What to Watch: Bristol presents opportunity for another historic race

Posted on April 12, 2025April 13, 2025 by Zach Sturniolo

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?”

Jonathan Bachman | Getty Images

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.”

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.

Cameron Richardson | NASCAR Digital Media

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.

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.

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

Posted on April 12, 2025April 12, 2025 by Reid Spencer

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Pole winner Kyle Larson brought a bazooka to Saturday’s shootout at Bristol Motor Speedway.

His 37 opponents brought pea shooters to the “Last Great Colosseum” — or so it seemed, given the degree of domination Larson exhibited in winning the SciAps 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race.

The driver of the No. 17 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet led 277 of 300 laps in securing his first victory in two series starts this season, his second at Bristol and the 16th of his career. At the finish, there were only 12 cars on the lead lap.

Larson finished 2.054 seconds ahead of Carson Kvapil, who passed series leader Justin Allgaier for second place in traffic on Lap 298. Allgaier held third and collected his record seventh $100,000 Xfinity Dash 4 Cash bonus as the highest finisher among four eligible drivers.

To Larson, the victory was a fitting tribute to his friend and PR representative, Jon Edwards, who passed away suddenly during the week leading up to the Bristol race weekend.

“It’s awesome,” said Larson, who finished second in Friday night’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race. “I wish I could have won last night — just came up a little bit short. It’s cool to get a win this weekend for Jon and everybody who’s been a part of his life.

“We’ve got one more tomorrow (in Sunday’s Food City 500 NASCAR Cup race). There’d be nothing better than to cap it off with a Cup win for Jon and all of Hendrick Motorsports. … I’ve got a great car there for (Sunday). We’ve just got to execute like we did today.”

Kvapil matched his career-best finish, having run second at Dover last year. His No. 1 JR Motorsports Chevrolet was at its best in the closing laps.

“We just kept working on it and made it better and better every pit stop,” Kvapil said. “I felt like toward the end we had a pretty fast car, but there was just so much traffic, it was hard to really get into a good rhythm.”

Sammy Smith ran fourth, as JR Motorsports drivers took the three positions behind Larson and locked into Dash 4 Cash eligibility for next Saturday’s race at Rockingham, along with fifth-place finisher Brandon Jones of Joe Gibbs Racing.

Larson was cruising to a wire-to-wire victory in the first stage, having lapped Jeb Burton in the 14th position, when Sheldon Creed’s Ford spun sideways off Turn 4 after a bump from Dean Thompson’s Toyota.

Charging through the corner behind the spin, Brennan Poole couldn’t avoid Creed’s car, and his Chevrolet collided with Creed’s Mustang in a vicious crash that destroyed both machines and eliminated two of the four eligible Dash 4 Cash drivers from the race.

Both drivers were evaluated and released from the infield care center. “For Brennan’s sake, it happens so quick,” Creed said. “And I was sitting right there in the middle of the track.”

NASCAR red-flagged the race for 14 minutes 8 seconds, and Larson lost the 3.4-second lead he held over second-place Allgaier and the advantage of more than 10 seconds over Connor Zilisch in third.

After the red flag was lifted, Larson and Allgaier paced the lead-lap cars to pit road—with the exceptions of Sam Mayer and Ryan Sieg, who stayed on the track and finished 1-2 in Stage 1 after a three-lap dash that ended on Lap 85.

Larson finished third in Stage 1, and after Mayer and Sieg pitted during the break, Larson regained the top spot for a restart on Lap 97. The clinic continued, with Larson winning Stage 2 — his 17th stage win in the series — by nearly nine seconds over Allgaier.

After pit stops and wave-arounds, 16 drivers took the green flag for the final stage on the lead lap, and Allgaier snatched the top spot from Larson moments after the Lap 182 restart.

It didn’t last. Ten circuits later, Larson gave Allgaier’s Chevy a bump in Turn 1, moved him up the track and shot past into the lead. Allgaier kept Larson within shouting range until the lapped car of Mason Massey blocked Allgaier’s line off Turn 4 and turned sideways near the start/finish line after contact between the Camaros.

Collected in the incident and eliminated from the race was the Toyota of William Sawalich, who had been running in the top 10.

MORE: Allgaier pockets second bonus | Dash 4 hub page

For Allgaier, the Dash 4 Cash bonus was something of a consolation prize.

“I’m just bummed about the day a little bit, to come out of here in third,” he said. “You know, I had the mistake there with the lapped car, and I wish it had gone green, because it probably would have helped us…

“But to lock three of the four (JR Motorsports drivers) into the next Dash 4 Cash is huge. I got out front there, and I just felt like we needed a little bit more to keep up with Kyle. He was obviously really good, and his pace in traffic was phenomenal.”

The final Dash 4 Cash race will take place Saturday, April 19 at Rockingham Speedway in the North Carolina Education Lottery 250 presented by Black’s Tire (4 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Kvapil, Allgaier, Smith and Jones are eligible for the last bonus of the 2025 season.

Contributing: Staff reports

Note: Post-race inspection in the Xfinity Series garage was completed with no issue, confirming Larson as the race winner. The No. 7 Chevrolet had one lug nut not safe and secure, which will result in a monetary fine.

Posted on April 12, 2025April 12, 2025 by Cameron Richardson

BRISTOL, Tenn. — The saying goes “two’s company, three’s a crowd,” but at Roush Fenway Keselowski Racing, three’s been good company.

The expansion to a third full-time team can be a daunting task for an organization with having to make room in their shop, hire new employees to work on the car and find a driver that fits the brand. So far in 2025, RFK has found its perfect fit in Ryan Preece.

Eight races through his first season piloting the No. 60 Ford, Preece has arguably been the breakout driver of the first quarter with three top 10s, including a third-place result at Las Vegas which matched a career-high at the Cup level. When it comes to meshing with teammates Chris Buescher and Brad Keselowski, Preece touted the balance and insight all three can provide at all track disciplines.

“What I’ve liked is each one of us has something that the other one could use to a certain extent,” Preece said Saturday at Bristol. “Brad’s super detailed. Chris is just really freaking good at road courses and mile-and-a-halves. I’m good at short tracks and I feel like we all complement what the program is working to be.”

Preece has used what he’s learned from Keselowski and Buescher to turn in two top 10s at 1.5-mile tracks in Vegas and Homestead, already tying the most top 10s Preece has had in a single season at intermediate ovals (2024, Nashville and Homestead).

With Buescher snagging five top 10s in his own right already in 2025, Preece has welcomed the challenge of competition among his teammates that makes them all better, even if it’s extracurricular activities.

“The willingness of all of us to push each other … we actually went on a team bike ride here and all of us bike a lot,” Preece noted. “It was just funny. We were all racing to get back before the rain. Each one of us tried putting it in high gear and pushing and going faster than one another. That was the thing I liked about it.”

The RFK trio all showed top-10 speed last weekend at Darlington until a tire issue and an untimely caution stifled the final results for Keselowski (33rd) and Preece (26th), respectively.

They will look for the speed to carry over to Bristol, where RFK has been stellar since the rebrand of the organization in 2022.

Buescher won the 2022 Bristol Night Race and has tallied two top 10s since, including a seventh-place result in the spring race last year after starting 34th. With conditions so far looking akin to last year’s spring race, there’s some déjà vu entering Sunday’s 500-lapper as Buescher will start 24th. Keselowski finished third in the same event while Preece finished 14th with the now-defunct Stewart-Haas Racing.

With several other Cup organizations expanding to a third car this season like 23XI Racing, Trackhouse Racing and Front Row Motorsports, Buescher has been most impressed with how RFK Racing is adapting.

“[We] had a lot of speed at a lot of different places for two years now and we’ve talked about that being a big high point for us at RFK,” Buescher said. “Adding a third team is tricky, and typically, there’s a rather steep learning curve. I see it in the garage right now with some teams that have picked up a third [car] and the 60 group’s done a great job to pick up and be competitive right off the truck. It is truly rewarding for all of us at RFK right now.”

Posted on April 12, 2025April 12, 2025 by Staff Report

See where your favorite NASCAR Cup Series driver will pit for the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday (3 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

See where your favorite NASCAR Xfinity Series driver will pit for the SciAps 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday (5 p.m. ET, The CW, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

See where your favorite NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series driver will pit for the Weather Guard Truck Race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Friday (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Posted on April 12, 2025April 12, 2025 by Reid Spencer

BRISTOL, Tenn. — A little ray of sunshine was all Alex Bowman needed to secure the pole position for Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Well, not quite all. Bowman also had to turn a blistering lap in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet during Saturday’s time trials at the 0.533-mile short track, and he did just that.

Bowman covered the distance in 14.912 seconds (128.675 mph) — the fastest lap ever run at Bristol in the NASCAR Cup Series Next Gen car. That was good enough to hold off fellow Chevrolet driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (128.563 mph) by 0.013 seconds to secure the top starting spot for the ninth Cup Series race of the season.

It wasn’t just the Busch Light Pole Award that had Bowman salivating. Extensive tire wear in the practice session that preceded qualifying compared to last year’s spring event in Thunder Valley, where tire fall-off was a crucial aspect of the competition.

“I think we’re all much more prepared than we were last spring,” said Bowman, who ran his lap under favorable cloud cover — with the sun coming out shortly after his qualifying attempt and warming the track slightly on an otherwise chilly day. “I’m excited for a tire management race. It’s going to be a lot of fun. We’ll see what we’ve got.

“We started practice with rubber already on the track from the Xfinity cars, peeled it right up and sawed the tires right off. Yeah, confusing why we’re doing it again when we didn’t do it in the fall…

“It’s going to be warmer tomorrow. Maybe that changes it. It’s really difficult to say. I think it’s going to be like that (the spring race), but we’ll find out together, I think.”

MORE: Moran explains PJ1 process, Bristol tires

Kyle Larson (128.511 mph) qualified third, after winning the pole position for Saturday’s Xfinity Series race earlier in the day. Denny Hamlin, winner of the last two Cup events, was fourth in the fastest Toyota at 128.460 mph, and Ryan Blaney topped all other Ford drivers with a fifth-place qualifying lap at 128.305 mph.

In seven of the last eight Cup races at Bristol, the winner has come from the top five spots on the starting grid — two from the pole and two from the second starting position.

Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Ty Gibbs and Christopher Bell claimed the sixth and seventh starting spots, with AJ Allmendinger, Carson Hocevar and Justin Haley claiming eighth, ninth and 10th, respectively.

Kyle Busch was 15th fastest in qualifying, but he spun off Turn 4 on his second lap and flat-spotted his tires. Joey Logano, who qualified immediately after Busch, broke loose off Turn 2 and smacked the outside wall with the right rear of his No. 22 Team Penske Ford. Logano will start 38th on Sunday.

Xfinity Series regular Jesse Love qualified 19th for his Cup Series debut on Sunday in the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet.

Stenhouse fastest in practice

Hyak Motorsports’ Ricky Stenhouse Jr. topped the leaderboard in practice at 128.082 mph ahead of Team Penske drivers Ryan Blaney (127.571 mph) and Austin Cindric (127.140 mph).

Kyle Larson (126.737 mph) and Chase Elliott (126.520 mph) rounded out the top five for Hendrick Motorsports.

MORE: Practice results

Brad Keselowski (126.495 mph), Denny Hamlin (126.461 mph), Kyle Busch (126.337 mph), John Hunter Nemechek (126.187 mph) and Alex Bowman (126.121 mph) completed the top 10.

Contributing: Staff reports

Posted on April 12, 2025April 12, 2025 by Cameron Richardson

BRISTOL, Tenn — Two thousand laps.

In preparation for his Cup Series debut Sunday at Bristol Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), Jesse Love quadrupled the scheduled 500-lapper on the simulator leading up to the Thunder Valley trek.

The 20-year-old Californian hit the number to challenge his physical and mental capabilities before climbing into the No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet for the first time.

“Just ran a lot of laps, trying different things,” Love said in his Saturday morning media availability at Bristol. “One thing I did this week was run one or two 500-lap races by myself on iRacing just to kind of condition myself to the mental drain it’s gonna take to run 500 laps. Obviously, it will be the longest race in my life so this is gonna be different for me in a lot of ways.

“I feel like the fitness side of it is gonna be fine. Obviously, had to step up my game leading up to this race a little bit. But more importantly, I feel like getting the mental side of it squared away.”

Love added that he’s felt he could race “a little bit longer” after every Xfinity Series race this season — a testament to where his physical fitness currently is.

With two-time premier series champ Kyle Busch being a part of the RCR organization, Love has been able to lean on the 20-year Cup veteran and 22-time Bristol national series winner in the build-up for his first Sunday run.

“It’d be dumb of me to not go ask some questions and pick his brain whenever I can,” Love said. “He’s been helpful, for sure, and I always feel like Kyle’s been an open book. I will say Kyle’s probably the toughest competitor in the garage. I do know it’s a little bit different so I’m asking him questions when I’m not racing against him, but I am racing against him, right? Then we ask a lot of people questions. I’m really close with all the Cup drivers on the Front Row [Motorsports] side of things like Todd [Gilliland], Zane [Smith] and Noah [Gragson], and even ask the questions like, ‘what’s your procedure getting in the pit box?’ Again, I just go into neutral when I come to my pit stall because we’re an H-pattern. Never had to deal with a sequential shifter, so that was interesting.”

There’s some sentimental attachment to Bristol for Love as he described the feelings on the windy climb through the Tennessee Valley Divide.

“I was driving up here and kind of got all my emotion out on the way up here,” Love said. “Driving up here is very mountainous and it was like driving to Baylands [northern California], which is where I grew up racing quarter midgets. So that was a pretty cool emotional experience for me. When I was five, six, eight years old, running quarter midgets with my dad driving up this windy path, one-lane road up to the go-kart track, and then now doing the same kind of thing for a Cup race. That was a really cool full-circle moment for me.”

As the weekend rolls along, the emotions and realization of a stock-car racer’s dream will set in for Love the closer Sunday’s green flag approaches. But for now, the young prospect is as stoic and poised as if he’s been a multiyear Cup veteran.

“I feel like once I got all that out, I feel like I have a little more clear head,” Love said. “There’s been so many sacrifices from my friends and my family, and even myself throughout the whole career to have a chance to race on a Sunday and that day’s come. All the emotions are real and they’re valid and still a really cool thing. But because I’m kind of present in the moment and understanding of trying to keep those emotions in check and not get too wrapped up in the moment, I feel like I’m pretty calm going into this weekend. Don’t have a lot of expectations. All expectations I have is that I execute what the car is capable of and what I’m capable of, and I think if we do that, we can have a good show.”

Posted on April 11, 2025April 11, 2025 by Cameron Richardson

BRISTOL, Tenn. — A frigid, cloud-covered Friday evening shrouded Bristol Motor Speedway as Corey Heim wheeled his No. 11 Tricon Garage Toyota around the half-mile bullring.

Despite a cool start to the 250-lap affair, Heim warmed up as the night went along to score a third-place result amid battling for the victory in the closing laps.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Bristol

Heim led 16 laps in the race, all coming late as a mixture of pit strategies put him toward the front as the laps wound down. However, a pair of cautions in the final 30 laps bunched the field up and the ensuing restarts did not play in Heim’s favor.

“I’m used to having a lot of grip here on restarts, and I’ve always kind of done first-gear restarts here and always gotten out of the box good,” Heim said. “But for whatever reason, I just couldn’t really get the grip down today so tried second gear in the last restart and it was not any better. I don’t know if it was my fault for not prepping the tires correctly or what, but just really struggled to fire off in the box. Once we got going, I thought it was a little too tight there.”

Rolling off fourth after qualifying was canceled due to afternoon rain showers, Heim struggled in the opening laps on the clean concrete surface and dropped out of the top 10, failing to score stage points after 65 laps.

“It didn’t seem to be a whole lot different than your average Bristol race,” Heim said of the track conditions. “But to start the race, I certainly felt like we were chattering tires and really fighting the temperatures for grip to begin the race. But after about 15 laps, it seemed to kind of whittle itself down.”

Heim earned a fourth-place finish in Stage 2 to collect seven points, and by taking advantage of track position, he battled Rajah Caruth, Kyle Larson and Stage 2 winner Bayley Currey for the win before Chandler Smith rallied through the field after pitting before the start of the final stage to take his first checkered flag of 2025.

MORE: Updated Truck Series standings

With two wins already in the back pocket for the No. 11 team, Heim will go for win No. 3 on the year in the Craftsman Truck Series’ return to Rockingham Speedway next Friday for the first time since 2013 (5 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“Can’t complain with a top three. Couple stage points along the way,” Heim said. “Obviously had some issues in Stage 1 so got a little behind there. But I guess not a bad day. I thought we were pretty tight throughout the race, just getting behind there early. It’s cool to see this place move around. If you asked me before the race, I would have said that it would have been buried on the bottom with no other option the whole time. But seemed like we could make some other grooves work, which was good.”

Posted on April 11, 2025April 11, 2025 by Reid Spencer

BRISTOL, Tenn. — After charging into the lead in Friday night’s Weather Guard Truck Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Chandler Smith’s work was far from over.

The driver of the No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford then had to hold off NASCAR Cup Series moonlighter Kyle Larson over a seven-lap dash to the finish to claim his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory of the season, his second at the 0.533-mile short track and the sixth of his career.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos: Bristol

Smith also won the $50,000 Triple Truck Challenge bonus that goes to the highest-finishing Craftsman Truck Series regular.

Smith’s victory by 0.934 seconds over Larson ended the latter’s quest for a weekend sweep of NASCAR’s three national series races. Even though Larson had 27-lap fresher tires than the race winner for a restart on Lap 244 of 250, he could do no better than second.

“I’m more excited for the team than I am for myself,” said Smith, whose tenure in the No. 38 F-150 came in an 11th-hour deal at season’s end. “This group came together—we hired my crew chief (Jon Leonard) two weeks before Daytona … My life’s been really, really crazy recently, and there were a lot of unknowns about my future going into the season, and we kind of had our backs against the wall putting this group together like I said. But holy (crap), I wouldn’t want any different of a group than I had behind me.”

Smith grabbed the lead from eventual third-place finisher Corey Heim just before a caution flag flew on Lap 237 for Andres Perez’s spin on the backstretch. That gave Smith control of the race for the final restart, and he promptly asserted himself from the top lane.

After overcoming a tight handling condition in the second stage and a pit road speeding penalty at the stage break, Larson took the green flag behind Smith on Lap 243 and quickly passed Heim for second, but the driver of the No. 07 Spire Motorsports couldn’t catch Smith, despite trying different lines around the concrete oval.

“We fell back on that long run in the second stage — got super tight,” said Larson, who pitted on Lap 162 for fresh rubber after putting 27 laps on the tires he got on Lap 135 during the stage break. “Then I sped on pit road, but on that next stop, I think that probably helped us…

“We had a little bit of an advantage to get toward the front. I thought it would be more of an advantage than it was. But still, I think it was a benefit to our race… Still, to get to second is good.”

The second-place finish was not good enough to keep Larson’s hope of the weekend sweep alive, however, he’ll have two more chances at victory this weekend with Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity Series race and Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race.

MORE: Heim settles for third at Bristol

Tyler Ankrum ran fourth, followed by Ben Rhodes. Bayley Currey picked up the first stage win of his career in Stage 2 before falling out with transmission trouble 13 laps from the finish.

Smith led twice for a race-high 127 laps, followed by Rajah Caruth, who was out front for 85 circuits on a contrary tire strategy.

Reigning series champion Ty Majeski was eliminated in a Lap 53 crash involving Frankie Muniz, Stewart Friesen and Brandon Jones.

Heim leads Smith by 18 points in the series standings, with Majeski 57 points back in third.

The Craftsman Truck Series returns next week (Fri., 5 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) with its first visit to Rockingham Speedway in 12 years.

Contributing: Staff reports

Note: Post-race inspection in the Craftsman Truck Series garage was completed without issue, confirming Smith as the race winner.

Posted on April 11, 2025April 11, 2025 by Staff Report

With NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series practice and qualifying canceled Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway for the Weather Guard Truck Race (7:30 p.m. ET, FS1, NASCAR Racing Network Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio), the starting lineup will be set per the NASCAR Rule Book.

See the full starting lineup for tonight’s race:

Start	Car	Driver
1	19	Daniel Hemric
2	18	Tyler Ankrum
3	38	Chandler Smith
4	11	Corey Heim
5	13	Jake Garcia
6	99	Ben Rhodes
7	52	Stewart Friesen
8	98	Ty Majeski
9	34	Layne Riggs
10	77	Andres Perez De Lara
11	7	Kyle Larson(i)
12	71	Rajah Caruth
13	1	Brandon Jones(i)
14	17	Giovanni Ruggiero
15	42	Matt Mills
16	26	Dawson Sutton #
17	15	Tanner Gray
18	76	Spencer Boyd
19	91	Jack Wood
20	44	Bayley Currey
21	66	Luke Fenhaus
22	45	Kaden Honeycutt
23	90	Justin Carroll
24	9	Grant Enfinger
25	81	Connor Mosack #
26	84	Patrick Staropoli(i)
27	88	Matt Crafton
28	5	Toni Breidinger #
29	7	Corey Day(i)
30	2	Nathan Byrd
31	22	Tyler Tomassi(i)
32	2	Stephen Mallozzi
33	33	Frankie Muniz #
34	6	Norm Benning
35	75	Parker Kligerman

(i) Ineligible for driver points in this series

# Series rookie

Posted on April 11, 2025 by Press Release

SOUTH BOSTON, Va. — Nathan Crews and Cameron Goble are in vastly different positions heading into the $3,000-to-win second annual Kenny Meadows Memorial Limited Sportsman Feature that highlights the Danville Toyota Race Day event on Saturday afternoon, April 12 at South Boston Speedway.

Crews enters the race as the defending champion. He survived the chaos of three incidents during the last eight laps of last year’s race and earned the $3,000 prize for winning the 50-lap race.

“That was probably one of the biggest, if not the biggest win of my racing career,” Crews pointed out. “It was a tough race. It seemed like it went on forever. I’m really looking forward to racing in it again this year. Hopefully we will have a strong enough car that we can have a shot at winning it again.”

This season’s second annual Kenny Meadows Memorial Limited Sportsman Feature, at 75-laps, makes the season-opening event for South Boston Speedway’s Budweiser Limited Sportsman Division the longest and richest race of the season.

Crews, a veteran racer that has compiled seven wins, a pole, 11 Top-5 finishes and 18 Top-10 finishes in 21 starts in the Budweiser Limited Sportsman Division spanning the past two seasons can be considered to be among the favorites to win Saturday’s race.

STREAMING: Watch Saturday’s Kenny Meadows Memorial at South Boston live on FloRacing

Nathan Crews (Photo: Joe Chandler/South Boston Speedway)

Goble, from Ringgold, Virginia, is on the other side of the spectrum.

The young racer was one of the top performers in South Boston Speedway’s Dollar General Hornets Division over the past two-plus seasons. His cumulative record shows eight wins, 12 poles, 12 Top-5 finishes and 16 Top-10 finishes in a total of 20 starts. He also led the most laps in the division each of the past two years.

This season Goble is moving up to the Budweiser Limited Sportsman Division and enters the 75-lap Second Annual Kenny Meadows Memorial Limited Sportsman Feature with no races under his belt in the division.

“It scares me that it’s the first one,” Goble remarked of his debut race in the division being the biggest race of the season for the Budweiser Limited Sportsman Division.
“We’re going to power through it. The first goal is don’t tear up the car. We’re just going to go out and do the best we can.”

Crews has two goals – the first being to win the Saturday, April 12 Second Annual Kenny Meadows Memorial Limited Sportsman Feature. His other goal is to win the 2025 Budweiser Limited Sportsman Division championship.

“If can only win one race, that (the Second Annual Kenny Meadows Memorial Limited Sportsman Feature) would be the one I would want to win,” Crews pointed out. “If I could win it again, it would feel like I’m on top of the world. It would mean just about everything to me.”

At the same time, Crews understands the importance of both entering the season’s opening race for the Budweiser Limited Sportsman Division competitors.

“You want to win and do well,” Crews said, “but at the same time, if I’m not capable of winning the race I’m still going to try to put myself in the best position I can to finish the best I can and stay out of trouble because this kind of puts you on the platform for the rest of the year.”

Cameron Goble (Photo: Joe Chandler/South Boston Speedway)

Goble is on a more modest side of things in 2025.

“It’s a whole new field of drivers,” Goble said of racing in the Budweiser Limited Sportsman Division. “It’s new people. I’ve never taken laps with them, so we have to take it one step at a time. If we can finish top five in points, I’d be thrilled. I don’t think I’ve ever finished top five in points. Even with a Top-10 in points, I’d be happy. Anything except for hitting the wall, I’m good with.”

A 100-lap race for the Sentara Health Late Model Stock Car Division will be co-feature race of Saturday’s five-race card. Two-time NASCAR national champion and seven-time South Boston Speedway champion Peyton Sellers of Danville, Virginia and Trevor Ward of Winston-Salem, North Carolina split wins in the track’s season-opening twinbill on March 22. Mike Looney of Catawba, Virginia won the pole for the event.

Ward leads the division point standings entering Saturday’s 100-lap race with Looney standing three points behind in second place and Landon Pembelton of Amelia, Virginia sitting in third place, five points down. Craig Moore of Rougemont, North Carolina (seven points down) and Sellers (eight points down) round out the top five in the standings.

Also on Saturday, fans will see twin 15-lap races for the Southside Disposal Pure Stock Division and a 20-lap race for the Dollar General Hornets Division.

Advance adult tickets for the Danville Toyota Race Day event are priced at $12. Tickets at the gate on race day will be $15 each. Suite tickets are available for $40 each. Seniors ages 65 and older, military, healthcare workers and students (with ID) can purchase tickets for $12 each at the gate only on the day of the event.

Saturday’s race day schedule has registration and pit gates opening at 8:30 a.m. Frontstretch spectator gates will open at 10:30 a.m., and practice starts at 10:30 a.m.

Group qualifying begins at 1 p.m. and the first race of the day will get the green flag at 2 p.m.