LEBANON, Tenn. (AP) — Denny Hamlin will start on the pole Sunday night at the Cracker Barrel 400 after spotty showers canceled qualifying Saturday at the Nashville Superspeedway.
It's the second straight race that rain has prompted officials to cancel qualifying, and the track was put on a hold with weather severe enough to tell fans to clear the grandstands. Rain also is in the forecast for Sunday.
With qualifying canceled, that left the starting lineup set by the NASCAR rulebook. Hamlin will start on the pole for the second time this year in the No. 11 Toyota with Joe Gibbs Racing, and he will be joined on the front row by points leader Tyler Reddick in his No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota.
Reddick started on the pole last week at the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte Motor Speedway when qualifying also was canceled because of rain.
Daniel Suarez, last week's winner, starts on the second row for Spire Motorsports with Christopher Bell, who with Ty Gibbs beside Kyle Larson gives Joe Gibbs Racing three of the top six starting slots.
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Denny Hamlin celebrates in Victory Lane after winning the NASCAR All-Star auto race at Dover Motor Speedway, Sunday, May 17, 2026, in Dover, Del. (AP Photo/Derik Hamilton)
A family of four from Massachusetts who were killed when a bus crashed into multiple vehicles in Virginia were traveling to a wedding with a carload of homemade desserts for the celebration.
The family wedding will go forward Sunday in South Carolina, but it also will be a time to mourn the loss of Dmitri and Ecaterina Doncev and their two children, Emily and Mark, a relative said Saturday.
“A son, a father — the whole family — everyone that has been dear to us,” Carolina Bublik said.
The Doncevs were killed when a motorcoach caused a chain-reaction crash with vehicles that had slowed down for a work zone on Interstate 95 in Stafford County around 2:35 a.m. Friday, authorities said.
The bus struck a Suburban, which then hit an Acura carrying the Doncev family, police said. Priscilla Mafalda, 25, of Worcester, Massachusetts, was in the Chevrolet SUV and also died.
More people were treated for injuries, including one who was in critical condition, though most were discharged, Mary Washington Healthcare said.
The bus driver, Jing S. Dong, 48, of Staten Island, New York, was charged with two counts of involuntary manslaughter, and additional charges were likely, Virginia State Police said. It was not immediately known if he was in custody or had a lawyer yet.
The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating the crash, a monthslong task separate from the work of state police. NTSB board member Tom Chapman revealed few new details but said the bus was moving at a high rate of speed.
“It seems fairly clear that if there was any braking there wasn’t much, because of the speed and severity of the collision,” Chapman said.
The bus, which was taking people from New York to North Carolina, was operated by E&P Travel Inc., based in Kings Mountain, North Carolina.
Chapman said the driver's language proficiency would be part of the NTSB investigation. U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy, citing police, said on social media that Dong, a native of China, does not speak English.
Dmitri Doncev, 45, was a nurse who worked at Holyoke Medical Center. Ecaterina Doncev, 44, was a hairstylist who spent days making desserts for the family wedding, Bublik said.
They emigrated to the U.S. from Moldova in 2008 and settled in Greenfield, Massachusetts, she said.
Dmitri and brother Iuri tried to stay together while traveling in separate vehicles to South Carolina.
“At some point they ended up getting separated,” Bublik said. “Dmitri said, ‘You go ahead. I’ll catch up later.' It was a big shock when Iuri arrived at the house. Dmitri should have arrived around the same time. When his car did not show up, and he wasn't picking up the phone — that’s when the family started panicking.”
This photo provided by the Virginia State Police, shows the scene of a fatal accident involving a bus on Interstate 95 near Quantico, Va., on Friday, May 29, 2026. (Virginia State Police via AP)
