Driver-by-driver track history breakdown for Bristol Motor Speedway. Full-field data, loop stats, and model signals for the Food City 500.
| Driver | Pos | Tier | Profile |
|---|---|---|---|
| Tyler Reddick | 1 | Tyler Reddick leads the 2026 points standings. He has one career top-10 at Bristol Motor Speedway — back in 2020 — and 7 total laps led in his entire Cup career at this track. Seven. The points leader… | |
| Ryan Blaney | 2 | The spring 2024 Bristol race should have buried Ryan Blaney's reputation at this track. He started from the pole. He finished 16th. Average running position of 12. A pole-sitter who ran like a 12th-pl… | |
| Denny Hamlin | 3 | Hamlin won the spring 2024 race. He finished 4th in the fall 2024 race. He finished 2nd in the spring 2025 race with an average running position of 3.0 — meaning he spent virtually the entire day in t… | |
| Chase Elliott | 4 | Chase Elliott just won at Martinsville. He is one of the hottest drivers in the field entering this weekend. His Bristol track history tells a more complicated story. The fall 2024 race was elite — 2n… | |
| William Byron | 5 | Here is a number that does not get talked about enough. William Byron has not led a single lap at Bristol Motor Speedway across four Cup starts on the current concrete surface. Not one. He has a Hendr… | |
| Ty Gibbs | 6 | Ty Gibbs has led 338 laps at Bristol Motor Speedway and never won. Let that number sit. Three hundred and thirty-eight laps led. More than any driver in this field except Kyle Larson. He led 137 in th… | |
| Christopher Bell | 7 | Six consecutive Bristol top-10s. Every single race in this four-race stretch produced an average running position inside the top 12 and a quality pass rate above 80%. This is the most consistent Brist… | |
| Brad Keselowski | 8 | Three-time Bristol winner. The skills are still in there. Spring 2024: 3rd place, average 6.36, 98% quality pass rate. Fall 2025: 2nd place — he had the lead with five laps to go before Christopher Be… | |
| Kyle Larson | 9 | Kyle Larson has described Bristol as the closest thing NASCAR has to a dirt sprint car race. "Just the intensity, the aggression, the fast-paced style of that race — I'm comfortable with," he said. Th… | |
| Chris Buescher | 10 | Won the 2022 Bristol Night Race. Not in this stretch, but it confirms the baseline Bristol skill set is real. His spring 2024 run from 34th starting position produced a 7th-place finish and 17 laps le… | |
| Bubba Wallace | 11 | The most confusing Bristol profile in the field, and it deserves to be read carefully. Fall 2024: 3rd place from 11th starting position, average 6.80, 100% quality pass rate, 100% top-15 lap share. Ev… | |
| Joey Logano | 12 | The last time Joey Logano won at Bristol was 2015. He has made a lot of trips since. His spring 2025 result tells you everything you need to know about how things are going for him here in the Next Ge… | |
| Ryan Preece | 13 | RFK Racing. Mid-tier equipment. And yet Ryan Preece keeps finding ways to run well at Bristol. His fall 2024 race produced a 93.5% quality pass rate — that means he won 93 out of every 100 competitive… | |
| Shane Van Gisbergen | 14 | No Bristol Cup Series data to build from here. SVG was not a full-time Cup entry for any of the four races in this stretch. What we do know: his short-track car control has improved race by race in 20… | |
| Carson Hocevar | 15 | This is the Bristol trajectory story nobody is talking about. Spring 2024: started 35th, average running position 24.71, 3% quality pass rate. Three percent. Then something happened. Spring 2025: aver… | |
| Daniel Suarez | 16 | Two DNFs and two back-of-field finishes across four Bristol starts. Spring 2024: 18th, average 22.26. Fall 2024: 31st, average 31.15, zero quality passes. Spring 2025: DNF at lap 494 from a tire incid… | |
| Michael McDowell | 17 | The floor at Bristol is a reliable mid-pack result. The ceiling is a legitimate top-10 when the Spire Motorsports package is dialed in. His fall 2024 race produced an 11th from 18th with an 83.3% qual… | |
| Austin Cindric | 18 | Three forgettable Bristol starts followed by one genuinely strong but incomplete fall 2025 effort. He started 3rd, ran 6th at the midpoint, and posted a 79.8% quality pass rate — the kind of numbers t… | |
| Ross Chastain | 19 | A consistent mid-pack Bristol performer without a front-running performance across any of the four races. His best finish is a 7th in spring 2025 — from 35th starting position — but an average running… | |
| AJ Allmendinger | 20 | The most split Bristol profile in the field. Spring 2024 and fall 2024: invisible. 23rd in both, zero quality passes in the fall race, 3.4% in the spring race. Then spring 2025: 9th from 8th, 85.1% qu… | |
| Chase Briscoe | 21 | The equipment upgrade tells the story here before we even get to the numbers. Briscoe drove his last three Bristol races — finishing 8th, 4th, and running to a 9th with 127 laps led from 31st starting… | |
| Zane Smith | 22 | The most dramatic single-race turnaround in this entire stretch. Spring 2024: DNF at lap 192, engine failure. Fall 2024: 16th, zero quality passes. Spring 2025: 27th, zero quality passes. Three Bristo… | |
| Erik Jones | 23 | Legacy Motor Club Toyota. The equipment puts a hard ceiling on what is possible here, and the Bristol history reflects it. His best underlying run is the fall 2025 race — moved from 27th to 13th at th… | |
| Kyle Busch | 24 | Kyle Busch has eight Bristol wins. Eight. The all-time record at this track. And he has not led a single lap at Bristol across four Cup starts in the Next Gen era. Zero laps led. His spring 2025 resul… | |
| Josh Berry | 25 | Wood Brothers Racing Ford. No Bristol Cup Series data available for this entry in this sample. The Wood Brothers organization has shown competitive short-track form at various points in the NextGen er… | |
| John Hunter Nemechek | 26 | His spring 2024 Bristol run does not make sense next to the rest of his data. Started 26th. Finished 6th. Average running position of 9.23. Quality pass rate of 77.1%. Top-15 lap share of 88.2%. That … | |
| Austin Dillon | 27 | His spring 2025 result is the ceiling — 10th place from 17th, average 16.05, 54.8% quality pass rate. That is the best-case Bristol scenario for the number 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet at this… | |
| Todd Gilliland | 28 | Four Bristol starts. Four back-half results. Spring 2024: 26th. Fall 2024: 32nd, zero quality passes. Spring 2025: 35th, zero quality passes, engine failure. Fall 2025: 24th — his best result — from 3… | |
| Noah Gragson | 29 | Three of four Bristol starts produced back-of-field metrics. Spring 2024: 34th, zero quality passes. Spring 2025: 23rd, zero quality passes. Fall 2025: 23rd, 5.4% quality pass rate. Then the fall 2024… | |
| Riley Herbst | 30 | Two Bristol starts — both recent. Spring 2025: 28th, average 28.42, zero quality passes. Fall 2025: 18th from 29th, average 23.19, 15.6% quality pass rate. Neither run produced front-running metrics. … | |
| Ricky Stenhouse Jr | 31 | The trend is interesting here. His first two Bristol runs in this stretch — spring 2024 and fall 2024 — produced a 33rd and a 27th with zero quality passes in the fall race. Then the last two runs: sp… | |
| Ty Dillon | 32 | Two Bristol starts in this stretch — spring 2025 and fall 2025. Spring 2025: started 12th, fell back to 22nd at the midpoint, finished 32nd. A 27% quality pass rate suggests some midfield activity but… | |
| Connor Zilisch | 33 | No Bristol Cup Series data available. Zilisch is a 2026 Cup Series rookie in the number 88 Chevrolet. His Xfinity short-track form has been impressive but Cup Bristol loop data simply does not exist. … | |
| Cole Custer | 34 | Three of his last four Bristol starts produced zero quality passes and zero top-15 laps. Fall 2024: 33rd, average 35.40. Spring 2025: 29th, average 33.25. Fall 2025: 33rd, average 35.40. His spring 20… | |
| Cody Ware | 35 | Two Bristol starts in this stretch — spring 2025 and fall 2025. Both at the back of the field. Spring 2025: 36th from 34th, average 36.23, zero quality passes. Fall 2025: 29th from 34th, average 34.59… | |
| Alex Bowman | 36 | Alex Bowman was sidelined earlier in the 2026 season due to vertigo sustained at Austin. He returns this weekend at Bristol in the number 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet. No Bristol Cup Series loop … | |
| Casey Mears | 37 | No meaningful Bristol Cup Series data available for this entry. Back-of-field equipment. No competitive metrics to assess. Watch practice only. |