The Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway delivered plenty of action on Sunday, keeping fans entertained throughout. However, Denny Hamlin believes that the race needs to be shortened to improve the fan experience. 

The race at the Superspeedway kicked off after being delayed by nearly an hour due to rain. It was also plagued with multiple cautions, further delaying the end of the race to almost midnight. 

While discussing the race on his podcast Actions Detrimental, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver suggested shortening the race from 400 miles to 300 miles, citing the strain on fans.

“Like, somehow, when you're looking at the length of the races, the math doesn't math to me. It's that, you're running the same lap times, while the mileage might be the same, the Whatever 400, well, if you're running a slower pace, it takes you longer to get to that 400 miles.”

The length of such Sunday-night races is something The Athletic journalist Jeff Gluck also commented on.

“I am officially too old for night races,” he said. “People have to work tomorrow, and especially, like, blue-collar NASCAR fans. People have jobs where they’ve got to get up early.”

On his podcast, Hamlin went on to compare the 1.33-mile Nashville Superspeedway track to Michigan International Speedway's two-mile track. He pointed out how slow the Nashville track was. 

“So, on a normal mile-and-a-half that we run a 400 mile race, like at Michigan this weekend, that race will be two-thirds of the time that this one takes, because we're running so much faster.”

“So, it's just, we've gotten, this race has run really, really long for a few years now, and I think it's just, I think 300 laps at this race track, running the same lap times that you run at mile-and-a-halfs when you only run 267 laps, at a faster pace, it doesn't - the math doesn't math to me. That's why this race goes to as late as it does." 

The shortest race at Nashville was back in 2023, where it wrapped up in 3 hours and 7 seconds. This year, the race lasted for 3 hours, 23 minutes, and 10 seconds. 

Despite the duration of the event, the No. 11 driver delivered a strong race at Music City. 

Denny Hamlin Adds Another Race Win to His Resume

The last lap was something that fans will remember forever, with three JGR drivers going head-to-head. However, it was Denny Hamlin who took home the customized Gibson guitar. 

Before the race even began, Hamlin was hit with a penalty for a jump start. But he managed to make his way up the grid to end stage 2 in fifth. He managed to get the lead in the race.

During his post-race interview with NASCAR.com, he addressed the penalty. He said, “ I definitely jumped the start. Looking back at it, just didn’t wait quite long enough. Thank you to this sellout crowd. It’s been an honor.” 

This race win not only marked his first at the oval but also gave Toyota its first win at the Superspeedway since the track started hosting the race in 2021. 

Written by

Chionia Libania Colaco

Edited by

Arundhoti Palit