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NASCAR Xfinity Series News & Notes – Bristol Motor Speedway

NASCAR Xfinity Series

Next Race: Food City 300Bristol Food City 300, NASCAR Xfinity Series
The Place: Bristol Motor Speedway
Track Length: 0.533 Mile Concrete Oval
The Date: Friday, September 12
The Time: 7:30 p.m. ET
The Purse: $1,651,939
TV: CW, 7 p.m. ET
Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)
Distance: 159.9 miles (300 Laps); Stage 1 (Ends on Lap 85),
Stage 2 (Ends on Lap 170), Final Stage (Ends on Lap 300)

Where To Watch NASCAR This Week:

Thursday, Sept. 11

NCTS Practice & Kennametal Pole Qualifying (FS2 at 3 p.m. ET)
ARCA Race: Bush’s Beans 200 (FS1 at 5:30 p.m. ET)
NCTS Race: UNOH 250 presented by Ohio Logistics (FS1, NRN, SiriusXM at 8 p.m. ET)

Friday, Sept. 12

NXS Practice & Kennametal Pole Qualifying (The CW App at 2 p.m. ET)
NCS Practice & Busch Light Pole Qualifying (truTV, PRN, SiriusXM at 4:30 p.m. ET)
NXS Race: Food City 300 (The CW, PRN, SiriusXM at 7:30 p.m. ET)

Saturday, Sept. 13

NCS Race: Bass Pro Shops Night Race (FS1, PRN, SiriusXM at 3 p.m. ET)

Bristol Storylines and Insights:Bristol Motor Speedway

  • This weekend will be the 83rd running of a NASCAR Xfinity Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway (1982-2025).
  • Bristol hosted more Xfinity Series races than any other track.
  • Bristol was on the Xfinity Series schedule every year since the inaugural season in 1982.
  • Bristol is the fourth of five short track races this season.
  • Bristol is the opening race of the Playoffs for the second time in the Playoffs and the first since 2023.
  • The Round of 12 includes Bristol, Kansas and Charlotte Roval.
  • The four lowest drivers in points after the Charlotte Roval will be eliminated from the Playoffs.
  • One past champion made the Playoffs: Justin Allgaier.
  • Justin Allgaier is making his 10th Playoff appearance; he’s been in every Playoff since its inception in 2016.
  • Four rookies made the Playoffs: Connor Zilisch, Nick Sanchez, Taylor Gray & Carson Kvapil.
  • All four JR Motorsports drivers made the Playoffs, just the third time a team had a record four drivers in the Playoffs (all three times were JR Motorsports).
  • Connor Zilisch enters the Playoffs with 64 Playoff points, the most all-time, and holds a 59-point lead over the cutoff.
  • Connor Zilisch’s ninth win this season extended his record for most wins by a rookie.
  • Connor Zilisch’s St. Louis win made him the third driver in series history to win four straight races; no driver has ever won five-in-a-row.
  • Connor Zilisch won seven of the last eight races this season, the first driver in series history to win seven of eight.
  • Connor Zilisch has more wins in the last eight races than all but four other drivers racing this weekend have in their NXS career.
  • Connor Zilisch’s 14 straight top fives since returning from back injury is the second-longest top five streak all- time; Zilisch is the youngest driver with more than five straight top fives.
  • Connor Zilisch won 34% of his starts, the best win percentage all-time.
  • Rookies finished 1-2-3 at St. Louis, the second straight race where rookies swept the Top 3.
  • JR Motorsports won 11 of the last 13 races with four different drivers, the first time in series history a team has won 11 of 13.
  • JR Motorsports won 16 races this season with a series-record six different drivers, all six drivers won in the last 17 races (does not include Parker Kligerman who won in relief role at Daytona).
  • JR Motorsports had at least one car finish top-five in a record 28 straight races.
  • Justin Allgaier is the only past Xfinity Series Bristol winner racing this weekend.
  • CARS champion and ARCA points leader Brenden “Butterbean” Queen will make Xfinity Series debut in the Kaulig Racing #11.
  • Sam Mayer has four total Bristol wins: 1 Trucks, 1 ARCA and 2 ARCA East.
  • Connor Zilisch leads the series with nine wins, 15 top fives, 750 laps led, an 8.5 average finish and seven poles this season.
  • Jesse Love leads the series with 18 top 10s this season.
  • Justin Allgaier won the Fastest Lap Award five times this season, Connor Zilisch won four times.
  • Justin Allgaier’s 28 career wins are 9th on the all-time wins list and one away from tying Matt Kenseth.
  • Justin Allgaier is three Top 10s away from becoming the first driver to reach 300 NXS top-10 finishes.
  • Justin Allgaier will make his 498th career start at Bristol, passing Mike Wallace for 5th-most all-time.
  • Chevrolet led 3,097 of 4,001 laps this season (77%).
  • Chevrolet won 23 of 26 races, the most all time by a manufacturer through 26 races in series history.
  • Five crew chiefs got their first NXS win in 2025: Chad Haney at Atlanta, Sam McAulay at Darlington, Adam Wall at Bristol, Cory Shea at Mexico City & Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Pocono.
  • Five races this year ended with a last lap pass.
  • O’Reilly Auto Parts will replace Xfinity as title sponsor starting in 2026 becoming the fifth different title sponsor of the series: Budweiser, Busch, Nationwide, Xfinity & O’Reilly.

NXS Clinch Scenarios for Bristol Motor Speedway (Playoff Race #1)

Already Clinched

  • No drivers have clinched a spot in the 8-driver field of the next round 

Can Clinch Via Points

  • If there is a win by a driver who cannot advance to the next round, the following drivers could clinch by being 113 points above the 7th winless driver in the standings.  The same point requirements listed below would hold true if a new win comes from among Connor Zilisch, Justin Allgaier, Sam Mayer, Brandon Jones, Jesse Love or Sammy Smith.
  • Connor Zilisch: Could only clinch with help
  • If there is a new winner from Nicholas Sanchez or another winless driver lower in the standings but still eligible to advance to the next round, the following drivers could clinch by being 113 points above the 6th winless driver in the standings.
  • Connor Zilisch: Could only clinch with help

Can Clinch Via Win

  • The following drivers would clinch on their win alone: Connor Zilisch, Justin Allgaier, Sam Mayer, Brandon Jones, Jesse Love, Sammy Smith, Nicholas Sanchez, Carson Kvapil, Taylor Gray, Sheldon Creed, Harrison Burton, Austin Hill

NASCAR & Bristol, Etc.

Historical & Significant Events at Bristol Motor Speedway:

  • Groundbreaking for Bristol International Speedway, as Bristol Motor Speedway was originally known, took place in 1960.
  • The track was built by Bowling operator Larry Carrier, Kingsport businessman Carl Moore and construction company owner R.G. Pope and the track measured an exact half-mile.
  • The first NASCAR Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway was on July 30, 1961, and the inaugural event was won by Jack Smith with relief from Johnny Allen. Smith had a three lap lead when Allen took over and Allen built the lead to as many as six laps.
  • Also in 1961, the NFL’s Washington Redskins took on the Philadelphia Eagles in a pre-season game at Bristol Motor Speedway. The Eagles won, 17-10.
  • In 1969 the track was dug up and reshaped and the banking significantly increased. Starting in July 1969 the track was measured at .533 miles.
  • Financial problems led to sale of the track after the 1976 season to Nashville accountant and attorney Gary Baker and his partner Lanny Hester.
  • All of the NASCAR Cup Series races at Bristol have been scheduled for 500 laps, except for both races in 1976 and the second in 1977, which were 400 laps each.
  • The name changed to Bristol International Raceway in 1978.
  • The first night race was held in the fall of 1978.
  • In 1982 and in 1985 the track underwent ownership changes. In 1982 California businessman Warner Hodgdon began buying into teams and tracks. In 1982 he bought out Hester and in 1983 Baker’s half. In 1985 Hodgdon declared bankruptcy. Larry Carrier stepped in to run the track.
  • The surface was changed from asphalt to concrete in 1992, becoming the first track on the schedule to be completely surfaced in concrete.
  • Larry Carrier led the track for 10 years until he sold it to Speedway Motorsports for a reported $26 million in 1996. The track had a capacity of 71,000 and the Night Race was one of the Series premier events, called the ‘Toughest Ticket in Racing’.
  • The track name changed again, this time to Bristol Motor Speedway in May of 1996.
  • The track was resurfaced between races in 2007, and the turns were ground down in 2012 to eliminate part of the progressive banking.
  • In 2016, Bristol enjoyed its “Biggest Year Yet” hosting the Pilot Flying J Battle at Bristol, where border rivals Virginia Tech and the University of Tennessee played a college football game in front of an NCAA-record crowd of 156,990.
  • In 2016, a special country music concert was held, featuring a trio of successful local acts. The Honda Ridgeline Bristol Tailgate featured Kenny Chesney, The Band Perry and Old Dominion in front of a crowd of more than 40,000.
  • The week following the Pilot Flying J Battle at Bristol, Bristol Motor Speedway held a second game in 2016, the Food City Bucs at Bristol presented by Food City. The local favorite East Tennessee State University Buccaneers upset rival Western Carolina University 34-31 in a thrilling come-from-behind victory.
  • In 2020, Bristol Motor Speedway hosted the NASCAR Cup Series Open and All-Star Race for the first-time.
  • In total, there have been 125 NASCAR Cup Series points-paying races at Bristol Motor Speedway since the first race in 1961, two races each season until 2021 when the track replaced their spring date with the Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt track (2021-2023).
  • The 2024 season is the first season since 2021 that both Bristol races will be run on the concrete surface. From 2021-2023 the spring Bristol race was run on a dirt surface.
  • In 2025, Bristol Motor Speedway hosted the first Major League Baseball game in Tennessee history inside its infield. On Aug. 2, 2025, the Atlanta Braves played the Cincinnati Reds in an official regular season game during the MLB Speedway Classic.
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