2025 Bristol Night Race: Where to watch, live stream, lineup, race preview, pick to win in the NASCAR playoffs

BRISTOL, Tenn. — When one enters The Last Great Coliseum in the hills of East Tennessee, it harkens back to ancient times where gladiators entered the same sort of arenas, with no guarantee that they would ever leave it. Thankfully, the concept of meeting one’s end in the Coliseum is metaphorical these days, but by the end of Saturday night, four drivers who had hopes of glory will be felled.

The Bass Pro Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, the most historic and venerated Night Race on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule, is yet again the elimination race in the Round of 16 of the playoffs, meaning that four drivers are set to see their run to the championship end in a first round exit. By virtue of their wins at Darlington and Gateway, only Chase Briscoe and Denny Hamlin are guaranteed a spot in the Round of 12. The 14 others are trying to earn a spot, with some hanging for dear life above the cut line while Austin Dillon, Shane van Gisbergen, Alex Bowman and Josh Berry all try and find their way back out of the red in one of the toughest and most physical races of the entire season.

Where to watch the NASCAR playoffs at Bristol

When: Saturday, Sept. 13 at 7:30 p.m. ET
Where: Bristol Motor Speedway — Bristol, Tennessee
TV: USA | Stream: Fubo (Try for free) 

Starting lineup

A.J. Allmendinger won the pole for the Bass Pro Night Race in qualifying on Friday, posting a lap of 15.117 seconds to earn his first pole of the 2025 season, the fifth of his career, and the second pole in Kaulig Racing’s history as a Cup team.

#16 – A.J. Allmendinger#12 – Ryan Blaney#2 – Austin Cindric#54 – Ty Gibbs#5 – Kyle Larson#11 – Denny Hamlin#24 – William Byron#23 – Bubba Wallace#20 – Christopher Bell#21 – Josh Berry#47 – Ricky Stenhouse Jr.#77 – Carson Hocevar#1 – Ross Chastain#45 – Tyler Reddick#48 – Alex Bowman#9 – Chase Elliott#7 – Justin Haley#6 – Brad Keselowski#42 – John Hunter Nemechek#60 – Ryan Preece#17 – Chris Buescher#22 – Joey Logano#3 – Austin Dillon#38 – Zane Smith#71 – Michael McDowell#41 – Cole Custer#43 – Erik Jones#88 – Shane van Gisbergen (R)#35 – Riley Herbst (R)#4 – Noah Gragson#19 – Chase Briscoe#8 – Kyle Busch#33 – Austin Hill#51 – Cody Ware#99 – Daniel Suarez#34 – Todd Gilliland#10 – Ty Dillon#67 – Corey Heim#66 – Chad FinchumStorylines to watch

The chief storyline of the weekend concerns the playoff cut line, specifically the four drivers currently in danger of playoff elimination. Austin Dillon (-11), Shane van Gisbergen (-15), Alex Bowman (-35) and Josh Berry (-45) are all in minus territory, while Austin Cindric currently holds an 11 point lead for the last spot in the Round of 12.

Bowman is the biggest name among those facing elimination, and a major part of his issues over the first two races of the playoffs has now been addressed. Following two straight weeks of disastrous pit stops, Hendrick Motorsports has swapped out the No. 48 pit crew that had been servicing Bowman’s car with the crew that had been pitting the Spire Motorsports No. 77 driven by Carson Hocevar.

“Those guys have been super fast at points throughout this year, and they’re all really great athletes and do a good job. We’ve just had a bad two weeks at a time that we can’t have a bad two weeks,” Bowman said Friday of his crew. “I’m definitely friends with all those guys and appreciative for all their hard work, and it wouldn’t surprise me one bit if they had an amazing day on pit road on the 77 car and looked really good.

“I think for us, we just needed a change just trying to have the best shot at winning this weekend.” 

Another variable influencing the battle for the final playoff spot is a new right side tire compound, which depending on one’s perspective either presents a great unknown or more of the same. While the amount of tire wear was hyped as potentially extreme. Denny Hamlin shared a story on Actions Detrimental about the tire compound being so aggressive that it destroyed a machine Goodyear uses to measure tire wear — Friday’s practice sessions did not yield tire wear that was any heavier than the past two Bristol races.

Still, Bristol’s surface has proved temperamental based on track conditions, and cooler temperatures at nighttime could make for a great change for the heat of the daytime mere days from fall.

NASCAR news of the week
NASCAR Cup Series managing director Brad Moran told SiriusXM that officials plan to speak to Trackhouse Racing and its crew chiefs concerning the post-race actions of Ross Chastain and Shane van Gisbergen, who were seen driving their cars through the infield grass on the cooldown lap at World Wide Technology Raceway. The romp through the grass was believed to be an attempt by the Trackhouse cars to pick up additional weight from grass, rocks, and rubber in the infield in order to better pass post-race inspection. “It certainly caught our radar and you know, we have rules that could put the teams in a real bad spot when we see that,” Moran said. “So we’ll make it pretty clear to them, moving forward starting at Bristol, what that means.”The North Carolina State Bureau of Investigation is looking into the use of grant money by Richmond County commissioners to pay an overdue bill that Rockingham Speedway had owed a vendor. Hamlet, North Carolina city manager John Teruzi has accused officials of violating four state statutes when they authorized $375,000 to pay a SAFER barrier company that had been preparing to put a lien on the speedway in what is characterized as a misuse of public funds.Bill Davis, a longtime NASCAR car owner who won the 2002 Daytona 500 as well as the 2008 NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series championship, died Sunday following an illness at the age of 74. Davis was a fixture in NASCAR for two decades as the owner of Bill Davis Racing, first shepherding a young Jeff Gordon in what is now the Xfinity Series before earning five Cup wins, all with Ward Burton, including the 2001 Southern 500 and 2002 Daytona 500. Davis’ team also won 11 times in Xfinity and 24 times in the Craftsman Truck Series, winning the 2008 championship with Johnny Benson.In addition to Davis, last weekend also saw the passing of four-time Xfinity Series champion crew chief Steve Bird at the age of 70. Bird was one of the most accomplished crew chiefs in Xfinity Series history, winning four championships, first with Rob Moroso in 1989 and then three in a row between 1995 and 1997 with drivers Johnny Benson and Randy LaJoie.Pick to win

Chase Briscoe (+900) — Briscoe has become a bona fide championship contender in more ways than just a Round of 12 berth. Since Sonoma in July, Briscoe has had six top five finishes in his last nine starts, five of which have been finishes of either first or second.

One of those second place finishes came on a concrete oval in Dover, a track that amounts to a Bristol that’s twice as large. And by the way, when NASCAR last visited Bristol in April, Briscoe finished fourth, and that was back when he hadn’t even fully grasped what the 19 car was capable of.