LEBANON, Tenn. — The question Denny Hamlin hears the most is whether he gets nervous before a race.
His answer usually is no.
That changes at Nashville Superspeedway, where Hamlin is looking for his first victory.
“I’ve been so close over the last few years,” Hamlin said Saturday. “But I love the racetrack. I definitely do and certainly feel like it’s been a very raceable race track over the last couple (races) since they’ve worked the resin in and whatnot. So it’s, um, I’m a little nervous going into the weekend, truthfully.”
Hamlin ranks second in the points race and has 61 career Cup wins. He has three top-six finishes here, including third twice with the latest last year. He has two wins this year, with his most recent two weeks ago at the All-Star race at Dover.
The Cracker Barrel 400 on Sunday night will be the sixth Cup race at the 1.33-mile, D-shaped oval, which also is NASCAR’s largest all-concrete track. Spotty rain showers washed out qualifying Saturday, putting Hamlin on the pole for the second time this year and 51st time of his career.
Now 45, Hamlin knows he is running out of opportunities and won’t hide how much he wants to take home Nashville’s signature trophy: a Gibson guitar.
“I really really want to win here pretty badly,” Hamlin said.
Nashville marks the start of the second half of the Cup Series schedule, with drivers leaving here with 12 races remaining before the Chase for the Championship starts in September.
Ryan Blaney won here a year ago for his first victory of 2025, and he comes into this race third in points. Blaney said he doesn’t feel any sense of urgency right now, especially returning to a track that was very good to him a year ago.
“It’s hard to believe we’re already halfway through the regular season,” Blaney said.
Daniel Suarez has spent part of the week celebrating his win at the Coca-Cola 600 last week and was in Los Angeles on Friday for the premiere of his new documentary. That meant a red-eye flight to Nashville as he switches his focus back to racing while sitting at 10th in the standings.
Suarez knows his Spire Motorsports team won a big race. He sees more work to do with his No. 7 Chevrolet.
“I’m really pushing my team to continue to push in these areas to continue to improve because every single team out there is going to continue getting better,” Suarez said. “So we have to continue to move the bar higher and higher.”
Reminders of two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch, who died May 22, are everywhere at the superspeedway. His No. 8 has been atop the scoring tower, painted on the infield grass and round stickers with both his number and his name are plastered on everything from race cars to laptops.