This weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway will be a spring homecoming of sorts for the NASCAR Xfinity Series, which hasn’t competed in Bristol’s spring weekend since April 2019 when Christopher Bell took the victory. The 2020 spring race was rescheduled from spring to summer due to the pandemic and Noah Gragson escaped with the victory in early June.
Since 2021, the Craftsman Trucks have been the lone opening act for the Cup Series at Bristol in the spring. This year’s Food City 500 weekend is making history as it is the first ever spring Bristol weekend that features all three of NASCAR’s major series competing together in the same weekend.
This will be the ninth start in a row for the Xfinity Series teams this season and so far the Richard Childress Racing stable of Austin Hill and Jesse Love have been fast on the track and claimed most of the headlines and have three victories – two for Hill and the Daytona opener for Love.
The defending series champ, Justin Allgaier, has also been out front for many laps this season and his two victories has him atop the points standings heading to Saturday afternoon’s SciAps 300 at Bristol. The race will be televised on The CW at 5 p.m. ET.
Another series regular with a bit of momentum heading in this weekend is Brandon Jones, who broke a 98-race winless drought this past weekend at Darlington. Jones took the win in his No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing machine and said after the race that he had been feeling like the team was ready to turn the corner after several recent close finishes. He is looking forward to going for two in a row at Bristol.
“It’s because everyone believes in me,” Jones said after the Darlington win. “It’s infectious. I can feel it. I show up to the track, and I have no doubt that my crew chief is sitting on that pit box thinking I’m the best driver in the field. My pit crew thinks I’m the best driver in the field. My coaches think I’m the best driver in the field. All of that is just fueling the fire to go forward...Everybody is lifting each other up and pumping each other up.”
The field will be bolstered by the addition of Cup Series superstar Kyle Larson, who is attempting to run all three races at Bristol this weekend and will drive the Hendrick Motorsports No. 17 Chevy in the SciAps 300. Larson just missed completing a triple at Homestead two weeks ago and feels like Bristol is a good track for him to try and accomplish the extremely tough task.
Only Kyle Busch has turned the hat trick in NASCAR history by winning three races in a single weekend, and Busch did it twice at Bristol, in 2010 and 2017.
“The cars and truck drives so different, and then the style of the race is different between all three of them that it doesn’t give you an advantage,” Larson said. “But it doesn’t hurt either. We’d love to win at least one of them (this) week. We’ll give it our best shot and just try to execute all race long.”
Truck Series phenom Corey Heim is making his first Bristol attempt in the Xfinity Series. It will be his 20th race in the series. Heim is a past Truck winner at Bristol and will be driving the No. 24 machine for Sam Hunt Racing. Another driver who has had success at Bristol in Modified racing will also be making his fourth Xfinity start and first ever at Bristol, Justin Bonsignore, who will be driving the No. 19 for Joe Gibbs Racing.
In addition to the storylines just mentioned, there are a ton of Xfinity Series regulars who could win at Bristol, including JR Motorsports drivers Connor Zillisch, Carson Kvapil and Sammy Smith. Meanwhile, Sam Mayer and Sheldon Creed from the new Haas Factory Team, Harrison Burton, Taylor Gray, Matt DiBenedetto, William Sawalich and Ryan Sieg, who will be piloting the flagship SciAps Ford, are all capable of winning.
Not to be overshadowed in all of the drama that the SciAps 300 will offer to race fans is the four eligible drivers’ pursuit of the $100,000 Xfinity Dash for Cash bonus. Allgaier, Hill, Creed and Brennan Poole were the top four finishers at the last Dash for Cash race in Martinsville. Those four will go for the bonus at Bristol and the one with the best finish will take home the cash. So far Allgaier and Hill have claimed the Xfinity Dash for Cash bonuses.
The highly-anticipated weekend 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), and continues Saturday afternoon on April 12 with the SciAps 300 NASCAR Xfinity Series race (5 p.m., The CW, PRN Radio). Bush’s Beans Practice and Bush’s Beans Qualifying will be held for all three series both Friday and Saturday. The weekend culminates Sunday afternoon with the running of 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.
Single-day tickets for the Food City 500 weekend start as low as $69 for Sunday’s Food City 500 and $46 for Saturday’s SciAps 300 Xfinity Series race. To purchase tickets, please visit www.bristolmotorspeedway.com or call the BMS ticket sales center at (866) 415-4158.
