Food City 500
(⏰ Sunday, 3:30 p.m. ET | FOX | PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio)
Weekend schedule | TV schedule | Weather tracker | NASCAR 101
Location: Bristol, Tennessee
Track length: 0.533 mile
Cup Series race purse: $8,182,531
Race distance: 500 laps | 266.5 miles
Stages: 125 | 250 | 500
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Starting lineup: Blaney wins pole position
Pit stall assignments: See where drivers will pit
Defending winner: Christopher Bell, April 2023 (dirt)
Key things to watch
Saturday session
Ryan Blaney dominated Saturday by winning the pole, leading practice and topping the charts in 10-lap averages. This continues a hot streak for Blaney, who has rolled off three straight top-five finishes this season and is leading the series standings. However, he hasn’t won a race yet in 2024. That could very well change on Sunday.
Josh Berry will join Blaney on the front row, and that’s a step in the right direction for the rookie driver for Stewart-Haas Racing. However, Berry will have to improve his long-run speed in order to be a factor in the final outcome. He was 26th in practice and 24th in 10-lap averages.
It’s interesting to note that Berry’s best career finish came on a short track, a second-place showing last year at Richmond Raceway in a substitute role.
Big story line
What can we expect now that the spring race at Bristol is back on concrete?
More unpredictability than usual thanks to a few different factors. The Next Gen car has never raced on concrete here in the spring, and this year’s race is scheduled to take place during the afternoon hours instead of at night.
Add in the fact that NASCAR has put down a resin on the bottom lane of the track, and it will likely mean the teams that manage all these variables the best will have the highest probability of ending up in Victory Lane.
“We all have done it before; we’ve all done the spring concrete race here at Bristol,” Ryan Blaney said. “It’s just a matter of they put that resin down on the bottom. How long does it last? How long does your car run on it? It’s a different kind of material, so we’re trying to figure that out.”
Another thing to keep in mind is that a driver’s stats at Bristol pre-Next Gen car may not hold as much water now. Kyle Busch, for example, leads active drivers with eight Bristol wins on the concrete but has finishes of 34th and 20th on the surface in the Next Gen car.
“The car really changes a lot for me,” said Busch, when asked about his confidence level entering the weekend. “We won here with this car on the dirt, but since we’ve been bringing the new Next Gen to the concrete surface, I have not found my way with it yet. I definitely have a way of understanding this place and having a sense of setup and how to drive it with the old stuff, but not with the new stuff. We’ll see how this weekend goes.”
One thing that hasn’t changed about Bristol are the physical and mental demands the track puts on drivers. Sunday’s race figures to test the limits of drivers in both areas, and that might lead to some frayed nerves.
“I think this is one of the more physically demanding races that we go to just because you never get a break,” Blaney said. “You never get a rest on the straightaway. Even at Phoenix last week you have some time to shake everything out and take a breath. But here, you don’t have any of that. You’re constantly just getting shoved into the seat, and you’re never by yourself. You’re always trying to pass somebody or try to hold somebody off. … That’s where the mental exhaustion comes from.”
History tells us…
That there should be a different winner for Sunday’s race because the last five concrete races have produced five different winners from five different teams.
When looking for clues for a new winner, Bubba Wallace’s name jumps out from Saturday. The driver of the No. 23 Toyota for 23XI Racing posted the ninth-fastest qualifying time and had the third-fastest time on 10-lap runs.
Wallace has qualified in the top 10 in his last four short-track races. Plus, two of his three career top-10 finishes on short tracks have come in his last six races. Perhaps Wallace is due to end one of these short-track races in Victory Lane and become a new winner at Bristol.
He may not be the betting favorite to win, but watch out for…
Michael McDowell. Looking for another upset special? Check out McDowell, who opened the week at 60-1 odds to win, according to DraftKings. The driver of the No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford was seventh-fastest in practice and qualifying. Like Wallace, McDowell is on the uptick at short tracks with two sixth-place finishes in the past five races. | Bristol odds
Speed reads
Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles.
– Turning Point: Trends from Phoenix, heading to Bristol | Read article
– Aiming for 80,000: Breaking down Hendrick Motorsports’ laps led | Photo gallery
– Back to concrete: Drivers eager to get back on the hard stuff | Read article
– Logano not low: Team Penske driver remains upbeat despite start | Read article
– Suspensions to begin: RFK Racing drops No. 17 team’s appeal | Read article
– NASCAR Classics: Picks to click from our video library for Bristol viewing | Read article
– 36 for 36: NASCAR survivor pool selections for Bristol | Read article
– High times on high banks: Relive Bristol Motor Speedway’s biggest moments | See the photos
– Springtime winners: Going all the way back to 1972 | Photo gallery
– Fearless prediction:Racing Insights projects the final race results | Read article
– Fantasy Fastlane: Lineup advice for Bristol | Sleepers, drivers to avoid
– Paint Scheme Preview: Outdoorsy looks for Trackhouse | Pick a favorite
– Power Rankings: Gibbs looks to be on verge of victory | Latest driver rankings
– At-track photos: Scenes, sights from fastest half-mile | Photo gallery
– Old-school details: Bristol throws it back with wall look | See the photos
Fast facts ⏩
Race-relevant statistics, brought to you by the experts at Racing Insights.
– The race winner has led over 100 laps in each of the last five Bristol races.
– Four Bristol races were won with a last-lap pass, but the last was August 1999 when Dale Earnhardt passed Terry Labonte after he “rattled his cage.”
– Ford leads all manufactures with four short-track wins in the Next Gen car.