NASHVILLE — Championship points leader Justin Allgaier returns to Nashville as the defending winner of Saturday night’s Sports Illustrated Resorts 250.
The 2024 series champ has been so strong this season, his points lead (145 points) over second place, reigning series champ Jesse Love is greater than the margin between Love and eighth place Carson Kvapil.
And the veteran Allgaier, a two-time Nashville winner (2025 and 2022), is the only former winner in Saturday’s race.
On the other side of the experience metric, this will mark Hendrick Motorsports’ rookie Corey Day’s Nashville debut. The talented 20-year-old Californian earned his career first wins at Talladega, Ala., and Dover, Del., in just the last month.
Richard Childress Racing teammates Love and Austin Hill finished second and third last week at Charlotte, marking the first time they’ve both been in the top-five in a race since February at Austin’s Circuit of the Americas road course.
Their teammate this weekend at RCR is popular YouTube personality and ARCA Menards Series regular, Cleetus McFarland, who will make his second career series start and first race on the Nashville oval, driving the No. 33 RCR Chevrolet.
Reigning NASCAR Cup Series champ Larson will be competing Saturday night, driving the JR Motorsports No. 88 Chevrolet. He’s already won two of his four previous O’Reilly Auto Parts Series starts – at Las Vegas and Texas – this season and has earned top-10 finishes in his last 10 starts in the series.
An interesting note about Nashville. … the Stage 2 winner has gone on to win the race four of the last five years.
