After a long, long Sunday (June 26) at Nashville Superspeedway that saw three separate delays for weather, it was Hendrick Motorsports’ Chase Elliott who took the checkered flag in the NASCAR Cup Series’ Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway. It was Elliott’s second win of 2022 and the 15th of his career.
When his No. 9 Chevrolet came alive when the sun went down (after multiple rain delays pushed racing later and later into the evening), Elliott spent much of the final stage battling for the lead with Kyle Busch. A very late caution for Josh Bilicki‘s engine failure and divergent tire strategies among the frontrunners meant that Elliott had to hold off the other brother, Kurt Busch, to claim the checkered flag.
Polesitter Denny Hamlin stretched out a lead early in stage one before the night’s first lightning strike brought out a red flag just 41 laps in.
After the 30-minute wait was complete, Hendrick Motorsports saw a double disappointment as a broken steering rack for William Byron and a hard crash for Alex Bowman on consecutive laps took both Camaros out of the running.
The restart has not been kind to Team Hendrick.
William Byron heads to the garage and Alex Bowman spins and hits the wall hard.
📺: @NBC & @peacockTV #NASHCAR pic.twitter.com/FaFbv7my1N
— NASCAR on NBC (@NASCARonNBC) June 26, 2022
Chase Briscoe and Ty Dillon were also victims of Nashville’s turn 2, crashing after contact with Ross Chastain on lap 62 and setting up a 25-lap shootout to the end of the stage between Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr.
As the lights came on, Truex seized the lead, but Hamlin ran him back down, putting his No. 11 right in the tire tracks of Truex’s No. 19 with five laps left in the stage. It took a flawless defensive drive from Truex to hold off Hamlin for his fourth stage win of 2022.
A caution for rain interrupted Truex and Ryan Blaney’s battle for the lead; after a brief delay, Denny Hamlin put them three-wide to take the top spot once again.
But another red flag for lightning, followed by a longer delay for rain, brought the action to a halt just 10 laps short of halfway.
Two hours and one network change later, the Ally 400 restarted with 150 laps to go, and Hamlin and Truex immediately resumed their dogfight. Truex once again came out on top to win stage two.
A slow stop for Hamlin after the stage promoted Kyle Busch to the front row on the restart, and the two-time champion used the position to full…
Click Here to Read the Full Original Article at Frontstretch…