NASHVILLE RACE REVIEW

Date: 6-26-2022.
Name of the race: Ally 400.
Track: Nashville Superspeedway.
Laps: 300.
Pole winner: Denny Hamlin.
Outside pole: Joey Logano.
Stage 1 winner: Martin Truex Jr.
Stage 2 winner: Martin Truex Jr.
Stage 3 winner (won the race): Chase Elliott.
Top 5: Chase Elliott, Kurt Busch, Ryan Blaney, Kyle Larson, and Ross Chastain.
FYI: NASCAR returned to the Volunteer State this past weekend for the series' second Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway with high expectations from fans and teams alike. Last year, Kyle Larson in his first season with Hendrick Motorsports, won the cup series' inaugural race at the venue, directing a lot of attention towards him and his number 5 Hendrickcars.com team, and with rain in the area, it was only a matter of time before the incoming weather would become a factor. The race, with a scheduled start time of 5 p.m., was already sure to go on well into the night, causing track conditions to change as the race would go on, creating some interesting strategies for teams, and with the impending rain, things were about to get interesting. Denny Hamlin would win the pole for the race with Joey Logano starting on the outside pole in second place, with Hendrick teammates Kyle Larson and Chase Elliott starting 3rd and 4th respectively, and Daniel Suarez, hot off his first win two weeks ago at Sonoma, rounding out the top 5 in 5th. At the drop of the green, Hamlin would hold his position while Larson and Suarez would challenge for the lead, meanwhile, Elliott would drop back through the top 10. One name that hasn't been mentioned nearly enough this year, is that of the 2017 champion, Martin Truex Jr, who just the week before after weeks of uncertainty, announced that he would be returning to the Bass Pro Shops number 19 Toyota Camry the next year in 2023. Truex would rocket towards the front and lap after lap would run door to door with his teammate Denny Hamlin in the 11. On lap 41, lightning would strike close to the track, bringing out the red and halting the race until the storm subsided. After a short delay, the race would resume for only 9 more laps until trouble struck the 48 team of Alex Bowman, when Corey Lajoie would make contact and end their day early. A few laps later on lap 61, Chase Briscoe and Ty Dillion would spin and collect each other. When the race finally restarted, the two Joe Gibbs teammates would continue to run side by side until Truex finally claimed the lead and went on to win stage 1 with Hamlin in second and Ryan Blaney coming from 6th to finish 3rd at the end of the stage. On the restart, the race would continue to run as scheduled until lap 140, just ten laps to the halfway point, rain would finally begin to fall, halting the race once again. In NASCAR, when the race reaches the halfway point, and rain begins to fall if the race cannot be restarted within "a reasonable amount of time" the race is official. However, since the leader had not yet reached the halfway point, the race had to be resumed, and with Nashville Superspeedway having lights for night racing, the teams and fans were all in it for the long haul. Luckily there were no more obstacles such as weather during the rest of the race, but with only a few laps in the race of course a late-race caution came out and brought the field back together. The Toyotas looked like they were going to steal the win with multiple drivers of theirs showing dominance during the race, but Chase Elliott took away their thunder and beat them by working through the field with some daring passes and stole the win. This was Elliott's second win of the season and his first at the track, and now his new nickname besides NASCAR's Most Popular Driver is the Concrete King because he won at the other concrete track called Dover Motor Speedway at the beginning of the month of May. Now the series heads to the cheese head state, which is known as Wisconsin for another road course (Road America) that makes up a third of the rest of the regular season schedule. 
Next race; Road America on Sunday afternoon (7-3-2022).