NASCAR’s next race: Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway
This week’s race
Food City 500
What: 500 laps or 266.5 miles
Where: Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway, a .533-mile highly banked, concrete oval.
When: 1 p.m. Sunday
TV: Fox
Radio: Performance Racing Network
Last year’s winner: Carl Edwards
Also this week: Drive to Stop Diabetes 300, Xfinity Series, Bristol Motor Speedway, 1:30 p.m. Saturday, Fox Sports 1.
Worth mentioning: Fox, Speedway Motorsports Inc. and Bristol are honoring Fox broadcaster Steve Byrnes’ battle against cancer by renaming this week’s Cup race the Food City 500 In Support of Steve Byrnes and Stand Up To Cancer.
Who’s Hot/Who’s Not
HOT
Jimmie Johnson: Uncharacteristically bad at Martinsville. Typically spectacular at Texas.
Kevin Harvick: Seven Cup races so far. Six finishes of first or second.
Jeff Gordon: After a horrible start to the season, Gordon has four consecutive top-10 finishes.
Carl Edwards: A 10th-place finish isn’t spectacular but certainly helps when it’s your first top-10 of the season.
Erik Jones: NASCAR’s newest 18-year-old national series winner.
Chris Buescher: Closing in on the Xfinity Series points lead.
NOT
Ryan Blaney: Only made three Cup starts this season and has two engine failures.
Michael Waltrip Racing: Collectively it’s two Cup teams have two top-10s in 14 starts.
Toyota: Showed some improvement at Texas but will need more speed to compete for a championship.
Jim Utter
Points Standings
Sprint Cup
1. Kevin Harvick 306
2. Joey Logano 280
3. Martin Truex Jr. 266
4. Brad Keselowski 246
5. Kasey Kahne 230
6. Jimmie Johnson 216
7. Dale Earnhardt Jr. 213
8. Denny Hamlin 205
9. Aric Almirola 195
10. David Ragan 194
11. Jamie McMurray 193
12. Matt Kenseth 189
13. Jeff Gordon 186
14. Carl Edwards 182
15. Casey Mears 178
16. Paul Menard 177
17. Danica Patrick 176
18. Clint Bowyer 168
19. Greg Biffle 165
20. A.J. Allmendinger 161
21. Kurt Busch 144
22. Austin Dillon 143
23. Trevor Bayne 138
24. Ryan Newman 137
25. David Gilliland 136
26. Kyle Larson 135
27. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. 132
28. Cole Whitt 111
29. Sam Hornish Jr. 110
30. Brett Moffitt 109
31. Justin Allgaier 109
32. Tony Stewart 107
33. Michael Annett 69
34. Alex Bowman 67
35. Josh Wise 58
36. Michael McDowell 57
37. Jeb Burton 43
38. Matt DiBenedetto 34
39. Brian Vickers 32
40. Alex Kennedy 24
41. Bobby Labonte 20
42. Michael Waltrip 18
43. Reed Sorenson 12
44. Mike Wallace 8
45. Ron Hornaday 2
Xfinity
1. Ty Dillon 219
2. Chris Buescher 217
3. Chase Elliott 208
4. Darrell Wallace Jr. 204
5. Ryan Reed 197
6. Regan Smith 197
7. Elliott Sadler 181
8. Brendan Gaughan 176
9. Brian Scott 169
10. Daniel Suarez 160
11. David Starr 157
12. Ross Chastain 148
13. Jeremy Clements 145
14. J.J. Yeley 137
15. Dakoda Armstrong 134
Truck
1. Matt Crafton 128
2. Tyler Reddick 126
3. Erik Jones 122
4. Johnny Sauter 112
5. James Buescher 100
6. John Wes Townley 90
7. Ray Black Jr. 89
8. Cameron Hayley 84
9. Spencer Gallagher 84
10. Ben Kennedy 83
11. Timothy Peters 81
12. Tyler Young 78
13. Justin Boston 77
14. Korbin Forrister 77
15. Daniel Hemric 75
This story was originally published April 16, 2015 at 8:11 PM with the headline "NASCAR’s next race: Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway."