Bristol Motor Speedway Tag

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

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BRISTOL, Tenn.— Make it three in a row for Noah Gragson, who has built enormous momentum as the NASCAR Xfinity Series moves into its seven-race Playoff. On 90-lap older tires, Gragson held off Brandon Jones, the driver who will take his seat in the No. 9 JR Motorsports Chevrolet next year, in a 20-lap green-flag run to the finish of Friday night’s Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway. The victory was Gragson’s third straight in the series, his sixth of the season andRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BRISTOL, Tenn.— A Ford driver hadn’t won a pole position at Bristol Motor Speedway in more than 10 years, but that changed radically on Friday afternoon when Aric Almirola snagged the top starting position for Saturday’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race (7:30 p.m. ET on USA, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). In the final round of time trials, Almirola covered the .533-mile distance in 14.946 seconds (128.382 mph) to become the first NASCAR Cup Series pole winner at Thunder Valley since Greg Biffle claimedRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor After running on the dirt at Bristol earlier this year, the NASCAR Cup Series returns to the track we all know and love this weekend for Saturday night’s running of the Bass Pro Shops Night Race and the first elimination race of the Playoffs. 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 called “The Last Great Colosseum” to takeRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Ty Majeski downplayed his final run in Thursday night’s UNOH 200 presented by Ohio Logistics at Bristol Motor Speedway as “just another restart.” In reality, it was the most important moment to date in Majeski’s hardscrabble career. Streaking away from Zane Smith after a restart with 12 laps left in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series’ Round of 8 Playoff race, Majeski scored the first NASCAR national series victory of his career and claimed the first berth in the Nov. 4 Championship 4 finaleRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor As the laps wound down in Sunday’s Food City Dirt Race at Bristol, Tyler Reddick and Chase Briscoe were battling it out to see which of them would be taking home the win. By the time the checkered flag fell, neither of them would end the night in Victory Lane. Reddick and Briscoe combined to lead 158 of the 250 laps on the night, with Reddick leading a race-high 99 laps – almost the entirety of the final stage of the race. With Reddick’s No. 8Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BRISTOL, Tenn. – Kyle Busch has a special fondness for Bristol Motor Speedway, but the driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota needed a huge stroke of luck on Sunday night to rekindle his love affair with the half-mile track. Busch won the Food City Dirt Race from a distant third place after the Ford of second-place Chase Briscoe slid up the high-banked dirt track into the Chevrolet of leader Tyler Reddick in the final corner, turning both cars sideways.  Reddick rightedRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BRISTOL, Tenn. – Overcoming a mistake in communication, Ben Rhodes charged to the front in the closing laps of Saturday’s Pinty’s Truck Race on Dirt snatched the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series victory from runner-up Carson Hocevar. One circuit after the final restart on Lap 146 of 150, Rhodes, the defending series champion, buried his No. 99 ThorSport Racing Toyota into Turn 1, slid to the outside of third-place finisher John Hunter Nemechek and dived to the inside of Hocevar to take the lead.Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Charge from the back nets Cole Custer first pole on Bristol Dirt BRISTOL, Tenn. – Cole Custer charged from ninth to second in the first of four 15-lap qualifying heat races on Saturday to earn the pole position for Sunday night’s Food City Dirt Race at the Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt track (7 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Custer surged from fifth to second moments after a restart with six laps left in the qualifying race. He finished second toRead More