that’s my view… See ya next time…
All views expressed are strictly the opinion of the writer
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Rusty Norman, Nascarfansview.com and Justafansview.com
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