Joey Logano had enough fuel to hold off Zane Smith and Tyler Reddick in a fifth overtime Sunday to win the NASCAR Cup Series’ Ally 400 at Nashville Superspeedway in Lebanon, Tenn.
After nearly claiming the win in the fourth OT, Logano restarted in first for the second time, ahead of Chase Briscoe, and beat Smith by 0.068 seconds in the fifth two-lap shootout for his first victory of 2024.
Polesitter Denny Hamlin and Ross Chastain battled over the final laps of regulation and into overtime until Chastain’s No. 1 hit the Turn 1 wall after contact with Kyle Larson.
Hamlin and many other cars ran out of fuel in OT, putting Logano’s No. 22 Team Penske Ford up front and in position to win the 15-caution event, his 33rd career win.
Reddick, Ryan Preece and Chris Buescher completed the top-five finishers.
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Christopher Bell led a race-high 131 laps before wrecking on Lap 228 and finished 36th.
After scoring the 42nd pole qualifying start of his career, Hamlin led in his No. 11 Toyota over the first 16 laps until he encountered the potentially lapped No. 51 Ford of Justin Haley, who slowed Hamlin’s progress and allowed teammate Bell to scoot by for the lead.
Bell maintained the point through alternating pit strategies and earned his eighth segment win by claiming Stage 1. The Toyotas of Hamlin and Reddick followed.
With rain and the 300-lap race’s halfway point approaching, most teams elected to take two tires, but Ty Gibbs struck Alex Bowman’s No. 48 Chevrolet near the start/finish line for the third caution of the event’s first half.
The weather front finally came for good on Lap 136 as cameramen and track workers were vacated from high areas above the grandstands. Bell led them onto pit road with Reddick and Larson behind him as a red-flag condition began before reaching the halfway mark.
After a roughly 90-minute delay for the 1.33-mile track’s drying, the race ran caution-free to the Stage 2 conclusion at Lap 185 when Bell, Reddick and Larson finished top three, respectively.
–Field Level Media
