Bristol Motor Speedway announced Friday that its two NASCAR race weekends in 2024 will be on the concrete. “As the motorsports world focuses on ‘America’s Night Race’ tomorrow, we are thrilled to announce Bristol Motor Speedway will host the return …
Bristol Motor Speedway announced Friday that its two NASCAR race weekends in 2024 will be on the concrete.
“As the motorsports world focuses on ‘America’s Night Race’ tomorrow, we are thrilled to announce Bristol Motor Speedway will host the return of the Food City 500 on the concrete high-banks of the ‘World’s Fastest Half Mile’ in the spring of 2024,” track president Jerry Caldwell said. “We will revive a logo reminiscent of the first Food City 500s in the early ‘90s and resurrect the track’s vintage trademark look and feel of the era. We’re looking forward to a great weekend of racing and what’s to come in 2024.”
The spring race at Bristol has been on dirt for the last three seasons for the Craftsman Truck Series and the Cup Series. There were three different winners on the dirt in both series. In the Truck Series, it was Martin Truex Jr. (2021), Ben Rhodes (2022), and Joey Logano (2023). In the Cup Series, the winners were Joey Logano (2021), Kyle Busch (2022), and Christopher Bell (2023).
“I think NASCAR has done a great job the past several years of trying new things,” Caldwell said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio. “I think as a sport we’ve really embraced that people love our sport, they love tradition, but also love trying some new things, and they love returning to some old ways. Whether that’s North Wilkesboro, whether that’s dirt, maybe it’s the road course in Chicago — all those things are great things, and sometimes you just do that for a little while, and then you change things up and go back to the way it was, and that’s what we’re doing here.
“I think dirt was great. I love dirt, but I think it’s time for us to go back to the concrete in the spring and see what these drivers can do on concrete twice a year.”
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Bristol’s dates for 2024 were not announced. NASCAR is expected to release the full schedule in the coming weeks.
Bristol Motor Speedway has hosted two weekends on the NASCAR schedule since 1961. Food City has been the entitlement sponsor of the spring race since 1992.
After stealing a victory last Saturday at Kansas Speedway, Christian Eckes got his pocket picked by Corey Heim on Thursday night at Bristol Motor Speedway. On lap 195 of 200 of the UNOH 200 Presented by Ohio Logistics, Heim forced his way beneath …
After stealing a victory last Saturday at Kansas Speedway, Christian Eckes got his pocket picked by Corey Heim on Thursday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.
On lap 195 of 200 of the UNOH 200 Presented by Ohio Logistics, Heim forced his way beneath Eckes’ No. 19 Chevrolet — with the lapped truck of Eckes’ TRICON Garage teammate, Tanner Gray, to the outside — took the lead and claimed the victory by 0.218s over his disappointed rival.
With his third NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series victory of the season, his first at Bristol and the fifth of his career, Heim, the regular-season champion, moved one step closer to another possible title. The win propelled him into the Championship 4 race, scheduled for Nov. 3 at Phoenix Raceway.
“This is insane,” said Heim, who led only the last six laps. “I felt like I’ve given so many away this year, to win one like that at the end is so special… Like I said, we’ve given so many away, and we finally got one back…
“Gosh, it’s just so awesome to know we’re in Phoenix.”
Eckes seemed Phoenix-bound himself before Heim made the decisive pass. Eckes led 150 laps and swept the first two stages. The runner-up finish left him one point behind Heim in the Playoff standings but without a ticket to the Championship 4.
“I just think it’s ironic that the 15 (Tanner Gray) is three laps down and waited,” said Eckes, who felt Gray held him up and allowed Heim to close in. “Whatever. Good truck. I got really tight there at the end…
“That one stinks, for sure.”
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If it’s any consolation to Eckes, mistakes and ill-fortune that beset other drivers created a significant spread between those above the cut line for the Championship 4 and those below it.
Defending series champion Zane Smith was penalized for pitting outside his box on lap 116, was relegated to the rear of the fell and fell a lap down to Eckes on lap 161. He finished 24th and heads for the next race — Sept. 30 at Talladega — in fifth place, 14 points behind Grant Enfinger (third on Friday) for the final Playoff-eligible position.
Contact between Heim’s Toyota and Ty Majeski’s Ford cut Majeski’s right front tire on lap 107, three laps before the of Stage 2. Majeski was never a factor after that and finished 19th, leaving him 22 points behind Enfinger.
Carson Hocevar finished fourth and enters the second Round of 8 race at Talladega 18 points above the cut line.
Tyler Gray, Rajah Caruth, Ben Rhodes, Chase Purdy, rookie Nick Sanchez and Matt DiBenedetto completed the top 10.
Sanchez started at the back of the field because of a broken suspension part that prevented him from making a qualifying run. Though he salvaged the ninth-place result, he trails Enfinger by 22 points with two races left in the Round of 8.
Instead of NASCAR using a “choose V,” it’s using a “choose drone” for the Bristol dirt race.
The NASCAR Cup Series is back at Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend for Sunday’s dirt race at the 0.533-mile Tennessee short track. But this time, there will be a vibrant addition to the race.
For the first time on the temporary dirt track, NASCAR’s choose rule will be employed on restarts with the help of a drone.
Normally for restarts at tracks where NASCAR’s choose rule is used, drivers are able to select which lane they want to restart from. As they drive up to the choose area and bright orange “choose V” marker painted on a paved track, they can select the inside or outside lane based on where they want to be and how drivers ahead of them chose. (In other events, sometimes it’s a choose cone instead of a painted marker.)
Sunday for the Bristol dirt race, instead of a marker painted on the track, NASCAR will use an LED drone marker to note the choose area of restarts. Ahead of the green flag, the done will fly to the track’s frontstretch with the LED box lit up to mark the choose area.
The drone will also be used for the third-tier NASCAR Truck Series race on Saturday night.
So how was this idea conceived? NASCAR’s senior coordinator of competition operations Jesse Little explained:
“The project I think was spearheaded by Tim Bermann (senior director, competition operations) and the folks in broadcasting, productions and then competition operations,” Little told NASCAR.com Saturday. “And the question that was thrown to the group was, hey, we’re choosing everywhere now, that includes dirt. Can’t paint on the track. We don’t want anybody running out there. We don’t want anyone on pit road that would in the event, retrieve something from the racetrack. So what do we do?
“And Tim immediately started brainstorming and coming up with some thoughts and questions and what can we implement? What can be seen during the day? What can be seen at night? What is visible to drivers? What will be visible to spotters, fans and TV? And you know, I think so far it’s been received very well.”
Here’s how it looks hovering above the track:
This drone will be the choose box. Drivers who want the outside will go toward the wall at this point. pic.twitter.com/vtmoVaS9s6
All times Eastern; live broadcasts unless noted. Friday, April 7 Bristol practice 1 5:30-6:30pm Bristol practice 1 6:30-7:30pm Bristol practice 2 8:00-8:30pm Bristol practice 2 8:30-9:00pm Saturday, April 8 Bristol qualifying races 4:30-5:30pm …
All times Eastern; live broadcasts unless noted.
Friday, April 7
Bristol
practice 1
5:30-6:30pm
Bristol
practice 1
6:30-7:30pm
Bristol
practice 2
8:00-8:30pm
Bristol
practice 2
8:30-9:00pm
Saturday, April 8
Bristol
qualifying
races
4:30-5:30pm
Bristol
qualifying
races
6:00-7:00pm
Bristol
7:00-8:00pm
pre-race
8:00-10:00pm
race
Glendale
10:00pm
Sunday, April 9
Sonoma
1:00-3:00pm (D)
Bristol
6:00-7:00pm
pre-race
7:00-10:00pm
race
Key: SDD: Same day delay; D = delayed; R = Repeat/Replay
A variety of motor racing is available for streaming on demand at the following sites:
The Trans Am Series airs in 60-minute highlight shows in primetime on the MAVTV Network. For those wishing to tune in live, the entire lineup of SpeedTour events will stream for free on the SpeedTour TV YouTube page. SpeedTour TV will also air non-stop activity on Saturday and Sunday (SVRA, IGT and Trans Am). You can also watch all Trans Am event activity on the Trans Am YouTube page and Facebook page.
Kyle Busch is a masterful NASCAR driver, and anyone who claims otherwise probably just doesn’t like the polarizing racer very much.
He’s one of the most talented drivers in the sport, and during practice Friday at Bristol Motor Speedway, Busch pulled off this amazing save after his car spun and nearly made contact with Austin Cindric.
In practice ahead of Saturday night’s postseason elimination race, the first of three in the 10-race Cup Series playoffs, Busch — who announced this week that he’ll switch from Joe Gibbs Racing to Richard Childress Racing in 2023 — seemed to get a little loose in one of the Tennessee short track’s turns and spun a tad as he tried to keep the car from hitting anything. But between the banking and not having total control of his No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota, Busch was in a worrisome spot.
His car briefly started to slide back down the track just as Cindric in the No. 2 Team Penske Ford was passing by on the inside. Busch probably held the brake down as hard as he possibly could to avoid destroying both his car and Cindric’s.
HOLY COW.
Kyle Busch spun in practice and almost got collected by Austin Cindric. #NASCARPlayoffs
“I didn’t hit anything, but, you know, coming down off the banking, might have touched the nose, but I didn’t feel it. … I turned off into the corner, and it loaded up the right-rear first and steered itself to the bottom. And I had to catch it and it just started heading up towards the wall.”
Currently 13th in the playoff standings, Busch is the last driver who would be eliminated at the end of the Round of 16 following Saturday’s Bristol night race is nothing changes. Eight of his 60 career wins have been at Bristol, and he will start the race 21st.
NASCAR driver Noah Gragson is on a roll headed into the Xfinity Series playoffs, winning his third consecutive race Friday night at Bristol Motor Speedway. And he celebrated with his own flair just like any NASCAR fan would expect him to.
Gragson has now swept the month of September so far in the second-tier NASCAR series after also winning at Darlington Raceway and Kansas Speedway.
And after his checkered flag at Bristol, he went big with his celebration, continuing his many victorious traditions like shotgunning beer and climbing up the catchfence with his team (and briefly getting a tad sick). But because he won at the Tennessee short track nicknamed “The Last Great Colosseum,” there was a huge gladiator sword involved too.
During NASCAR’s dirt race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday, the No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet driver led a race-high of 99 laps — 99 of the final 100 laps to be exact — and looked poised to grab his first career Cup Series win.
But wins don’t come easy, and Reddick will have to wait for his first checkered flag.
Reddick would have had a lot of reasons to be furious with Chase Briscoe after the pair made contact on the last lap, costing both of them a shot at the win. But instead of throwing punches, the two shared a perfect moment of sportsmanship, including an apology from Briscoe.
On the final lap of Sunday’s Food City Dirt Race, Reddick was out front on the .533-mile Tennessee short track, which was temporarily converted to dirt. Briscoe in the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Ford was right behind him, looking for the perfect opportunity to make a move with Kyle Busch in the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota running third.
Going into the final pair of turns before the finish line, Briscoe went to the inside of Reddick to try and make the pass for the win. But the back of the No. 14 car slid up the track and made contact with Reddick, forcing both cars farther up before eventually spinning out.
So, again, it’s hard not to feel bad for Reddick, who was oh-so-close to his first victory. He told FOX Sports afterward:
“I shouldn’t have let him get that close. He ran me back down, worked really hard to do that. I mean, you’re racing on dirt, going for the move on the final corner. It’s everything that, as a driver, you hope to battle for in his situation and made it really exciting for the fans.
“So it does suck, but we were able to finish second still. And I’m being honest: I should have done a better job and pulled away so he wasn’t in range to try to make that move. That’s how I look at it.”
Chase Briscoe as he walked up pit road as he wanted to talk to Tyler Reddick: “If he punches me, he punches me. I get it.” … And as you can see, no punches. pic.twitter.com/6oydwwEcXv
Briscoe: I was going to spin out, I think, either way. I was like, ‘Oh, please don’t hit him with the right rear! Please don’t hit with the right rear.’ And I saw it. But I’m sorry. I just wanted to let you know.
Reddick: You did a hell of a job running me down.
Briscoe: I kept trying. I was driving it so hard. I couldn’t run it any harder.
Reddick: It’s all good.
Briscoe: I’m sorry. I wish you would have won.
Reddick: I needed to drive away. I let you get close, so that’s on me.
Briscoe: That’s all right. I just wanted to apologize.
“I can win on any surface here at Bristol. Bring it on, baby.”
Kyle Busch knows how to win at Bristol Motor Speedway like almost no one else, and when he does, the fans often greet him with a chorus of boos. For the ninth time in his 18-season Cup Series career at the Tennessee short track, he ended up in Victory Lane on Sunday night.
But for the first time, he won on Bristol’s temporary dirt track, and he admittedly stole this win away from the race leaders on the last lap.
On a rainy, muddy night at the .533-mile track, Tyler Reddick was trying to hold on for the first Cup win of his career while trying to hold off a hard-charging Chase Briscoe behind him. The No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet driver led 99 of 250 total laps, but on the last lap as he and Briscoe dove into the final set of turns, things got wild.
Briscoe went to the inside of Reddick, but as Briscoe slid up the track, the back of his car hit Reddick’s, sending them both spinning.
Busch running third took advantage and sped past them to take the checkered flag at NASCAR’s second-ever Bristol dirt race and first in the new Next Gen car. Reddick still managed to finish second, while Briscoe was 22nd.
Although Busch was the surprise winner Sunday, the reaction from the remaining fans in the stands — those left anyway after two rain delays — was anything but, as a soundtrack of boos provided accompanied his on-track post-race interview.
"I feel like Dale Earnhardt Sr. right now … I didn't even do anything." Kyle Busch reacts to the boos at Bristol. pic.twitter.com/uDfJ7nCOix
“Yeah, we got one. Doesn’t matter how you get ’em. It’s all about getting ’em. So just can’t say enough. I mean, man, I feel like Dale Earnhardt Sr. right now. This is awesome. I didn’t do anything. …
“Overall, just real pumped to be back. Real pumped to get a win. This one means a lot. I can win on any surface here at Bristol. Bring it on, baby.”
Busch — who won his first race of the 2022 season and is most likely locked into the playoffs because of it — later elaborated on what happened on the last lap and how he stole this win. He said:
“The last few laps I feel like we kind of maintained with them, at least kept them in our windshield in case something did happen.
“There you have it. The final corner there was chaos ensued I guess, then we were able to make it through, steal a win, back into one. Feels good to get one here in this Next Gen race car. Feels good to win on dirt. A lot of caveats.”
Beating Reddick by just 0.330 seconds, the victory marks Busch’s 60th Cup win. He’s ninth on the all-time wins list, first among active drivers and 16 wins away from tying Dale Earnhardt Sr. for eighth. He’s now won a race in each of his 18 seasons, tying Richard Petty’s record streak.
NASCAR is getting dirty again because for the second time ever, the Cup Series will take on Bristol Motor Speedway’s temporary dirt track. But this time, it’s at night.
At the .533-mile Tennessee short track, the Food City Dirt Race is set for Sunday at 7 p.m. ET on FOX, and while the concept of this race is still novel, the format for the weekend, particularly qualifying, is very different from most other races.
Simply put, there will be two 50-minute practice sessions for drivers and teams to get a feel for how the Next Gen car will handle the dirt track, and then there will be four qualifying races to set the starting lineup for the main event.
But there’s a lot more to it than that, so let’s break it down.
Explaining what NFTs are and how the NASCAR world plans to use them in the digital realm.
From diecast model cars and hero cards to apparel dripping in beer or car parts logos, collectibles are a big part of NASCAR. And now that’s expanding into a digital realm.
Speedway Motorsports — the company that owns and operates eight NASCAR tracks — partnered with GigLabs to create RaceDayNFT.com, the first NASCAR-related NFT marketplace, which launches Monday at 1 p.m. ET ahead of next weekend’s Cup Series playoff race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
“Collecting has always been a big part of NASCAR fandom, whether it’s diecasts or people who have collected our event programs — all kinds of things,” said Mike Burch, chief strategy officer for Speedway Motorsports. “So [we were] thinking, ‘How can we bring that over into our side of the world, our business?'”
With the increasing popularity of NFTs — or non-fungible tokens — in professional sports, particularly NBA Top Shot, Burch said he thought that digital collectibles could be another way to engage fans. Plus, it could contribute to NASCAR’s efforts to develop a new generation of fans, especially “young and technically sophisticated people who love motor sports” because “there’s a lot of them,” he said.
(Courtesy of Speedway Motorsports)
NFTs are comparable to baseball cards, but they’re obviously digital and can be just about anything, like highlights or championship rings. And with the use of blockchains, NFT ownership can be tracked. An example in racing is a Formula 1 video game licensed by the racing series offers NFT opportunities.
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“So while images and videos can be spread throughout the internet, there’s a certified, authenticated, verifiable copy that somebody can own,” said Douglas Dimola, the GigLabs CEO and co-founder. “They can then trade that; they can sell that.”
NASCAR fans have responded positively to digital tickets and digital race programs, Burch added, so why not digital collectibles that fans can buy, sell or show off in the marketplace?
“I think that the way that they build a community around [digital collectibles] is what really will give these NFT projects the longevity that they need, and that they’re capable of,” said Landon Cassill, a full-time Xfinity Series driver who’s paid in cryptocurrency from a sponsorship deal with Voyager.
When the RaceDayNFT marketplace launches, 10,000 commemorative ticket NFTs for the Bristol night race will be available for free, and 500 of them will be randomly selected as golden ticket NFTs. The same is true for Speedway Motorsports’ other playoff races this fall at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, Charlotte Motor Speedway and Texas Motor Speedway, and all the commemorative ticket NFTs will have sound effects or audio attached, Burch said.
Images of the two commemorative ticket NFTs for Bristol. (Courtesy of Speedway Motorsports)
For each of these four races, there are four components to the NFTs, including the commemorative ticket NFTs. Fans attending the any of these races also can scan a QR code and get a unique at-the-track NFT, and then they can buy 500 additional collectibles for $25 apiece.
But the rarest of these opening collectibles will be two Winner’s Edition NFTs for the four races, and those will be digital coins. One will go to the race winner, and the other will be auctioned off after the race.
“[The coin] has the track on one side and the winner and date on the other side,” Dimola said. “So the person who wins the auction will essentially have an NFT that they share with the the winning driver.”
Profits from the NFT sales will go to Speedway Motorsports for now, Burch noted, but depending on how successful the marketplace is, money could go to charities or be used as a fundraising tool.
“If it’s somebody that’s new to crypto or has never seen the space before,” Cassill said, “if NASCAR entities can create a way that’s understandable and is not intimidating and makes sense and gives those fans ownership over the things that they love — the drivers, the teams, the tracks that they love — I think it could definitely succeed, as long as it strengthens the community and empowers those race fans.”
Also depending on how fans respond to RaceDayNFT, the opportunities to expand what’s offered are “limitless,” Burch said, including NFTs with other NASCAR entities, the IndyCar Series or NHRA.
And as a reward for ownership, NFTs could translate into real-world experiences.
“So if you own this [NFT] at this specific time, then you can have a race-day experience or meet the driver,” Dimola said. “There’s so many options there, and because we can authenticate and verifiably show who owns what, you can actually create those experiences with these digital collectibles. …
“And as people see that activation come to life, that’s where it’ll really help sell the concept and get people more involved.”
