Denny Hamlin On Cup Pole At Nashville After Mother Nature Intervenes

Mother Nature sure doesn't like qualifying sessions, huh? For the second consecutive race weekend, none of the three NASCAR National Series divisions will complete a qualifying session, as NASCAR Cup Series qualifying was the final to be axed this weekend at Nashville Superspeedway.

With persistent rain ending any hope for the 38 drivers to vie for a starting spot in Sunday's Cracker Barrel 400, the starting lineup was set by the NASCAR Rule Book, which utilizes the performance metric scores (combination of season performance and last week's race performance).

As a result, Denny Hamlin, the driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry XSE, will start from the pole position in Sunday's race. Hamlin had a metric score of 2.700, which secured him the top starting spot.

This will mark Hamlin's third first-place starting position in his sixth career start at the 1.33-mile Nashville Superspeedway. Heading into this weekend, Hamlin has yet to snag a victory at the track, but does have a pair of third-place results, which came in 2023 and 2025.

Tyler Reddick, who drives the No. 45 Toyota for 23XI Racing (a team co-owned by Hamlin), will start on the outside of the front row.

The driver of the No. 45 Toyota comes into this race with five wins through the opening 13 races of the season. Reddick, like Hamlin, has yet to record a victory at Nashville Superspeedway, and also has a career-best finish of third at the track, which he achieved in 2024.

Daniel Suarez, who won last weekend's rain-shortened Coca-Cola 600, will start from the third position, and he'll be joined in the second row by Christopher Bell, the driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

Kyle Larson, the defending NASCAR Cup Series champion, will start from the fifth position.

Cracker Barrel 400 Starting Lineup

1. 11-Denny Hamlin
2. 45-Tyler Reddick
3. 7-Daniel Suarez
4. 20-Christopher Bell
5. 5-Kyle Larson
6. 54-Ty Gibbs
7. 12-Ryan Blaney
8. 24-William Byron
9. 22-Joey Logano
10. 97-Shane van Gisbergen
11. 38-Zane Smith
12. 6-Brad Keselowski
13. 43-Erik Jones
14. 71-Michael McDowell
15. 47-Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
16. 16-AJ Allmendinger
17. 77-Carson Hocevar
18. 23-Bubba Wallace
19. 48-Alex Bowman
20. 41-Cole Custer
21. 34-Todd Gilliland
22. 17-Chris Buescher
23. 35-Riley Herbst
24. 67-Corey Heim
25. 33-Austin Hill
26. 4-Noah Gragson
27. 42-John Hunter Nemechek
28. 60-Ryan Preece
29. 9-Chase Elliott
30. 10-Ty Dillon
31. 19-Chase Briscoe
32. 3-Austin Dillon
33. 21-Josh Berry
34. 51-Cody Ware
35. 1-Ross Chastain
36. 2-Austin Cindric
37. 66-Chad Finchum
38. 88-Connor Zilisch

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