NASCAR Weekend Highlights: Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch, Ryan Preece Earn Coveted Nashville Guitars

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Kyle Larson in Victory Lane after winning the Ally 400 at the Nashville Superspeedway. Photo: Courtesy of Nashville Superspeedway

After a weekend of three races, up to 90 degree heat, and 850 miles raced, Nashville’s first racing weekend in 11 years comes to an end with a Cup Series win for Kyle Larson.

Larson continues his historic win-streak with his most dominant performance of the year at the Ally 400 at the Nashville Superspeedway. Larson had a fast car and won stage two of Sunday’s Fathers Day race. He lost stage one to Chase Elliott–who was later disqualified for loose lug nuts post-race–but ultimately led 264 out of the 300 laps.

Larson’s win came in front of a sold-out crowd of about 38,000 NASCAR fans. After his win, Larson gave fans a burn-out in front of the grand stands, attempting to go the length of the far stands before tearing up his tires.

“This crowd is awesome,” Larson said of his Ally 400 performance. “We’ve had the best car on the race track for about a month and a half now. It’s good to take advantage of that. We had a near-perfect day.”

Sunday’s race marked Larson’s 5th win of the season for Hendrik Motorsports and his third straight trip to victory lane. The last time Nashville hosted a Cup Series race was in 1984 when Geoffrey Bodine won driving the No. 5 Chevrolet for Hendrick Motorsports just as Larson did this weekend.

Larson was followed by Ross Chastain in second and William Byron in third while Aric Almirola, Kevin Harvick, Ricky Stenthouse Jr., Daniel Suarez, Kurt Busch, Christopher Bell, and Joey Logano round out the rest of the top ten, respectively.

Kyle Busch in Victory Lane after winning his 100th Xfinity Series race. Photo: Courtesy of Nashville Superspeedway

On Saturday night, Kyle Busch won his 100th career Xfinity Series race after leading 122 of 189 laps. It was Busch’s second career Xfinity win at the Superspeedway and his fifth overall in Nashville. Busch completed the slightly extra distance of 251.37 miles in 2 hours, 20 minutes, 48 seconds, averaging 107.118 mph.

Like Larson, Busch, driving the No. 54 M&M’s Toyota for Joe Gibbs Racing, dominated the rest of the field with an extremely fast car on Saturday night’s race. After coming in second in the first stage and winning the second stage, Busch never really looked back for the remainder of the Tennessee Lottery 250.

“I remember growing up as a kid and watching Mark Martin win every week,” said Busch. “It’s just been phenomenal years to have be associated with Joe Gibbs Racing and Toyota.” Of the race, Busch said, “It was way racier than I remember Nashville being. At the end, I knew if we could clear those guys and I could hit my marks I could pull away.”

Busch survived a series of restarts in the race’s final stretch and powered past Justin Allgaier in a green-white-checkered overtime finish. Allgaier, who led 11 laps in the race’s final stage, held on for second, 1.110 seconds behind Busch at the finish line. Harrison Burton finished third, Hendersonville, Tenn., native Josh Berry was fourth, and A.J. Allmendinger placed fifth.

Ryan Preece after winning June 18’s Rackley Roofing 200. Photo: Courtesy of Nashville Superspeedway

Friday night’s Rackley Roofing 200 Truck series race kicked off the tripleheader at Nashville Superspeedway. Making his truck series debut, driver Ryan Preece won the race, taking home the first Gibson guitar of the weekend. Starting the race in sixth place, Preece only led 8 laps but was able to hang on for the win.

“I never quit and never give up,” Preece said. “We were able to get back by him and pull away. It was a real team effort.”

NASCAR’s first race weekend in Nashville in 11 years was provided fans with three exciting races, star-studded performances from Chris Janson and John Anderson, and packed stands.

Steven Boero
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