Bass Pro Shops Night Race Tag

By David Morgan, Associate Editor BRISTOL, Tenn. – Speeding penalties, handling issues, and mechanical problems. The four drivers that saw their NASCAR Cup Series Playoff hopes dashed Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway had it all. Ty Gibbs was the first driver to end the night on the outside looking in, having watched his six-point advantage that he came into the weekend with erased early on with a pit road speeding penalty on Lap 133. The penalty dropped him to the tail end of the field and with track position beingRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor BRISTOL, Tenn. – Just Kyle Larson doing Kyle Larson things. It was just utter dominance for the driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway as he led an astounding 462 of 500 laps en route to his fifth win of the 2024 season and second overall on the high-banked half-mile. Larson rolled off from second-place to start the night behind his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Alex Bowman, but on lap 33, he vaulted to the lead and the rest isRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor BRISTOL, Tenn. – Trades are synonymous with nearly every major sport there is and now NASCAR is getting in on the action. On Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway, Spire Motorsports and Rick Ware Racing announced that Saturday night’s Bass Pro Night Race will be the final race for their respective drivers, Corey LaJoie and Justin Haley, with the two drivers swapping rides for the remainder of the season starting next week at Kansas. It will be a homecoming for Haley, who started his Cup Series careerRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor BRISTOL, Tenn. – Elimination weekend is upon us. The NASCAR Cup Series rolls into Bristol Motor Speedway for a Saturday night under the lights in the Bass Pro Shops Night Race which will see the current 16-driver Playoff field cut to 12 when the checkered flag falls on the night. Racing at Bristol is always intense, but when the lights go down for the night race, the intensity gets cranked to 11. The aggressiveness that the drivers will show on the high-banked bullring that is calledRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Saturday night at Bristol Motor Speedway was not kind to former NASCAR Cup Series champions, with defending champion Joey Logano and 2014 champion Kevin Harvick among those eliminated in the first round of the Playoffs. Both drivers started the Bass Pro Shops Night Race with points advantages over the cut-off line, as Logano sat 12-points up and Harvick sat in the 12th and final transfer spot just seven points ahead of elimination. In the end, those slim margins weren’t enough to save either of them. Logano’sRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BRISTOL, Tenn. – Denny Hamlin landed a knockout punch in the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway.  NASCAR Cup Series regular-season champion Martin Truex Jr. survived to fight another round.  Bubba Wallace rescued himself from the brink of elimination from the series Playoffs and advanced to the Round of 12 by four points.  Kevin Harvick, winner of the first elimination Playoff in 2014, won’t be around to fight for the title in his final season of Cup racing. He joins defendingRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BRISTOL, Tenn. – For Christopher Bell, Friday’s NASCAR Cup Series qualifying session brought an unprecedented accomplishment.  For Martin Truex Jr., Bell’s teammate at Joe Gibbs Racing, it brought a sense of relief—if that’s possible for a driver trying to climb above the cut line in the series Playoffs.  In the final round of time trials at the 0.533-mile short track, Bell turned a lap in 15.109 seconds (126.997 mph), edging another teammate, Denny Hamlin, by 0.008 seconds (126.930 mph) for the top starting spotRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BRISTOL, Tenn. – Driver Kyle Busch said Friday that the swap of pit crews with Austin Dillon before Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway was a collaborative decision at Richard Childress Racing that involved both drivers.  The swap, which switches all pit crew members except for the fuelers, took place because Dillon’s crew has been faster and more consistent throughout the season, said Busch, who is in the NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, where Dillon is not.  “If you can takeRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor Bristol Motor Speedway hosted the first elimination race of the 2022 NASCAR Cup Series Playoffs, marking the end of the road for four drivers and their championship aspirations. Several drivers entered the night within striking distance of the top-12 in points, but when Saturday night’s wild outing in Thunder Valley ended, Tyler Reddick, Kyle Busch, Austin Dillon, and Kevin Harvick were the unlucky drivers to be on the outside looking in. For all four, it would be a combination of mechanical issues, on-track incidents, and justRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BRISTOL, Tenn. – With Chase Elliott pursuing him relentlessly for the final 50 laps, Chris Buescher held on to win Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motors Speedway, becoming the 19th different NASCAR Cup Series winner this season. After the event that set the field for the Round of 12 in the series Playoffs—and eliminated superstars Kyle Busch and Kevin Harvick from the postseason—a dozen drivers were breathing sighs of relief and hoping fervently for a return to stock car sanity inRead More