NASCAR makes its annual return this weekend to Bristol for the night race, which will see four Cup drivers eliminated from the playoffs.
Denny Hamlin (three wins) and Kyle Larson (three) have combined to win six of the last nine Cup races at Bristol. Will their dominance continue?
With help from Racing Insights, here is a look at the good news and bad news for Cup drivers and teams heading to Bristol.
23XI Racing — Good news: Bubba Wallace enters Bristol 50 points above the cutline after back-to-back top-10 finishes. … Wallace has six top 10s in the last eight races. ... Wallace finished third in last year’s Bristol night race, his best result in 12 Bristol Cup starts. … Corey Heim is back in the No. 67 car this weekend, making his fourth start of the season. ... Tyler Reddick has completed all but 14 of the 7,118 laps run this season, most in the series. Bad news: Riley Herbst has one top-20 finish in the last 17 races. … Reddick, who is 37 points above the cutline, has one top-10 finish in eight starts on the Bristol concrete surface. … Reddick has finished 16th or worse in five of the last seven races this season.
Front Row Motorsports — Good news: Zane Smith finished 11th last month at Richmond for his best Cup finish on a short track in 12 starts. Bad news: All three teams finished 30th or worse last weekend at WWT Raceway. … Noah Gragson has failed to finish three of the last eight races. … Todd Gilliland has six finishes of 25th or worse in the last eight races.
Haas Factory Team — Good news: Cole Custer has completed 1,774 of the 1,775 laps run in the last seven races. Bad News: Custer has one top-10 in 20 Cup short track starts, an eighth-place finish at Bristol in Sept. 2022.
Hendrick Motorsports — Good news: The organization has led 946 of the 1,000 laps run in the last two Bristol races. … Kyle Larson has won the last two Bristol races, leading 873 of the 1,000 laps. … Larson can become the fifth driver to win at least three consecutive races at Bristol (Darrell Waltrip holds the track record with seven wins in a row). … Larson has three wins and not finished worse than fifth in six starts at Bristol with Hendrick Motorsports. … Larson led 52 laps last weekend at WWT Raceway, his most in the last 16 races. … Alex Bowman has won the pole for the last two Bristol races. … Chase Elliott’s third-place finish at WWT Raceway was his first top five since Sonoma in July. … All five of William Byron’s top-10 finishes at Bristol have come in the last eight races there. Bad news: Bowman is 35 points below the playoff cutline. … Bowman has finished 26th or worse in the last three races. … Byron, the regular season champion, has only two top-five finishes in the last 14 races after having seven top fives in the season’s first 14 races. … Bristol is the only active Cup track where Byron has not led a lap.
Hyak Motorsports — Good news: Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s 20th-place finish last weekend was his best since Atlanta in late June. … Stenhouse has twice finished runner-up at Bristol (March 2014 and August 2016). Bad news: Stenhouse has finished 20th or worse in 10 of his last 11 Bristol starts on the concrete.
Joe Gibbs Racing — Good news: Organization has won the first two playoff races with Chase Briscoe winning at Darlington and Denny Hamlin this past weekend at WWT Raceway. … Briscoe has scored eight playoff points in the opening round of the playoffs (he had 10 playoff points entering the postseason). … Briscoe finished fourth at Bristol in April and was eighth at the track last September. … Hamlin has four wins at Bristol, including three in the last nine races on the concrete surface there. … Hamlin has finished in the top 10 in six consecutive races at Bristol. … Christopher Bell has five consecutive top 10s at Bristol. … Bell has finished in the top three in eight of the 28 races this season. … Ty Gibbs’ average finish of 13.4 at Bristol is his best among all short tracks. Bad news: After finishing seventh last weekend at WWT Raceway, Bell yelled on his radio: “We just (expletive) ran seventh with the best car on the track! Every (expletive) week it’s the same (expletive)! We’re the last car to pit road! I’m over it!”
Kaulig Racing — Good news: AJ Allmendinger has two top 10s in his last five Cup starts at Bristol. … Allmendinger placed ninth at Bristol in April. Bad news: Ty Dillon has finished 30th or worse in four of the last six races. … Dillon has not scored a top 10 in 40 Cup short track races (his best finish is 13th at Martinsville in March 2019). … Allmendinger has finished 22nd or worse in five of the last eight races.
Legacy Motor Club — Good news: Organization has had a car place in the top six in each of the last three races, which is tied for its longest streak of the season. … John Hunter Nemechek followed his career-best fourth-place finish in the Southern 500 by placing sixth last weekend at WWT Raceway. … Nemechek’s average finish of 18.6 at Bristol is his best among all Cup short tracks. … Erik Jones has two top-five finishes in the last three races. Bad news: Jones has placed 20th or worse in each of the last five Bristol races.
Richard Childress Racing — Good news: Austin Dillon has won two of the last seven Cup races at short tracks. … Dillon finished 10th at Bristol in April. … Austin Hill is back in the No. 33 car this weekend, making his fourth start of the season. Bad news: Dillon is the first driver below the playoff cutline, 11 points out of a transfer spot. … Kyle Busch, who has eight wins at Bristol, has not finished better than 14th in the last six races there. … Busch does not have a top-10 finish in the last 13 Cup short track races. … Dillon’s best finish at Bristol (fourth) came in August 2016.
Rick Ware Racing — Good news: Cody Ware’s best Bristol finish is 17th in the 2022 night race. Bad news: Ware has finished 29th or worse in eight of the last nine races.
RFK Racing — Good news: Chris Buescher has scored three consecutive top-10 finishes. … Buescher has four top 10s in the last seven Bristol races. … Brad Keselowski has eight top 10s in the last 16 races. … Keselowski has three wins at Bristol. … Ryan Preece finished seventh in last year’s night race, his best Bristol result in nine starts on the concrete surface. … Preece ranks second in the series in laps completed, having run 7,071 of 7,118 laps (99.34%). Bad news: Buescher has failed to finish in the top 10 in the last nine short track races.
Spire Motorsports — Good news: Michael McDowell has finished 11th or better in five of the last seven Bristol races. … Carson Hocevar has five top-15 finishes in the last seven races. Bad news: Justin Haley has finished 27th or worse in four of the last five races.
Team Penske — Good news: Both of Austin Cindric’s top-five finishes at short tracks have come in his last five starts. … Ryan Blaney has finished sixth or better in the last two Bristol races. … Blaney has led 555 laps at Bristol, most for him at any Cup track. … Blaney’s three short track wins have come in his last 12 Cup races. … Joey Logano has two top-five finishes in the last four races. Bad news: Logano has finished outside the top 20 at Bristol in the last five races and finished outside the top 10 there in the last nine races on the concrete surface. … While Logano has five short track wins, his last one came in October 2018 at Martinsville. … Cindric, who holds the final transfer spot to the next round of the playoffs, has not finished in the top 10 in five starts at Bristol.
Trackhouse Racing — Good news: Ross Chastain is in position to advance to the next round, sitting 19 points above the cutline. … Chastain has three top-10 finishes in the last five Bristol races. Bad news: Shane van Gisbergen is 15 points below the playoff cutline after placing 32nd at Darlington and 25th at WWT Raceway. … van Gisbergen finished 38th at Bristol in April in his lone Cup start there. … Daniel Suarez has not finished better than 18th in the last eight races on the Bristol concrete surface. … Suarez has placed 25th or worse in seven of the last 11 races. Chastain has four top-10 finishes in the last 17 races.
Wood Brothers Racing — Good news: Josh Berry has placed 12th in two of his three Cup starts at Bristol. Bad news: Berry finished 36th at WWT Raceway a week after placing 38th (both due to wrecks). … Berry is 45 points below the playoff cutline and is essentially in a must-win situation at Bristol to advance to the second round of the playoffs.
