CONCORD, N.C. – Hendrick Motorsports has been playing beautiful music in its first two years competing at Nashville Superspeedway.
The Rick Hendrick-owned organization has been singing a different tune than the rest of the series and is a perfect two-for-two in the win column. If you go back to the last NASCAR Cup Series race at Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway in 1984 and Geoff Bodine's win in that race, Hendrick Motorsports has won the last three premiere series events in the Music City.
Those victories have come in contrasting ways at the Tennessee venue.
Kyle Larson dominated the inaugural race at the concrete track in 2021, leading 264 of 300 laps, including all but 10 of the final 208 circuits. The win marked his fourth of 10 triumphs in his championship season. In last season’s Ally 400, Chase Elliott surged late, passing Kyle Busch for the lead with 39 laps to go to score his second of five wins on the season. On top of that, Hendrick Motorsports has the most top-five finishes (four) and laps led (319) at Nashville.
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Top-five finishes at Nashville for Hendrick Motorsports:
2021: Larson-first and William Byron-third
2022: Elliott-first and Larson-fourth
After missing seven races this season, Elliott will be looking to have a strong summer slate of races to make his way into the playoffs. Sitting 27th in the standings, a win would be the surest way for the 27-year-old driver to get into the postseason. Last season’s Nashville win kicked off a stretch of five consecutive top-two finishes with three victories included in that run.
"I thought we had a better summer stretch than we’ve ever had," Elliott said of last year. "It had been a struggle point over the course of my first handful of seasons, so it was nice to have a good summer stretch."
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Byron will be looking to continue to build on his strong 2023 season. The 25-year-old driver comes into this race second in the standings and 13 points behind the leader, Martin Truex Jr. He is atop the board in the following statistical categories this year: Wins (three), top-five finishes (seven), top-10s (nine), laps led (717) and stage wins (seven). In two Nashville starts, Byron has a best finish of third in 2021.
The 300-lap race is a big one for Alex Bowman as primary partner Ally is also the sponsor of the Cup Series event. In February, Ally extended its full-season primary sponsorship of the No. 48 team for five years through 2028. Bowman inked a three-year extension as well that keeps him behind the wheel through at least 2026. The 30-year-old driver is looking forward to the race at Nashville. Entering Sunday’s event, he holds the final provisional playoff spot by three points.
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"It is really cool to go to the Ally 400," Bowman said. "It is a cool atmosphere. Hopefully, we can put on a great show.
"Nashville is a really unique racetrack. I feel like it’s deceiving with how long the front straightaway is and how tight turns one and two are. It is a little bit hard to get ahold of. I feel like concrete tracks tend to lay rubber and pickup rubber much quicker than asphalt tracks do. A lot of little differences but we’ve always been really good at Dover (Motor Speedway) so hopefully we can try to get some of that concrete success going at Nashville (Superspeedway)."
This year’s race will start in the early evening and that means that most of the second half of the race will take place under the lights. That is a change Larson, who has the best average finish at Nashville (2.5), likes a lot. Last year’s race finished under the lights after a significant weather delay.
"I do love night racing," Larson, who is one of two drivers with top-five finishes in both Nashville races, said. "It’s a better show for the fans. You get to see sparks and stuff like that. I believe that time of year it should be cooler at night."
Tune in to watch the Hendrick Motorsports' quartet compete in the Music City on Sunday, June 25, at 7 p.m. ET, with coverage on NBC, NBC Sports App, PRN Radio and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio (Channel 90).