NASCAR Weekend Preview: Bristol Motor Speedway

Kyle Larson looks to break NASCAR Cup Series drought at Bristol

Will the reigning NASCAR Cup Series champion enter and sign in, please?

To be fair, Kyle Larson hasn’t exactly been a no-show this season. The driver of the No. 5 Chevrolet has one top five, four top 10s and 137 laps led through seven races. He’s tied with Brad Keselowski for eighth in the series standings, 147 points behind runaway leader Tyler Reddick.

However, this is the first year since he joined Hendrick Motorsports in 2021 that Larson is winless through the first seven races. He has more wins (one) and more laps led (154) in two starts in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series.

Fortunately for Larson, the next stop on the Cup Series tour happens to come at one of his best and favorite race tracks, Bristol Motor Speedway, which will host Sunday’s Food City 500 (3 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

Larson is the defending winner of the race. He has taken the checkered flag in two of the last three events at Bristol and three of the last seven. His 1,762 laps led at the 0.533-mile track (including 462 of 500 in the 2024 Night Race) are ninth all-time in just 19 starts.

“Bristol’s tough, at least in the Next Gen era, because you really don’t know what you’re going to get in track and race conditions until you get into the race,” said Larson, who hopes to break a winless streak of 31 races, third longest of his career.

“I feel like every practice we’ve had there, maybe with the exception of one or two, is really high tire wear, and you’re like scratching your head, ‘Oh, my gosh, what’s the track going to do? Do we change our car a bunch overnight to accommodate that wear?

“And then you get into the race, and conditions are normal. And then you come back the next time, and you’re like, ‘The race is going to be normal. It’s going to be no tire wear. It’s going to get back to normal,’ and then the race is high tire wear, and you’re changing your race strategy.”

To deal with the unpredictability, Goodyear is introducing new right- and left-side tires designed to counteract the potential temperature swings at the track. With 10 new sets and one set of qualifying scuffs available for the race, however, teams still may have to be judicious with tire use.

Another variable is the new short-track competition package that features more than a 10-percent increase in horsepower from 670 to 750, shorter three-inch spoiler and a simplified diffuser with fewer strakes, resulting in lower downforce.

Larson’s dirt-track background and adaptability to different race cars and setups should give him an advantage, but the same can be said of Denny Hamlin, who learned the nuances of tire management in late model racing on asphalt.

Hamlin went back-to-back at Thunder Valley in the 2023 Night Race and 2024 spring race.

Nor would it be wise to ignore Hamlin’s teammates at Joe Gibbs Racing. Christopher Bell won at Bristol most recently (last year’s Night Race) and is the only driver to finish in the top-10 in all six races with the Next Gen car at the high-banked concrete track.

Ty Gibbs arrives at Bristol with a streak of five straight finishes of sixth or better this season. Gibbs has led more than 100 laps in three of his last five appearances at Thunder Valley (with a high of 201 last fall) and has finished in the top-10 in four of the last five.

Note: Alex Bowman, who was sidelined for four events while recovering from vertigo, has been medically cleared to race and will return to action in the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet at Bristol.

“It’s been tough being out of the car, but we all wanted to make sure I was 100-percent ready before returning,” Bowman said in a release announcing his return. “I feel really good, and I’m excited about being at the track with my team and getting back to racing.”

Can William Sawalich and Toyota build on Rockingham success at Bristol?

In terms of manufacturer success, the NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series has been the converse of the NASCAR Cup Series.

In NASCAR’s top division, Chevrolet was shut out for the first six races before Chase Elliott got a breakthrough win at Martinsville Speedway on March 29.

In the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series, Chevrolet drivers claimed the first seven trophies before William Sawalich got his first career win last Saturday at Rockingham in a Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota.

As NASCAR heads to Bristol Motor Speedway, Sawalich and his Toyota brethren will try to back up the Rockingham victory in Saturday’s Suburban Propane 300, the first of four Dash 4 Cash races in the series (7:30 p.m. ET on CW, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

That might be a challenge, given that Aric Almirola’s win last fall is the only Toyota triumph in the last eight races at the 0.533-mile short track.

Sawalich’s competition for the $100,000 Dash 4 Cash bonus is much more limited than the full-field scramble for the race win. Only the top four finishers at Rockingham—Sawalich, Brandon Jones, Justin Allgaier and Rajah Caruth—are eligible for the six-figure prize, with the top finisher among them taking home the money.

That means the Dash 4 Cash drivers won‘t have to beat Kyle Larson, who will make his third O’Reilly Series start of the season at Bristol. Larson has won in his last two series starts at Thunder Valley, including last year’s edition of this race.

Sawalich, Jones and Caruth will have to beat Allgaier, who has turned Dash 4 Cash races into a personal piggy bank. In 23 Dash 4 Cash appearances, Allgaier has claimed the prize seven times (most all-time) for a total of $700,000 (most all-time).

Allgaier has two race victories, two poles and 17 top 10s in 26 Bristol starts.

Both Sawalich and Caruth are eligible for the Dash 4 Cash bonus for the first time. Jones has been shut out in seven tries for the $100,000.

Caruth charged into the critical fourth-place finish at Rockingham with a two-position pass of Carson Kvapil and Sheldon Creed with nine laps left. Caruth will be behind the wheel of the No. 32 Jordan Anderson Racing Chevrolet this weekend, not the arguably more potent No. 88 JR Motorsports Chevrolet he drove at Rockingham.

It’s also incumbent on Caruth to put recent incidents with defending series champion Jesse Love behind him. The two drivers tangled at both Martinsville and Rockingham—to Love’s severe detriment at the latter track.

Love and Caruth engaged in an extended post-race conversation in the Rockingham garage.

“I’ve had a couple of moments like that this year where, you know, there’s points on the table that I probably gave away where if I didn’t have those, if I didn’t make those decisions or have those emotional reactions, then that positively impacts my finishing position,” Caruth said.

“I’d say I’m a pretty tough critic, but that’s the reason why I’d say I’m like, probably a C-plus or B-minus to start the year. But as tough as those mistakes were, I’m glad I made them, because now I know for next time.”

Is it “Heim Time” for half-a-million at Bristol?

When it comes to racing in the NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series, there’s not much Corey Heim hasn’t accomplished.

The 23-year-old from Marietta, Georgia, accumulated a single-season series-record 12 victories last year in winning his first championship.

This year, Heim is driving part-time for TRICON Garage, and he has the chance to do something unprecedented in Friday night’s Tennessee Army National Guard 250 at Bristol Motor Speedway (7:30 p.m. ET on FS1, NRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).

In the first of three Triple Truck Challenge races March 20 at Darlington, Heim pulled off a dramatic win in the No. 5 TRICON Garage Toyota. Two weeks later he triumphed in the No. 1 TRICON Tundra at Rockingham to claim a $100,000 bonus in the second race of “The Trip.”

Should he become the first driver to win all three races of a Triple Truck Challenge, Heim would collect a $350,000 bonus for a total of $500,000 for his efforts.

“I don’t really think about it in the truck, but being able to reflect on it, it would be cool to be the first person to sweep all three if we are able to do it,” Heim said after the Rockingham win.

“There is a lot of motivation for these guys in the No. 1 camp with Celsius as our primary (sponsor at Bristol), so super excited about that.”

Heim won at Bristol in 2023 and has finished second, third and third in his last three starts there.

Foremost among Heim’s competition for the Triple Truck Challenge bonus are Front Row Motorsports teammates Layne Riggs and Chandler Smith, both two-time winners at Thunder Valley (with Riggs winning two of the last three races there).

The field also features a handful of NASCAR Cup Series regulars, including five-time Truck Series winner Kyle Busch, Ross Chastain, Carson Hocevar and Daniel Suarez. The Cup drivers are not eligible for the Triple Truck Challenge bonus money.

NASCAR Cup Series
Next Race: Food City 500
The Place: Bristol Motor Speedway
Track Length: 0.533 Mile Concrete Oval
The Date: Sunday, April 12
The Time: 3 p.m. ET
The Purse: $11,233,037
TV: FS1 & FOX Deportes, 2 p.m. ET
Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)
Distance: 266.5 miles (500 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 125),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 250), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 500)

NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series
Next Race: Suburban Propane 300
The Place: Bristol Motor Speedway
Track Length: 0.533 Mile Concrete Oval
The Date: Saturday, April 11
The Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
The Purse: $1,753,590
TV: CW, 7 p.m. ET
Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)
Distance: 159.9 miles (300 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 85),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 170), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 300)

NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series
Next Race: Tennessee Army National Guard 250
The Place: Bristol Motor Speedway
Track Length: 0.533 Mile Concrete Oval
The Date: Friday, April 10
The Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
The Purse: $839,700
TV: FS1, 7:30 p.m. ET
Radio: NRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)
Distance: 133.25 miles (250 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 65),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 130), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 250)