{"id":50929,"date":"2025-04-12T13:50:15","date_gmt":"2025-04-12T18:50:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=50929"},"modified":"2025-04-13T08:40:38","modified_gmt":"2025-04-13T13:40:38","slug":"nascar-cup-series-spring-race-at-bristol-is-a-trip-into-the-unknown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/12\/nascar-cup-series-spring-race-at-bristol-is-a-trip-into-the-unknown\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR Cup Series spring race at Bristol is a trip into the unknown"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service<\/em><\/p>\n

BRISTOL, Tenn.\u2014 After the NASCAR Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway last March, when extreme tire wear was a decisive factor, drivers and crew chiefs were at a loss to form expectations for the Night Race in September.<\/p>\n

\"\"

Ty Gibbs, driver of the #54 SiriusXM Toyota, and Kyle Larson, driver of the #5 HendrickCars.com Chevrolet, lead the field during the NASCAR Cup Series Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway on March 17, 2024 in Bristol, Tennessee. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

Chris Buescher participated in a Goodyear tire test between races, and the results of that session indicated tire fall-off would still be a major issue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t see what happened in the spring coming whatsoever, and we went to the fall expecting it, and it didn\u2019t happen,\u201d Buescher said. \u201cWe did the tire rest last year before the fall race, and it had all kinds of significant wear, and we were prepared for that when we came back, and it just did not happen.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t know what to make out of that. I don\u2019t know what we\u2019ll see this go-around. I really don\u2019t. I hope we get back to the point where we have somewhere in-between the two, really. I\u2019d love to be able to go 60 or 70 laps and wear out a set of tires, not 30 or 40 \u2014 and certainly not 250.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kyle Larson won last year\u2019s Night Race after leading 462 of 500 laps in what was more of a traditional Bristol race on the high-banked concrete surface, with minimal tire wear.<\/p>\n

That said, the expectations for this year\u2019s spring race are anybody\u2019s guess.<\/p>\n

Even though Sunday\u2019s Food City 500 (3 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) is a month later on the schedule this year, the temperature will be similar to the conditions drivers experienced last March\u2014chilly.<\/p>\n

A major difference is that the 0.533-mile racing surface has been sprayed with PJ1 Trackbite in the bottom lane, as opposed to the resin used last year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe majority of time it\u2019s been three or four feet of PJ1 on the bottom,\u201d said Buescher, who won the Night Race in 2022. “We\u2019ve had some instances where somebody missed the line a little bit, and we\u2019ve had 10 feet of PJ1, and that was no good. We\u2019ve ended up with resin, and I think we\u2019re going back to PJ1 because we don\u2019t think that was any good.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe put dirt on it\u2014that was a terrible idea,\u201d quipped Buescher, whose best finish was 14th when the racing surface was topped with dirt for three consecutive races in the spring. \u201cI\u2019m just kidding. I just didn\u2019t like the dirt. It was a great idea. I appreciate the action to it, but I like me some Bristol concrete.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kyle Larson has two more chances to win for PR representative Jon Edwards<\/b><\/p>\n

Kyle Larson\u2019s chances to sweep all three of this weekend\u2019s NASCAR national series races at Bristol Motor Speedway disappeared with a second-place finish in Friday night\u2019s NASCAR CRAFTSMAN Truck Series race.<\/p>\n

Nevertheless, the driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports NASCAR Cup Series Chevrolet still has two chances to honor his PR representative, Jon Edwards, who passed away unexpectedly during the week before the Bristol races.<\/p>\n

Larson is scheduled to compete in Saturday\u2019s SciAps 300 Xfinity Series event and in Sunday\u2019s Food City 500 NASCAR Cup race.<\/p>\n

Edwards spent the majority of his career representing four-time series champion Jeff Gordon before working with Larson after Gordon retired from racing.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe meant a lot to me and everybody at Hendrick Motorsports\u2014Jeff Gordon especially,\u201d Larson said after Friday night\u2019s Weather Guard Truck Race. \u201cIt was terrible news, sudden\u2026 Just a sad week for NASCAR in general.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would have loved to have gotten a win (Friday night) for Jon and have it give us a shot at a triple for the rest of the weekend, but we still have two more shots to win in his honor, and we\u2019re going to give it our best effort.\u201d<\/p>\n

Jesse Love will be well-prepared for NASCAR Cup Series debut at Bristol<\/b><\/p>\n

Richard Childress Racing driver Jesse Love is making his NASCAR Cup Series debut in Sunday\u2019s Food City 500, and one thing is certain: the 20-year-old from Menlo Park, Calif., can\u2019t be faulted for lack of preparation.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think I probably ran about probably 2,000 laps this week on the simulator, whether it be the DIL (driver-in-the-loop simulator) at the GM Tech Center or whether it be even iRacing with Scott Speed,\u201d Love said Saturday at Bristol.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo just ran a lot of laps\u2026 trying different things. You know, one thing I did this week was I ran a couple 500 lap races by myself on iRacing, just to kind of condition myself to the mental drain it’s going to take to run 500 laps. Obviously, it’ll be the longest race in my life. Never ran a 24-hour race before, right? So this is going to be different for me in a lot of ways.\u201d<\/p>\n

Understandably, any driver\u2019s first race in NASCAR\u2019s top division is bound to be fraught with both anticipation and tension, but Love is trying maintain an even keel.<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, I was driving up here, and I kind of got all my emotion out on the way up here,\u201d Love said. \u201cDriving up here is like very mountainous and it was like driving to Baylands (Fremont, Calif.), which is where I grew up racing quarter midgets. It was kind of a similar terrain and route. So that was a pretty cool emotional experience for me.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember when I was five, six, eight years old running quarter midgets with my dad, driving up this windy path one way or one-lane road up to the go-kart track and then now doing the same thing going to a Cup race. That was a really cool full-circle moment for me.<\/p>\n

 \u201cAnd I feel like the best way to go about it, for me at least, is try to keep the emotions at a minimum; not be overly excited, not be overly emotional about anything, and then after the race I can kind of soak it all in, right?\u201d<\/p>\n

A variety of milestones on the horizon for Denny Hamlin<\/b><\/p>\n

Denny Hamlin comes to Bristol Motor Speedway after consecutive victories at Martinsville Speedway and Darlington Raceway. He has never won three straight races.<\/p>\n

Hamlin now has 56 NASCAR Cup Series victories, 11th all-time. His stated goal is to reach 60 wins, a total that would tie him with Kevin Harvick for 10th on the career list.<\/p>\n

Within his immediate grasp is a 57th victory for Joe Gibbs Racing, which would break a tie with Kyle Busch for most by a single driver in the history of that organization.<\/p>\n

Given that Hamlin is in his 20th full season with JGR, that mark would be of considerable significance.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt certainly is special,\u201d Hamlin said Saturday before final Cup practice. \u201cIt\u2019s such a historical organization with the championship drivers. I\u2019ve been there longer than anyone else, so that increases my odds.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere have been a lot of greats that have ran through there, so it is certainly a title I would like to have.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamlin, who will make his 400th consecutive Cup start and 695th overall, could accomplish that goal and win three consecutive races for the first time in Sunday\u2019s Food City 500 (3 p.m. ET on FS1, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, but I try not to psych myself out too much about it, because I think you sometimes put so much emphasis on those type of situations and you end up making silly mistakes,\u201d Hamlin said. \u201cI just try to be as even-keeled as I can. It is a new week. It is another great opportunity to win another race.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf it just so happens that it is three in a row, that would be awesome and a very proud moment in my career, but it\u2019s not something that we set out to do each and every week. We don\u2019t go into the season saying, \u2018All right, I want to win, at some point, three in a row this year.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s such a hard thing to do because all of the stars have to align perfectly like we saw last week (at Darlington). They did align perfectly for us. It would be fantastic\u2014some of the greats in our sport have done it, and I haven\u2019t. Just shows how difficult it is.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BRISTOL, Tenn.\u2014 After the NASCAR Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway last March, when extreme tire wear was a decisive factor, drivers and crew chiefs were at a loss to form expectations for the Night Race in September. Chris Buescher participated in a Goodyear tire test between races, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":44914,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[11],"tags":[177,16],"class_list":["post-50929","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nascar","tag-bristol-motor-speedway","tag-nascar"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/racedaysa.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/03\/GettyImages-2092345320-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-dfr","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50929","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/676"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50929"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50929\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":50932,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50929\/revisions\/50932"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/44914"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50929"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50929"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50929"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}