Track: Bristol Motor Speedway
Location: Bristol, Tennessee
Track length: 0.533 miles
When: Sunday, 3 p.m. ET
Where to tune in: FS1, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Race purse: $11,055,250
Race distance: 500 laps | 266.5 miles
Stages: 125 | 250 | 500
Defending winner: Denny Hamlin, March 2024
Starting lineup: Alex Bowman wins Busch Light Pole
‘Last Great Colosseum’ set to deliver in Thunder Valley
There is no place in sports like Bristol Motor Speedway.
A half-mile, high-banked, full-bore concrete bullring, Bristol is an arena steeped in history, legend and lore. That, in part, is what makes winning here so special — conquering the competition in the same theater where greats like Waltrip, Earnhardt and Gordon rose to fame.
MORE: Cup Series standings | Full 2025 schedule
The stars of today feel that same allure. Denny Hamlin, 11th all-time in NASCAR Cup Series wins, is chasing his third consecutive Cup win and has won two of the last three races at Bristol. Kyle Busch has scored an astounding eight victories at the concrete canyon. Kyle Larson has won two of the last five races at Bristol with top 10s in 10 of the last 11. Yet, for all their laps around the stadium-like oval, the aura of Bristol never dissipates.
Joey Logano, the defending and three-time Cup champion, has been racing Cup cars at Bristol since 2009. Sixteen years and two Bristol wins later, walking into the track still sparks a fire within Logano that no other venue elicits.
“It’s the ‘wow’ factor, right?” Logano said Saturday. “It’s the badass factor of what this place is. I think that’s what stands out, right? Whether it’s the fans all the way around here — it’s ‘The Last Great Colosseum,’ right?”
That sentiment is shared through the Cup garage. From helmet throws to bump-and-runs to post-race altercations, moments at Bristol live in the world of myths.
“It’s an iconic venue,” said Tyler Reddick. “Iconic moments have happened here. This place has just been a staple of NASCAR racing for so long and it’s grown with the growth of NASCAR over the decades. From my perspective, this is a place that I’ve gotten to come and watch races at when I was younger, and I’d be glued to the television watching this race as a kid.
“The intense moments, the iconic moments, the tight battles. Anywhere on the race track, especially for the leaders, it seems like the leaders are always managing lapped traffic, battling something. It just feels like at any moment, chaos can unfold. Or at any moment, a mistake can happen to change the lead. It just feels like this place puts you on the edge of your seat.”
RELATED: Bristol’s most memorable moments
Even experienced veterans feel the intensity of Bristol walking into the building.
“The feelings are nerves,” Ross Chastain said. “Instant stomach twists. Just an intimidating place. I watched the truck race (Friday) night. I don’t understand how that many trucks and drivers can do what they’re doing and not crash more. And then once I get on track, it’s a little simpler. It’s a daunting place to walk into. I was wishing I had on-track time (Friday) so I could settle down. Once I get on track, then I’m OK. But every time walking in here, something’s twisted.”
“It’s a place that, I’m gonna say, it’s impossible to fake,” Christopher Bell said. “Like you’re not gonna come here and run well and not be a talented driver. So aside from the atmosphere, the fans, the facility itself, it’s just the race track and what it takes to be successful around this race track.”
MORE: Full Saturday recap
From atop the pit box …
What do crew chiefs and pit crews have in focus to win Sunday’s race?
The 2024 Bristol spring race produced one of the most unpredictable days in the track’s 63 years of racing. Heavy tire wear forced drivers and teams to manage the severe lap-time fall-off, with some drivers firing off too quickly and burning their tires to shreds while others conserved their Goodyear rubber and maximized their durability.
MORE: Flashback: Bristol wows with record lead changes, unexpected strategy
Last year, Chris Gayle was atop the box for then-sophomore Ty Gibbs. The No. 54 car led 137 laps but ultimately faded to ninth as more veteran drivers optimized their tire wear. Now, Gayle is working with Hamlin, who managed the wear best to win the 2024 race and is in the midst of his 20th full-time Cup season.
Gayle’s belief Saturday morning was that last spring’s race was an outlier and that tire wear wouldn’t be as excessive this spring. By his estimation, three aspects presented unique variabilities: the particular batch of tires used, traction compound and cold temperatures.
This weekend’s Goodyear tire is the same that was used in last spring’s race — but it was also used in the 2023 and 2024 fall races, in which tires wore far less aggressively and far more predictably. PJ1 Trackbite has been laid upon the track’s bottom groove this year instead of last year’s resin. And Saturday’s 52-degree Fahrenheit high temperatures were even cooler than last year’s 63-degree high.
By the end of Saturday’s practice, teams indicated tire wear would indeed be a significant factor Sunday afternoon as tires corded within 50 laps.
“I don’t think anybody went more than I think I saw 45 laps on one car, and the tire wear was definitely a lot higher than we expected,” Gayle told NASCAR.com after practice. “So we’ll see something in between the spring and the fall last year is what it looks like potentially.”
MORE: Explaining this week’s track prep for Bristol
Gayle’s pre-practice beliefs were largely shared throughout the garage, but there, too, was a lingering hesitation after last spring’s surprise.
Chris Buescher and the No. 17 RFK Racing team were among a small number of teams testing tires over the summer, trying to solve for those variables. Crew chief Scott Graves has been trying to land on which direction Sunday’s race will go based on that information.
“Last fall, we came here not sure what we were going to have with tires based on the spring race,” Graves told NASCAR.com. “And we anticipated more of the tire wear issues and I’d say we almost detuned our cars a little bit trying to account for some of that. We brought some different things and it wasn’t as good, and then we didn’t end up having tire issues. So we kind of reverted back more to some of our past stuff in hopes that we don’t have the tire issues. It’s kind of an unknown.”
The application of the PJ1 Trackbite was a factor in that test session, though, giving the No. 17 team a notebook to work off for Sunday’s race.
“That was one thing we had when we did that test in the summertime to try to see if we could recreate the issues,” Graves said. “We were having a lot of tire wear, and then they put some PJ1 down on the bottom, and it didn’t fix it, but it got noticeably better when we did that. So I feel like it helps.”
In preparation for the increased tire wear, NASCAR notified teams Sunday it has added an extra set of Goodyear tires to teams’ allotment, bringing the total number of sets available to 11 — 10 sets of fresh tires in addition to teams’ qualifying tires. That is the same number of sets teams ended the 2024 spring race with.
RELATED: See where drivers will pit for Sunday’s race
History tells us …
With heavy tire wear, slow down to go fast. Last year’s pair of Bristol visits presented a tale of two races. The average lap speed of the March 2024 contest was just 79.678 mph, slowed by excessive wear, nine cautions and 98 caution laps. In contrast, the September night race saw just five cautions with an average speed of 101.277 mph. But with so much wear came a track-record 54 lead changes in March — nearly seven times more than September’s eight.
He may not be the favorite to win, but watch out for …
TY GIBBS. Coming off his first top-10 finish since September 2024, Gibbs could be a threat for his first career Cup win on Sunday. The third-year driver has led more than 100 laps in two of his last three starts at Bristol with one top five and two top 10s in those efforts. His 2025 season has not gotten off to the best start, but momentum in his sails heading into one his best tracks could be exactly what Gibbs needs to start a new roll of success.
Fantasy update
NASCAR Fantasy Live expert Dustin Albino provides insight for your Sunday lineup.
With significant tire wear in practice, shades of the spring 2024 Bristol race were on display Saturday. Experience prevailed in last year’s first Bristol race, with the top three drivers in the finishing order each being north of 40 years old. With the unknown, it makes fantasy more of a guessing game. I’ve added polesitter Alex Bowman to my lineup in place of Chris Buescher. My entire lineup is filled with drivers from Hendrick Motorsports and Joe Gibbs Racing.
Lineup: Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, Chase Elliott, Alex Bowman.
Garage: Ty Gibbs.
RELATED: More deep dives in Fantasy Fastlane
Speed reads
Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles.
– Jesse Love making Cup debut at Bristol: Xfinity regular leaning on Cup veterans in preparation | Read more
– Racing Insights: Full finishing order projections for Sunday’s Food City 500 | Read more
– Turning Point to Bristol: Which contenders are already in must-win mode? | Read more
– Scenes and snapshots: Best photos from a tripleheader weekend at Bristol | View gallery
– NASCAR Classics: Rewind with full-race replays from the Bristol archives | Watch races
– Paint Scheme Preview: All the schemes set to hit the track in Thunder Valley | View gallery