Bowman tops high tire wear day for NASCAR Cup Series at Bristol

BRISTOL, TENN. — Tire wear couldn’t topple Alex Bowman and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. who were fastest Saturday in NASCAR Cup Series qualifying and practice at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Bowman and Stenhouse went 1-2 in qualifying Saturday. They will share the front row Sunday to start the Food City 500.

Bowman will lead the field to the green flag, marking his second pole of the 2025 Cup season and the first time he has ever earned multiple poles in a single season. He is still seeking a win in what is his 10th full-time season.

Stenhouse will start second. In practice, he was fastest as the only driver who ran a sub-15-second lap time, clocking in a time of 14.981 seconds and averaging 128.082 MPH. Out of the 32 laps he ran in practice, his fastest lap came on the second lap.

In fact, lap seven was the latest anyone ran their fastest lap in practice. Bowman ran a time of 15.214 seconds, averaging 126.121 MPH, on the seventh of 40 laps he ran.

Just six drivers ran more laps than Bowman. By lap 40, essentially every driver had cords showing on their tires by that point.

Last year, a high tire wear race followed a high tire wear Saturday. If the trend holds up, fortune will favor last year’s top-finishing active veterans, like Denny Hamlin, Chase Elliott, Brad Keselowski and Alex Bowman.

Still, Bowman isn’t sure what to expect yet.

“I’m just probably as curious as all you guys are. I don’t really have the answer. I’m really curious on how it’s going to go. I’d say everybody’s going to ride around the first run, and if people start falling off a cliff with tire wear, we’ll all know it’s coming. And if the tires don’t wear out, then we’ll just progressively run harder throughout the course of the day,” he said.

The worst start of the last three Bristol Cup winners is third — by Hamlin in last year’s high wear race

NASCAR Cup Series’ Food City 500 at Bristol Qualifying Results + Starting Lineup

1. Alex Bowman
2. Ricky Stenhouse Jr
3. Kyle Larson
4. Denny Hamlin
5. Ryan Blaney
6. Ty Gibbs
7. Christopher Bell
8. AJ Allmendinger
9. Carson Hocevar
10. Justin Haley
11. Josh Berry
12. Ty Dillon
13. Michael McDowell
14. Chase Briscoe
15. Kyle Busch
16. Brad Keselowski
17. Austin Dillon
18. Zane Smith
19. Jesse Love
20. Chase Elliott
21. Austin Cindric
22. Bubba Wallace
23. Daniel Suarez
24. Chris Buescher
25. Riley Herbst
26. William Byron
27. Tyler Reddick
28. Erik Jones
29. Ryan Preece
30. Todd Gilliland
31. Noah Gragson
32. John Hunter Nemechek
33. Cole Custer
34. Cody Ware
35. Ross Chastain
36. Shane van Gisbergen
37. Corey LaJoie
38. Joey Logano
39. Josh Bilicki

NASCAR Cup Series’ Food City 500 at Bristol Practice Results