Posted on by John Crane

BRISTOL, Tenn. — At first glance, Brad Keselowski’s 17th-place starting position and Chris Buescher’s 34th-place start for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway might not look appealing.

But make no mistake, the organization, not even three years removed from its rebrand from Roush Fenway Racing, remains on an upward trend, especially after a successful run at Phoenix Raceway last weekend and before Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Weekend schedule | At-track photos: Bristol 

“I thought at Phoenix our teams looked really similar. Atlanta, we looked pretty similar. Daytona, we looked pretty similar,” Brad Keselowski told NASCAR.com. “We didn’t look very similar at Vegas. I thought the 17 was a bit stronger than the 6 car was there, and those things come and go for various reasons. There’s not one thing on any given week. You want the crew chiefs to have a little bit of freedom to do what they want to do with their engineers and try different things, and when that gets too far apart for too long, you try to rein it back in.

“There’s an ebb and flow to that, but for the most part, I feel like we’re pretty close to each other.”

Last weekend’s result at Phoenix Raceway was more than each driver’s first top-five finish of the 2024 campaign. With Buescher’s runner-up finish and Keselowski’s fourth-place result in the desert, the occasion marked the first time both drivers finished inside the top five together since the regular-season finale last August at Daytona International Speedway, where Buescher and Keselowski enthralled the Florida crowd with a 1-2 finish, respectively.

For Buescher — who compiled a career-best three Cup wins last season and advanced all the way to the Round of 8 — the prosperity as an individual driver and as a two-driver team has been a gradual build.

“Right now, it’s success early on in the season,” Buescher told NASCAR.com Saturday at the track. “It took us half a year to get where we needed to be last year and got to win races and be competitive most every week.

“We need to be there now. I think that we have been very competitive. We’ve been able to lead laps at three of the four events so far and finally got a solid, respectable finish for the work we did last week in Phoenix and didn’t get caught up in an accident.”

Next comes Bristol, where both RFK drivers have found past success … and on concrete, to boot. Keselowski is a three-time winner at “The Last Great Colosseum,” with his most recent win there coming in 2020 during the last spring race on the racing surface we’ll see Sunday. Buescher’s short-track prowess in the Next Gen era has also been apparent at Bristol, winning during the 2022 fall running under the lights at the half-mile.

This track record of Bristol success, coupled with last weekend’s Phoenix result, certainly doesn’t hurt going into Sunday’s contest.

“It’s not a bad thing, that’s for sure,” Keselowski said. “I wish we would’ve got the results that both of us deserved at Atlanta, and if we had done that, we’d be already checking that box off, but you know, it’s kind of wishing in one hand. But I was happy with where we ended up last week. Good result, good finish and certainly bodes well for going into Bristol, one of our better tracks.”

MORE: 2024 Cup Series standings 

For Buescher, the goal is to build on recent success, which, in turn, would allow for better contending opportunities. For Keselowski, the goal is to show more raw speed and maintain more of a presence at the front of the field. This raw speed, perhaps, can even be the remedy for snapping the 2012 champ’s current 102-race winless streak in the Cup Series.

However, both goals emphasize the same checkbox: maintaining that upward trend.

“We’re on track to do a much better job and be in contention,” Buescher said. “But really, I think for our 17 group, I’m looking at Phoenix as a singular race to really be able to dive into and get a sense of where we’re at fully, just because we’ve had so much other stuff going on to get the year started.”

“We kind of went from irrelevant to relevant to kind of on the fringe of being contenders,” Keselowski said. “And so, we just need to keep pushing to firmly get the grasp in that contender category.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Sometimes a victory tastes sweetest when it comes as a chaser for a bitter defeat.

That was certainly the case for pole winner Christian Eckes, who held off Kyle Busch in the closing laps to win Saturday night’s Weather Guard Truck Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

In last year’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Playoff race at Bristol, Eckes gave up the lead to Corey Heim with six laps left and finished second by 0.218 seconds. The loss cost Eckes, who led 150 laps in that event, a berth in the Championship 4 at Phoenix, where his victory in the season finale gave him a consolation prize but not a title.

On Saturday night, Eckes passed Busch for the lead on Lap 159 and held it for the final 92 circuits as Busch made a frenetic charge that fell just short. In traffic, Eckes crossed the finish line 0.141 seconds ahead of the career Truck Series victory leader.

“Oh, man, it’s so sweet,” said Eckes, who won for the first time this season, the first time at Bristol and the sixth time in his career. “There’s just so much behind this win from last year, missing out on the Championship 4 and losing the race with (six) to go.

“To come back and redeem ourselves was our number one goal, and not only that, but the first three races (of this season), how terribly they’ve gone. We had a lot of issues, and to come back and run really good just shows the resilience of the team.”

By putting his No. 19 McAnally Hilgemann Racing Silverado in Victory Lane, Eckes extended Chevrolet’s 2024 Truck Series winning streak to four races.

Under the sixth and final caution, which slowed Busch’s pursuit for eight laps, Busch radioed to his team, “We’re a second-place truck, maybe third.”

But that didn’t prevent Busch from charging after Eckes after a restart on Lap 227 of 250. As the run progressed, Busch cut into Eckes’ lead, which had grown to more than one second, and closed to his back bumper by the time Eckes crossed the finish line.

“The crazy part about it is, we fought loose all through practice, all through qualifying, all through the beginning part of the race on older date codes,” Busch said. “Then we put on the newer date codes of tires and were instantly tight. So, just not being able to prepare and practice on what you expect to race on hurt us.

“We tightened up all day, and obviously I don’t think we were as tight as the 19 (Eckes) at the end but, you know, just track position. I let him go early in that run to just go burn his stuff off and track position at the end, just aero effects… Didn’t have enough rubber on the road to outduel him.”

Zane Smith finished third in the first race of a double-duty weekend. Three-time series champion Matt Crafton was fourth after joining Eckes and Busch in a three-way battle for the lead before the final caution for a shunt involving Stewart Friesen and Nick Sanchez on Lap 219.

EXCLUSIVE: Sanchez, Friesen have confrontation on pit road

Series leader Tyler Ankrum was fifth, extending his margin over second-place Corey Heim to 17 points. Heim finished sixth, followed by Taylor Gray, Rajah Caruth, Grant Enfinger and Sunoco rookie Layne Riggs.

Ty Majeski, the winner at Bristol in 2022, spun from the top five at Lap 144 shortly after the start of the Final Stage, collecting ThorSport Racing teammate Ben Rhodes in the process. Majeski’s No. 98 Ford later went behind the wall due to mechanical issues, resulting in a 34th-place finish.

The Truck Series returns to action next Saturday at Circuit of The Americas (1:30 p.m. ET, FS1, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

NOTE: Post-race inspection concluded without issue, confirming Eckes as the race winner. The No. 91 Chevrolet driven by Zane Smith was found with one lug nut unsecured, which will result in a monetary fine.

Contributing: Staff report.

Posted on by George Winkler

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
—
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.

Ryan Blaney poses at the Busch Light Pole Award winner board at Bristol Motor Speedway
Meg Oliphant | Getty Images

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.

Posted on by Dustin Albino

Cup Series practice and qualifying for Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway was puzzling. It was certainly entertaining from afar. The entire field was tested in multiple ways. The lack of grip, specifically in Turns 3 and 4, caught teams by surprise. The resin that was applied to the bottom groove was slick, and teams couldn’t figure out why. All that to say, it’s unclear how much we learned for the 500-lap race. One thing is for certain, Ryan Blaney was the fastest car in the Blue Ridge Mountains.

FANTASY: Set your lineup | Bristol 36 for 36 picks

Dustin Albino’s race-day lineup:

Starter 1: Ryan Blaney

Starter 2: Christopher Bell

Starter 3: Denny Hamlin

Starter 4: Kyle Larson

Starter 5: Chase Elliott

Garage pick: Michael McDowell

NEXT IN LINE: Bubba Wallace, Joey Logano, Kyle Busch, Chris Buescher

RISING: This has been the most dominant start to the weekend for Blaney in what feels like forever. The No. 12 car led the way in practice on one, five, 10, 15 and 20-lap averages. The reigning Cup champion backed that speed up in qualifying, winning his first pole award in nearly two years. Consistent speed across the board needs to be in your lineup, and Blaney has rocketed to the top of must starts for Sunday.

Neither Briscoe nor Josh Berry made my final lineup, but those two Stewart-Haas Racing drivers had a promising start to the weekend. Berry, a coveted short-track racer, snuck through to the final round of qualifying and shot up to the front row. Meanwhile, Briscoe will start inside the top 10 for the fourth consecutive race. Both cars lacked long-run speed, but their starting track position make them lineup considerations.

FALLING: It took just one lap for Ty Gibbs to bounce off the wall in practice. The No. 54 car ran the fewest laps of anybody in the session at 14, and Gibbs ultimately believed the right-rear toe link was bent. Gibbs salvaged a 19th-place starting position before his crew chief, Chris Gayle, wanted to take a deeper dive into the damage. Believing that Gibbs will be featured in plenty of fantasy lineups throughout the regular season, I’m saving him this weekend. 

Chris Buescher was one of many drivers who barely hung on to their race cars during a gripless qualifying session. He chattered his tires towards the end of his first lap, killing the momentum for the beginning of his second lap. The result was a 34th-place starting spot. Buescher has speed in his car – he ranked eighth in 10-lap averages – but will likely need to play some sort of strategy to score stage points. I wouldn’t rely on that this weekend.

FEATURED MATCHUPS:

Chris Buescher vs. Chase Elliott: This clash has flipped from earlier this week. With lap times so close, it can be hard to really gauge who has consistent speed at a track like Bristol. It wouldn’t be all that surprising to see Buescher maneuver through the field at a rapid pace. And though Buescher is one of three drivers to have top five finishes in both Next Gen races on the Bristol concrete, I’m slightly leaning towards Elliott. It’s the first time the No. 9 team has earned consecutive top five starting positions since the final three races of the 2022 season.

Michael McDowell vs. Ryan Preece: McDowell and Front Row Motorsports continue to unload with pace off the hauler and have moved into my garage pick for the weekend. The No. 34 car filed in seventh on single-lap speed and 11th on 10-lap averages. He also finished sixth at Bristol last fall and ran inside the top 10 for the duration of the event. Preece was the slowest of the four SHR cars in qualifying, matching his practice ranking of 25th. He never made a long run. McDowell is the pick.

Brad Keselowski vs. Christopher Bell: Bell barely missed out on the final round of qualifying, but was capable of running inside the top five in practice. Keselowski was in the middle of the pack, exactly where he qualified in 17th. The 2012 Cup champion is a three-time Bristol winner, but it feels like Bell is destined for a Bristol win soon… on concrete.

Carson Hocevar vs. Josh Berry: I’ve done a full 180 on this pick from earlier this week. Hocevar made an immaculate save during his qualifying run, fully getting out of the racing groove and even dipping below the apron on the backstretch. It resulted in a 35th-place effort. Berry had a career qualifying session, placing second. His previous best starting position was 14th. Berry is an expert on short tracks and is in need of a strong finish on Sunday.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Sunoco rookie Josh Berry knew the transition from the NASCAR Xfinity Series to Cup racing wasn’t going to be easy, especially since he is following 60-time winner Kevin Harvick in the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford.

A combination of bad luck and self-inflicted wounds has relegated Berry to 31st in the standings through four races. His best result of 20th came at Las Vegas, where he finished on the lead lap for the only time this season.

“It’s been a little bit disappointing,” Berry acknowledged on Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway, where he’ll start second in Sunday’s race (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). “Even when I started this going back to last summer, people asked me all the time what my expectations were, and I always said that I expected it to be hard — and it is hard.

MORE: Full starting lineup | Bristol results

“Cup racing is hard. So with that side of it, I think each race, we’ve had little-ish different things happen that maybe hurt our finish or not.”

Back-to-back pit road speeding penalties at Atlanta definitely were a setback, as was a spin during qualifying at Phoenix.

“I made a couple of mistakes over the last few weeks,” Berry said. “Spinning out in qualifying at Phoenix put us really far behind all these guys. All week, all they talk about is how you can’t pass.

“I mean, having a mistake like that puts you really far behind and makes your day look worse than it really is, so, for me, it’s just hopefully getting some of these mistakes out of the way early on and start qualifying a little bit better, and I think we’ll be fine.”

Posted on by John Crane

Editor’s note: Chase Elliott led early in Sunday’s race to score Hendrick Motorsports’ 80,000th lap led in the NASCAR Cup Series.

BRISTOL, Tenn. — The high concrete banks at Bristol Motor Speedway might just be the place for Hendrick Motorsports to etch another milestone into the history books.

Hendrick Motorsports has led 79,997 laps in its 40-year stretch in the NASCAR Cup Series, beginning with Geoff Bodine’s first circuit on April 29, 1984 at Martinsville Speedway. And so, the opportunity is there for the organization to hit — and surpass — 80,000 laps led during Sunday’s Food City 500 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Weekend schedule | At-track photos: Bristol

“It’s a lot of laps, for sure, and a lot of race wins encapsulated into all those laps that they’ve led as a company,” Chase Elliott told NASCAR.com. “Definitely proud to have been a very, very small part of that, but I’ve enjoyed my time, and hopefully we can keep adding to it.”

Of course, the current four-driver Hendrick quartet has played a role in making the near-milestone achievable in the first place. While driving under the Hendrick moniker, all four have led significant laps, with 2020 Cup Series champ Elliott (5,108 laps led), 2021 title-winner Kyle Larson (4,548), William Byron (2,640) and Alex Bowman (1,301) combining to lead 13,597 circuits, which accounts for approximately 17% of the Hendrick total.

“It’s really, really amazing when you think about the amount of laps led,” Larson told NASCAR.com. “Not only wins with whatever we’re at, 303 or 304 and almost the 80,000 laps led, it’s crazy. Yeah, to be a part of that, 2021, we had a great season and kind of broke the record for laps led in a season, so that was really neat.

“This year, in general, just a lot of history with Rick (Hendrick’s) 40th season, so to break records this year is pretty cool.”

While the four drivers have combined to lead a respectable total, Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson have a massive amount of laps led for the organization. The seven-time Cup Series champ Johnson led 18,941 laps as driver of the No. 48 Chevy, spanning from 2002-20. Meanwhile, the four-time champ Gordon’s 24,936 laps led from 1993-2016 surpasses all 29 Hendrick drivers to lead at least one lap with the team. Together, the pair has led 43,877 laps for a staggering 55% of the Hendrick total.

MORE: Where Racing Insights projects Hendrick Motorsports drivers to finish at Bristol

In other words, there is a hefty way to go before the current Hendrick crop can crack into the same stratosphere. But perhaps, with a touch of youth, passing and, well, leading, the current Hendrick iteration can give it a respectable try.

“So, Jeff and Jimmie, though, they’ve, them two together probably have I’m guessing 50% of the laps,” Larson said. “… we have a lot of catching up to do for those two guys.”

“I hope so,” Elliott said. “Obviously time will tell, but it’s a different era than what it used to be, just as far as guys don’t seem to dominate entire days. It seems like you might have guys be good at certain stages, but again, Kyle dominated at Vegas, so I guess anything is on the table.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

BRISTOL, Tenn. — The vagaries of the concrete surface at Bristol Motor Speedway shocked the NASCAR Cup Series drivers during Saturday’s time trials, but Ryan Blaney was best able to deal with the changes between rounds.

The reigning series champion navigated the 0.533-mile short track in 15.356 seconds (124.954 mph) in the second round of qualifying to claim the pole position for Sunday’s Food City 500 (3:30 p.m. ET, FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Starting lineup | Weekend schedule

“The track kind of caught everybody by surprise,” said Blaney, who earned his first Busch Light Pole Award since April 2022 at Richmond, his first at Bristol and the 10th of his career.

“The time fall-off and the grip loss behind the wheel was incredible. It was like ‘Who can not mess up a lap and still put a decent time down?’ Great to get our first pole of the year, and ready to go tomorrow.”

Blaney’s Team Penske Ford was 0.020 seconds faster than the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Mustang of second-place qualifier Josh Berry (124.792 mph). Toyota driver Denny Hamlin was third fastest at 124.178 mph.

Team Penske’s Joey Logano qualified fourth, giving Ford drivers three of the top four starting spots. Chase Elliott was fifth in the fastest Chevrolet.

Blaney ran the fastest lap of the day in the first round (15.134 seconds) and opted not to try a second lap in the opening session. That strategy paid off, given the dramatic fall-off most drivers experienced in the money round.

“I think that was a big advantage for us,” said Blaney, who leads the series standings after finishing second, third and fifth in his last three races. “We got the good fortune of going out last in our group, so I could bail after one lap if we were in…

“A lot of teams and drivers, us included, are going to be really scratching our heads tonight, like, ‘What’s the track going to do tomorrow?’”

Chase Briscoe, who tied Hamlin for the second fastest overall lap in Round 1 at 126.528 mph (15.165 seconds), will start sixth on Sunday, followed by Michael McDowell, William Byron, Bubba Wallace and Kyle Larson.

Hamlin is the most recent winner at Bristol, having taken the checkered flag in last year’s Night Race.

Ryan Blaney turns laps during NASCAR Cup Series practice at Bristol.
Brittney Wilbur | NASCAR.com

Practice recap

Ryan Blaney was fastest in Group A practice at 127.682 mph over Kyle Busch, Bubba Wallace, Ross Chastain and Joey Logano. In Group B, Harrison Burton was quickest of the group but 13th overall on the single-lap charts. Chase Elliott, Kyle Larson, Brad Keselowski and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. were the next quickest drivers in Group B.

MORE: Practice results

Twelve drivers completed runs of at least 20 laps during their respective sessions. Blaney was fastest on 20-lap averages over Noah Gragson, John Hunter Nemechek, Ross Chastain and Zane Smith.

Ty Gibbs contacted the outside wall in Turn 2 early in Group B, forcing the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing team to repair some of Gibbs’ Toyota. The sophomore driver slid sideways in the center of the corner on a slick race track.

Contributing: Staff report.

Posted on by Steve Luvender

NASCAR.com’s 36 for 36 continues at Bristol Motor Speedway.

With 36 races and 36 full-time Charter cars, our players select one car per race, but there’s a simple twist: once they’ve made the pick, they can’t choose that car again for the rest of the 36-race season. Yes, that means every car will be selected exactly once … a survivor pool, by another name. 

Follow along weekly as our panel of pickers — Dustin Albino from Jayski, along with Steve Luvender and Cameron Richardson from NASCAR.com — embarks on a season-long journey to think like strategists and prove their picking prowess. 

We’ll also feature a fourth “community” 36 for 36 pick each week, as decided by fan vote on the r/NASCAR subreddit. Can the collective vote topple our trio of full-timers?

Standings after Race 4:

RankNamePointsBehind
T-1Steve Luvender284—
T-1Dustin Albino284—
3Cameron Richardson235-49
4r/NASCAR Community219-65

Race 5 of 36: Bristol

Last week’s race at Phoenix tightened up our 36 for 36 standings with three of four pickers making top-10 selections. Points leader Steve Luvender’s selection of Ryan Preece resulted in a 23rd-place finish, while Cameron Richardson and r/NASCAR’s Chase Briscoe picks netted a solid 30 points after the No. 14 came home ninth. The big winner of the day was Dustin Albino, who boldly picked fifth-place-finishing Ryan Blaney.

Now, Bristol and its treachery awaits. How will our pickers handle the high banks of the concrete bullring?

Jayski’s Dustin Albino: No. 77, Carson Hocevar

Dustin’s pick last week (Phoenix): No. 12, Ryan Blaney
Points earned last week: 41 (fifth-place finish)
Total season points: 93 (second place)

Dustin: Hocevar has been impressive to start his rookie Cup Series season. The No. 77 team rides a streak of three straight top-20 finishes — consecutive top 15s — into Bristol, and made the final round of qualifying last week at Phoenix. When making just his fourth career start in the Cup Series last fall at Bristol, Hocevar drove through the field and cracked the top five on raw speed during the second stage. He ended the night in 11th, which was the best finish of the season for the No. 42 Legacy Motor Club team. With more experience, Hocevar is bound to show more flashes of speed this weekend should he have a clean race.

NASCAR.com’s Steve Luvender: No. 6, Brad Keselowski

Steve’s pick last week (Phoenix): No. 41, Ryan Preece
Points earned last week: 14 (23rd-place finish)
Total season points: 103 (first place)

Steve: For the second week in a row, a late pit stop took away a potential strong run and severely dented my early lead in the standings — Dustin’s just 10 points back now. I’m breaking out the big guns at Bristol and going with Brad Keselowski, a three-time conqueror of the “Last Great Colosseum” (a five-time winner if we’re including the Xfinity Series and Craftsman Truck Series). Keselowski is more than ready to put the 100-plus-race-winless-streak talking point to bed, and momentum is rolling after a pair of RFK Racing top fives last week at Phoenix. Teammate Chris Buescher, of course, won the 2022 Bristol Night Race, and I think it’s finally the boss’s turn to take the checkered flag. (That’s right. I’m picking for a win this week — not just a good points day.)

NASCAR.com’s Cameron Richardson: No. 77, Carson Hocevar

Cameron’s pick last week (Phoenix): No. 14, Chase Briscoe
Points earned last week: 30 (ninth-place finish)
Total season points: 70 (fourth place)

Cameron: Momentum and confidence are the keys to this week as NASCAR returns to the Bristol concrete this weekend. After one intermediate and one short-track package race, I’m sold on Carson Hocevar, and he’s back where he stole the show last season with an 11th-place showing in the Bristol Night Race. Qualifying will be one of utmost importance for Sunday and if Hocevar can stick with the top-15 starting spots he had at Las Vegas and Phoenix, he’s due for another eye-popping performance at Bristol.

r/NASCAR Community: No. 47, Ricky Stenhouse Jr.


r/NASCAR’s pick last week (Phoenix): No. 14, Chase Briscoe
Points earned last week: 30 (ninth-place finish)
Total season points: 89 (third place)

Debate flowed in this week’s r/NASCAR voting thread, but the subreddit landed on Ricky Stenhouse Jr. for Bristol, narrowly beating out Ty Gibbs. The No. 47 may be a slight gamble: While Stenhouse finished top 10 last August, he failed to finish four of five races prior due to crashes. Ultimately, though, the group decided to save a Joe Gibbs Racing pick for later in the season.

u/Dont_hate_the_8: “This is a great one. He’s solid at Bristol. It’s one of his best tracks.”

u/Quasar_24: “If there’s one thing Ricky is good at, it’s drafting tracks, but if there’s two things he’s good at, the other one is short tracks. I think the real gamble is how good the equipment is and how well the car gets dialed in.”

Check back next week to see how our pickers fared at Bristol as the season-long 36 for 36 journey continues.

And, if you’ve got a competitive itch beyond meticulously managing your Fantasy Live lineup each week, feel free to save or print your own 36 for 36 sheet and see if you can beat our pickers and the Reddit community!

Posted on by Seth Sharp

Throughout the 2024 NASCAR season, Ken Martin, director of historical content for the sanctioning body, will offer his suggestions on which historical races fans should watch from the NASCAR Classics library in preparation for each upcoming race weekend.

Martin has worked for NASCAR exclusively since 2008 but has been involved with the sport since 1982, overseeing various projects. He worked in the broadcast booth for hundreds of races, assisting the broadcast team with different tasks. This includes calculating the “points as they run” for the historic 1992 finale – the Hooters 500 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.

Here are Ken’s suggestions to watch before this weekend’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

1985 Valleydale 500

NASCAR Cup Series drivers couldn’t have picked a better day to shine as the first live-televised race from Bristol had a little bit of everything.

The race featured 14 cautions for a total of 90 laps. It was almost easier to make a list of who wasn’t involved in the cautions than it was to tally up who had issues. It didn’t take long for many of the usual contenders, including defending Cup Series champion Terry Labonte. Bill Elliott, Darrell Waltrip and a handful of other cars received damage in the accident.

Labonte was later involved in another incident just before the halfway point of the event.

Dale Earnhardt, who started 12th, made his way through the field to the point, proving he was the car to beat. The lack of power steering on his No. 3 car did not affect the race’s outcome as the final laps chipped away.

A late-race battle between Earnhardt and Ricky Rudd captivated the crowd, and the pair traded the lead back and forth a handful of times over the final 80 laps.

When the checkered flag waved, it was Earnhardt in Victory Lane. He led a race-high 214 laps. Rudd finished second, while Labonte recovered from his rough day to finish third.

1986 Valleydale 500

The 1986 Spring race at Bristol turned out to be a memorable day for a future Hall of Fame driver.

A 29-year-old Rusty Wallace, with just two full-time NASCAR Cup Series seasons to his name, captured the first victory of his career. He had to hold off several of NASCAR’s 75 Greatest Drivers to do so.

Darrell Waltrip, Terry Labonte, Dale Earnhardt, Geoff Bodine and Neil Bonnett all led at least 23 laps, but it was Wallace who led the final 101 en route to Victory Lane.

Waltrip, Labonte, Earnhardt and Wallace left Bristol first through fourth in the season standings, respectively.

Elliott Sadler, in the No. 21, leads John Andretti in the No. 43 and Jeremy Mayfield in the No. 12 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
NASCAR Research & Archives Center | Getty Images

2001 Food City 500

Nothing seemed more fitting than to see a battle for the victory shape up between two of the most iconic car numbers in NASCAR Cup Series history.

The No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing car of Elliott Sadler and the No. 43 Petty Enterprises car of John Andretti each looked to break a handful of winless streaks at Bristol.

The No. 21 car had not visited Victory Lane in a points-paying event since Morgan Shepherd won at Atlanta in 1993. Sadler, who was in his third season in the Cup Series, had yet to record a top-five finish in his career.

John Andretti was looking to take the No. 43 car back to victory lane for the Petty team for the first time since 1999 when he won at Martinsville. The car number had just three total victories since 1984.

Sadler, who started 38th, held off Andretti to capture his first career victory.