BRISTOL, Tenn. — The NASCAR Cup Series returns to the high-banked concrete of Bristol Motor Speedway this Sunday, April 12, for the Food City 500. The 500-lap, 266.5-mile contest on the 0.533-mile oval features a purse of $11,233,037.
As the Cup Series prepares for its 128th race on the track’s traditional concrete surface, a familiar trio of Next Gen car dominators enters as the heavy favorites: Kyle Larson, Christopher Bell, and Denny Hamlin. Larson has won two of the last three Bristol races, bringing a staggering 1,762 career laps led at the venue into Sunday’s event.
However, Bell is the defending Bristol winner following his victory in September 2025. He remains the only driver to secure a top-10 finish in all six races at Bristol since the introduction of the Gen 7 car. Meanwhile, Hamlin has captured four career victories at “The Last Great Colosseum,” with three of those wins coming in his last 10 starts.
Fans and teams are bracing for unpredictability after the venue hosted two drastically different events in 2025. The spring race saw only three cautions and four lead changes during Larson’s march to victory. In stark contrast, Bell’s fall victory featured severe tire issues, 36 lead changes, and 14 cautions.
Among the field’s rising threats is Ty Gibbs, who has surged from 33rd to sixth in the season standings over the last five races. Gibbs boasts an average finish of 4.6 during that span and led a career-best 201 laps at Bristol last fall.
The Food City 500 is scheduled to begin at 3 p.m. ET on Sunday and will be broadcast on FS1.