Joe Gibbs Racing star Denny Hamlin overcame adversity and won the NASCAR Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville Superspeedway. The 45-year-old was awarded the iconic guitar in the victory lane, but instead of smashing it and recreating Kyle Busch’s iconic celebration, he chose to ‘keep it intact’.
The 2026 NASCAR Cup victory at Nashville was Hamlin’s first one at the Music City. The win was a long time coming, and the JGR star had to overcome an early penalty and battle his teammates towards the end of the race to finish in the victory lane.
Hamlin started the race in pole position, but jumped the start and was penalized for the same, and sent to the back of the grid. The 45-year-old battled his way back to the front of the grid, and a late caution meant that he had to fight with teammate Christopher Bell and Chase Briscoe for the win.
After an intense finish where Denny Hamlin came out on top, he celebrated and paid tribute to late Kyle Busch by recreating the NASCAR legend’s iconic bow celebration with the flag.
However, what many fans waited for was for the winner to recreate Kyle Busch’s iconic celebration from the 2009 Nashville Superspeedway win where he smashed the guitar in true rockstar fashion.
Hamlin, however, chose to keep the guitar intact and revealed the reason behind the same, as he said,
“Wow, that was unexpected. As you see, P1. Kept the guitar, kept the thing intact. I worked too hard to mess this thing up. So, a great trophy here in Nashville here. This one I did not expect to win, but we got it done here on the restart.”
Hamlin celebrated in the victory lane by getting up into the No.11 Toyota and showcasing the guitar. It was the JGR star’s 62nd win in the Cup series. One more win and he’ll tie Kyle Busch for ninth on the all-time win list.
While Denny Hamlin chose to keep the trophy intact, Carson Hocevar had other plans had he won the race at Nashville
Spire Motorsport star Carson Hocevar came out ahead of the NASCAR Cup Series race at Nashville and was questioned about whether he would smash the guitar trophy in honor of Kyle Busch and recreate the iconic celebration. Hocevar responded with,
“Ya without a doubt, there won’t be a piece left.”
However, Hocevar didn’t win the race. He was running inside the Top 10 in the final stage when an incident with Chris Buescher and the following cautions slowed his progress. Denny Hamlin went on to win the race and chose to keep the guitar trophy intact in the victory lane.
