NASCAR at Nashville live updates: Chase Elliott wins Stage 1

The NASCAR Cup race at Nashville Superspeedway is today. The Ally 400 starts at 3:30 p.m. on NBCSN.

The race is 399 miles (300 laps) with stages ending on laps 90, 185 and 300. All times are Eastern.

We’ll have the latest updates here. Follow NASCAR reporter Alex Andrejev on Twitter at @AndrejevAlex.

Stage 2

5:27 p.m., Lap 116: The running order is Kyle Larson, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Denny Hamlin, Ross Chastain, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Kevin Harvick, Christopher Bell, Aric Almirola and Matt DiBenedetto.

5:18 p.m., Lap 100: Kyle Larson lines up in the front row for the restart and grabs the lead after the green flag. A few laps into the stage, Stenhouse Jr. takes second place from Kyle Busch as Larson leads. Denny Hamlin then passes Busch for third. Martin Truex Jr. has to restart at the rear for not being single file entering pit road earlier during the stage break.

Stage 1

5:10 p.m., Lap 90: With under 10 laps to go in the stage, Chase Elliott jumps out to the lead, holding off Kurt Busch in second after the caution. Elliott wins the stage for his second stage win of the season. Kyle Larson passed Daniel Suárez for third and Kyle Busch raced up to fifth. The finishing order of the stage is Elliott, Kurt Busch, Larson, Suárez, Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Joey Logano, Brad Keselowski and Matt DiBenedetto in the top-10 for points.

4:58 p.m., Lap 80: A caution comes out for two cars going into the wall nearly simultaneously, although they don’t make contact. Chris Buescher crashes after running over what the team believes was a brake rotor from Justin Haley’s car. Both teams appear to be done for the day. On pit road, Alex Bowman and Corey LoJoie get speeding penalties. Seven drivers up front, Chase Elliott, Kurt Busch, Erik Jones, Daniel Suárez, Brad Keselowski, Austin Dillon and Ryan Preece stay out.

4:49 p.m., Lap 66: The race goes green, with Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott leading, but Busch starts falling back. Elliott moves to second around Busch, then gets passed by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. His brother, Kurt Busch, is on his tail now. Busch is not happy with his car, calling it a “bucket of F—.”

Story continues

4:40 p.m., Lap 55: Ryan Blaney’s day ends early. He gets into the outside wall, saying the “rotor blew out” to bring out the next caution and exits his vehicle. Just before the flag, Kyle Larson passed Kyle Busch for first place.

4:25 p.m., Lap 48: Tyler Reddick brings out the caution while drivers are on pit road. He spun on the access road and says there’s dirt on the inside of his windshield. The order is Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, Joey Logano, Chase Elliott, Kurt Busch and Aric Almirola for the restart. No. 5 crew chief Cliff Daniels tells Larson that his late call cost him some time and allowed Busch to pass them while on pit road, but they’re not behind by a lot.

4:19 p.m., Lap 30: Kyle Larson continues to lead. He’s up by 1.2 seconds on Kyle Busch. Then the order is Aric Almirola, Joey Logano, Cole Custer, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Matt DiBenedetto and Chase Elliott. Elliott says he’s lacking front turn.

4:11 p.m., Lap 15: Joey Logano radios to his team to check the right front after what appears to be contact with Aric Almirola. Ryan Blaney and Erik Jones have jumped up 11 positions after starting at the rear. Blaney says the track very slick after wiggling and his team tells him to take care of it and they’ll “take care of it.”

4:07 p.m., Lap 8: Kyle Larson surges to the lead after the restart. He lined up behind Busch on the outside, then sliced between Busch and Almirola for the lead. Busch drops to second, Almirola drops to third and Joey Logano is in fourth.

4:02 p.m., Lap 1: The race goes green briefly before the first caution comes out for a tire carcass that’s come off Quin Houff’s No. 00 car. Before the start Ryan Blaney drops to the rear on pace laps. He pits before the green flag due to damage to his left rear fender and gets back out for the start. Through the opening turns, Kyle Busch takes the lead from Aric Almirola as Chase Elliott moves to the outside to take the field three wide.

Pre-race ceremonies

3:50 p.m.: Pre-race ceremonies are complete and include a six-jet flyover. Twelve-time Grammy winner CeCe Winans delivers the pre-race invocation and Music City rising star Priscilla Block performs the national anthem. Country music artist Luke Combs then delivers the command to fire engines. The grandstands look close to full at the track with a weekend capacity of just under 40,000 people.

Race start delayed 10 minutes due to traffic

3:15 p.m: Traffic surrounding the track in Lebanon, Tenn. will cause NASCAR to delay the start of the race by 10 minutes to allow more fans to arrive before the green flag. The green flag is now scheduled to wave at 3:55 p.m. Traffic flow was reportedly an issue during earlier races this weekend.

Alvin Kamara joins NASCAR with a new role

2 p.m.: Alvin Kamara — yes, that Alvin Kamara; The NFL’s New Orleans Saints running back — announced Sunday that he’s joined NASCAR as the sport’s first Growth & Engagement Advisor. Kamara is at the track in Lebanon, Tenn. ahead of Sunday’s Cup race and told reporters that he has an office and keycard.

“I never had a job besides the NFL, so I’ve got two jobs now,” Kamara said. “(Saints head coach) Sean Payton is gonna have to give me some downtime.”

Kamara’s juice company, The Big Squeezy, sponsored an Xfinity Series car driven by Ryan Vargas for the race at the Daytona road course. Kamara became a major champion of the sport last year in response to NASCAR’s social justice advocacy and met with NASCAR president Steve Phelps during his first race at Homestead-Miami Speedway. He also attended this year’s Daytona 500.

Three cars dropping to the rear

1:30 p.m.: NASCAR announces that three cars will drop to the rear for the start of today’s race; Those three cars are driven by Erik Jones, who scrubbed the wall during qualifying, William Byron and Quin Houff. All three teams will drop to the back for the start due to unapproved adjustments. Byron was slated to start fourth, Jones was ninth and Houff was last.

Aric Almirola wins the pole

11:50 a.m.: No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing driver Aric Almirola posted the fastest single qualifying lap this morning to win the pole position for this afternoon’s race. Almirola’s qualifying time was 29.557 seconds. He sits 28th in NASCAR’s point standings and earned his third pole start in his career. Almirola will start ahead of Kyle Busch in the front row. Joey Logano, William Byron, Kyle Larson, Chase Elliott, Cole Custer, Alex Bowman, Erik Jones and Ryan Blaney will also start in the top-10.

NASCAR at Nashville qualifying results and starting lineup

# rookie

How to watch NASCAR at Nashville

Race: Ally 400

When: Sunday, June 20

When: race at 3:30 p.m. ET

TV: NBCSN

Radio: MRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Distance: 399 miles (300 laps) with stages ending on laps 90, 185 and 300

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