Drivers to watch in NASCAR Cup Series at Nashville

After the only off weekend of the regular season, the Cup Series returns to competition Sunday (5 p.m. ET, NBC) with a 399-mile race at Nashville Superspeedway near Lebanon, Tenn.

The race will be only the second Cup event at the 1.33-mile track. Kyle Larson won in runaway fashion in the track’s Cup debut last season. Previously, the Xfinity and Truck series raced at Nashville. They also are on this weekend’s schedule.

The Cup race will begin a 10-week, 10-race run to the end of the regular season. The 10-race playoffs are scheduled to begin Sept. 4 at Darlington Raceway in South Carolina.

Kyle Larson

Larson virtually defines the term “front runner” at Nashville. Last year he led 264 of the race’s 300 laps and won by 4.33 seconds, practically a calendar page in front of second-place Ross Chastain.

Larson is riding a 14-race winless streak and will run at Nashville with interim crew chief Kevin Meendering, who is replacing Cliff Daniels, who was suspended after Larson’s Chevrolet lost a wheel at Sonoma.

Ross Chastain

Chastain, one of only four drivers with multiple wins this season, finished second to winner Kyle Larson last year at Nashville in what developed as a fuel-mileage finish.

In the season’s past eight races, Chastain has finished eighth or better five times. He has seven top fives (including two wins) in the past 14 events.

William Byron

Byron, who has wins this season at Atlanta and Martinsville, has been relatively quiet recently. He has led 570 laps for the year, but 482 of those were logged in the first eight races. In the past eight races, Byron has led only 88 laps.

His Nashville run last year, however, puts him on the watch list for this weekend. Despite starting the race from the rear because of