2022 Nashville Race Report

The 2022 Nashville race report is dominated by Joe Gibbs Racing. But victory was Chase Elliott’s.

Lead/Caution-O-Gram

We start, as always with the Caution- and Lead-O-Grams.

There were 10 cautions for a total of 57 laps. Two spins, one accident, two debris cautions, two weather cautions and one fluid-on-track caution. Last year’s race had 11 cautions for 60 laps, so not too different.

That brings the total number of cautions for 2022 to 160. The spin total stands at 34 and the accident total at 64. Thirty-six cautions were planned, leaving 124 unplanned cautions.

Seven different drivers led, making 18 lead changes. Six of those lead changes were battles between Denny Hamlin and Martin Truex, Jr. between laps 126-193. Three of those six were between laps 126-130.

The inaugural race last year had 14 lead changes, but Kyle Larson led 264 of the 300 laps. Five other drivers led, mostly during stage breaks and caution flags.

Graph of the Race

I don’t have a graph of the race to show you because its dominant feature was two red flags. The first was for lightening and lasted just about an hour. The second was initially for lightening, but rain soon fell. The race resumed after another two hours and eight minutes. The race ended just around midnight. Kudos to NASCAR for getting it in, but I know a lot of people had to leave before the end because they had jobs to return to Monday morning.

Lead Lap Finishes

The 2022 Nashville race didn’t have much in the way of attrition. Only two cars of the 36-car field did not finish the race. Twenty-six cars (72.2%) finished on the lead lap.

You can see the details over at NBC Sports

Speed on Track

The median speeds of drivers again ranged from 30.4 seconds to over 32 seconds. Seventeen drivers had a median speed under 31 seconds.

Kevin Harvick had the fastest lap of the race. Hamlin had 68 fastest laps, Truex had 47 fastest laps and Kyle Busch 39 fastest laps. The next highest was Elliott with 20 fastest laps. All told, Joe Gibbs Racing had 154 of the fastest laps.

This is Chase Elliott’s second win of the season, tying him with Ross Chastain, Joey Logano and Denny Hamlin. Everyone hoping to point their way into the playoffs breathed a sigh of relief when a driver who had already won a race won Nashville.

Elliott’s win keeps hi in first plays with 586 points, 30 points ahead of Ross Chastain.

That’s the 2022 Nashville Race Report!