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MORE: Gifts from Gordon’s final season | SHOP: Gordon Rainbow Warrior gear

Jeff Gordon‘s iconic No. 24 rainbow paint scheme is back for this Saturday’s IRWIN Tools Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The four-time champion has five career wins at Bristol, and a win on Saturday would lock him into the Chase Grid for the Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup.

How exactly did it all come together? Check it out with this video of the No. 24 paint scheme being wrapped, courtesy of Hendrick Motorsports.

Bristol Motor Speedway also unveiled on Friday that the track in 2016 will have the “Jeff Gordon Terrace,” a backstretch grandstand named after the legendary driver.

 

Charlotte Motor Speedway also announced Friday its upcoming tribute to Gordon. Leading up to the Oct. 10 Bank of America 500, the speedway is rolling out “Jeff’s Last Ride: A 24-Day Salute.” 

NASCAR licensed artist Sam Bass will create original artwork for the Bank of America 500 souvenir program as part of the salute, which also includes a 24-day social media campaign. Another highlight is a collection of iconic No. 24 race cars on display during the Charlotte Auto Fair Sept. 24-27.

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RELATED: Full starting lineup


Denny Hamlin was the car to beat in Friday’s Coors Light Pole Qualifying at Bristol Motor Speedway, leading all three rounds en route to his first career XFINITY pole at the Tennessee short track. Hamlin rounded the 0.533-mile oval at 126.896 mph in his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

Hamlin’s JGR teammate Kyle Busch will also start on the front row in tonight’s Food City 300 (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Busch used a fast lap of 126.312 mph to snag the runner-up spot in his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

Kevin Harvick, piloting the No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet this weekend, will roll off the grid third (126.021 mph), while Richard Childress Racing‘s Brian Scott will start fourth (125.996 mph). Points leader Chris Buescher rounded out the top five in his No. 60 Roush Fenway Racing Ford with a fast lap of 125.699 mph.

Practice leader Brendan Gaughan advanced to the second round, but wasn’t able to make the final round and will start 15th in tonight’s event.

Reigning series champion Chase Elliott advanced to the the final round and will roll off the grid 10th tonight.

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Practice 2 | Complete final practice results


After coming in third in opening practice, Kyle Busch‘s No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota rocketed around Bristol Motor Speedway and to the top of the leaderboard in Friday’s second practice session. “Rowdy” recorded a fast lap of 131.146 mph, a speed that rivals the previous qualifying track record Kevin Harvick set in 2014 (131.362 mph).

David Ragan made a late run to earn the second spot on the leaderboard, maneuvering his No. 55 Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota at 130.646 mph around the short track.

Having led the opening practice, Kyle Larson‘s fast lap of 130.018 mph allowed him to spend some time at the top of the leaderboard before setting for third on the board in his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Chevrolet.

Team Penske‘s Joey Logano came up next, wheeling a fast lap of 129.587 mph for the fourth position, while Joe Gibbs Racing‘s Denny Hamlin rounded out the top five (129.404 mph).

Reigning Sprint Cup Series champion Kevin Harvick posted the sixth-fastest speed, recording a high speed of 129.334 mph in his No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet.

Jimmie Johnson, Martin Truex Jr., Aric Almirola and Jeb Burton all experienced trouble in the opening session, but were back on track in the final session. Johnson led the corral, posting the ninth-fastest speed (129.073 mph) in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, while Martin Truex Jr.’s No. 78 Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet was 21st (127.724 mph).

Several drivers attempted qualifying runs during the second session, bringing several drivers’ speeds up from the previous session.

The Sprint Cup Series is back on track tonight at Bristol at 5:45 p.m. for Coors Light Pole Qualifying (NBCSN).

Practice 1: Complete opening practice results



Kyle Larson surged to the top of the leaderboard in the final minute of Friday’s Sprint Cup practice at Bristol Motor Speedway, propelling his No. 42 Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Chevrolet around the short track at 129.833 mph to lead the session.

Matt Kenseth also made a late run, briefly topping the leaderboard before settling into second with a fast lap of 128.597 mph from his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

The leader for the majority of the hour-and-a-half session, Kyle Busch came up third after Kenseth’s late run. “Rowdy” wheeled his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota around the short track at 128.580 mph.

Michael Waltrip Racing‘s Clint Bowyer (128.099 mph) and Joe Gibbs Racing‘s Carl Edwards (127.707 mph) rounded out the top five.

Wheeling the iconic No. 24 rainbow paint scheme at 126.637 mph, Jeff Gordon posted the 14th-fastest speed in the field. Chase Elliott, who will take Gordon’s place in the No. 24 ride next season, watched Gordon from the top of the No. 24 hauler following his own XFINITY practice.


Jimmie Johnson missed 38 minutes of the practice after his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet got up high on the track and made contact with the wall nine minutes into the session. He returned to the track and posted the 18th-fastest speed. Jeb Burton and Aric Almirola also hit the wall during the session.


Martin Truex Jr. slammed into the wall in the final 10 minutes of practice, forcing the No. 78 team to bring out the backup car.

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RELATED: Full NXS practice results from Bristol


Brendan Gaughan led NASCAR XFINITY Series practice Friday morning with a quick lap of 125.289 mph in the No. 62 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet at Bristol Motor Speedway.



Another RCR Chevrolet, the No. 33 of Brandon Jones, was quick at the end of practice, notching the second-fastest speed of 124.995 mph, edging out teammate Brian Scott. Scott’s No. 2 Camaro was third-fastest with a speed of 124.914 mph at the 0.533-mile concrete oval in Bristol, Tennessee, under clear skies.



Sprint Cup regulars Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch were fourth- and sixth-fastest, respectively, in their Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas. Hamlin’s No. 20 posted a speed of 124.897 mph, and Busch’s No. 54 was clocked at 124.549 mph.



Ty Dillon rounded out the top five in his No. 3 RCR Chevrolet, posting a fast lap of 124.792 mph. 



Series points leader Chris Buescher was eighth-fastest in the No. 60 Roush Fenway Racing Ford at 124.444 mph.



The Food City 300 is scheduled for 7:30 ET tonight (NBCSN/Live Extra, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR).

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AJ Allmendinger announced Friday morning at Bristol Motor Speedway that Bush’s Beans renewed its longtime partnership with his JTG Daugherty Racing No. 47 team.

“Earlier this year we announced Kroger, just here to announce that Bush’s Beans is coming back for a multiyear deal,” Allmendinger said. “They’ve been with the company for over a decade. It’s one of the best sponsors we have, especially when it comes to being family-oriented. They’ve been a family-oriented company for almost 107 years now.”



The NASCAR Sprint Cup Series driver, seeking his second consecutive Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup berth, will be driving his Bush’s Grillin’ Beans Chevrolet SS in Saturday’s Irwin Tools Night Race (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM) in his sponsor’s home state.

“Just to be able to announce that for another multiyear deal with them, especially in this day and age of sponsorship and continually keep trying to find sponsors to have such great sponsors like we do and to have them pumped up about our race team and come back for more years and hopefully a lot of great years to come, it’s great for us,” Allmendinger said.

Bush Brothers & Company, a family business for over 100 years ago in Chestnut Hill, Tennessee, considers his NASCAR partners to be part of the family.

“We are very excited to extend and expand our long-standing relationship with JTG Daugherty Racing,” Tom Ferriter, President and CEO, Bush Brothers & Company, said in a statement. “After 13 years, we think of Jodi (Geschickter), Tad, Brad (Daugherty), AJ and all of the No. 47 team as part of our family.



“We look forward to continuing to work with JTG Daugherty Racing for many more years to come. We are especially proud to make this announcement at Bristol Motor Speedway since East Tennessee has been home to Bush Brothers & Company since our company’s founding in 1908.”

Allmendinger will make his 15th career start in Thunder Valley, where he’s led 54 laps with a 25.4 average finish. His best result was 12th in the 2011 spring race. He sits 22nd in the standings and likely needs to win his way into the Chase with three races left in the regular season.

Posted on by Zack Albert

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Daniel Suarez said he’s already earmarked the $100,000 he collected Friday night through the NASCAR XFINITY Series Dash 4 Cash bonus program, aiming to put the money back into the restoration of his modest collection of vintage cars. But the 23-year-old driver owed much of his six-figure payday to a much newer car and a vintage performance.



Suarez endured a taxing 302 laps, an overtime finish and benefited from trouble to bonus contender Ryan Blaney to come home fifth in Friday’s Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway. His fourth top-five finish in the last seven XFINITY Series races bumped him up a spot to sixth in the championship standings and put more money into the Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 team’s coffers.



Suarez said he wasn’t keeping a mental log of where other Dash 4 Cash competitors were on the scoreboard, though the stray thought of clinching the bonus did pop into his head.



“We were trying to get better and I said, ‘Man, I think we’re in the spot right now.’ It was pretty good,” Suarez said. “You don’t have time to think about it, you have so many things going on with the race car, about the laps and everything. Sometimes, that crosses your mind to think you’re in the position to win this thing. I think it was great. Our 100 percent focus was to be better and better during the race and it’s how we finish. Thanks to the team and all the hard work, we ended up with a top-five.”



Suarez outlasted the remaining three drivers eligible for the Dash 4 Cash bonus at Bristol — among them Regan Smith, who finished ninth, and Elliott Sadler, who crashed out to a 31st-place result. But his fiercest competition for the enlarged check was 21-year-old Blaney, who had prevailed in Wednesday’s weekend opener for the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series.



Blaney rose as high as second in the running order and spent the bulk of the evening on the fringes of the top five. But his car developed problems as the race entered its final quarter with two loose rear wheels. Blaney finished five laps down after making two unscheduled green-flag stops — one to change the left-side rubber, then the next for the right — leaving him glum in 22nd place.



“I don’t know. I thought it was driveline-related, but I’ve never had two loose rear wheels so I didn’t know it was that bad,” Blaney said. “Thought it was driveline. It’s unfortunate. It sucks. …



“Dash 4 Cash was feeling really good and just gave it away.”



Suarez’s outing helped to set the field for the XFINITY Dash 4 Cash finale, scheduled in two weeks at Darlington Raceway — a track where Suarez has never raced. Richard Childress Racing drivers bracketed Suarez in the final rundown at Bristol, with Ty Dillon taking fourth and Brian Scott sixth. Defending series champion Chase Elliott completed the bonus-eligible quartet for Darlington with a seventh-place effort.



For Dillon, the performance had a pleasing side effect, allowing him to chop five points off the series lead held by Chris Buescher, who ran out of fuel while leading on the lone green-white-checkered restart and settled for 11th place.



“I felt like I passed a couple of cars seven times there at the end. Our car was just blistering fast,” Dillon said. “We had a good restart there and got our fourth top-five in a row, gained some points and we’re just chugging away at this thing. They’re slowly letting us back in it and we’re getting better and better.”

Posted on by Zack Albert

What: 55th annual Irwin Tools Night Race.

Where: Bristol Motor Speedway, .533-mile oval in Bristol, Tenn.

When: Saturday, Aug. 22, 7:30 p.m. ET.

TV/Radio: NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

Distance: 500 laps, 266.5 miles.  

Pit road speed: 30 mph.

Caution car speed: 35 mph.

Fuel window: 150 laps.

 

On the front row: | Full lineup

Denny Hamlin, Joe Gibbs Racing No. 11 Toyota (131.407 mph)

Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota (131.263 mph)

Did not qualify

Travis Kvapil, The Motorsports Group No. 30 Chevrolet; Jeb Burton, BK Racing No. 26 Toyota; Reed Sorensen, Premium No. 62 Motorsports Chevrolet

Fastest in practice

First practice: Kyle Larson, Chip Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates No. 42 Chevrolet (129.833 mph) | Results

Final practice: Kyle Busch, Joe Gibbs Racing No. 18 Toyota (131.146 mph). | Results

Driver rating (Best driver rating average at Bristol based on past 21 races):

Matt Kenseth (104.6)

Jeff Gordon (100.3)

Last year’s winner

Joey Logano, Team Penske No. 22 Ford.

Milestones in the mountains

Two drivers in the field will click off landmark starts in NASCAR’s premier series Saturday night. Ryan Newman is scheduled to make his 500th Sprint Cup appearance in Bristol’s annual night race, and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. will be making his 100th start in the series. For one of the two, the occasion came as a surprise. “I honestly had no idea until someone informed me of it this week,” Newman said. “500 is definitely a career milestone but for me, the biggest career start was my very first one. You got to have people who believe in you enough to just give you a chance and for that I am truly grateful.”

Gordon’s landmark

The return of the Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 Chevy’s rainbow paint scheme may be a ‘one weekend only’ occurrence, but Bristol Motor Speedway gave Jeff Gordon a sustaining gift Friday that will last ages. A swath of seats in the mammoth grandstands will be known as the Jeff Gordon Terrace, joining sections named for stock-car racing legends — Earnhardt, Allison, Petty, Pearson, Waltrip, Johnson, Wallace, Yarborough and Kulwicki.

  

History lesson

Then named Bristol International Speedway, the .533-mile track debuted with the Volunteer 500 on July 30, 1961. Jack Smith was credited with the inaugural victory, but he was behind the wheel for only the first 290 laps, giving way to relief driver Johnny Allen for the final 210 circuits in the searing summer heat.

They said it

“One in 43.” — Matt Kenseth on weighing his chances of securing a second consecutive Sprint Cup victory, and a Bristol season sweep, this weekend.

Former Bristol winners in field

Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Jeff Gordon (5); Matt Kenseth (4); Carl Edwards (3); Brad Keselowski (2); Dale Earnhardt Jr., Denny Hamlin, Kevin Harvick, Jimmie Johnson, Kasey Kahne, Joey Logano, Tony Stewart (1)

Posted on by Zack Albert

RELATED: Full series standings | Chase Grid

BRISTOL, Tenn. — In postseason terms, Aric Almirola is still an outsider, but not by much — just 23 points behind Clint Bowyer, the final driver on the provisional Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup playoff grid.
 
It would be easy, if not exactly sporting, for Almirola to rejoice about Bowyer’s short-term woes — a 41st-place finish last week at Michigan — and wider-scope issues — the impending breakup of Bowyer’s Michael Waltrip Racing team at season’s end. While opportunities exist for Almirola to capitalize, he’s not expecting his would-be Chase rivals to merely play out the string.
 
“There are two ways to look at it,” Almirola said after Friday’s final Sprint Cup practice at Bristol Motor Speedway. “One is, yeah, they may be vulnerable and guys are kind of distracted and they’re scrambling looking for jobs, but the other way to look at that is they don’t have anything to lose, so they can push all the gray areas as hard as they can and be really aggressive and what’s the worst that’s going to happen? They’re not going to lose their jobs because they’re already looking for work.
 
“There are a couple different ways to look at that and I think as hardcore racers as all those guys that he has on his team are, they’re not gonna lay down; they’re not gonna give up; they’re gonna fight hard; they’re gonna try and make the Chase. It’s about pride. Everybody in this garage area has egos and we all want to beat our competitors and I doubt any of those guys, Clint included, are going to lay down.”
 
Almirola aims to gain more Chase ground, starting with Saturday night’s Irwin Tools Night Race (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM), the third-to-last race of the Sprint Cup regular season. Besides Bowyer in front of him, he also has Kasey Kahne just three points off his heels with three unpredictable races — Bristol, Darlington, Richmond — looming on the schedule.
 
The fickle nature of all three tracks presents the opportunity for wild points swings, but Almirola would prefer to get to the Chase on the merits of performance. Richard Petty Motorsports‘ season-long search for speed in Almirola’s No. 43 and teammate Sam Hornish Jr.’s No. 9 has made that a more difficult prospect.
 
“We’ve had a few setbacks that were costly to us, but all in all we’ve had 15th-place cars and we’ve been running top-15 with them,” Almirola said. “That’s really all we can do. The guys back at the shop are working extremely hard and so is everybody else in the garage area to bring better cars to the race track every weekend. We’ve just been playing catch-up all year long. I’m really proud of everybody at RPM, but the moral of the story is we just need more speed in our cars and as we work harder and harder and continue to get more speed in our cars, our results will reflect that.”
 
One factor that has made matters trickier — opening-day pitfalls in back-to-back race weekends. This Friday, Almirola made contact with the outside retaining wall in opening practice, forcing his RPM crew into repair mode to keep his primary car intact. But it hardly compares with last weekend’s adversity, which left him ailing and infirm in Michigan’s infield care center.
 
After missing portions of practice last weekend, Almirola rallied for a 14th-place finish in the Pure Michigan 400. This weekend, he’s happy to leave his ailment several states away.
 
“I’m back to 100 percent but my goodness was that rough,” Almirola said. “I never felt so bad in a long time. I had some sort of 24-hour stomach virus and it was maybe a little longer than 24 hours, maybe 36 hours, and I was down for the count. I was laying in the infield care center on Thursday night from 11 to maybe 2:30 in the morning getting IVs and went back to the bus and got a little bit of sleep, but woke up every half-hour with throwing up or whatever and you know what the other is, so it was a long night.
 
“I got back up the next morning and went back to get some more IVs and I watched the first hour of practice laying on my couch in my motorhome and it was all I could do to gather myself up and get over to the garage and make a couple laps at practice.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

RELATED: Full race results | Updated series standings


BRISTOL, Tenn. — When Chris Buescher‘s Ford faltered on a green-white-checkered restart on Friday night at Bristol Motor Speedway, Kyle Busch took full advantage, as is his custom.
 
In a Food City 300 that went to two laps of overtime at the .533-mile short track, Busch finished .427 seconds ahead of Kyle Larson, as Buescher faded to 11th after his car failed to pick up fuel off Turn 2 of the next-to-last lap.
 
The victory was Busch’s third of the season in the NASCAR XFINITY Series, his eighth at Bristol and the 73rd of his career, extending his own series record.
 
“This is home — this is where I’m supposed to be,” Busch said, standing outside the car in Victory Lane. “I wish I was here Wednesday night (after the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race), so we could continue the sweep lookout for (Saturday), but that was a second place. Oh, well.”
 
Polesitter Denny Hamlin ran third, followed by Ty Dillon and Daniel Suarez, who got a bonus for his top-five run. As the highest finishing eligible driver in the XFINITY Dash 4 Cash program, Suarez picked up an extra $100,000.
 
Pit strategy put Buescher at the front of the field under the fourth caution of the race, caused by Cale Conley‘s spin in Turn 4. Staying out on older tires while most of the lead-lap cars came to pit road for fresh rubber and fuel, Buescher nevertheless pulled away from Busch during a succession of restarts, as Busch saved his equipment for what he thought would be the inevitable late-race caution.
 
“I let the 60 (Buescher) go,” Busch said. “He ran out there to about a straightaway on us, and I was just trying to save and do what I could to keep my tires underneath me. I knew we were going to get some cautions at the end to bunch us back up, and fortunately we did.
 
“I wasn’t sure they were going to make it on fuel (having pitted on lap 131 of 302), and obviously they cut it close — a little too close.”
 
Busch got the yellow he needed, just in time. Brad Teague‘s wreck on the frontstretch with five laps left set up the green-white-checkered and gave Busch the chance he needed.
 
Buescher, who saw his series lead shrink to 19 points over Ty Dillon, knew he could have made it to the end on fuel, had the race not gone to overtime.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

RELATED: Complete starting lineup

BRISTOL, Tenn. — If it’s pole day in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, Joe Gibbs Racing must be celebrating.



Denny Hamlin powered his No. 11 Toyota around .533-mile Bristol Motor Speedway in 14.602 seconds (131.407 mph) on Friday to win the pole for Saturday’s Irwin Tools Night Race (on NBCSN at 7:30 p.m. ET).



In breaking Kevin Harvick‘s August 2014 track qualifying record by .005 seconds, Hamlin won his second Coors Light Pole Award of the season, his third at Bristol and the 22nd of his career.



JGR swept the top three spots in qualifying for the second straight week, having accomplished the feat last Saturday on the two-mile track at Michigan International Speedway. The pole was JGR’s fifth straight on an oval track (AJ Allmendinger, in a JTG Daugherty Chevrolet, claimed the top starting spot for the Aug. 9 race on the road course at Watkins Glen).



Hamlin edged teammate Kyle Busch (131.263 mph) by .016 seconds. Carl Edwards (130.655 mph) took the third starting spot, followed by David Ragan in a Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota (130.460 mph) and Joey Logano in a Team Penske Ford (130.344 mph).



Hamlin also won the pole for Friday night’s NASCAR XFINITY Series race.



“To have that two nights in a row here is hopefully going to pay dividends,” Hamlin said. “We’re excited. Bristol’s been a great track for me in the past, and we’ve got nothing to lose this weekend, just gearing up for the Chase, so I think our FedEx team’s ready.”



Hamlin has a victory at Bristol in addition to his two poles, and with a Chase for the NASCAR Sprint Cup position guaranteed by virtue of his victory at Martinsville in April, he can go all-out for a win on Saturday night without fear of consequences.



Busch fought handling issues in the final two rounds of knockout qualifying and went for broke on his final attempt in the last round.



“We were just a little too free there the second segment and the first run of the third segment,” Busch said. “It’s a little edgy up there, so you try not to push too hard, but still make a good lap and come back safely.



“Then there at the end we tried a ‘Hail Mary’ and it worked. It picked us up speed, but it didn’t pick us up that spot.”



Brad Keselowski, Kevin Harvick, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Clint Bowyer and Jimmie Johnson grabbed the sixth through 10th spots on the grid, respectively. The qualifying effort was Stenhouse’s best of the year.



Jeff Gordon will start 24th in his last race at Bristol as a full-time Sprint Cup driver. Travis Kvapil, Jeb Burton and Reed Sorenson failed to make the 43-car field.