With excessive tire wear becoming an increasing fear for NASCAR Cup Series teams heading into Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, Goodyear has added an additional set of tires into the allotment for teams in Sunday’s race.
STARTING LINEUP: Food City 500 at Bristol
NASCAR Cup Series teams will now have 11 sets of tires to utilize throughout the 500-lap event on Sunday, including 10 sets of sticker tires and one set of scuffed tires from Saturday’s qualifying session.
The 11-set allotment equals the same number of sets of tires that NASCAR Cup Series teams were given ahead of last year’s Food City 500, which was a race filled with wild and excessive tire wear.
NASCAR has added a set of tires for today’s Cup race at @ItsBristolBaby. That brings teams up to 11 sets for the race (10 race sets plus their qualifying set), which is the same number of sets they ended the spring ‘24 Bristol race with.
— Goodyear Racing (@GoodyearRacing) April 13, 2025
After Goodyear brought the same tire as last Spring’s Food City 500 to the Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway last Fall, and the tire failed to reproduce the excessive wear for that race weekend, the tire manufacturer and teams shelved their concerns about excessive tire wear heading into this weekend’s race.
However, in Saturday’s NASCAR Cup Series practice session, tires were cording after roughly 40 laps during runs on the track. Obviously, with teams not expecting tire wear to be a factor initially, changes will be made to the cars overnight, which are expected to extend the life of the tires some, but with nearly the same weather conditions (high temperature forecasted to be 59 degrees on Sunday), many are wondering how much of a difference changes to the car setups overnight can cure the tire issues.
We’ll find that out soon, but everyone is expecting tire wear to play a factor in who wins Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Denny Hamlin, who comes into this race on a two-race winning streak, won the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway last season in the race that featured intense tire wear. Hamlin, who starts fourth on Sunday, is one of the best in the sport at conserving his tires at high-tire-wear tracks.
That being said, Hamlin should be considered the favorite heading into Sunday’s race.
Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman scored the pole position on Saturday, marking his second pole-winning run of the year. Bowman is seeking his first win of the season, and is looking to get back on track after cooling off the last couple of races following a hot start to the 2025 season.
Bowman recorded five top-10 finishes through the opening six races of the season, including a second-place run at Homestead-Miami Speedway three races ago. However, after the runner-up finish, the wheels have fallen off for Bowman, who finished 27th at Martinsville and 35th at Darlington last week.
The driver of the N0. 48 Chevrolet would love to shake off the funk of the last two races with a win at Bristol. Bowman will be joined by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. on the front row.
The HYAK Motorsports driver has always been a contender at Bristol Motor Speedway throughout his career, and aside from superspeedway, the 0.533-mile short track is probably Stenhouse’s best track on the schedule.
While he has yet to reach victory lane at Bristol, Stenhouse has a pair of runner-up finishes at the track, which he achieved in 2014, and 2016.
