On Wednesday, NASCAR officially revealed the practice groupings and qualifying order for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. The groups and qualifying order are set by the NASCAR Performance Metric, which is outlined in the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Rule Book.
The Metric Formula for the 2025 season takes into account the previous race finish by the car number associated with the car owner, as well as the car’s current ranking in the NASCAR Cup Series Owner Points. Last week’s finish is weighted 70% in the metric score, while the owner point ranking has a 30% weight.
The bottom 20 drivers and teams in performance metric will be slotted in practice Group 2 for the race weekend, and with a metric score of 41.600, Josh Bilicki and the No. 66 Garage 66 team will be the first to take to the track in qualifying this week.
Corey LaJoie (40.700), Jesse Love (34.000), Riley Herbst (34.000), and Brad Keselowski (32.400) will make up the remainder of the first five drivers to take a qualifying lap at Bristol.
Denny Hamlin, with a metric score of 1.300, has earned the final slot in the qualifying order which gives him the advantage of knowing what time he needs to beat to secure the pole position for Sunday’s Food City 500.
Hamlin, who has won each of the last two NASCAR Cup Series races, is the defending race winner of the Food City 500.
William Byron (1.700), Christopher Bell (3.000), Tyler Reddick (4.300), and Ryan Blaney (5.600) will join Hamlin as the final five drivers to attack the 0.533-mile short track in qualifying for Sunday’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Qualifying Order and Practice Groups for the Food City 500 at Bristol
| Pos | Car | Driver | Metric Score | Practice Group |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 66 | Josh Bilicki | 41.600 | 1 |
| 2 | 01 | Corey LaJoie | 40.700 | 1 |
| 3 | 33 | Jesse Love | 34.000 | 1 |
| 4 | 35 | Riley Herbst | 34.000 | 1 |
| 5 | 6 | Brad Keselowski | 32.400 | 1 |
| 6 | 21 | Josh Berry | 31.500 | 1 |
| 7 | 77 | Carson Hocevar | 31.400 | 1 |
| 8 | 51 | Cody Ware | 29.700 | 1 |
| 9 | 5 | Kyle Larson | 27.700 | 1 |
| 10 | 48 | Alex Bowman | 27.500 | 1 |
| 11 | 42 | John Hunter Nemechek | 27.000 | 1 |
| 12 | 41 | Cole Custer | 25.900 | 1 |
| 13 | 71 | Michael McDowell | 25.700 | 1 |
| 14 | 7 | Justin Haley | 25.500 | 1 |
| 15 | 3 | Austin Dillon | 24.200 | 1 |
| 16 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr. | 24.100 | 1 |
| 17 | 88 | Shane van Gisbergen | 23.900 | 1 |
| 18 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr. | 23.200 | 1 |
| 19 | 4 | Noah Gragson | 22.900 | 1 |
| 20 | 60 | Ryan Preece | 22.400 | 1 |
| 21 | 43 | Erik Jones | 20.300 | 2 |
| 22 | 10 | Ty Dillon | 18.700 | 2 |
| 23 | 99 | Daniel Suarez | 17.700 | 2 |
| 24 | 16 | AJ Allmendinger | 17.700 | 2 |
| 25 | 23 | Bubba Wallace | 17.100 | 2 |
| 26 | 34 | Todd Gilliland | 16.700 | 2 |
| 27 | 38 | Zane Smith | 15.000 | 2 |
| 28 | 54 | Ty Gibbs | 14.100 | 2 |
| 29 | 8 | Kyle Busch | 11.800 | 2 |
| 30 | 22 | Joey Logano | 11.800 | 2 |
| 31 | 2 | Austin Cindric | 11.300 | 2 |
| 32 | 1 | Ross Chastain | 8.800 | 2 |
| 33 | 17 | Chris Buescher | 7.500 | 2 |
| 34 | 9 | Chase Elliott | 6.800 | 2 |
| 35 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | 5.600 | 2 |
| 36 | 45 | Tyler Reddick | 4.300 | 2 |
| 37 | 20 | Christopher Bell | 3.000 | 2 |
| 38 | 24 | William Byron | 1.700 | 2 |
| 39 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | 1.300 | 2 |
