{"id":54426,"date":"2025-09-11T15:25:54","date_gmt":"2025-09-11T20:25:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/?p=54426"},"modified":"2025-09-12T20:46:37","modified_gmt":"2025-09-13T01:46:37","slug":"nascar-thursday-bristol-notebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/2025\/09\/11\/nascar-thursday-bristol-notebook\/","title":{"rendered":"NASCAR: Thursday Bristol Notebook"},"content":{"rendered":"
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B<\/b>y Holly Cain, <\/b>NASCAR Wire Service<\/b><\/p>\n

LARSON GOES FOR THIRD STRAIGHT WIN AT BRISTOL<\/b><\/p>\n

BRISTOL, Tenn. \u2013 The last two races at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway have essentially been Kyle Larson highlight reels and the Playoff driver would like nothing more than to continue that domination in Saturday night\u2019s Bass Pro Shops Night Race (7:30 p.m. ET on USA Network, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio).<\/p>\n

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Kyle Larson – Photo by Josh Hernandez<\/p><\/div>\n

The driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet led 462 of 500 laps in last year\u2019s Playoff race at the famed half-miler and 411 of 500 laps in the series previous visit earlier this year \u2013 an incredible 87 percent of the laps turned in that time. His total laps out front at Bristol \u2013 1,762 \u2013 is the most at any NASCAR track where Larson has competed.<\/p>\n

A win Saturday night would make him only the fifth person in series history to win three consecutive races on the always-challenging Bristol high banks.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe atmosphere is always up for the (Bristol) Night Race,” said Larson, who is third in the standings, the highest ranked driver without a Playoff win heading into the first elimination race of the 10-race championship push.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe night race just means more to me, I don\u2019t know if everyone feels the same way but I want to win all the races but I would like to win the night race over the spring one if I had to pick one or the other just because winning under the lights at Bristol is pretty awesome,” Larson continued. \u201cIt’s not considered a crown jewel but in my mind it\u2019s the one I want to win really badly every year.\u201d<\/p>\n

*HAAS FACTORY TEAM CONFIDENT IN FORD FOR PLAYOFF DRIVE<\/b><\/p>\n

Earlier this week, the Haas Factory Team, which fields Fords for Cole Custer in the NASCAR Cup Series and Sam Mayer and Sheldon Creed in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, announced it would be switching power-plants to Chevrolet in 2026.<\/p>\n

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Sam Mayer. (Photo by Jonathan Bachman\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

With the news coming just as the NASCAR Xfinity Series Playoffs begin Friday in Bristol, Tenn. the drivers were asked if they worried any about Ford\u2019s commitment to the team as it embarks on a title run.<\/p>\n

Both Mayer and Creed were quick to insist Ford\u2019s backing has not waned despite the upcoming manufacturer swap.<\/p>\n

\u201cI can only speak for the Xfinity Series side and what I\u2019ve experienced so far,” said Mayer, who starts the Playoffs Saturday night at Bristol ranked third in the standings.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor us, it\u2019s wide-open. We are a go and we are gonna go win the championship with Ford. That\u2019s what they want. That\u2019s what we want and everyone at Haas Factory Team is behind us as well with that.<\/p>\n

\u201cI actually just got out of the sim yesterday afternoon for Bristol and had a really good day with it. I think we\u2019re in a really good spot for that, and I think that\u2019s gonna continue throughout the rest of the season because it\u2019s in all of our interests to go out there and have a really good, strong finish to the rest of the season for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

*CREED OPTIMISTIC FOR FIRST VICTORY<\/b><\/p>\n

Sheldon Creed is not only eager to get the Playoffs going in his pursuit of an Xfinity Series title. He\u2019s eager to raise his first career race trophy in the series.<\/p>\n

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Sheldon Creed. (Photo by Sean Gardner\/Getty Images)<\/p><\/div>\n

With a runner-up showing in Martinsville, Va. earlier this season, Creed set a new record of second-place finishes (14) without a victory. The good news for him is that he\u2019s finished second in four of the seven Playoff tracks, including the final three stops of the championship run \u2013 at Talladega (Ala.),  at Martinsville and at Phoenix.<\/p>\n

What does he selfishly wish for more, that maiden win or a season title?<\/p>\n

\u201cBoth,” he said with a smile. \u201cI think first is to get that win finally. It\u2019s been a challenging three-and-a-half years. We\u2019ve been close numerous times, but haven\u2019t been as close lately. I think I\u2019d be lying to myself if I said we were right on the edge lately, but I think the first goal is to win.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe second goal is just to be able to score as many points as possible and get ourselves to the Round of 8, and then refocus from there on where we think our strengths are, whether that be in Vegas, Talladega or Martinsville, and if we can win there, then focus goes to Phoenix on how are we gonna win there.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Holly Cain, NASCAR Wire Service LARSON GOES FOR THIRD STRAIGHT WIN AT BRISTOL BRISTOL, Tenn. \u2013 The last two races at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway have essentially been Kyle Larson highlight reels and the Playoff driver would like nothing more than to continue that domination in Saturday night\u2019s Bass Pro Shops Night Race (7:30 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":676,"featured_media":48706,"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-54426","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\/10\/GettyImages-2179442661-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7hzTZ-e9Q","jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54426","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=54426"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54426\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":54440,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54426\/revisions\/54440"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/48706"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54426"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54426"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racedaysa.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54426"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}