NASCAR
Stratta’s Six: Food City 500 from Bristol Motor Speedway
Eastern Tennessee’s foothills will soon roar to life with the sound of stock cars once again. For the first time in four years, the Food City 500 triumphantly returns to its springtime glory on concrete. Who can vanquish the monumental challenge ahead in The Last Great Colosseum? Here are some gladiators to watch out for on Sunday.
Denny Hamlin
The defending Bristol Night Race winner, Denny Hamlin deservedly enters this weekend as a favorite. The short track ace has three Bristol trophies, including a dominant run last fall. His two most recent wins help add onto his five top-10s in the last seven paved Bristol races. After Toyota’s reign of terror last week, Hamlin eyes another strong weekend ahead.
“The Bristol race itself; it doesn’t matter if it’s the day or the night, always seems to put on a great show,” Hamlin said. “As a purist, I love seeing this race back on the concrete. Obviously as the last guy that won there, it’s going to be good to go back there and kind of test what this car wants compared to what we had in the past. We’re going to have to tweak on it, but we feel like we’ve got a good base setup with what we had last year.”
Hamlin had a prime winning opportunity escape his grasp last week. While racing with his driver Tyler Reddick, the 11 spun and only recovered to finish 11th. Should a similar amount of speed be brought to Thunder Valley, the 11 being up front may be a common sight once again.
Kyle Larson
If anyone can threaten the Joe Gibbs Racing Toyotas, it will be the Hendrick 5 car of Kyle Larson. The 2021 fall Bristol winner calls this his favorite track, and one he yearns to conquer again. Larson was runner-up to Hamlin here in September, and foresees another banner showing ahead on the concrete.
“I’m glad we’re back to two races on the concrete at Bristol,” Larson said. “Even growing up on dirt, I prefer the high banks on the concrete. It’s one of the coolest places to race at and I have had a lot of success there. I’m hoping for another great result this weekend.”
Perhaps the biggest critic of the Bristol Dirt experiment, Kyle Larson is yet again the oddsmakers’ favorite entering Sunday. Driver 5 boasts nearly 900 laps led on the concrete and five top-fives in the last seven races. If Larson stays mistake-free, the 5 may just be high wide and handsome once again on the half mile.
Ryan Blaney
Current Cup Series points leader Ryan Blaney has been knocking on victory lane’s door. Despite no past Bristol wins, Blaney may change that stat on Sunday. With two Bristol Dirt top-10s however, Blaney has proven to be adaptable on either track surface.
“Honestly, I didn’t really have any huge feelings towards (Bristol Dirt) either way,” Blaney said. “I enjoyed the dirt race, and I thought every year it got better. The first year the track wasn’t very good. The second year it got better and then last year I thought the track was awesome. It was very racy, very slick from top to bottom. You could have options and lanes, but it’s good. I think you go back every few years and maybe in a few years you could throw dirt on it again, but I had no big feelings about it either way.”
Blaney has been the most consistent Ford threat for victory lane this year. This performance is shown with the points lead and three top-fives. A Penske car won the last spring Bristol concrete race; Blaney has the best chance to keep this streak alive.
Christopher Bell
Still riding high from last week’s Phoenix win, Christopher Bell could go back-to-back in a few ways. Bell is gunning for a second straight victory, as well as back-to-back Bristol spring wins. Bell was the third and final winner on Bristol Dirt a year ago, etching his name into a very small club of current NASCAR stars. Much like Larson though, this dirt racer yearns to put his stamp on concrete Bristol’s trophy.
“I love racing at Bristol, it’s literally my favorite race on the schedule, I’m very thankful we get to go twice this year,” Bell said. “It’s been a track we have excelled at the last couple of times we have been there, we’ve been close. Bristol is another important race for us; you don’t win the Championship there, but you can definitely lose it if you’re not good. Having a versatile car is the key to a good run at Bristol. We know the bottom will be good because they are spraying the resin down, and we know the top is going to come in at some point, so you have to have a car that can really run both places.”
Despite no wins on traditional Bristol, Bell has been as close as anyone in the Next Gen era. Bell’s last two fall Bristol results are fourth and third, each with over 100 laps led. Toyotas left the field in the dust last week, Bell especially with a five second gap on second place. If any of this execution translates to Bristol, the competition may be in for a long 500 laps.
Brad Keselowski
Coming off a breakthrough double top-five day for RFK Racing, Brad Keselowski now heads to one of his best tracks on the circuit. The team co-owner has three wins here, most recently the last spring concrete race in 2020.
More lately however, Keselowski has been within eyesight of another sword trophy. 2022’s Night Race saw him lead triple digit laps, only for a cut tire to set him back. Last fall, the 6 was eighth in Tennessee. Now with a 100+ race losing drought, Keselowski has a prime chance at erasing this streak on Sunday.
Kyle Busch
No Bristol preview is complete without mentioning Kyle Busch. Rowdy has nine Cup wins at The World’s Fastest Half Mile, including the Dirt Race two years ago. His lone start with the RCR No. 8 team yielded a meager 20th-place run though. Busch still has yet to see a clean race in 2024 too, without any pit road issues or a spin. Team 8 has seen an unforced error in each of the opening four weeks.
“I think the toughness at Bristol is the amount of banking and the load that you see throughout the entirety of the race,” Busch said. “There’s no time to relax. You’re really on top of it for the entire race. That’s what wears on you the most, plus the repetitious nature of these short tracks of down the straightway into the corner, down the straightaway into the corner and it never seems to stop. It makes it fun for a lot of guys and challenging for others.”
Busch is well aware that being caught up in other’s mistakes at Bristol is common. Despite this, Rowdy thinks he can reign supreme again with a 10th Bristol trophy. The modern day king of the concrete will have plenty of track time this weekend, also running Saturday’s Truck race.
One driver will be celebrating a Herculean victory after 500 intense laps around Bristol. The Food City 500 will go green Sunday at 3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio Channel 90. Whoever is standing tall with the sword trophy will have fought off the sport’s best on one of its toughest tracks.
Written by Peter Stratta
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