LEBANON, Tenn. — The second half of the NASCAR Cup regular season begins with tonight’s race at Nashville Superspeedway and there’s much at stake for several drivers in the field.
Here are a few things to keep an eye on in tonight’s race (7:19 p.m. ET green flag on Prime):
Taking advantage of the pole …
Chase Briscoe gets another chance to take advantage of winning the pole.
While he finished third in last weekend’s Coca-Cola 600 after starting on the pole, he led only one lap, did not score points in the first two stages and ended with only two points in the third stage. Briscoe was undone by a pit road penalty for an uncontrolled tire on his first stop.
That shows how a problem even early in a 600-mile race can have an impact throughout the event. Tonight’s race at Nashville is 399 miles.
“It’s frustrating,” Briscoe told NBC Sports about last weekend’s performance. “It really just comes down to kind of how our season’s been all year. We just haven’t been able to put, at first a full day together, especially 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 didn’t score as many as a pole-sitter would be expected to do so. Briscoe ranks last among drivers in a playoff spot in stage points scored this year with 18. Eight drivers outside a playoff spot have scored more stage points than Briscoe this season.
Bubba’s bounce back?
Bubba Wallace is succinct in describing his last few races: “The last three weeks, four weeks, if you want to count All-Star, just (expletive).”
Wallace has finished 33rd or worse in the last three points races, dropping him from seventh to 12th in the season standings.
Last year, 14 of the 16 playoff drivers won in the regular season but this season the victories have been concentrated among a small group of drivers, which could mean more playoff spots will be determined by points. With Wallace falling in the standings, he could be getting close to that area.
For all that, Wallace is keeping a better attitude. He admits in years past that he would focus too much on what has happened in the last few weeks and not what his team has done all season to still allow him to be 38 points above the cutline entering Nashville.
“You’re going to have bad races,” Wallace said. “I’ve seen so many guys have bad races, like Denny (Hamlin), right, have so many bad races. His stats the last three aren’t that great either. Bad luck struck at Charlotte. They show up the next week like ‘What happened last week?’ They don’t care.
“And so I’ve started to kind of look at that and as much as it sucks, as much as it weighs you down, you have to show up for your team and for your sponsors and enjoy it.”
It also helps that Wallace will start 12th and have a chance to score points in the first stage.
But another bad finish could drop him closer to the cutline.
Deep in the pack
Kyle Larson has an average finish of 4.5 at Nashville and is the only driver to place in the top 10 in all four Cup races at Nashville.
He has work to do if he is to extend that streak. Larson qualified 28th — his worst starting spot since Phoenix in March 2019.
How quickly can he get to the front? Will he score points in the first stage?
Locked in …
The top 32 drivers in points after tonight’s race will be locked into the in-season tournament, which will begin later this month in Atlanta.
Brad Keselowski enters tonight’s race 32nd in points. Admittedly, Keselowski has other things to worry about — last week’s fifth-place finish in the Coca-Cola 600 was his first top 10 of the year — but should Keselowski have another poor finish, the could be in jeopardy of not being a part of the tournament. The winner gets $1 million.
Keselowski starts a season-best sixth tonight.
