LEBANON, Tenn. (AP) — Ross Chastain is ready to get back behind the wheel of a race car after a busy week celebrating going from worst to victory lane at the Coca-Cola 600 for the first time in his career.
He also knows only too well how humbling racing can be.
“We put ourselves at a lot of high risk getting back on track that the success could be hard again,” Chastain said Saturday still wearing the Coca-Cola 600 winner's ring on his right hand. “The cars don’t know what happened last week.”
Chastain has had three top-three finishes over his past four races, and he goes into Sunday night's Cracker Barrel 400 very familiar with Nashville Superspeedway.
Music City is home to his Trackhouse Racing team, and Chastain won here in 2023. He also has finished second and fifth, and had a chance to win last year. This also will be Trackhouse Racing's 300th Cup race.
Chastain credited his crew chief Phil Surgen and Trackhouse Racing but said he doesn't know why he's been so successful at this track. Chastain said he doesn't feel like he does anything different down to his preparation.
"We have really, really good race cars,” Chastain said of his No. 1 Chevrolet.
This race now is a month earlier than the past four years, and the Cracker Barrel 400 comes exactly halfway through NASCAR's regular season. Chastain is among the eight drivers already locked into the playoffs with a victory.
This race took a record five overtimes to finish a year ago with Joey Logano surviving for his first Cup win of 2024. He had saved just enough gas to pull out that victory, so of course it merited a look back just in case.
“You don’t know that opportunity will ever present itself again,” Logano said. “It’s a pretty rare opportunity for it to end up like that. But because we were ready for it and we were prepared that day that's what helped us win. So yeah, you’re always kind of looking at that stuff.”
Chase Briscoe will start on the pole for a second straight year at this track. He also leads the Cup Series with three poles in his first year with Joe Gibbs Racing, the latest setting a Cup track record with his lap of 164.395 mph topping the 161.992 mph Aric Almirola posted in his Ford in 2021.
Briscoe, who started on the pole at the Coca-Cola 600 last week, still is looking for his first win after five top-five finishes in his No. 19 Toyota.
Teammate Denny Hamlin will start second after posting a lap of 164.119 mph in his No. 11 Toyota. Points leader William Byron of Hendrick Motorsports (163.374 mph) will start third with 23XI Racing’s Tyler Reddick fourth. Chastain will start fifth.
Brad Keselowski, currently 32nd in the standings, won his first NASCAR Xfinity Series race here in 2008. He walked the D-shaped track Saturday and marveled at how Nashville, which hosted its first races in 2001, has aged since his career-changing victory.
“It’s kind of aged like fine wine," Keselowski said. "When I was doing the walk I was thinking about it. The surface is 25, 26 years old, and it's in great condition. The facilities are in great condition. It's just really a kind of walk back in time for me.”
Nashville kicks off NASCAR's new In-Season Challenge involving 32 drivers and a single-elimination over five races starting June 28 at Atlanta. The top 32 drivers in points after Sunday night's race in Nashville will make up the field for the three seeding races.
Those races start at Michigan on June 8, and conclude at Pocono on June 22. Drivers will be seeded by their best finish over those three races for the competition starting at Atlanta. The field will be narrowed to 16 at Chicago, eight at Sonoma, four at Dover and finally two at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
The tournament comes with a $1 million prize to the winner and is part of a new media rights deal including TNT.
Denny Hamlin at +350 is the betting favorite to win Sunday night, according to BetMGM Sportsbook, followed by Kyle Larson (+550), Christopher Bell (+650) and William Byron (+725). If Hamlin makes the starting line Sunday night remains to be seen. His fiancee is expecting their third child, a boy, with Sunday the due date. Hamlin said he has an eight-hour window to race and get home but hadn't set a timeline to make a final decision before qualifying. “I can’t miss it,” Hamlin said of his new son's arrival. ... This race has had a different winner each of the first four years at this track. ... Country music singer Chase Rice, a former NASCAR pit crew member, will be the honorary pace car driver Sunday night. Rice has sold more than 2.8 million albums and had more than 2.9 billion total streams. His hits include “Eyes on You,” “Drinkin’ Beer. Talkin’ God. Amen.” and “Lonely If You Are.”
AP auto racing: https://apnews.com/hub/auto-racing
Ross Chastain celebrates in Victory Lane after winning a NASCAR Cup Series auto race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, Sunday, May 25, 2025, in Concord, N.C. (AP Photo/Matt Kelley)
ST. LOUIS (AP) — World champions Ilia Malinin and the ice dance duo of Madison Chock and Evan Bates will anchor one of the strongest U.S. Figure Skating teams in history when they head to Italy for the Milan Cortina Olympics in less than a month.
Malinin, fresh off his fourth straight national title, will be the prohibitive favorite to follow in the footsteps of Nathan Chen by delivering another men's gold medal for the American squad when he steps on the ice at the Milano Ice Skating Arena.
Chock and Bates, who won their record-setting seventh U.S. title Saturday night, also will be among the Olympic favorites, as will world champion Alysa Liu and women's teammate Amber Glenn, fresh off her third consecutive national title.
U.S. Figure Skating announced its full squad of 16 athletes for the Winter Games during a made-for-TV celebration Sunday.
"I'm just so excited for the Olympic spirit, the Olympic environment," Malinin said. “Hopefully go for that Olympic gold.”
Malinin will be joined on the men's side by Andrew Torgashev, the all-or-nothing 24-year-old from Coral Springs, Florida, and Maxim Naumov, the 24-year-old from Simsbury, Connecticut, who fulfilled the hopes of his late parents by making the Olympic team.
Vadim Naumov and Evgenia Shishkova were returning from a talent camp in Kansas when their American Airlines flight collided with a military helicopter and crashed into the icy Potomac River in January 2025. One of the last conversations they had with their son was about what it would take for him to follow in their footsteps by becoming an Olympian.
“We absolutely did it,” Naumov said. “Every day, year after year, we talked about the Olympics. It means so much in our family. It's what I've been thinking about since I was 5 years old, before I even know what to think. I can't put this into words.”
Chock and Bates helped the Americans win team gold at the Beijing Games four years ago, but they finished fourth — one spot out of the medals — in the ice dance competition. They have hardly finished anywhere but first in the years since, winning three consecutive world championships and the gold medal at three straight Grand Prix Finals.
U.S. silver medalists Emilea Zingas and Vadym Kolesnik also made the dance team, as did the Canadian-born Christina Carreira, who became eligible for the Olympics in November when her American citizenship came through, and Anthony Ponomarenko.
Liu was picked for her second Olympic team after briefly retiring following the Beijing Games. She had been burned out by years of practice and competing, but stepping away seemed to rejuvenate the 20-year-old from Clovis, California, and she returned to win the first world title by an American since Kimmie Meissner stood atop the podium two decades ago.
Now, the avant-garde Liu will be trying to help the U.S. win its first women's medal since Sasha Cohen in Turin in 2006, and perhaps the first gold medal since Sarah Hughes triumphed four years earlier at the Salt Lake City Games.
Her biggest competition, besides a powerful Japanese contingent, could come from her own teammates: Glenn, a first-time Olympian, has been nearly unbeatable the past two years, while 18-year-old Isabeau Levito is a former world silver medalist.
"This was my goal and my dream and it just feels so special that it came true,” said Levito, whose mother is originally from Milan.
The two pairs spots went to Ellie Kam and Danny O'Shea, the U.S. silver medalists, and the team of Emily Chan and Spencer Howe.
The top American pairs team, two-time reigning U.S. champions Alisa Efimova and Misha Mitrofanov, were hoping that the Finnish-born Efimova would get her citizenship approved in time to compete in Italy. But despite efforts by the Skating Club of Boston, where they train, and the help of their U.S. senators, she did not receive her passport by the selection deadline.
“The importance and magnitude of selecting an Olympic team is one of the most important milestones in an athlete's life,” U.S. Figure Skating CEO Matt Farrell said, "and it has such an impact, and while there are sometimes rules, there is also a human element to this that we really have to take into account as we make decisions and what's best going forward from a selection process.
“Sometimes these aren't easy," Farrell said, “and this is not the fun part.”
The fun is just beginning, though, for the 16 athletes picked for the powerful American team.
AP Olympics: https://apnews.com/hub/milan-cortina-2026-winter-olympics
Amber Glenn competes during the women's free skating competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Friday, Jan. 9, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Alysa Liu skates during the "Making Team USA" performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Maxim Naumov skates during the "Making Team USA" performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Madison Chock and Evan Bates skate during the "Making the Team" performance at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough)
Gold medalist Ilia Malinin arrives for the metal ceremony after the men's free skate competition at the U.S. Figure Skating Championships, Saturday, Jan. 10, 2026, in St. Louis. (AP Photo/Jeff Roberson)
