Lebanon, Tennessee – The second half of the regular Nascar Cup season begins with this evening race at Nashville Superspeedway and there is a lot in play for several drivers on the ground.
Here are some items to keep an eye on this evening race (7:19 p.m. and green flag on bonus):
Take advantage of the post …
Chase Briscoe has another chance of enjoying the post of the post.
While he finished third in Coca-Cola 600 last weekend after starting on the post, he only led one round, did not score points in the first two stages and ended with only two points in the third stage. Briscoe was canceled by a penalty on the stands road for an uncontrolled tire during its first stop.
This shows how a problem even at the start of a 600 -mile race can have an impact throughout the event. Tonight’s race in Nashville is 399 miles.
“It’s frustrating,” Briscoe told NBC Sports about last weekend performance. “It really comes down to the way our season was all year round. We just couldn’t put a full day together, in particular a full weekend. Last weekend, we talked about it all week, if we qualify well, we should be able to really maximize our stage points.”
Instead, he has not scored as much as a pole-digne should do so. Briscoe ranks in the last among the pilots in a place in playoffs in the stage points marked this year with 18. Eight drivers outside a place in playoffs have scored more stage than Briscoe this season.
Chase Briscoe will be joined in the front row by his teammate of JGR Denny Hamlin.
Bubba rebounded?
Bubba Wallace is succinct to describe its latest races: “The last three weeks, four weeks, if you want to count All-Star, just (explanive).”
Wallace finished 33rd or worse in the last three points, letting it go from the seventh to the 12th in the season’s ranking.
Last year, 14 of the 16 pilots in the playoffs won in the regular season, but this season, the victories were concentrated among a small group of pilots, which could mean that more places in the playoffs will be determined by points. With Wallace falling in the standings, he could get closer to this area.
For all this, Wallace keeps a better attitude. He admits in the years that he would focus too much on what has happened in recent weeks and not on what his team has done all season to allow him to be 38 points above the cup line entering Nashville.
“You are going to have bad races,” said Wallace. “I saw so many guys having bad races, like Denny (Hamlin), it’s true, having so many bad races. His statistics the last three are not so great. The bad luck was struck in Charlotte. They show up next week as” what happened last week? “They don’t care.
“And so I started to look at this and as much as it fears, as much as it weighs down, you must introduce yourself for your team and for your sponsors and enjoy it.”
He also helps that Wallace will start 12th and will have a chance to score points in the first step.
But another bad finish could bring him closer to the cutting line.
Denny Hamlin’s fiancée is expected to deliver the couple’s third child on Sunday.
Deep in the pack
Kyle Larson has an average finish of 4.5 in Nashville and is the only driver to place in the top 10 of the four cup races in Nashville.
He has work to do if he wants to extend this sequence. Larson qualified 28th – his worst departure place since Phoenix in March 2019.
How fast can it go forward? Will he score points in the first step?
With five times, it took four hours to finish the 2024 event.
Locked …
The 32 best points in points after this evening race will be locked in the season tournament, which will start later this month in Atlanta.
Brad Keselowski enters this evening race 32nd in points. Admittedly, Keselowski has other things to fear – fifth in last week at Coca -Cola 600 was his first top 10 of the year – but if Keselowski had another bad finish, he could be in danger of not being part of the tournament. The winner obtains $ 1 million.
Keselowski begins a sixth row tonight of the season.
Brad Keselowski says recent sanctions: “In the end, this burden falls on us and we had these conversations internal. I think everyone knows what we expect from them to move forward. ”
