2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series Preview: Nashville
Brenden Martin previews the Tennessee Lottery 250 at Nashville Superspeedway where Riley Herbst will start on pole for the second time in his career.
After a two-week hiatus, the 2022 NASCAR Xfinity Series returns to the big screen on a brand new network. NBC Sports and USA Network will now carry both the Xfinity Series and the Cup Series for the rest of the season with the first race on its broadcast schedule being the Tennessee Lottery 250 at Nashville Superspeedway.
The field is wide open for this year’s Xfinity race at Nashville with the stage and race winners from last season both driving full-time in the Cup Series this year with Stage 1 winner Austin Cindric now racing in the No. 2 for Team Penske and Stage 2 and race winner Kyle Busch no longer racing in the Xfinity Series.
Busch won his 100th career Xfinity Series race at Nashville last season as a part of him sweeping the five races he took part in in the No. 54 car for Joe Gibbs Racing. The win was also his second-consecutive win, having won at Texas Motor Speedway the week prior.
Ty Gibbs now occupies the No. 54 full-time and has given the team a sense of stability in his time and will continue to do so next season. Gibbs leads the field with three wins but has not won since passing teammate John Hunter Nemechek at Richmond back in April.
Gibbs is currently second in the points standings as the push for the regular season championship gets going with 12 races before the playoffs start in late September. He trails Kaulig Racing No. 16 AJ Allmendinger by 43 points, showing the consistency he has had all year.
Allmendinger, who won at a rainy Portland International Raceway in the most recent Xfinity race, showed good speed as the last car to put down a qualifying lap Saturday morning before the race, slotting into the front row alongside Stewart-Haas Racing No. 98 Riley Herbst.
Herbst earned his second career Xfinity pole, the first of which came at Charlotte Motor Speedway last season. Herbst is sitting in a good spot heading into Nashville this season as he sits in 11th in the points standings and is 77 points above the cutline for the Round of 12 playoffs.
Ryan Sieg Racing No. 39 Ryan Sieg is on the bubble in the last spot in the playoffs, sitting 58 points above Our Motorsports No. 23 Anthony Alfredo. The two will duel it out at the start of the race as Seig will start in 24th and Alfredo will be one row behind him in 26th.
Ryan Sieg Racing also sees the return of No. 28 Parker Retzlaff who will be starting right between the two playoff hopefuls, the 19-year-old hopes to turn heads in his fifth career Xfinity start. After a 36th place finish in his debut at Phoenix Raceway, Retzlaff has strung together three straight top 20 finishes, including a 10th place result at Martinsville Speedway. He last finished 17th at Dover Motor Speedway in April.
Despite Busch not running the Xfinity Nashville race this year, Big Machine Racing No. 48 Tyler Reddick is once again making the jump to race for the Richard Childress Racing Affiliate and looks to bring the team to victory lane once again after doing so at Texas last month.
Reddick will need to do so from the rear of the field despite qualifying 18th due to him breaking the transmission during practice on Friday.
Saturday’s truck series winner Ryan Preece is pulling double duty in hopes of adding another guitar trophy to his garage band. The part-time racer won his second career truck race the day prior, both of which have come at Nashville. Preece will be driving the No. 5 for B.J. McLeod Motorsports as he continues his campaign to find a full-time ride next season.
Preece will start 27th, behind Alfredo.
Speaking of B.J. McLeod, the team owner will also participate at Nashville, however not for his own team. He will fill in for David Starr, who is out with the flu, in the No. 08 SS-Greenlight Ford Mustang, a Stewart-Haas affiliate.
A race-contending part-time driver is Trevor Bayne, making his return to the No. 18 for JGR. Making his fifth start this season, Bayne has made good strides in his short time in the No. 18 car, stringing together three top-10 finishes and two top-fives. He has also led in three of his four starts.
Bayne will have a good chance to lead again as he will start on the inside of Row 2 in 3rd.
The Tennessee Lottery 250 at Nashville Superspeedway will be the first of the season on NBCSports, and will also be the first on USA Network. The race can also be listened to on Motor Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. The green flag is set to wave at 3:30 p.m. ET on Saturday.
The race will be 188 laps long, including stage breaks at Laps 45 and 90.
Practice Results:
Starting Lineup:
To the rear:
No. 48 Tyler Reddick - Engine Change,
No. 66 Natalie Decker - Unapproved Adjustments
Pit Stall Selection:
Goodyear Tire Notes:
NASCAR Xfinity Series – Race No. 15 – 188 laps / 250 miles
Nashville Superspeedway (1.33-mile oval) – Lebanon, Tenn.
Fast Facts for June 24-25, 2022
Tire: Goodyear Eagle 15-inch Speedway Radials
Set limits:
Xfinity: 5 sets for the event
Tire Codes: Left-side — D-6110; Right-side — D-6128
Tire Circumference:
Left-side — 2,225 mm (87.60 in.);
Right-side — 2,250 mm (88.58 in.)
Minimum Recommended Inflation:
Left Front — 18 psi; Left Rear — 18 psi;
Right Front — 42 psi; Right Rear — 40 psi
Notes – Xfinity, Truck teams on on popular left-side tire at Nashville: Being on 15-inch bead diameter tires, Xfinity and Camping World Truck teams will run a different tire set-up than those in the Cup Series at Nashville this week . . . compared to what these teams ran at Nashville last season, this left-side tire code aligns this track with several other speedways, while this right-side code features a minor compound change . . . this left-side is one that teams in both of these series have run at Charlotte, Las Vegas and Texas already this season . . . Truck teams have also run this left-side at Kansas . . . Xfinity teams ran this right-side at Dover in May . . . despite the Truck Series running a shorter race than the Xfinity Series, Truck teams will have six sets of tires compared to five sets for Xfinity teams because the Trucks are the first series on track for practice on a “green” race track and have the first race of the weekend . . . as on all NASCAR ovals greater than one mile in length, teams are required to run liners in all four tire positions at Nashville . . . air pressure in those inner liners should be 12-25 psi greater than that of the outer tire.
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