Track: Bristol Motor Speedway
Location: Bristol, Tenn.
Track length: 0.533 miles
When: Saturday, 7:30 p.m. ET
Where to tune in: USA Network, HBO Max, PRN Radio, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, NBC Sports App
Race purse: $10,447,135
Race distance: 500 laps | 266.5 miles
Stages: 125 | 250 | 500
Defending winner: Kyle Larson, September 2024
Starting lineup: AJ Allmendinger earns first pole since 2015
RELATED: How to watch on USA Network | NASCAR video highlights
“Last Great Colosseum” presents some Round of 16 drivers’ last great opportunity
BRISTOL, Tenn. — The Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol is an event unlike any other.
It is the “Last Great Colosseum” where gladiators stand tall after taming the beast. But after Saturday night’s Bass Pro Shops Night Race, at least four drivers will face the colosseum’s wrath as the NASCAR Cup Series’ Round of 16 comes to an end, eliminating four drivers from championship contention.
MORE: Playoff standings before Bristol
Heading into Saturday’s race, the four drivers in the greatest danger are Austin Dillon (11 points below the cutline), Shane van Gisbergen (minus-15), Alex Bowman (minus-35) and Josh Berry (minus-45). But clinging onto title hopes just ahead of them are Austin Cindric (plus-11), Ross Chastain (plus-19) and Joey Logano (plus-21).
It will take 500 laps to determine who moves on to the Round of 12 and who doesn’t. Chastain feels the intensity of this weekend — the nerves of the playoffs, the weight of chasing victory. But he is also letting himself enjoy the moment of competing in one of NASCAR’s most iconic events.
“For me, I equate it to driving through the tunnel at Daytona (or) driving down to Darlington,” Chastain said Friday. “But here, it’s pulling up and seeing the stadium and then also walking through the Turn 3 tunnel. Just never gets old. So cool looking up at the banks and then the steepness of the grandstands. Went up and watched truck practice (Thursday) in the grandstands and then was up in the Food City suite for the race. It’s just amazing just being here. Even if there’s no racing, it’s cool, and you don’t get that everywhere.”
A critical factor in how the race evolves will be a new right-side tire brought to the Tennessee track by Goodyear, a deviation after the last four Bristol races. The hope is that a softer rubber compound leads to more tire wear, ideally putting control of the tire degradation in the hands of the racers. A fast start with disregard for the tire could make drivers a vulnerable passing target later in the run. If a driver waits too long to push, though, he may not be able to track down those ahead of them.
No tire issues arose through Friday’s practice and qualifying sessions, but there remain unknowns about how the tire and track will evolve Saturday night.
“If anyone’s telling you they know what’s gonna happen, they’re making it up,” said Joey Logano.
Christopher Bell expressed his reservations heading into the event but admitted: “It should be very exciting for you guys (the media) and the fans, because we don’t know what to expect at all.”
“It is really unknown, and this is the most unknown race,” he added. “I feel like ‘unprepared’ might be the right word — like just not being able to prepare for something because we don’t know how it’s going to go. We’ve seen the hard tire have issues twice now, between practice last time (in March) and the race a couple years ago. So yeah, for a playoff race, this is probably the biggest question mark I felt in my career.”
In need of a strong defensive showing, Cindric qualified a personal-Bristol-best of third. On the opposite side of that elimination line, Dillon will roll off 23rd; SVG will start 28th; Bowman rolls off 15th and Berry takes the green flag in 10th.
At Bristol, nothing is guaranteed. AJ Allmendinger will lead the field to green, but a slew of hungry playoff drivers in his rearview mirror, like Ryan Blaney, Cindric and Kyle Larson, will be hot on his heels. It’s the allure of the “Last Great Colosseum.” It’s Bristol, baby.
RELATED: Full Friday recap from Bristol
From atop the pit box …
What do crew chiefs have in focus to win Saturday’s race?
N0 team has dominated Bristol Motor Speedway like the No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports group and driver Kyle Larson. They enter the weekend 60 points above the provisional cutline, virtually but not officially locked into the Round of 12.
On less certain ground is the No. 1 Trackhouse bunch and driver Ross Chastain. They enter the Bristol Night Race on the plus side of the cutline — 19 points to the good — but Chastain has struggled to find consistent results at the self-proclaimed “World’s Fastest Half-Mile.”
RELATED: Bristol schedule | Full 2025 schedule
That leads to two different levels of comfort entering the first elimination race of the 2025 playoffs. No. 5 crew chief Cliff Daniels knows talk of the new Goodyear tires will dominate the ongoing story lines around the on-track action. What he chooses to focus on, however, is what he and the No. 5 crew can impact themselves after leading 873 of the last 1,000 Bristol laps.
“What we can control is taking in the proper information at the right time,” Daniels told NASCAR.com. “Is there going to be a high level of (lap-time) fall-off or not? Do cautions impact what can happen with the strategy and the cycle? And like we saw in Gateway last week, sometimes it’s tough to know. You’re not sitting on a crystal ball to know when the next caution is going to come. So you try to make the best decision you can in the moment with the information that you have.
“We don’t want to be rigid in our thinking and even in what we’ve seen the last two races here. We just want to be very open to taking in the information to make the best decision that we can in the moment. And at the end of the day, we still have to execute on what that is.”
Chastain, Surgen and the No. 1 team qualified 13th for Saturday’s 500-lap affair, just outside of the top 10, which is awarded points at the end of Stage 1 and Stage 2. With a 19-point buffer to the cutline, Chastain and Co. are in decent shape to advance should they dodge trouble. But adding stage points to the day’s tally could go a long way toward securing a spot in the Round of 12.
“It depends on the risk in the moment,” Surgen told NASCAR.com. “I mean, we pass a couple cars and we’re right there. The way the tire acted today in practice, what I expect (Saturday) is we’re going to have a lot of guys willing to stay out on pretty high-lap-count tires, which bodes well for guys willing to take a little risk for stage points.
“Early in the race, if you get a lot of guys on the lead lap, maybe there’s less willingness to take that risk. Maybe at the end of Stage 2, when there’s only 15 cars on the lead lap, let’s say, then there’s a little higher willingness, just because the track position is not going to be as big.”
Ultimately, Saturday’s race may play into the hands of which teams adapt best through a grinding, vehicle-abusing night in the Tennessee mountains.
“Just planning for anything,” Surgen said. “Like I said, the tire is going to fall off (and) going to degrade pretty slowly, and we’re going to see guys willing to stay out. Just playing through scenarios when cautions come out or repeated cautions come out. When do you want to pit? When do you want to stay out? You can’t plan for every scenario, so you just have to have a playbook of what-ifs and that playbook can get pretty deep. Those are the type of things that I’ll review tonight and tomorrow.”
RELATED: See where drivers will pit for Saturday’s race
History tells us …
Get to the front by Lap 500. None of the last 17 races at Bristol have gone to NASCAR Overtime. Per Racing Insights, the last Bristol race to go past its scheduled distance was in April 2015.
He may not be the favorite to win, but watch out for …
BRAD KESELOWSKI. The 2012 Cup champion is searching for his first Bristol win since 2020 — and in the midst of a 51-race winless streak. But Keselowski has been stout at the “Last Great Colosseum” in recent years, finishing third in the 2024 spring race where high tire-wear played a factor and leading 109 laps in the 2022 night race. The No. 6 RFK Racing Ford has shown flashes of speed across the last month despite finishing outside the top 10 in four of the last five races. But perhaps the Bristol bullring could bring Brad back to the forefront.
Fantasy update
NASCAR Fantasy Live expert Dustin Albino provides insight for your Saturday lineup.
One of the key story lines entering the weekend was how the new right-side Goodyear tire would hold up. There were no issues throughout practice and qualifying, making it easier to assemble a lineup as track position will likely be crucial. The only changes in my lineup are adding Ryan Blaney, who was fastest over the long haul (best on 15-, 20-, 25-and 30-lap averages) in place of Chris Buescher who qualified 21st. I also dropped Chase Elliott from my lineup and inserted Bubba Wallace as my garage pick.
Lineup: Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin, Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney, Ty Gibbs.
Garage: Bubba Wallace.
MORE: Lineup advice in Fantasy Fastlane
Speed reads
Our biggest pieces of the week — get covered for race day from all angles.
• NASCAR at Bristol: Key info, qualifying reports and more from doubleheader weekend | Read more
• Racing Insights: Can Bell complete JGR sweep of Round of 16? | Read more
• Bubble Watch: Does a surprise elimination loom at Bristol? | Read more
• ‘Buildup of frustration’ for Bell: No. 20 driver, crew chief Stevens debrief after Gateway outburst | Read more
• Bowman: ‘Mortifying how bad we’ve been’: No. 48 driver enters Bristol below cutline | Read more
• Playoff Pulse: Who’s hot, who’s not ahead of Bristol | Read more
• Turning Point to Bristol: Larson leads Hendrick charge to “Thunder Valley” | Read more
• At-track photos: The best shots from night racing at the “Last Great Colosseum” | View gallery
• Paint Scheme Preview: Fresh designs set to shine in Bristol Night Race | View gallery
• Power Rankings: An updated look at where playoff drivers stack | This week’s ranks
