Posted on by Cameron Richardson

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Last season served more lows on the race track than highs for Daniel Suárez.

He had zero wins, just two top fives and a 20.9 average finish that was the second-lowest mark of his career in that category — capped off with Trackhouse Racing casting aside the driver that broke ground for the organization in 2021 during the offseason as Connor Zilisch received the call-up for his rookie campaign.

Now, Suárez finds himself piloting the No. 7 Chevrolet for Spire Motorsports and currently holds the 16th and final spot in The Chase through the first seven races of the year.

Suárez also revealed personal news during the off-week that has him smiling ear-to-ear: he and his wife, Julia, announced they are expecting their first child together.

<blockquote class=”twitter-tweet”><p lang=”en” dir=”ltr”>The best is on the way 🤍 <a href=”https://twitter.com/JuliaPiquet?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>@JuliaPiquet</a> <a href=”https://t.co/CEX3EVtHU0″>pic.twitter.com/CEX3EVtHU0</a></p>&mdash; Daniel Suárez (@Daniel_SuarezG) <a href=”https://twitter.com/Daniel_SuarezG/status/2040855234033913912?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw”>April 5, 2026</a></blockquote> <script async src=”https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js” charset=”utf-8″></script>

RELATED: Cup standings | Bristol starting lineup

“Yeah, we’re super excited to start a new chapter in our lives,” Suárez said during a Saturday press conference. “Super blessed to have Julia. And yeah, we had a good time during the off weekend, going to Greece and exploring a little bit. We thought it was maybe a good time to share the news with everyone. We have known for a while. She’s already halfway into the process. So yeah, very, very excited.”

Suárez’s Cup career so far has been a grind, a testament to overcoming a handful of obstacles while still tallying a pair of victories in 10 seasons and making the prior version of the NASCAR postseason three times.

The work Suárez put in to quickly transition to a growing Spire organization, now with a growing family, has yielded the return Suárez was looking for after leaving Trackhouse.

“Obviously, I have had a lot of great times in my career,” Suárez said. “A lot of tough ones, as well. But I will say that so far this year, it’s been amazing. We definitely worked hard in the offseason to make sure that we hit the ground running this year, and I believe that we have done that. Obviously, we are not winning races yet. We don’t have the speed to win races today. But I believe that we’re in the right track to get there. We have the right people. We have the right sponsors. We have the right structure to be able to get there.”

Suárez started 2026 strong, finishing just outside the top 10 in the Daytona 500 before snagging a top five the following week at EchoPark Speedway, site of his second career win two years ago.

The No. 7 team then had some setbacks on the West Coast swing at Phoenix and Las Vegas before delivering a seventh-place run at the always difficult Darlington Raceway.

The early uptick in performance is a welcome sight for the 34-year-old veteran, but Suárez said he’s remaining realistic, especially ahead of Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) where he’s finished outside the top 30 in each of the last three events at the Tennessee short track.

“Do I think that we have had the winning speed this year? Actually, there is a couple races that maybe we could have knocked it out,” Suárez said. “Darlington, we were a top-10 car the entire race. There were a couple races that were right there. But the next step is to become a top-five car, and that’s when you start winning races. Once you’re in the top five, now you can win because you’re already there in the hunt: strategy, cycles, whatever that may be … adjustments, then you’re right there. So I believe that we’re one step away from when we are in our best.”

This current phase of Suárez’s career will be the most impactful on his future.

As he grows into this transition, Spire is increasing in size and resources, and the talent currently on their full-time Cup roster includes savvy veteran Michael McDowell and the fiery youngster Carson Hocevar.

All signs point to Spire becoming a weekly contender in the not-too-distant future, and Suárez admitted the organization is the right place for him.

MORE: Suárez’s driver page | Suárez through the years

“I believe that consistency is extremely important on everything,” Suárez said. “And today, I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. You can tell me anywhere, and I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else because Spire Motorsports is growing. Spire Motorsports is believing in myself. I’m believing in them. We’re continuing to get better and better. I believe that Spire Motorsports is going to be a powerhouse in the next few years, and I want to be part of that. I saw last year from the outside looking in — I’m a very curious person, so I was always very curious on what Spire Motorsports was doing that they were increasing performance so quickly. And now that I’m inside the building, I can see many of those things. So I really want to continue to be part of this group, hopefully for a long time, because I can see the direction where things are heading.”

suarez and a crew member share a laugh
Jonathan Bachman | Getty Images

Both on and off-track, there’s everything to smile about in Suárez’s life, and just like he’s come into his own at Spire, he’s looking forward to the dynamic he and Julia will have at home once they welcome their child to the world.

“I believe that right now, in this point of my career, it’s going to be a lot of fun to start a family with Julia,” Suárez said. “I hope that I prove that very soon, but I do believe that this is going to make me faster because it’s going to be more fun outside of the racing stuff.

“I can tell you something. We don’t know if it’s a boy or a girl, but if it’s a girl, that girl is gonna have me wrapped around her finger.”

Posted on by Cameron Richardson

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Connor Zilisch collected Saturday’s winning trophy in the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway, but his JR Motorsports teammate Justin Allgaier secured his eighth total six-figure check as the Dash 4 Cash winner at the “Last Great Colosseum.”

Allgaier, the 2024 series champion, hung around inside the top five all night while chasing Zilisch and Kyle Larson, but the No. 7 JR Motorsports Chevrolet was just a step behind being a race-winning contender.

With a not-too-shabby fourth-place run, the longtime O’Reilly Series veteran continued his gratitude for the Dash 4 Cash program.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

“We made adjustments on the car that I thought would help it,” Allgaier said after the race. “For whatever reason, we never could quite get where we wanted to get to when you flip-flopped both sides of it. I thought the team did a really good job. We just came up short. I am super pumped, though. O’Reilly Auto Parts had the opportunity to not bring the Dash 4 Cash back, right? So to have that back and to keep that trend going is really, really cool, really special, and something that means a lot to me.”

A caution with 30 to go flipped a dominant Larson day on its head, and asserting his name into the mix with Zilisch, Allgaier and Larson was rookie Brent Crews.

Making just his fifth O’Reilly Series start, the 18-year-old phenom for Joe Gibbs Racing drove from a 17th-place starting spot to a third-place result — his first career top five.

Another eye-popping performance pocketed by Crews, but he lamented after the race that it ‘sucks’ to lose to his good friend Zilisch.

“Connor is one of my best friends when we step foot out of a race suit,” Crews said. “And when we get in the car, we are the world’s biggest rivals. Not necessarily that we’d wreck each other or anything, but there’s no one on this earth I would want to lose to rather than Connor. Made some rookie mistakes there, getting free up into the wall. If I just kind of backed it up some, I could have helped myself out. But it was tough with Larson breathing down my neck, packing air on me. So it’s tough, but grateful to be here.”

Matt Kelley | Getty Images

The two-time Cup Series champion Larson battled both rising stars in the heated closing laps. He tallied a race-high 230 laps led, but a call to pit under a late caution ultimately cost the No. 88 Chevrolet driver the chance to cap an otherwise dominant performance. Regardless, Larson said he enjoyed racing both Crews and Zilisch to the finish.

“We’ve all known that they’re really good long before tonight,” Larson said. “They did a great job. It was a lot of fun racing with them and Brent did a super good job to get to the lead. It was easy to just kind of step and get over it. He unfortunately did, and then Connor did a good job of getting in front of me up top at the right time. I was hoping he’d run the bottom one more corner and leave me an opportunity to get to his outside. But yeah, he did a great job. So that was fun.”

Allgaier has also taken notice of Crews, observing the youngster’s talent for a handful of years on the local scene at tracks like Millbridge Speedway.

“He has everything he needs, tool-wise, to be able to go and do this at a high level, and be a Cup champion at some point,” Allgaier said. “He got a little more aggressive than I would have liked to have there with about 30 to go or so, but that’s just how it works. You’ve got to go out there and you’ve got to go for it. Then at the end, I thought if he kept getting the wall, we were gonna have a shot to get by him. I have no doubt that he’s gonna be a threat next week when we go to Kansas.”

Both Allgaier and Crews will compete for the second of four Dash 4 Cash races next Saturday at Kansas Speedway, along with Carson Kvapil and Sheldon Creed (7 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

MORE: Dash 4 Cash info | History of Dash 4 Cash winners

Allgaier is looking to accomplish a milestone of $1 million earned in the program this season.

“That’d be fantastic. I would love that,” Allgaier said. “To think about that, and to think about how many men and women that work at our shop that that has affected. How many tools and resources that that has provided for us to do what we did tonight, right? To finish 1-2-4-5, those are big deals and I feel like our company as a whole does a really good job of using the budgets that we have to the best of our ability.”

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Crew chiefs will have their eyes glued to two things in Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway: tires and traction compound.

Goodyear brought a new tire combination to the 0.533-mile high-banked short track, one intended to be less dependent on varying weather conditions than previous iterations brought to the “World’s Fastest Half-Mile.” Additionally, PJ1 traction compound has been sprayed along the bottom of each set of corners, creating more grip along the yellow line.

MORE: Bristol starting lineup | At-track photos

Through Saturday’s practice session, that lower lane remained the dominant, preferred groove. The Goodyear rubber cooperated with the conditions, laying into the track’s concrete surface to create a visible black streak to reveal where drivers drove.

The question crew chiefs will ponder in Sunday’s race (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) is how the trends of the track evolve over 500 laps of heart-pounding action.

“I think it’s more so what the PJ1’s gonna do,” No. 38 crew chief Ryan Bergenty told NASCAR.com Saturday. “If the PJ1 comes up, does the rubber on the right sides make it slicker at the bottom? And then it’s a matter of how many people migrate to the top. You can’t go up there by yourself because it’s still dirty, but if you get a handful of cars that go up there and there’s pace up there, then people go up there. For me, it’s (Saturday night), having a plan and adjustability in the car.

“It’s easiest for me to just say the track’s going to do two things and I come up with those two scenarios and have a game plan for either of them. To come up with one or 20 is not realistic. So I’ll look (Saturday) at some photos and how the track took rubber. There was a couple cautions between practice. See if it pulled any rubber up like a Dover style, and then you just kind of throw a dart at the wall of what the PJ1 is going to do after we put a couple hundred laps on it.”

Bergenty and driver Zane Smith were 13th-quickest in practice before qualifying 15th. Charles Denike, crew chief of the No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota, watched his driver Bubba Wallace practice fifth-fastest before qualifying 12th. Denike’s curiosity matched Bergenty’s: When will the top lane become the preferred lane?

“It’s how quickly the lane can move up, when the top takes some rubber, ” Denike told NASCAR.com. “The PJ1 will wear out over time on the bottom. We’ll go through a period where the two lanes are equal, and then who knows after that? So understanding what our balance is on the top versus the bottom, it’s definitely two different lanes that we’ve got to deal with.”

NASCAR Cup Series at Bristol.
Alejandro Alvarez | NASCAR Digital Media

Denike and the No. 23 team had the advantage of being one of three testers for both Goodyear and NASCAR last November, joining the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports group and the No. 60 RFK Racing team in testing the right-side tire that was selected for this weekend’s competition, as well as the higher horsepower and short-track diffuser new to Bristol this year. The comparison from the test to this weekend isn’t exact — especially considering the cold conditions in late November — but it is enough to give the No. 23 team comfort in its learnings.

“It’s obviously different than the test,” Denike said. “Everything’s a little bit different, so trying to adapt to that. Good news is that we’re close, so encouraging for what we need to work on (Saturday) to go into (Sunday).”

RELATED: Five cars fail pre-race inspection twice

The other unique feature of Bristol is dual pit roads — one pit lane on the frontstretch and another on the backstretch. Under green-flag conditions, drivers can simply enter and exit their respective pit lanes for service. But under caution, cars enter pit road on the backstretch and maintain pit speed all the way onto the frontstretch pits, exiting at the entry of Turn 1.

Bergenty chose pit stall No. 24 for Sunday’s race, which is the stall second from pit exit on the backstretch entering Turn 3. There is plenty of data to suggest which pit stalls to select. Bergenty prefers to go more by instinct.

“I put an emphasis on probably not so much analytics, the numbers of it, but I pay attention more to what makes it easier on the driver,” Bergenty said. “So I use more optics than analytics if that makes sense. And that’s just a style of mine. Everyone does something different, but I just put myself in his seat, knowing pit road is going to be tight — a mess in and out. What’s going to be the easiest for him to execute? And I feel like that’s kind of where our team’s at right now. We feel like we can run 10th to 15th any weekend so far this year, and we just need to operate like that on pit road. And so we don’t need to be chasing tenths of roll time on pit road. We need to be chasing optimizing our day.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Connor Zilisch rediscovered his identity on Saturday night — as a winner.

Thanks to a bold call from crew chief Rodney Childers, Zilisch stayed out on older tires with 28 laps left in the Suburban Propane 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway and took the checkered flag.

RELATED: Race results | At-track photos

With track position at the front of the field, Zilisch was able to hold off the dominant car of Kyle Larson, who had to settle for second place after leading 230 of 300 laps and sweeping the first two stages in the ninth NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series race of the 2026 season.

For Zilisch, his first victory on a short track was a welcome respite from the struggles he had faced as a rookie in the Cup Series.

“That was awesome,” said Zilisch, the fourth different winner for JR Motorsports this season. “It’s been a tough past two weeks for me in the Cup Series, and it feels good to come back down here into the O’Reilly Series and prove that I can still do it.

“It’s tough. You finish in the back every week and you forget who you are. This feels good. We played strategy. Rodney made a great call to keep us out. The tires weren’t wearing much all night, and we were able to get our (No. 1) Roto-Rooter Chevrolet in the track position that I needed to go out and win the race.”

RELATED: Why Zilisch’s background indicates he won’t fold under Cup pressure

Zilisch picked up his first win of the season, his first at Bristol and the 12th of his career. He was one of four JRM drivers in the top five, a group that included Larson, Justin Allgaier (fourth) and Carson Kvapil (fifth). Joe Gibbs Racing driver Brent Crews crashed that party with a third-place finish on the same strategy that propelled Zilisch to the victory.

For the eighth time in his career, Allgaier collected a $100,000 bonus in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Dash 4 Cash program as the highest finisher among four eligible drivers (the top four in last Saturday’s race at Rockingham Speedway).

A three-time winner this year, Allgaier retained his series lead by 130 points over second-place Sheldon Creed, who ran sixth at Bristol.

Larson was leading with Allgaier in pursuit early in the final stage when the engine in Mason Maggio’s No. 91 DGM Racing Chevrolet exploded on the backstretch, filling the “Last Great Colosseum” with smoke.

MORE: Weekend schedule: Bristol

Maggio steered the car to pit road, where it erupted in flames. Several of Allgaier’s crew members helped pull Maggio from the car. The driver was uninjured.

But the fireworks were just starting. After the resumption from a three-minute, five-second red flag period, Larson dominated — until Gray Gaulding’s spin in Turn 1 caused the seventh caution of the evening on Lap 270.

Zilisch, Crews and Corey Day stayed out on older tires, with Larson fourth on new rubber. Larson, Zilisch and Crews battled for position until the eighth caution for Anthony Alfredo’s spin on the frontstretch slowed the race for the final time.

An intense battle for the lead followed the subsequent restart with 11 laps left. Larson passed Crews for second and harried Zilisch until his No. 88 Chevy slipped in Turn 4 with just over two laps left, giving Zilisch the margin he needed to win by 0.703 seconds.

The victory was Childers’ first in the O’Reilly Series, after a long and successful run as a Cup crew chief, predominantly with Kevin Harvick.

RELATED: Childers never doubted Victory Lane return

Larson enjoyed the battle, if not the outcome.

“It’s a bummer, but I had a lot of fun tonight,” said Larson, who will race in Sunday’s Food City 500 NASCAR Cup Series event (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). “Our car was really good. Just tough being the leader in that situation of knowing to pit or not…

“But I’m happy with the run. It just doesn’t always work out.”

Pole winner William Sawalich was seventh, followed by Day, Parker Retzlaff and Taylor Gray. Day recorded his eighth straight top-10 finish.

The O’Reilly Auto Parts Series’ next race is scheduled Saturday, April 18, at Kansas Speedway (7 p.m. ET, The CW, MRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Note: Inspection in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series garage was completed without major issue, confirming Zilisch’s victory. The No. 44 Alpha Prime Racing Chevrolet that Brennan Poole drove to an 18th-place finish had one lug nut unsecured in a post-race check, which will result in loss of pit selection for the circuit’s next race.

Contributing: Staff reports

Posted on by Zach Sturniolo

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Bubba Wallace has put his misstep at Martinsville Speedway in the rearview mirror and set his sights on Sunday’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

But Wallace did admit he was mad at himself for initiating contact with Carson Hocevar that ended Wallace’s day and left him with a 36th-place finish.

MORE: Bristol starting lineup | At-track photos

Wallace texted Hocevar, and the two are moving forward with smiles.

“Oh, it was good. He didn’t do anything wrong Sunday, so I apologized to him, but all good,” Wallace said.

Hocevar — who has initiated his fair share of contact in the NASCAR Cup Series — dove three-wide to Wallace’s left on a late-race restart and passed Wallace without issue. In the next corner, Wallace contacted Hocevar and spun him out, but the damage was more severe to Wallace’s car than Hocevar’s. Hocevar had no qualms, especially considering he continued racing until the finish.

“Yeah, he texted me, and I kinda laughed about it because there’s times where I feel like I’m definitely deserving of something,” Hocevar said. “And I was laughing that — luckily my stuff was still rolling — but I didn’t feel like I deserved it and still got it. So I was just laughing at how it worked out. But no, he texted me and said he was just having a rough day, and when I passed him, he’s like, ‘you did nothing wrong. I was just already mad and that sent me over the edge.’ I was like, it’s cool, man. I’ve been there, done that. I’ve ended plenty of days, and obviously, it hurt him more than it did me. So we’re all good.”

The biggest impact happened off the track in the Cup Series points standings. Wallace fell from third in points entering Martinsville to a four-way tie for eighth, leaving him 11th on paper. Asked if he felt like he was eighth or 11th in points, Wallace said he “hadn’t even noticed.”

At one time in Wallace’s career, he dwelled on points week in and week out. That time is behind him, no matter the current-day importance of points. The problem, of course, is his recent fall in the standings. A Darlington crash out of his control sank his No. 23 Toyota to a 34th-place finish. One week later was Martinsville, where he earned his first DNF of the year. In the immediate aftermath of the incident, Wallace harbored that frustration again.

“I’ve been mad at myself my whole life. It’s just another day,” Wallace said with a laugh. “Yeah, it sucks. I gotta tuck my tail and take it on the chin and move on. No one was happy about it, but we do know we have another opportunity in front of us to go out and rewrite the history books.”

Indeed, there is no panic inside the No. 23 23XI Racing camp. Before this two-race setback, Wallace hadn’t finished worse than 11th in the season’s opening five races. With a week off after Martinsville, the team has regrouped and is charging back in full force for Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

“I mean, we’ve still got a lot of racing to go,” Wallace said. “Just like The Masters, there’s still a whole ‘nother 18 to play (Sunday). We’ve given up a lot of points in the last two races, unfortunately. Had a nice off weekend to reset and to get back up on the horse and go on for the next however many we’ve got.”

Posted on by Cameron Richardson

Track: Bristol Motor Speedway
Location: Bristol, Tennessee
Track length: 0.533 miles
When: 3 p.m. ET
Where to tune in: FS1, HBO Max, FOX One, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio
Race purse: $11,233,037
Race distance: 500 laps | 266.5 miles
Stages: 125 | 250 | 500
Sunday’s starting lineup | Cup Series pit stall assignments

All in or staying consistent: Are good results enough without a Victory Lane trip in early leg of 2026 marathon?

BRISTOL, Tenn. — With the Cup Series circuit closing in on the quarter mark of the 2026 season, select drivers have sprinted off their blocks while others are finding a good pace that can set them up for the long haul of the regular season before The Chase.

Tyler Reddick, Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott and Ryan Blaney have set the bar as the first group of winners this year, while a surprising cast of drivers, such as William Byron, Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell remain winless despite all having relatively strong starts compared to the rest of the full-time Cup Series roster.

The latter three have been just a step behind the favored sprinters, but good enough not to drift with the peloton deeper in the standings.

With Christopher Bell entering Sunday’s 500-lapper as the most recent Bristol winner, are there early warning signs for the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing team in the title picture if he isn’t competing for the win?

“Certainly, this is one we expect to be competing up front,” Bell said Saturday. “If we have a good, solid race and get a top five in stage points and restarts don’t work out or strategy doesn’t work out and we run seventh to 10th, it will be an acceptable finish. But if we go out there and just miss the stage points and run in the back half of the top 10, we expect to be better than that, especially here at Bristol. If that happens, I think it will be disappointing. This is one we have circled to go out here and fight for a win at.”

MORE: Weekend schedule, TV info | At-track photos

While it may not be Victory Lane or bust for Bell quite yet, Chris Buescher has been adamant over the last few years that he’ll talk about points when he’s got race trophies put in the No. 17 RFK Racing Ford’s bank.

Buescher, the 2022 Bristol Night Race winner, sits 10th in Cup points, tied with teammate and co-owner Brad Keselowski.

RFK is currently the only team that can boast all of its cars inside the top 16 Chase positions at the moment. It’s good bragging rights early in the season, but Buescher is ready for his next burnout and snap a winless streak that dates back to Watkins Glen International in Sept. 2024.

“We are good at maximizing whatever we may be bringing to the race track,” Buescher said. “We are good at making smart decisions and we haven’t had bad luck too much. Martinsville sure felt like bad luck, but we haven’t had too much really throat punch us, so we’re able to bounce back and just be strong in even the days that are tougher. We are having good days and we are putting points up on the board. Ultimately, we need to be putting trophies up on the shelf and that helps take care of the rest of it. When we went into this season with the Chase format back, in our minds, there’s no doubt that we’re gonna be able to make ourselves a Chase contender. It’s how do we make ourselves a championship contender?”

In the details …

A total of 1,838 laps have been turned in the Cup Series this season, and the amount of time a driver spends in the leaderboard’s upper reaches often translates to results. This year, laps spent among the top 10 haven’t necessarily mirrored success in the standings. William Byron has run among the top 10 for a series-best 77.9 percent of the laps in 2026; he also brings a four-race streak of top-10 finishes to Bristol this weekend. On the flip side, Austin Cindric’s time spent in the top 10 indicates how well he’s run, even though incidents in each of the first four races have held him to 18th in the standings.

Here’s how the Cup Series stacks up for the best top-10 runners, with their points position in comparison:

DriverLaps run in top 10Standings rank
William Byron14315th
Tyler Reddick13311st
Denny Hamlin12393rd
Ryan Blaney12082nd
Kyle Larson11709th
Ty Gibbs10696th
Austin Cindric106118th
Christopher Bell10137th

Speed reads

Race-day essentials:

• Bristol hub: Key information, pit-stall assignments, results | Read more
• Paint Scheme Preview: Fresh looks in all three series for Tennessee tilt | View gallery
• Sunday Setup: See what crew chiefs have in mind at Bristol | Read more
• Full race projection: Find out who is predicted to win on Sunday | Read more
• Hauler Talk: Fuel-save focus, Cleetus, San Diego and more | Listen now
• Ty ballgame: Why Gibbs has upside on Bristol’s banks | Neil Paine’s analysis
• Power Rankings: Cup Series’ top 20 drivers after Martinsville | This week’s ranks
• NASCAR Classics: Inside the video vault from Bristol | Watch now

Contributing: Zack Albert | NASCAR.com

general bristol view
Jared C. Tilton | Getty Images
Posted on by Staff Report

There’s some unpredictability in the air for Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

The new 750-horsepower configuration for the NASCAR Cup Series makes its second straight short-track appearance, but its first at the 0.533-mile Tennessee track. A new Goodyear tire setup for Sunday’s 500-lapper offers some extra intrigue as the Cup Series returns from a one-week break.

Kyle Larson (April) and Christopher Bell (September) divided the victories in last year’s races at Bristol, and predictably, they’re among the favorites. Racing Insights projects that Larson will win on Sunday, while Bell is picked to come home third. Here’s a look at more drivers to keep tabs on, plus the full projected results for Sunday’s Cup Series showdown.

RELATED: Full starting lineup | Bristol preview

DRIVERS TO WATCH

DENNY HAMLIN: Leave it to the Joe Gibbs Racing veteran to situate himself among the prerace favorites, especially at Bristol, where he ranks as a four-time winner. Two of those wins have come in his last five Bristol starts, and if tire management figures prominently into Sunday’s equation, Hamlin’s case to contend becomes even stronger.

TY GIBBS: The 23-year-old driver’s quest for his first Cup Series victory is 130 races in, but Bristol looms as a prime opportunity. Gibbs has been a top-10 finisher in four of the last five Bristol races, leading 440 laps in six starts there. He also enters with a significant head of steam, carrying a streak of five consecutive top 10s into the weekend.

CARSON HOCEVAR: The young Spire Motorsports talent might be more of a sleeper than Gibbs, but he has plenty of upside at the high-banked Tennessee bullring. Hocevar has finished 11th or better in three of his five career starts at Bristol, and that portfolio includes a seventh-place run with 26 laps led last fall. Like Gibbs, he’s seeking a first Cup Series victory.

MORE: Five cars fail pre-race inspection twice

FULL PROJECTED RESULTS FOR 2026 FOOD CITY 500 (3 p.m. ET, FS1)

FINISHCAR NUMBERDRIVER
15Kyle Larson
211Denny Hamlin
320Christopher Bell
454Ty Gibbs
512Ryan Blaney
69Chase Elliott
745Tyler Reddick
819Chase Briscoe
917Chris Buescher
1024William Byron
116Brad Keselowski
1260Ryan Preece
131Ross Chastain
1423Bubba Wallace
1577Carson Hocevar
1622Joey Logano
1771Michael McDowell
1848Alex Bowman
198Kyle Busch
202Austin Cindric
2138Zane Smith
223Austin Dillon
2316AJ Allmendinger
2421Josh Berry
257Daniel Suárez
264Noah Gragson
2743Erik Jones
2835Riley Herbst
2942John Hunter Nemechek
3047Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
3197Shane van Gisbergen
3234Todd Gilliland
3341Cole Custer
3410Ty Dillon
3588Connor Zilisch
3651Cody Ware
3766Chad Finchum
Posted on by Reid Spencer

BRISTOL, Tenn. — Ryan Blaney, seeking his first NASCAR Cup Series victory at Bristol Motor Speedway, got off to a flying start in Saturday’s time trials at the 0.533-mile high-banked concrete track.

Finding the speed he needed on the second of two qualifying laps, Blaney covered the distance in 15.101 seconds (127.064 mph) to edge Tyler Reddick for the top starting spot in Sunday’s Food City 500 (3 p.m. ET, FS1, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

RELATED: Starting lineup | At-track photos: Bristol

Driving the No. 12 Team Penske Ford, Blaney was 0.023 seconds faster than Reddick (126.871 mph), who will try to win his fifth race of the season in the No.45 23XI Racing Toyota.

The Busch Light Pole Award was Blaney’s second at Bristol, his first of the season and the 13th of his career.

“I just kind of got free on Lap 1, landing into (Turn) 1,” said Blaney, who recovered through Turns 3 and 4 to set up his second lap. “Luckily, the rear tires came in better the second lap in (Turns) 1 and 2, and then 3 and 4, I thought was a really good corner … ”

“Good start to the weekend. Now we’ve got to do 500 laps.”

Blaney has finished sixth or better in his last three starts at Bristol, but on Sunday, Cup Series drivers will be adjusting to both a new tire combination from Goodyear and a new short-track competition package featuring higher horsepower and lower downforce.

MORE: Crew chiefs discuss keys to Bristol 

“I think just being ready for the track to change is the biggest thing for me,” Blaney said. “It’s going to run one way for a little bit, but it’s going to change eventually …”

“Tomorrow, we’re going to be everywhere, ‘cause the top (lane) is going to come in tomorrow, and that’s going to be completely different from what you need to run the bottom. It’s been a pretty decent place for us. Hopefully, tomorrow we can contend for the win.”

Chase Briscoe qualified third at 126.779 mph in his No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota. Riley Herbst (125.679 mph), the third driver to make a qualifying run, was fourth, giving 23XI two of the top four starting positions.

Ty Gibbs, who led 201 laps in his last Bristol start, was fifth, followed by Ross Chastain in the fastest Chevrolet. Chris Buescher, three-time Bristol winner Kyle Larson, Austin Cindric and Carson Hocevar filled out positions seven through 10 on the grid.

The cars of Larson and Chastain — along with those of Cole Custer and Chad Finchum — failed pre-race inspection twice, resulting in the ejection of their respective car chiefs and loss of pit selection for Sunday’s race.

The No. 71 Chevrolet of Michael McDowell also failed twice, resulting in the ejection of an engineer and loss of pit selection.

Stenhouse sews up practice’s top spot

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. topped the charts in Cup Series practice at Bristol, leading the charge with a lap of 15.403 seconds (124.573 mph) in his Hyak Motorsports No. 47 Chevrolet.

MORE: Practice results | Weekend schedule

Stenhouse went out in the first of two groups, establishing his best time in the fifth of the 50 total laps he turned. His fast time was just 0.036 seconds ahead of second-fastest Noah Gragson, who went 124.283 mph in the Front Row Motorsports No. 4 Ford.

Austin Cindric led the second group and posted the third-fastest lap overall in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford. Erik Jones and Bubba Wallace rounded out the top five in that order, in a pair of Toyotas.

Contributing: Staff report.

Posted on by Reid Spencer

By his own description, Chase Elliott’s 2026 NASCAR Cup Series season has been one of ups and downs.

The high point came on March 29 at Martinsville Speedway, where Elliott held off Denny Hamlin for the victory. Never before in his Cup career had Elliott won as early as the seventh race of a season.

RELATED: Weekend schedule | At-track photos: Bristol

It’s not in Elliott’s nature, however, to get overly excited by success. Nor to get too disappointed when it doesn’t happen. But the driver of the No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet sees the early victory as an opportunity to build a meaningful season.

“Fortunately, the last one was an ‘up,'” Elliott said of the Martinsville win. “But I think it’s also important to recognize that, man, there’s an awful lot of racing left. I think for us, it’s not like, ‘OK, we’ve got the win and pressure’s off.’ That’s not how I’ve looked at it.

“I’ve looked at it with, honestly, just some excitement from the standpoint of, man, we have a longer runway to build on a win. I think for us, we’ve gotten to the last 10 or 15 weeks of the year before and really had to perform just at an extreme level and kind of catch up, in some regards.”

He added, “Like, even last year, we got ourselves to the playoffs and we didn’t have the wins, the playoff points and all the things banked up.

“I know the system’s different [return to the 10-race Chase format this year] and I get all that, but the concept is very much the same,” Elliott said. “We still need to perform well throughout the first 26 weeks, and I think when you are able to bank a win early, you kind of have a little bit of a longer runway to continue to put good runs together, stack more points and get going on the right foot.”

Posted on by Reid Spencer

Fresh from victory in Friday night’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Christopher Bell turned serious — and honest — when asked about the current state of his NASCAR Cup Series program at Joe Gibbs Racing.

“We are missing something,” acknowledged the driver of the No. 20 Cup Series Toyota.

RELATED: Cup Series standings | At-track photos

It’s not that Bell is having a brutal season. He’s seventh in the Cup standings, with three top fives and four top 10s in seven races. Bell’s 225 laps led are the second most in the series behind teammate Denny Hamlin’s 440.

Nevertheless, Bell conveyed disappointment at his failure to win a race so far this season.

“We have the same group, same people, same process and same equipment that we did when we won three races in a row last year,” Bell said. “We have all the resources. We’re just kind of swimming up creek a little bit.”

Bell pointed to the March event at Phoenix Raceway as a pivotal point in the early season. Bell led a race-high 176 laps, but Ryan Blaney took advantage of a late caution to win the race.

“I think, had that yellow flag not come out at Phoenix, and I won the race, we’d be sitting here talking about how great of a season I’ve had,” he said. “But the yellow flag did come out at Phoenix, and I didn’t win the race, and now we’re talking about a mediocre season.

“It just isn’t clicking right now on the Cup side. It feels like it’s really close to clicking, but we’re still striving to be where we need to be and want to be.”