Category: NASCAR Cup PR

JUSTIN HALEY | KAZ GRALA
Bristol Advance
Event Overview

● Event: Food City 500 (Round 5 of 36)
● Time/Date: 3:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 17
● Location: Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway
● Layout: .533-mile concrete oval
● Laps/Miles: 500 laps/266.5 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 125 laps / Stage 2: 125 laps / Final Stage: 250 laps
● TV/Radio: FOX / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Justin Haley, Driver of the No. 51 Ohanafy Ford Mustang Dark Horse

● Justin Haley, driver of the No. 51 Ohanafy Ford Mustang Dark Horse for Rick Ware Racing (RWR), will make his fourth start at Bristol Motor Speedway in Sunday’s Food City 500 NASCAR Cup Series race. The .533-mile track set in the mountains of East Tennessee played host to the series’ only dirt race each spring for the last three years. But no more, as The Last Great Colosseum will once again host both of its races this year on its iconic, high-banked concrete surface.

● In three starts on the traditional concrete surface, Haley has a best finish of 12th earned in September 2022. The 24-year-old also owns six NASCAR Xfinity Starts at Bristol with two top-10s.

● Bristol is the site of Haley’s career-first NASCAR national series start. On Aug. 19, 2015, a 16-year-old Haley made his first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series start from the 21st position and took the checkered flag 14th against the likes of reigning Cup Series champion, Ryan Blaney, and the winningest driver in NASCAR history, Kyle Busch.

● After its first appearance two weekends ago at Las Vegas, Ohanafy – a management platform for beverage and beyond – returns to the No. 51 Ford Mustang Dark Horse for the first short-track race of the year.

● Ohanafy is redefining the beverage industry by harnessing the power of Salesforce, the world’s leading CRM. The mission is clear: to empower beverage producers and distributors to reclaim their time and focus on crafting exceptional beverages while streamlining production and distribution operations. Built on innovation, excellence, and quality, Ohanafy offers a robust, cloud-based solution that revolutionizes how beverage companies operate. By leveraging cutting-edge technology, it enables data-driven decision-making, leading to optimized processes, increased profitability, and reduced costs.

● Last Sunday’s race at Phoenix Raceway saw the debut of NASCAR’s enhaced short-track package. Despite qualifying 33rd, Haley and the No. 51 team made improvements over the race’s 312 laps and brought home a 24th-place finish, RWR’s best ever at Phoenix.

Kaz Grala, Driver of the No. 15 N29 Capital Partners Ford Mustang Dark Horse

● Sunday’s Food City 500 marks Kaz Grala’s first Cup Series short-track start and he will once again pilot the No. 15 N29 Capital Partners Ford Mustang Dark Horse.

● In two Xfinity Series starts at Bristol, Grala has a best finish of 10th earned last September. He’s finished no worse than 20th in eight of 13 Xfinity Series short-track starts. Grala also owns two top-five finishes in the ARCA Menards Series East at Bristol (2015 and 2016).

● In three races behind the wheel of the No. 15 RWR entry, Grala has a best finish of 14th earned Feb. 25 at Atlanta Motor Speedway and has completed 836 of 839 laps – 99.6 percent.

Rick Ware Racing Notes

● For the first time since 2021, the Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup Series will head to Sebring (Fla.) International Raceway, where RWR drivers Cody Ware and Preston Pardus are set to compete in a weekend doubleheader that will make up rounds three and four of the 2024 schedule. Wednesday will see the pair practice and qualify for the first of two 45-minute races, set for Thursday afternoon on the 3.74-mile, 17-turn road circuit. Thursday’s results will the lineup for the Friday morning’s race. Both MX-5 Cup races will be streamed live on RACER.com and IMSA.tv.

● The Progressive American Flat Track (AFT) season kicked off last week with two-time AFT Singles champion Kody Kopp taking the win in his heat race and Al Lambs’ Dallas Honda Challenge exhibition race before running away with his first victory of the seaon in the main event. Kopp, who joined the RWR lineup just a week before the start of the season, took control of the race at mid-distance and took the checkered flag by a 1.502-second margin.

● Rick Ware has been a motorsports mainstay for more than 40 years. It began at age six when the third-generation racer began his driving career and has since spanned four wheels and two wheels on both asphalt and dirt. Competing in the SCCA Trans Am Series and other road-racing divisions led Ware to NASCAR in the early 1980s, where he finished third in his NASCAR debut – the 1983 Warner W. Hodgdon 300 NASCAR Grand American race at Riverside (Calif.) International Raceway. More than a decade later, injuries would force Ware out of the driver seat and into fulltime team ownership. In 1995, Rick Ware Racing was formed, and with wife Lisa by his side, Ware has since built his eponymous organization into an entity that fields two fulltime entries in the NASCAR Cup Series while simultaneously campaigning successful teams in the Top Fuel class of the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series, the LMP3 class of the IMSA VP Racing SportsCar Challenge, Whelen Mazda MX-5 Cup, Progressive American Flat Track and FIM World Supercross Championship (WSX), where RWR won the 2022 SX2 championship with rider Shane McElrath.

Justin Haley, Driver Q&A

Where does Bristol rank on your list of favorite tracks?

“Bristol is an awesome track. I actually made my first NASCAR national series start there in a truck, so it’s always been a special place for me. I’ve always run pretty strong there. I finished sixth in the spring Bristol race last year but the track had dirt on it and they took that away, so I’m not sure how I’ll fair now. But, I love Bristol and it’s obviously one of a kind. It’s a cool place to race, so I’d say it’s pretty high.”

Sunday’s race at Phoenix was very trying for the No. 51 team, but you came out with a top-25 finish. What’s your mindset now, and how do you push through to the next race after tough races like the one you had last weekend?

“I’m good. I felt like we improved a lot by the end of the race. Learned a lot and are just steadily building up our notebook. You’re going to have those days, especially with a new team, but I just can’t let that stick with me. I’m in such a relaxed environment now. There’s pressure, but I’m at it every week. We’re all growing and building together and this team is relying on me and trusting me to do my part to be successful. I appreciate everything these guys do every week to get better and I feel like they truly appreciate me. As a racecar driver, you really can’t ask for anything more meaningful than a team that will go to battle with you and win and lose with you.”

Kaz Grala, Driver Q&A

As a driver who grew up short-track racing, this must be your favorite part of the season with Bristol, Richmond (Va.) Raceway and Martinsville (Va.) Speedway coming up over the next four weeks. What are you most looking forward to?

“I’m just excited to get to the short tracks, in general. I feel like that is where I can really do the most to give us a good result, but I’m also still learning the NextGen car, so we’ll definitely have to pack our patience and take what we can get. These tracks that are coming up are all so different but we’ll be able to learn something we can take to each, so hopefully we can build up some good momentum.”

What is the key to being successful at Bristol?

“Bristol is one of the coolest places we visit. If you get your car handling well, it could be a really good day and, as a driver, you really have to be able to find your rhythm and stick to it. Hopefully I can do that early on. The biggest thing everyone will face is staying out of the mess that is bound to happen at some point. Things happen quickly on a track as short and fast as Bristol, so staying focused goes a long way.”

Weekly Preview | Bristol Motor Speedway

 Race Details

Bristol Motor Speedway
Food City 500
NASCAR Cup Series (NCS)
Sunday, March 17 at 3:30PM EDT
FOX | PRN | SiriusXM
Team Notes

• Kaulig Racing has made four NCS starts at Bristol Motor Speedway and has earned one top-10 finish.
• So far in the 2024 season, the team has earned one top 10, four top-20 finishes and has led 12 laps.

AJ ALLMENDINGER

“I’m looking forward to getting back in the Cup car at Bristol. Bristol is a racetrack we’ve had success at in 2022 so hopefully we can learn from the things we have done well. Last year we had speed in practice, but had an incident early in the race. I’m excited to see what we can make happen.” – AJ Allmendinger on Bristol Motor Speedway  

No. 16 Mtn Dew Cheetos Camaro ZL1

• AJ Allmendinger has made 23 NCS starts at the Bristol Motor Speedway and has led 54 laps, earning two top-10 finishes.
• Allmendinger earned his best finish at the track with Kaulig Racing in the 2022 Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race.

DANIEL HEMRIC

“I’ve always loved Bristol. The timing of the race is going to be fun seeing how the track changes and evolves from the beginning of the weekend and throughout the mid parts of the race. You go through such a big swing, so we’re going to build some versatility within our car. Hopefully we can give ourselves an opportunity to contend as the laps wind down. It’s a long event, but it’s one of the most fun ones we run.” – Daniel Hemric on Bristol Motor Speedway  

No. 31 Cirkul Camaro ZL1

• Daniel Hemric has made two NCS starts at Bristol Motor Speedway and has earned one top-15 finish.
• So far in the 2024 NCS season, Hemric has earned three top-20 finishes.

About Kaulig Racing

Kaulig Racing™ is a full-time multi-car NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) and NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) team, owned by award winning entrepreneur, Matt Kaulig. Established in 2016, Kaulig Racing™ has made the NXS Playoffs consecutively each season since the playoff system started and has won back-to-back regular-season championships. Before becoming a full-time NCS team, Kaulig Racing made multiple starts in the 2021 NCS season and won in its seventh-ever start with AJ Allmendinger’s victory at “The Brickyard” for the Verizon 200 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The team expanded to a two-car, full-time NCS team in 2022 and added a third, part-time entry during the 2023 season. In 2024, the team will once again field two, full-time entries in the NCS and continue to field three, full-time NXS entries. To learn more about the team, visit kauligracing.com.

Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway Competition Notes

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (March 13, 2024) – After another top-10 performance, Michael McDowell and the No. 34 Ford Mustang Dark Horse head to “The Last Great Colosseum” at the Bristol Motor Speedway.

At Bristol, McDowell looks to continue his short-track momentum after a successful 2023, earning a ninth-place finish in the spring on the dirt configuration and a career-best sixth last September at the high-banked, half-mile oval.

McDowell and the No. 34 team will have Love’s Travel Stops and their truck care partner, Chevron Delo, racing with them this weekend. Chevron Delo is the maker of top performing heavy duty engine oils, coolants, antifreezes, transmission fluids, gear oils, greases and hydraulic oils.

Track activity will begin with practice and qualifying on Saturday, March 16th at 5:00 p.m. ET. The 500-lap event will take place Sunday, March 17th at 3:30 p.m. ET and will be televised live on FOX. Fans can also listen in on the action live from Sirius XM and the Performance Racing Network.

No. 34 Love’s Travel Stops / Delo Ford Mustang Dark Horse:

DRIVER MICHAEL MCDOWELL:

“We’re excited about where our team is heading, and our entire Front Row Motorsports program has improved each race with our Ford Mustang Dark Horse. We are close to breaking through and taking that next step up in performance. We ran well at Bristol last year and expect to do the same this weekend.”

CREW CHIEF TRAVIS PETERSON:

“Really looking forward to getting to Bristol this weekend, it’s one of my favorite tracks. Coming off a solid top-10 run last weekend and heading to a track we had a very strong run last year, we’re looking to keep the momentum going.”

ABOUT FRONT ROW MOTORSPORTS

Front Row Motorsports (FRM) is a winning organization in the NASCAR Cup and CRAFTSMAN Truck Series. The team is the 2021 Daytona 500 and 2022 CRAFTSMAN Truck Series champions. The team was founded in 2004 and is owned by successful entrepreneur, Bob Jenkins. FRM fields the No. 34 and the No. 38 NASCAR Cup Series teams along with the No. 38 CRAFTSMAN Truck Series team from its Mooresville, N.C. headquarters. Visit teamfrm.com and follow FRM on social media: Twitter at @Team_FRM, Instagram at @team_frm and Facebook at facebook.com/FrontRowMotorsports.

CLUB ENTRY LIST

JOHN HUNTER NEMECHEK
POINT STANDINGS: 21ST

ERIK JONES
POINT STANDINGS: 18TH

CLUB NOTES

There’s just something about Phoenix: Erik Jones qualified fourth for the Shriners 500 at Phoenix Raceway this past weekend, marking the best qualifying effort for the team since LEGACY MOTOR CLUB was formed at the start of the 2023 season. Before that, the best starting position for Jones was a seventh-place effort at the 2023 season finale in Phoenix.

Bristol Test: Jones was one of three drivers who ran a wet weather tire test at Bristol Motor Speedway in early February, where the team tested different tire compounds on the NextGen car during wet conditions.

Jones knows Bristol: Jones started on the pole on August 19, 2017, at Bristol Motor Speedway during his first full-time NASCAR Cup Series season with a speed of 128.082mph. During that race, Jones led a dominating 260 laps – the most he’s led in a single race to date – but he ultimately ended up finishing second to race winner Kyle Busch.

Nemechek knows Bristol, too: Nemechek has ten starts at Bristol in the NASCAR Truck Series – eight on concrete and two on dirt. Of the eight on concrete, he has four top-five and six top-10 finishes, a 12th-place finish, and a 29th-place finish. On Bristol dirt, he has one pole position, a third-place finish, and one DNF.

Three is the magic number: Jones has been impressive at Bristol Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Xfinity Series as well over the years. He earned three pole awards in a row from 2015 – 2016, while sweeping both poles in the 2016 season. Results from these years include a fourth-place finish in 2015 and wins in the 2016 and 2017 spring events at Bristol.

Back-to-back: In the Xfinity Series, John Hunter Nemechek earned top-five finishes during his most recent three attempts at Bristol Motor Speedway, finishing third last fall in the event. While driving for LEGACY M.C. co-owner Maury Gallagher’s GMS Racing in 2019, Nemechek earned two top-five finishes at the half-mile. He has an average finish of sixth during his four Xfinity starts across the board at the legendary short track with a worst finish being 13th.

Single duty: This is the first weekend since the season-opening Clash event that Nemechek isn’t (literally) running between the Cup and Xfinity Series garages. This weekend he will focus his time on his first NextGen attempt at the half-mile in Thunder Valley.

Beshore for the steal: Crew chief of the No. 42 Dollar Tree Toyota Camry XSE Ben Beshore won the rain-marred Bristol dirt race with driver Kyle Busch on April 17, 2022. The race was delayed by rain and the track conditions changed throughout the event. On the final lap, the leaders tangled, and Busch was sitting in the cat-bird seat edging out Tyler Reddick at the stripe in a thrilling victory.

A new look: Bristol is making its return to concrete for this weekend’s event and bringing back its historic red and white painted walls. At the test session in February, Jones joined fellow competitors Zane Smith and Brad Keselowski to help turn back the clock and paint the track walls for this weekend’s event.

CLUB QUOTES

John Hunter Nemechek, Driver of the No. 42 Toyota Camry XSE:

“The first time for me at Bristol with the NextGen car is going to be interesting. There is a lot of work and prep going on with Trevor (Bayne) this week. I feel like Ben (Beshore) and I have a decent plan of attack. We are also going to be leaning on Erik (Jones) and the No. 43 team as they ran well there in the fall. For whatever reason the spring race at Bristol normally is different than the fall race there with track conditions, and not as many series racing there putting down rubber. The first year back with no dirt on it will be interesting to see what happens if the track widens out or not.”

“I would say that our goals this coming weekend or going to be competitive, try and run competitively throughout the race run all the laps, have great pitstops, and work together great as a team put some emphasis on qualifying as well. You don’t want to start in the back at Bristol because it doesn’t take very long to start getting into lapped traffic. I’m looking forward to this weekend – depending on how things go I may have to resurface my lucky boxers. I’m not superstitious but I’ll see how we’re feeling on race day.”

Ben Beshore, Crew chief of the No. 42 Dollar Tree Toyota Camry XSE:

Since you are a past winner on the dirt are you sad to see it leave?

“(Laughs), both have a unique set of challenges, the dirt had run its course, and it was time to get back to normal racing there, so I’m ok with it not being dirt. It’s a lot of extra work and prep for a one-off race so it’s a lot easier on the guys and teams from a time and expense standpoint to be a normal concrete race. John Hunter has done well there in Trucks and Xfinity so it should be a good weekend for us.”

Erik Jones, Driver of the No. 43 AdventHealth Toyota Camry XSE:

There is a chance of rain on Sunday, talk about the wet weather test and what you learned.

”The wet weather test in Bristol was interesting. We wet the track down, and it felt like it wasn’t that big of a deal; we could get pretty close, within a second or a second and a half of the normal lap time. At least having some laps on the track under those circumstances is nice. If we have to do it and if we have to go racing in it, I feel like we have some experience, which is pretty helpful with that. I think it helped us turn the potential of weather changing the race weekend into more of a positive.”

Dave Elenz, Crew chief of the No. 43 AdventHealth Toyota Camry XSE:

Talk about getting back on concrete twice this year and your overall thoughts on the wet weather test.

“We are looking forward to Bristol. We had a good test up there a few weeks ago. We tested some wet-weather tires, and that went pretty well. I think people get scared when you try something new, and they think it is going to be a big deal. We put the wet tires on and made some pretty good laps there. We are looking forward to the opportunity to put those on if it does rain during the race, but we are excited for Bristol overall. Erik is pretty good there, so having two concrete opportunities this year should be really good for us to get Erik dialed in for this race and the second race and get some consistency to it.”

PETTY 75TH ANNIVERSARY

The 2024 season marks a significant milestone in the history of the Petty family as they have helped define stock car racing for 75 years. Their commitment to the sport and the people who make it possible – behind the wheel, under the hood, in the back office and beyond – has shaped the growth and success of NASCAR. Their LEGACY lives on with the countless fans, drivers, technicians and team members they touched. Throughout 2024, LEGACY M.C. will celebrate the Petty family and share countless memories with friends and fans at race tracks across the country.

Solidifying a Championship: Richard Petty had a dominating campaign in 1975 sweeping both Cup Series Races at Bristol Motor Speedway. As Petty took the checkered flag in November, it marked a momentous occasion as he recorded his 13th win of the year, solidifying his sixth NASCAR Cup Series title.

Patriarch Birthday: Lee Petty was born on March 14, 1914 and passed away in 2000 at age 86. He never competed at Bristol Motor Speedway as the track was erected in 1961 and Petty had been recovering from a serious crash at Daytona in 1961 only competing in nine events from then until he retired in 1964.

Kyle Petty, Class of 1992: During Richard Petty’s 1992 final season, both Kyle and Richard participated in the April 5, 1992 event at Bristol Motor Speedway. Kyle finished 19th and Richard was 27th. Both will participate in pre-race ceremonies honoring many of the competitors who raced in that particular event this weekend.

King’s Hat: The King’s Hat installation at Bristol Motor Speedway will be located next to the Food City Stage in the Fan Zone with a nod to the 60 races Richard Petty competed in at the half-mile coliseum and the signature black hats he wore while racing there.

ABOUT OUR PARTNERS

ABOUT DOLLAR TREE, INC.: Dollar Tree, a Fortune 200 Company, operated 16,622 stores across 48 states and five Canadian provinces as of October 28, 2023. Stores operate under the brands of Dollar Tree, Family Dollar, and Dollar Tree Canada. To learn more about the Company, visit www.DollarTree.com.

ABOUT ADVENTHEALTH: With a sacred mission of Extending the Healing Ministry of Christ, AdventHealth is a connected system of care for every stage of life and health. More than 90,000 team members across hundreds of care sites including physician practices, hospitals, outpatient clinics, home health agencies, and hospice centers provide individualized, holistic care. A shared vision, common values, focus on whole-person health and commitment to making communities healthier unify the system’s more than 50 hospital campuses in diverse markets throughout nine states. For more information about AdventHealth, visit www.adventhealth/news.

ABOUT LEGACY MOTOR CLUB: LEGACY MOTOR CLUB™ is a professional auto racing club owned by businessman and entrepreneur Maurice “Maury” J. Gallagher and seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson. The CLUB competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series fielding the No. 42 Toyota Camry XSE of John Hunter Nemechek, the No. 43 Toyota Camry XSE of Erik Jones, and the No. 84 limited schedule entry for Johnson. LEGACY M.C. also competes in the Extreme-E Series. Seven-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and NASCAR Hall of Famer Richard Petty “The King” serves as Club Ambassador. With a unique title signifying a nod to car clubs of past eras, LEGACY M.C. is an inclusive club for all motorsport enthusiasts to celebrate the past and future legacies of its members, while competing for wins and championships at NASCAR’s elite level. To keep up-to-date with the latest news, information and exclusive content, follow LEGACY MOTOR CLUB™ on Facebook, X, Instagram and at www.LEGACYMOTORCLUB.com.

Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway Competition Notes

MOORESVILLE, N.C. (March 12, 2024) – Todd Gilliland and the No. 38 team are back from the West Coast and now have their eyes set on the famed Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. Gilliland ended the West Coast Swing with a 17th place finish at the Phoenix (Ariz.) Raceway, a career-best finish at the track. Gilliland added to his “laps led” stat, leading 14 laps in the event.

This past weekend, the NASCAR Cup Series debuted a new short-track package which featured a new underbody/diffuser along with a slightly bigger spoiler. This will be Gilliland’s first Bristol spring Cup Series start on the concrete configuration, he finished 8th-place at the dirt race last year.

CITGARD® returns to FRM after last partnering with the team during the 2022 NASCAR season for Gilliland’s rookie year in the Cup Series.

Track activity will begin with practice and qualifying on Saturday, March 16th at 5:00 p.m. ET. The 500-lap event will take place Sunday, March 17th at 3:30 p.m. ET and will be televised live on FOX. Fans can also listen in on the action live from Sirius XM and the Performance Racing Network.

No. 38 CITGARD Ford Mustang Dark Horse:

DRIVER TODD GILLILAND:

“I think we’re in a really good spot heading into Bristol. Our 17th-place result doesn’t tell our whole story from our day in Phoenix. We had great strategy and got to compete within the top-five. I’m excited for what we have in store with our CITGARD Ford Mustang Dark Horse.”

CREW CHIEF RYAN BERGENTY:

“Phoenix showed that are ceiling is even higher. 17th isn’t the result we wanted, but I saw a lot of growth come out of Todd (Gilliland) and the team. Bristol is a place where Todd has seen success in the Truck Series, and I’m positive he can transfer that success to Cup.”

ABOUT FRONT ROW MOTORSPORTS

Front Row Motorsports (FRM) is a winning organization in the NASCAR Cup and CRAFTSMAN Truck Series. The team is the 2021 Daytona 500 and 2022 CRAFTSMAN Truck Series champions. The team was founded in 2004 and is owned by successful entrepreneur, Bob Jenkins. FRM fields the No. 34 and the No. 38 NASCAR Cup Series teams along with the No. 38 CRAFTSMAN Truck Series team from its Mooresville, N.C. headquarters. Visit teamfrm.com and follow FRM on social media: Twitter at @Team_FRM, Instagram at @team_frm and Facebook at facebook.com/FrontRowMotorsports.

AJ Allmendinger to Drive the No. 16 Mtn Dew CHEETOS® Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 in the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway

 Lexington, N.C. (March 12, 2024) – Kaulig Racing and Food City will team up for the second-straight year, as the pair announces an extended partnership for the 2024 NASCAR season.

The No. 16 Camaro ZL1, driven by AJ Allmendinger, will sport both PepsiCo’s Mountain (Mtn) Dew and CHEETOS® brands when it hits the track for the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

“We’re excited to continue our partnership with Food City,” Chris Rice, Kaulig Racing team president says. “This group has always been a lot of fun to work with and have become part of our Kaulig Racing family. We’ll have plenty of Mtn Dew in our hands and ‘Cheetle’ on our fingers on the pit box to get us through 500 laps.”

Food City and Kaulig Racing first brought back the iconic Mtn Dew colors for the 2023 Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, as the soft drink was spotlighted on the No. 31 Camaro ZL1. This year, the team’s No. 16 Camaro ZL1 will feature both the Tennessee-based soft drink alongside the top-selling cheese puff brand for the Food City 500.

“Food City is proud to once again team up with our friends from Kaulig Racing and PepsiCo to sponsor AJ Allmendinger and the Kaulig Racing No. 16 Camaro ZL1 for the historic return of the Food City 500 to Bristol Motor Speedway,” says Steven C. Smith, Food City president and chief executive officer.

In addition to the partnership for the Food City 500, Kaulig Racing and Food City will team back up for the Bristol Night Race. Details regarding this partnership will be announced at a later date.
 
About Kaulig Racing:

Kaulig Racing™ is a full-time multi-car NASCAR Cup Series (NCS) and NASCAR Xfinity Series (NXS) team, owned by award winning entrepreneur, Matt Kaulig. Established in 2016, Kaulig Racing™ has made the NXS Playoffs consecutively each season since the playoff system started and has won back-to-back regular-season championships. Before becoming a full-time NCS team, Kaulig Racing made multiple starts in the 2021 NCS season and won in its seventh-ever start with AJ Allmendinger’s victory at “The Brickyard” for the Verizon 200 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. The team expanded to a two-car, full-time NCS team in 2022 and added a third, part-time entry during the 2023 season. In 2024, the team will once again field two, full-time entries in the NCS and continue to field three, full-time NXS entries. To learn more about the team, visit kauligracing.com.

About PepsiCo:

PepsiCo products are enjoyed by consumers more than one billion times a day in more than 200 countries and territories around the world. PepsiCo generated more than $91 billion in net revenue in 2023, driven by a complementary beverage and convenient foods portfolio that includes Lay’s, Doritos, Cheetos, Gatorade, Pepsi-Cola, Mountain Dew, Quaker, and SodaStream. PepsiCo’s product portfolio includes a wide range of enjoyable foods and beverages, including many iconic brands that generate more than $1 billion each in estimated annual retail sales.

About Food City:

Headquartered in Abingdon, Virginia, K-VA-T Food Stores (Food City’s parent company) operates 154 retail outlets throughout southeast Kentucky, southwest Virginia, east Tennessee, north Georgia, and Alabama.

Martin Truex Jr.
Food City 500 at Bristol Advance
No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota Camry XSE for Joe Gibbs Racing

Event Overview

● Event: Food City 500 (Round 5 of 36)
● Time/Date: 3:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 17
● Location: Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway
● Layout: .533-mile concrete oval
● Laps/Miles: 500 laps/266.5 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 125 laps / Stage 2: 125 laps / Final Stage: 250 laps
● TV/Radio: FOX / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Truex has two top-five finishes, four top-10s and has led a total of 287 laps in 33 career NASCAR Cup Series starts on Bristol’s concrete surface. Truex’s average Bristol finish is 20.7.

● No More Dirt: After three years of covering the half-mile concrete oval with dirt for the Bristol’s spring race, NASCAR’s top series has elected to go back to the concrete surface for both races this year at the World’s Fastest Half-Mile. Truex brought home a solid seventh-place finish in last spring’s final race on Bristol’s dirt surface.

● Toyota Up Front: With five different Toyotas each leading 50 laps or more in last Sunday’s race at Phoenix Raceway, it marked the first time in NASCAR history that a manufacturer had five cars leading 50 or more laps in the same race. Truex contributed 55 of those laps led as each of the four Joe Gibbs Racing entries led 50 or more laps in a single race for the first time in NASCAR’s top series. Toyotas combined to lead 298 of the 312 race laps at Phoenix.

● Looking for 35: Truex’s win at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in Loudon last July was his most recent Cup Series win, the 34th of his career, tying him with 2004 Cup Series champion Kurt Busch for 25th on the all-time Cup Series win list.

● Ahead at this Stage: Truex has accumulated 61 stage wins since the beginning of the stage era in 2017. He is the only driver with 10 or more stage sweeps, with his latest sweep coming at Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn last August.

● With his seventh-place finish at Phoenix last weekend, Truex heads to Bristol third in the standings with 141 points, 10 behind leader Ryan Blaney as the Cup Series heads to its first true short track of the season.

Martin Truex Jr., Driver of the No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance Toyota Camry XSE

What are your thoughts on racing at Bristol?

“Bristol hasn’t been my favorite place, but we’ve had some good runs there, too. I think we’ve been competitive there over the years. It’s a place that’s tight and things happen fast there, so you have to be on your toes. Always really excited to be a part of how great the crowd is there, and the fans love that place. Hoping we can have a strong run there for them and try to finally get a win there with our Auto-Owners Insurance Camry. We’ll see how it plays out.”

With the new body on the Toyotas, has your team been paying any particular attention to the new parts of the bodywork?

“No, not really. The team is just trying to figure it out the best and quickest they can and figure out how to have a car capable of winning. We’ve really started the season off strong and consistent. We’ve had really good speed every week, I think top-five speed in every race I feel like so far, and maybe a little closer than that last week when we were at our best. We are getting where we need to be, just need to capitalize a little more, but as far as the car – when you are in them, they all feel the same. It is just the setup and the things the guys are working on that can make such a difference. You can’t say, ‘Wow, this body is so much better than last year’s.’ Really hard to tell a big difference right now only a couple of races in. We have a lot more data points to put in the old notebook.”

How has the NextGen car changed your approach to short tracks?

“Short tracks were a challenge last year for us. It was a lot harder to pass than years past, for sure. With how the brakes are on these cars, it’s so different than it was before. Then you have the independent rear suspension and the differential and all those things go along with each other as far as what we have now. I think we made a lot of gains last year and I would like to think we have already made more this year. Bristol not being the short-track package we started using at Phoenix, it’s a bit of a different animal and we’ll see where we are at this weekend. We almost have more than the brakes and tires can even take, so it’s been tough to try and modulate that, and to try not to lock up the rear tires was a challenge. We’ll see if we can’t have a strong run with our Auto-Owners Insurance Camry and keep making gains on it.”

Is the competition as close as it’s ever been?

“Ever since we went to the NextGen car, everything has been closer, and you can see that in the standings, as well – it’s pretty tight. It is harder to find an advantage, it’s harder to run at the front every week consistently. Everything is tighter, closer together, less room for error, and you really have to be on top of things. Things happen fast at Bristol, so it makes for an exciting race for the fans.”

No. 19 Auto-Owners Insurance Team Roster

Primary Team Members

Driver: Martin Truex Jr.

Hometown: Mayetta, New Jersey

Crew Chief: James Small

Hometown: Melbourne, Australia

Car Chief: Chris Jones

Hometown: Smith Mountain Lake, Virginia

Race Engineer: Jaik Halpainy

Hometown: Blockville, New York

Engineer: Jeff Curtis

Hometown: Fairfax Station, Virginia

Spotter: Drew Herring

Hometown: Benson, North Carolina

Road Crew Members

Underneath Mechanic: Ryan Martin

Hometown: Mechanicsburg, Virgina

Mechanic: Todd Carmichael

Hometown: Redding, California

Interior/Tire Specialist: Tommy DiBlasi

Hometown: Annapolis, Maryland

Engine Tuner: Beau Morton

Hometown: Lake Havasu City, Arizona

Transporter Driver: Kyle Bazzell

Hometown: Fairbury, Illinois

Transporter Driver: Eddie DeGroot

Hometown: Baldwinsville, New York

Over-The-Wall Crew Members

Gas Man: Matt Tyrrell

Hometown: Fort Lauderdale, Florida

Jackman: Caleb Dirks

Hometown: Riverside, California

Tire Carrier: CJ Bailey

Hometown: Outer Banks, North Carolina

Front Tire Changer: Lee Cunningham

Hometown: Leaf River, Illinois

Rear Tire Changer: Marquill Osborne

Hometown: Cornelius, NC

BRISTOL 1

Saturday, March 16 — NASCAR Craftsman Series, 8 p.m. ET (FS1)
Sunday, March 17 — NASCAR Cup Series, 3:30 p.m. ET (FOX)

The Bristol Motor Speedway spring date returns to the concrete for the first time since 2020 and will host the NASCAR Craftsman Truck and NASCAR Cup Series this weekend. A total of 21 different drivers have registered at least one of Ford’s 40 all-time Cup wins on the concrete surface.

BLANEY ON TOP

The NASCAR Cup Series season is only four weeks old, but whenever you’re at the top of the standings it’s a good thing. That’s where defending champion Ryan Blaney finds himself after a fifth-place finish on Sunday in Phoenix moved him from second to first. As a result, he holds a 10-point lead over Kyle Larson and Martin Truex Jr. The last time Blaney found himself first in the regular-season standings was last year after a sixth-place run at World Wide Technology Raceway. That was the only week in which he held the top spot until claiming the championship a few months later.

GILLILAND LEADS MORE LAPS

Todd Gilliland continues to be among the lap leaders in the NASCAR Cup Series through four races, ranking third among all drivers and first for Ford with 88. He and his No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford Mustang Dark Horse have led at least one lap in three of the first four events, including 14 last weekend at Phoenix Raceway.

FROM DIRT TO CONCRETE

The last three years has seen dirt covering the half-mile oval at Bristol Motor Speedway, and even though he didn’t have a long history of experience on that surface, Joey Logano adapted quite nicely. He won the first NASCAR Cup Series race on dirt in a half-century after taking the lead away from Daniel Suarez and leading the final 61 circuits that included an overtime restart to claim the victory. Last year, he hopped in an additional ThorSport Racing entry and captured the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event by leading 138-of-150 laps.

ACTIVE WINNERS

Three current Ford drivers have at least one NASCAR Cup Series victory on the concrete of Bristol Motor Speedway. Brad Keselowski has three wins (2011, ‘12, ‘20) while Joey Logano owns a pair (2014-15) and Chris Buescher has one (2022). Rusty Wallace and Kurt Busch each have five victories to lead Ford all-time while David Pearson is next with four.

RYAN BLANEY: “Honestly, I didn’t really have any huge feelings towards it either way. I enjoyed the dirt race, and I thought every year it got better. The first year the track wasn’t very good. The second year it got better and then last year I thought the track was awesome. It was very racy, very slick from top to bottom. You could have options and lanes, but it’s good. I think you go back every few years and maybe in a few years you could throw dirt on it again, but I had no big feelings about it either way.”

JOSH BERRY: “I feel like that’s an event that has been missing a little bit. Obviously, I’m from Tennessee and I remember going to Bristol a lot when I was a kid and watching those races, so it’ll be fun to go back and run the concrete. I know Rodney is really excited, so that’s fun too. He loves that track, but not in dirt form.”

FIREBALL BURNS BRIGHT IN FORD DEBUT

Ford won its first NASCAR Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway on March 31, 1963 when Fireball Roberts won the Southeastern 500. What made the win so noteworthy is that it marked the debut of Roberts with Ford as a teammate of Fred Lorenzen’s at Holman-Moody. The duo put on a dominant show that day as they combined to lead 329 of 500 laps with Roberts leading 165 and Lorenzen 164. Roberts passed his new teammate with eight laps to go and won by five seconds as the race saw only one caution for nine laps. Roberts went on to win four races in 1963 while Lorenzen won six times.

ONE SMALL STEP FOR MAN, ONE GIANT LEAP FOR MANKIND

The date was July 20, 1969 and while Neil Armstrong was uttering those groundbreaking words as being the first man to step foot on the moon, David Pearson was busy winning at Bristol on the first race since the track installed high banking. What made the race even more interesting is that Pearson was relieved during the race by none other than Richard Petty, who was driving a Ford that season and dropped out earlier in the event. Even more ironic is that Petty was chasing Pearson for the championship that season, one in which Pearson eventually won for the second straight time.

MAJESKI MOTIVATED

Ty Majeski comes into this weekend’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race second in the point standings after posting a pair of stage wins and two top-10 finishes in the first three races.

Majeski led a race-high 40 laps when the series last raced two weeks ago at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, but a pit road speeding penalty late in the event cost him a shot at winning.

He comes to Bristol Motor Speedway for Saturday night’s race with one career victory at the half-mile facility in two career series starts on the concrete.

FORD’S NASCAR CUP SERIES WINNERS

AT BRISTOL (CONCRETE ONLY)

1963 – Fireball Roberts and Fred Lorenzen

1964 – Fred Lorenzen (Sweep)

1965 – Junior Johnson and Ned Jarrett

1966 – Dick Hutcherson (1)

1968 – David Pearson (Sweep)

1969 – David Pearson (2)

1970 – Donnie Allison (1)

1971 – David Pearson (1)

1988 – Bill Elliott (1)

1990 – Davey Allison (1)

1991 – Alan Kulwicki (2)

1992 – Alan Kulwicki (1)

1993 – Mark Martin (2)

1994 – Rusty Wallace (2)

1996 – Rusty Wallace (2)

1997 – Dale Jarrett (2)

1998 – Mark Martin (2)

1999 – Rusty Wallace (1)

2000 – Rusty Wallace (Sweep)

2001 – Elliott Sadler (1)

2002 – Kurt Busch (1)

2003 – Kurt Busch (Sweep)

2004 – Kurt Busch (1)

2005 – Matt Kenseth (2)

2006 – Matt Kenseth (2)

2007 – Carl Edwards (2)

2008 – Carl Edwards (2)

2014 – Carl Edwards and Joey Logano

2015 – Joey Logano (2)

2018 – Kurt Busch (2)

2020 – Brad Keselowski (1) and Kevin Harvick (2)

2022 – Chris Buescher

JOSH BERRY
Bristol Advance
No. 4 SUNNYD® Ford Mustang Dark Horse

Event Overview

● Event: Food City 500 (Round 5 of 36)
● Time/Date: 3:30 p.m. EDT on Sunday, March 17
● Location: Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway
● Layout: .533-mile, concrete oval
● Laps/Miles: 500 laps/266.5 miles
● Stage Lengths: Stage 1: 125 laps / Stage 2: 125 laps / Final Stage: 250 laps
● TV/Radio: FOX / PRN / SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

Notes of Interest

● Josh Berry heads to his home state this weekend for Sunday’s 500-mile race at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway. It will be the NASCAR Cup Series debut on the high-banked, .533-mile oval’s concrete surface for the native of Hendersonville, Tennessee, located some 295 south and west of Bristol on the outskirts of Nashville. Berry does have one Cup Series start at Bristol, albeit in last year’s April race subbing for an injured Chase Elliott when the concrete surface was covered with dirt. Berry has three NASCAR Xfinity Series starts and one NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series start on Bristol’s concrete surface. Best of his Xfinity Series outings was a seventh-place finish in September 2022, driving for JR Motorsports. His lone Truck Series start there resulted in an 11th-place finish in September 2021, driving for the Rackley W.A.R. team.

● The first-year Stewart-Haas driver and Cup Series rookie started racing go karts in and around his native Hendersonville at age 8 before making the move to Legend cars in 2006, scoring race wins and track championships over the next three years at his hometown Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway.

● Berry first made a name for himself on short tracks, climbing the ranks to earn his seat in the Cup Series by dominating at the grassroots level. During his days driving for Dale Earnhardt Jr., as part of the JR Motorsports Late Model program, Berry amassed an impressive 95 victories in his 262 starts with the team, with 189 top-fives and 219 top-10s. He was also the NASCAR Weekly Series champion in 2020, finishing every race but one inside the top-10 that season.

● Rodney Childers, the veteran crew chief of the No. 4 Ford Mustang Dark Horse team, will make his 35th Bristol Cup Series start atop the pit box Sunday. He was victorious twice with retired Stewart-Haas driver Kevin Harvick, the first win coming in the September 2016 night race. In that event, Harvick drove through the field after starting 24th and went on to lead 128 of the 500 laps en route to victory. The next win came in 2020, again in the September night race, when Harvick won in dominating fashion after starting fourth and leading 226 circuits. In total, Childers’ drivers have tallied 10 top-five finishes, 16 top-10s, and 927 laps led at Bristol.

Josh Berry, Driver of the No. 4 SUNNYD Ford Mustang Dark Horse

You’re heading to Bristol Motor Speedway in your home state of Tennessee, and you have a deep history in short-track racing. Do you feel any kind of pressure as one of the drivers to watch this weekend?

“Bristol is a short track but it’s its own animal. It’s unique in how it races when compared to a Martinsville or Richmond layout. I think for us, we are going to keep preparing the same way we have each week. We try to prepare for as many scenarios as we can each week no matter the track. I think if we qualify well and have a clean day on pit road, the finishes will come and that’s all we can really do at this point.”

What memories do you have of watching Cup Series races at Bristol when you were growing up, and does it feel surreal that you are making your first Cup Series start on the concrete surface there?

“I remember going there in my teenage years and watching races there and it honestly was always a hot commodity to go there, so hopefully we can pack the place and put on a good show. Bristol is just such an iconic venue. It will be really cool to go compete there on the concrete. When Bristol is packed, there is a ton of energy, and you can feel it inside the car, which makes it so special for me being a home-state guy. Rodney (Childers, crew chief) has had a lot of success there, too, and I know he and I are both looking forward to getting there and seeing how we do.”

Robert “Cheddar” Smith said early on the No. 4 team is “just a bunch of Late-Model guys.” Does that give you an advantage heading to a short track knowing most, if not all of you, have a background in short-track racing?

“The biggest thing that it has helped with is our communication with each other. It’s honestly felt really consistent and easy to get through all of the early stages, where teams have to learn each other’s lingo. Rodney says it often to me about this whole process that he is learning more and more about how to evolve and get better to work with me compared to someone like Kevin (Harvick). It’s really been a positive experience and we all feel like we are moving in the right direction. We just need more time to keep growing what we have started.”

You’ve talked about Las Vegas being the litmus test for the intermediate package. Do you feel like Bristol will be the first true test of the NextGen short-track package?

“Bristol is so unique that I don’t think so – Bristol is Bristol, it’s just its own animal. I think it takes a unique preparation compared to other short tracks like Martinsville and Richmond. I think there are more similarities to a place like Dover than other short tracks we will go to coming up. That doesn’t mean we won’t learn about the setup, but there won’t be a ton that I think carries over to the other short tracks we have on the schedule.”

No. 4 SUNNYD Team Roster

Primary Team Members

Driver: Josh Berry

Hometown: Hendersonville, Tennessee

Crew Chief: Rodney Childers

Hometown: Mooresville, North Carolina

Car Chief: Robert “Cheddar” Smith

Hometown: Whitewater, Wisconsin

Engineer: Dax Gerringer

Hometown: Gibsonville, North Carolina

Engineer: Billy Kuebler

Hometown: Saline, Michigan

Spotter: Eddie D’Hondt

Hometown: Levittown, New York

Over-The-Wall Members

Front Tire Changer: Daniel Coffey

Hometown: Granite Falls, North Carolina

Rear Tire Changer: Daniel Smith

Hometown: Concord, North Carolina

Tire Carrier: Jeremy Howard

Hometown: Delhart, Texas

Jack Man: Brandon Banks

Hometown: High Point, North Carolina

Fuel Man: Evan Marchal

Hometown: Westfield, Indiana

Road Crew Members

Mechanic: Tyler Trosper

Hometown: Mooresville, North Carolina

Mechanic: Chris Capaldi

Hometown: Armada, Michigan

Tire Specialist: Zac Lupien

Hometown: Pine Bluff, Arkansas

Engine Tuner: Robert Brandt

Hometown: Mobile, Alabama

Transporter Co-Driver: Jake Zierhoffer

Hometown: Billerica, Massachusetts

Transporter Co-Driver: Stephen Mitchell

Hometown: Woodville, Ohio