PREVIEW: Nashville sees several drivers return to the Truck Series after extended absences
by Brock Beard / LASTCAR.info Editor-in-Chief
IMAGE: Stewart Friesen, @StewartFriesen
Friday, May 29, 2026 (Green Flag 8:21 P.M. ET, FS1)
TRUCKS Race 11 of 25
Allegiance 200 at Nashville
2025 Last-Place Finisher: Frankie Muniz
ENTRY LIST
There are 38 drivers entered for 36 spots, so two teams will fail to qualify.
DRIVER CHANGE: #2-Team Reaume
Last Sunday, the #2 team finished in the 36th and final spot after Luke Baldwin made early contact with the wall, then suffered a fiery engine failure heading into Turn 1. This week, the ride goes to a returning Clayton Green, who seeks his 15th career start and first since a 26th in Texas. The Turner Company is the sponsor.
DRIVER CHANGE: #4-Niece Motorsports
Stefan Parsons climbs aboard in place of Cup regular Ricky Stenhouse, Jr. after a 9th-place finish. Parsons drives the part-time #4 with returning sponsor TCSBUS.com backing the effort. The sponsor last ran in Parsons’ most recent series start last November in Phoenix, where he took 12th for Spire Motorsports. Parsons also swaps roles with Connor Zilisch, who Parsons spotted for earlier this year. Zilisch spots for Parsons tonight.
DRIVER CHANGE: #7-Spire Motorsports
MISSING: #71-Spire Motorsports
After last week’s tragic events, where Corey Day took the place of the late Kyle Busch, then finished next-to-last following a frightening airborne crash on the backstretch, Rajah Caruth will this week pilot the #7. Rejoining Spire Motorsports, where he piloted the #71 through last season, Caruth will – like Parsons – make his first series start of 2026. Unlike Parsons, this will also be a double-duty effort with Saturday’s O’Reilly race. Caruth finished 5th in last fall’s Phoenix finale. Speaking of the #71, that now part-time team is not entered this week following Shane Van Gisbergen’s 15th-place showing in Charlotte.
RETURNING: #20-McAnally-Hilgemann Racing
RETURNING: #27-Rackley-W.A.R.
For the second time since his suspension and resignation from Kaulig RAM Racing, Daniel Dye has picked up a part-time effort. Joining his part-time Cup effort with Live Fast Motorsports which started in Talladega, Dye will tonight begin a four-race deal in the McAnally team’s new part-time fifth entry, the team that DNQ’d in Watkins Glen with Toni Breidinger. As with Breidinger, Dye will have to qualify for the race on speed. His next three starts will come in Michigan, Kansas, and Charlotte. Breidinger will herself be racing tonight in the returning second entry for Rackley-W.A.R. which she last drove to a 26th in Dover. Cane’s Chicken Fingers returns as sponsor.
DRIVER CHANGE: #22-Team Reaume
As Natalie Decker vented her frustrations over the radio during her most recent series start at Dover, team owner Josh Reaume relayed to the team that Derek would have to drive for tonight’s race in Nashville. This refers not to Derek White, who is driver and co-owner of Motorsports Business Management, but Decker’s husband Derek Lemke. Lemke made two starts for Reaume in 2023, taking 33rd in Richmond and 31st in Milwaukee. While the preliminary entry list showed Reaume as driver following his 28th last Sunday in Charlotte, Lemke will drive tonight.
DRIVER CHANGE: #25-Kaulig RAM Racing
This week’s RAM “all-star” entry is a returning Carson Ferguson, who in his series debut at Bristol this past spring finished on the lead lap in 21st with this team. Ferguson returns to another concrete race track looking to improve, and takes the place of 21st-place Charlotte finisher Travis Pastrana.
DRIVER CHANGE: #42-Niece Motorsports
Tyler Reif finished a season-best 14th in his most recent start at Watkins Glen, and this week returns to oval racing in Nashville as he once again pilots Al Niece’s #42 Chevrolet. Reif takes the place of Conner Jones, who himself finished 14th last Sunday in Charlotte.
MISSING: #56-Hill Motorsports
Timmy Hill and his family’s #56 team are not among this week’s entrants after Hill began a double-duty Sunday in Charlotte with an 18th-place showing in the Truck Series race.
DRIVER CHANGE: #62-Halmar Friesen Racing
Parker Retzlaff has provided the most impressive turnaround on the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series tour as a fixture in the Top 10, but for a pair of incidents not of his doing. During his rise up the ranks, he’s only made one previous Truck Series start – one fewer than even his total of Cup races. That came at Talladega on October 1, 2022, where he finished 16th. Tonight, Retzlaff returns in the strong second entry for the HFR effort, replacing 23rd-place Charlotte finisher Leland Honeyman, Jr. The result is a double-duty weekend for Retzlaff.
RETURNING: #69-Motorsports Business Management
Jonathan Shafer looks to shake off the disappointment of a practice crash in Rockingham which prevented him from attempting to qualify for his fourth career Truck Series race and first since 2023. He will again pilot an unsponsored #69 Ford, this one painted black with neon accents. Shafer’s best career finish came at this Nashville track in 2023, when he finished 24th for the now-shuttered On Point Motorsports in the #30 Rangeline Group Toyota.
DRIVER CHANGE: #77-Spire Motorsports
As with Lemke (#22), Retzlaff (#62), and Shafer (#69), current O’Reilly Auto Parts Series standout Jesse Love has very little experience in the Truck Series, making three starts for TRICON Garage back in 2023. A then 18-year-old Love scored his best finish in his most recent start in the 2023 finale at Phoenix, where he steered TRICON’s #1 to a 4th-place finish. Tonight, he returns in Spire’s fleet #77, taking the place of friend and rival Connor Zilisch who took home 3rd in Charlotte.
MISSING: #90-Terry Carroll Motorsports
TEAM UPDATE: #93-Costner Motorsports
Not making the trip to Nashville this year is Justin S. Carroll, whose #90 was withdrawn from the field at Charlotte shortly before practice and qualifying were both washed out, sending him home with the #93 of Caleb Costner. Costner is again entered this week.
CUP INVADERS: #45-Ross Chastain
Saturday, May 30, 2026 (Green Flag 7:35 P.M. ET, CW)
O’REILLY Race 16 of 33
Sports Illustrated Resorts 250 at Nashville
2025 Last-Place Finisher: Daniel Dye
ENTRY LIST
There are 38 drivers entered for as many spots, so all will qualify.
DRIVER CHANGE: #0-SS-Green Light Racing
Garrett Smithley returns to the #0 for the first time since his 300th career NASCAR start ended with heavy damage to the right-rear of his Chevrolet for a 31st-place finish in Dover. He takes the place of Cole Custer and the Haas Factory Team support with which Custer finished 8th in Charlotte. This will be only the second series start at Nashville for Smithley, who took 36th for JD Motorsports in 2024.
DRIVER SWAP: #1-JR Motorsports
DRIVER CHANGE: #91-DGM Racing x JIM
This will not be another triple-header for Connor Zilisch this week, following a 6th-place finish by Zilisch in the foggy mess that was last Saturday night’s race. Carson Kvapil returns to his familiar seat in the #1 looking to improve on his 9th-place run that night. Returning to the DGM Racing x JIM #91 in place of Kvapil is Mason Maggio with sponsor Nash Dogs, marking Maggio’s first series start since his 32nd in Texas.
MISSING: #9-JR Motorsports
Also not among this week’s entrants is last Saturday’s race winner Ross Chastain, who will still pull double-duty with the Truck Series as the lone Cup regular in tonight race.
DRIVER SWAP: #32-Jordan Anderson Racing
DRIVER CHANGE: #88-JR Motorsports
The lone Cup regular for Saturday will be two-time series champion Kyle Larson, marking his 125th series start and fifth of the year, his first since winning the Texas race. This again bumps Rajah Caruth out of the #88 in which he finished 10th in Charlotte and back into the #32 with neon yellow numbers, replacing 28th-place Charlotte finisher Andrew Patterson.
RETURNING: #33-Richard Childress Racing
Reminiscent of Neil Bonnett, who made his return to Cup Series racing one week after the death of Davey Allison in 1993, the following race weekend after the death of Kyle Busch becomes the second series start for Cleetus McFarland, whose O’Reilly effort happens to run the same car number as Busch’s former Cup team. Tommy’s Express Car Wash returns as sponsor of the #33, looking to improve on a challenging Rockingham debut that saw McFarland spin out multiple times and finish in the 32nd spot.
TEAM UPDATE: #35-Joey Gase Motorsports with Scott Osteen
MISSING: #74-Mike Harmon Racing
For the last few weeks, Mike Harmon Racing has withdrawn their #74, but still entered their car and team under the Joey Gase Motorsports banner with the #35. This week, the #74 was not entered at all. However, Harmon’s driver Dawson Cram is again the listed driver of Gase’s #35, which may mean the relationship has continued for at least another week. It was Cram’s blown engine, missed by NASCAR, which led to the leaders hitting the wall in Turns 1 and 2 late in last Saturday’s race.
DRIVER CHANGE: #42-Young’s Motorsports
Logan Bearden will make his 15th series start and first since Dover, where he ran RSS Racing’s unsponsored #38 Ford to a 35th-place finish with early brake issues. As J.J. Yeley is again driving that #38, Bearden reunites with Randy Young’s team for the first time since Bristol, where he enlisted the help of Brad Perez en route to a 33rd-place finish. Bearden takes the place of Nathan Byrd, who steered this team to a 26th-place showing in Charlotte.
DRIVER CHANGE: #92-DGM Racing x JIM
Welcome back Josh Williams, whose sponsor issues kept him out of Mario Gosselin’s #92 Chevrolet for these last three races, each week replaced by a different driver in Alex Guenette, B.J. McLeod, and Leland Honeyman, Jr. Honeyman drove last Saturday and took 15th in his series return. DPR Construction is Williams’ listed sponsor.
CUP INVADERS: #88-Kyle Larson
Sunday, May 31, 2026 (Green Flag 7:20 P.M. ET, PRIME)
CUP Race 14 of 36
Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville
2025 Last-Place Finisher: Ricky Stenhouse, Jr.
ENTRY LIST
There are 38 drivers entered for 40 spots, marking the 12th short field in 14 races run so far in 2026, and the fourth in a row since the most recent 40-car showing in Talladega.
TEAM UPDATE: #33-Richard Childress Racing
Austin Hill, who took 27th in last Sunday’s somber Coca-Cola 600, will again pilot the former Kyle Busch machine, which remains the #33 with returning sponsor BetMGM.
DRIVER CHANGE: #66-Garage 66
After a cockpit fire late in the 600 forced Timmy Hill to bail out of Carl Long’s #66 on pit road, the team’s Ford goes this week to a returning Chad Finchum with sponsorship from Garrison Homes. Finchum, who has recently released new t-shirt designs on his website, most recently finished 33rd in Texas.
MISSING: #78-Live Fast Motorsports
Not among this week’s Cup entrants is Katherine Legge, who despite her frustrations with her Indy 500 / Coca-Cola 600 “double” attempt did manage to overcome a loose wheel to finish Sunday’s race under power in the 31st spot, 12 laps down.
TODAY IN LASTCAR HISTORY (May 29, 1994): On the night Jeff Gordon scored his first career Winston Cup Series victory in the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte, Billy Standridge finished last after overheating issues on his #47 Standridge Auto Parts Ford after 126 laps.
