Kyle Larson has been busy racing his winged sprint car all around the world and this week has been in Oklahoma for his much-loved Chili Bowl Nationals. A multi-time winner of that event, there’s no question how much love he has for that historic race.

Larson recently shared some inside baseball knowledge in a pre-season interview where he said that Bristol Motor Speedway is, in fact, his favorite track on the NASCAR Cup Series circuit. In 2025, Larson will get the opportunity to run the famed all-concrete high banks two times, on April 13 for the Food City 500 and then again during the NASCAR Playoffs Round of 16 with the Bass Pro Shops Night Race on Saturday under the lights, September 13.

Larson has led the most laps of his career at the track that’s been christened “The Holy Grail of Short Tracks” with an astounding 1,351 laps. Last fall he left the jam-packed stadium in awe after dominating the Bass Pro Shops Night Race to claim his second-career Bristol victory.

The driver of the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy will certainly be one of the pre-season favorites for both Bristol NASCAR Cup Series races in 2025.

"To me, it's the closest style to a dirt sprint car race, although it's a lot longer,” Larson said recently. “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. I love having two races again on the concrete. 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 (Motorsports), we've been good all race long and that was fun to dominate that race this year."

NASCAR announces new Practice and Qualifying procedures

NASCAR announced recently that it will adjust practice and qualifying procedures for the 2025 season in its top three series. The updated schedule for Bristol Motor Speedway’s Bush’s Beans Qualifying and Bush’s Beans Practice will include more practice time, consistency in procedure across all three series and a return to simplified starting lineup rules. With the exception of the superspeedway events, each qualifying session will be one round, with each vehicle’s starting position determined solely by its qualifying results.

Food City 500 and Bass Pro Shops Night Race
25-minute practice for Group 1; 25-minute practice for Group 2
Qualifying is one round, two laps

SciAps 300 and Food City 300
25-minute practice for Group 1, 25-minute practice for Group 2
Qualifying is one round, two laps

WEATHER GUARD Truck Race and UNOH 200 presented by Ohio Logistics
25-minute practice for Group 1, 25-minute practice for Group 2
Qualifying is one round, one lap

NASCAR also announced some new broadcast partners who will carry the new practice and qualifying content. To watch practice and qualifying shows for Bristol Motor Speedway’s NASCAR Cup Series races next season, fans will need to tune into Prime Video for the Food City 500 and then check out TNT Sports with Max and TruTV for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race. Practice and qualifying for the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series will continue to air on FS1 for both the WEATHER GUARD Truck Race and the UNOH 200 presented by Ohio Logistics. Practice and qualifying programming for the BMS Xfinity Series races on The CW will be announced at a later date.  

Silly Season update - new faces in truck places, some old faces in new places

The 2025 season will be the first where Bristol Motor Speedway hosts all three of NASCAR’s touring series in each of its race weekends.

Following one of the wildest silly seasons in recent memory, there has been a tremendous amount of movement among drivers across the board, but particularly in the NASCAR Xfinity and NASCAR Craftsman Truck series.

To help our fans at Bristol Motor Speedway keep track as the SciAps 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race and the WEATHER GUARD Truck Race in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series are quickly approaching their green flag starting times this April, below is a breakdown of some of the team movement that will be of significant interest.

In the Craftsman Truck Series, Toyota driver development prospect Brent Crews and veteran Brandon Jones will split the Bristol races in piloting the No. 1 TRICON Toyota. Crews will run the fall race and Jones will enter the SciAps 300 in the spring… Tyler Tomassi will make his lone BMS run in the fall aboard the No. 2 Ford… Bristol fans will get to cheer on rising star Toni Breidinger in both Bristol races as she is running the No. 5 TRICON machine full-time… Highly touted driver Corey Day will make his lone Bristol appearance in the No. 7 Hendrick Motorsports Chevy Silverado in the SciAps 300. The 19-year-old rising talent from California is set to run a seven-race schedule in 2025… A talented group of ARCA graduates will invade the truck series for full-time efforts, including Gio Ruggiero, Christian Rose and Connor Mosack… Finally, television and film star Frankie Muniz, of Malcom in the Middle fame, is scheduled to run full-time in the No. 33 Ford in 2025, which will give BMS fans a couple of times to see him in action.

Speaking of a couple of truck champion prospects, two well-traveled drivers are moving into full-time Craftsman Truck Series rides with competitive teams this season and both have had some great runs at Bristol over the years. Past BMS Truck winner Chandler Smith will drive a Ford for Front Row Motorsports, while Daniel Hemric will make his Bristol return at the controls of the fast No. 19 Chevy for McAnally-Hilgermann Racing. Hemric has 50 career starts in the Truck series and is looking for his first victory in that series. He has career-bests of third and fourth in truck competition at Bristol.

In the NASCAR Xfinity Series a pair of new full-time JR Motorsports drivers are expected to immediately give defending series champ and teammate Justin Allgaier a run for his money during the season. A couple of phenoms who have excelled in lower levels of racing, Karson Kvapil will drive the No. 1 Chevy and Connor Zilisch will pilot the No. 88 Chevy… Joe Gibbs Racing will turn over the keys to its two Xfinity machines to Taylor Gray (No. 54) and William Sawalich (No. 18). Sawalich has claimed two ARCA Series victories at Bristol in the past two seasons… Another strong tandem of teammates has been assembled at the new Haas Factory team with Xfinity veterans Sheldon Creed (No. 00) and Sam Mayer (No. 41). Mayer has claimed both ARCA and Truck Series victories at BMS in his career… Two truck stars that are moving to Xfinity this season will be Nick Sanchez, who will take over driving duties for the No. 48 Chevy and Christian Eckes, who will drive the Kaulig No. 16 Chevy. New York native Eckes won last spring's WEATHER GUARD Truck Race at BMS … Finally, second-generation NASCAR star Harrison Burton will make his third full-season run in the Xfinity Series after posting top-10 efforts in 2020 and 2021. Burton logged BMS-bests of fourth in two of his four career Bristol Xfinity Series starts.

The highly-anticipated Food City 500 weekend in April at Bristol Motor Speedway opens with the WEATHER GUARD Truck Race, a 250-lap race in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series under the lights on Friday, April 11 (7:30 p.m., FS1 and PRN Radio), continues Saturday afternoon on April 12 with the SciAps 200 NASCAR Xfinity Series race (5 p.m., The CW, PRN Radio) and then culminates Sunday afternoon with the historic Food City 500 NASCAR Cup Series race (April 13, 3 p.m., FS1 and PRN Radio).

In addition to cheering on their favorite drivers on the track, Bristol Motor Speedway fans will definitely want to take advantage of so many activities to make a complete weekend of family fun. There will be great video entertainment provided by Colossus TV, the world's largest center-hung video screen, premium VIP experiences, tailgating, on-site camping, concerts and other entertainment at the Food City Fan Zone Stage headlined by Trackside Live with Kenny Wallace and John Roberts, great food and beverages in the concession stands throughout the property, and so much more.

To purchase tickets for the Food City 500 or any of the BMS NASCAR events in 2025, please visit the Bristol Motor Speedway website or call the BMS ticket sales center at (866) 415-4158.