NASCAR
Stratta’s Six: Who Will Show Out in the Food City 500 at Bristol?
500 miles of high octane and adrenaline lie ahead for the stars of the NASCAR Cup Series. The World’s Fastest Half-Mile is on the horizon, with Bristol Motor Speedway being host for this weekend’s action. The Tennessee ribbon of concrete has been home to countless historic moments, and will add to its lengthy highlight reel in mere days. Here are a few who hope to take the sword trophy home from \\the Food City 500.
Kyle Larson
The most recent winner at Bristol, last fall’s Night Race was one of the most dominant shows ever from Kyle Larson. 462 of 500 laps led left very little doubt as to who was king of the Tennessee foothills in September. This marked Larson’s second triumph at his favorite stop on the circuit. With over 1300 laps led here though, you’d be rightfully surprised to expect more Bristol trophies from Young Money.
“To me, it’s the closest style to a dirt sprint car race, although it’s a lot longer,” Larson said. “Just the intensity, the aggression, the fast-paced style of that race I’m comfortable with. I just love that track. I look forward to going there. So yeah, Bristol has been a place where I’ve led tons of laps at before and won a lot of stages but have kind of fallen off at the ends of the races. But since joining Hendrick, we’ve been good all race long and that was fun to dominate that race this last year.”
Larson will not be short of confidence or real-world experience this weekend, also running the Truck and Xfinity races. Like Homestead a few weeks ago, driver 5 eyes a historic tripleheader sweep. All of Hendrick Motorsports will be racing with heavy hearts this weekend, though. Thursday saw the untimely passing of Larson’s PR rep, HMS veteran Jon Edwards. As a result, Bristol wins from any Hendrick driver will have added significance behind them. Larson is heavily favored to possibly take all three Thunder Valley trophies.
Denny Hamlin
The defending Food City 500 winner, last spring saw Denny Hamlin lead 163 laps in another prime short track showing. Hamlin owns four Bristol victories, including two of the last three trips to Tennessee. 2024’s spring race lives on for its massive tire wear, which saw Hamlin thrive with his late model experience. Hamlin is not so sure of seeing such a wildly unpredictable race replicate itself this time around, however.
“I think that was just kind of an anomaly,” Hamlin said. “We thought it was temperature, we thought it was all kinds of different things, but truthfully, there’s something that was different. Don’t know really what it was, but I would expect that we would have been the normal Bristol where your tires don’t wear that much, if it’s the same tire. Temperatures look to be up, so I would say that we would have kind of the normal Bristol that we’ve had you know most of the time.”
Having the most momentum possible as winner the last two weeks, Hamlin enters Bristol as the favorite. Driver 11 has never earned three-straight wins in his career, a feat he hopes to change at one of his best tracks. Last week saw Hamlin earn a fifth Darlington victory; he’s looking to hit the same milestone at Bristol.
Christopher Bell
Shockingly still 0-7 on concrete Bristol, Christopher Bell seems well overdue for this win. Joe Gibbs Racing cars are always up front here, as proven by Hamlin’s historic dominance. Bell is no slouch here either; the 20 boasts five top-10s and 360 laps led around Thunder Valley.
Already having three early wins in 2025, Bell is simply chasing more points and checkered flags to grow his Playoff point bucket. The last Bristol Dirt winner may return to a familiar victory lane with the big trophy on Sunday.
Kyle Busch
One of Bristol Motor Speedway’s all-time greats eyes a monumental milestone this weekend. Nine-time Cup Series victor Kyle Busch hopes to join the elite list of those with 10 wins at a single track. Busch trumps the rest of the field with experience and success on the concrete, with nine Xfinity and five Truck triumphs too. Busch’s best Bristol result since joining RCR has been 20th, however. Coming off a top-10 run though, there is reason for optimism in the 8 camp.
“Bristol’s one of my favorite tracks, if not my favorite,” Busch said. “I love going there, it’s obviously a great place. It reminds me of the local short track atmosphere that you get on Saturday nights, growing up racing late models and things like that. It’s a lot of fun, I love the banking, I love the concrete and just the nature of that place. It’s gotten a little bit tougher over the years to be as good as I once was there. Everybody’s kind of picked up on it. It’s definitely one of the coolest tracks that we get a chance to go run on. And obviously, the speed that you carry there and the close nature to action, whether you run the bottom or whether you run the top, there’s just a lot of options.”
2025 has been a tale of two seasons so far for Kyle Busch. He’s batting a perfect .500 for top-10s, with a best result of fifth at COTA. If this team is off though, they are struggling to get a top-20. Which RCR No. 8 team shows up to Bristol remains to be seen. This weekend is a prime opportunity though to erase Busch’s 65-race losing drought.
Ty Gibbs
It’s been 23 years since Kurt Busch was Bristol Motor Speedway’s most recent first-time Cup winner. Ty Gibbs hopes to change this near quarter-century long trend this weekend. This shift could happen at one of Gibbs’ most consistent stops on the schedule. Coming off a much-needed ninth-place day at Darlington, team 54 hopes this is the start of a season turnaround.
Gibbs still sits a distant 26th in points, all but in must-win mode to make a second-straight Playoff appearance. Bristol has been very kind to the Toyota driver in his young career, with two top-10s and nearly 250 laps led in his last three starts. Gibbs may just have to out duel his veteran teammates for this win, though. Should the 54 have another clean day and remain in the mix, a maiden Cup triumph could be in the cards.
Ryan Preece
One driver already on track for a career season and a possible Bristol breakout is Ryan Preece. The expansion driver at RFK Racing has seen three top-10s through eight weeks, putting the No. 60 at 13th in points.
Bristol could easily be the site of Preece’s first career win on the Cup tour. RFK has seen great success here in the Next Gen era, and Preece isn’t too shabby here either. With Stewart-Haas Racing, Preece was seventh in the Bristol Night Race last fall. That accounts for one of Preece’s two career Bristol top-10s across eight starts. Admittedly a long shot with +4000 odds, Preece hopes to join the list of new NASCAR winners in 2025.
With a projected high of 63° on Sunday, just what kind of race will unfold in the Food City 500 is still a mystery. Bristol is sure to be entertaining regardless, whether or not tires fall off as much as last March. The Food City 500 may see a timely Playoff ticket punched, or be another notch in a contender’s belt. The Tennessee green flag flies Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN, and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
Written by Peter Stratta
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Photo Credits to Jonathan Bachman/Getty Images
