Kyle Larson put on a clinic at Bristol Motor Speedway on Sunday (April 13), leading 411 of 500 laps to win the Food City 500 for his second win of 2025 and the 31st of his Cup Series career.
Following a 2024 Bristol spring race that featured nine cautions and 54 lead changes, this year’s rendition was tame by comparison, with just three cautions and only four lead changes. One of the main culprits was a dramatic difference in the tires from last year to this year.
What Tire Wear?
In last season’s spring race at Bristol, drivers could on average run about 50 laps before the tires fell off dramatically. This season, in Saturday’s practice session at Bristol, it was shaping up to be more of the same. Teams throughout the Cup garage saw significant cording on their Goodyear tires, even though no driver ran more than 47 laps in that practice session.
A look at some of the tires used during practice. pic.twitter.com/mke5UAyzQJ
— Jordan Bianchi (@Jordan_Bianchi) April 12, 2025
In anticipation of the tire wear, NASCAR gave every team an additional set of Goodyears, making it 11 total sets for the race weekend.
The green flag waved on Sunday, and then the first stage went green the whole 125 laps with no issues. At that moment, it became clear that the tires were going to hold up far better than anyone thought they would.
Stenhouse tires. No worse for wear. pic.twitter.com/5uLuSqQNle
— Alan Cavanna (@AlanCavanna) April 13, 2025
Was the decreased tire wear from last year a good thing or a bad thing? That depends on who you ask. Ryan Blaney, who brought the No. 12 Team Penske Ford home fifth, did not seem to mind the durable tire.
“I thought it was good race from the driver’s seat,” Blaney said post-race. “I thought the tire surprised me in a good way compared to what it was yesterday.”
No. 77 Team Stubs Their Toe on Final Stop
Sunday was shaping up to be a good day for Carson Hocevar. Rolling off the grid ninth in his No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet, Hocevar finished stage one fifth and stage two in fourth, collecting a good haul of 13 stage points.
However, it all came unraveled when Hocevar pitted under green on lap 391. As the No. 77 crew was changing tires, the jack broke before they could put on the fresh rubber. The team got a replacement jack over the wall and put on their left side tires, but by then, the damage was already done.
The 22-second pit stop cost Hocevar a good shot at his first top-five finish since Atlanta Motor Speedway two months ago. Instead, the No. 77 team settled for 11th, Hocevar’s second-best finish of the season yet disappointing given the circumstances.
Pit Road Police
Here is a summary of pit road penalties handed out at Bristol on Sunday:
- On the post stage one round of pit stops, Kyle Busch and Shane van Gisbergen both got pegged for speeding on pit road. Busch somewhat bounced back for a 14th-place finish. As for SVG, the speeding penalty was but the start of a long day that saw him spin out on lap 177 to bring out the only caution for incident all day. Van Gisbergen wound up 38th in the 39-car field after retiring the No. 88 Trackhouse Chevrolet with suspension issues.
- Also on the post-stage one pit stops, Austin Cindric was penalized for pitting outside of his pit box, sending him to the rear of the field. Cindric was a non-factor on Sunday, bringing the No. 2 Team Penske Ford 17th.
- On the lap 182 pit stops, John Hunter Nemechek lost a wheel on pit road, sending him to the tail of the field. Michael McDowell joined him there after getting caught speeding.
Pit Crew of the Race: No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
The rumors of Ty Gibbs’ demise may have been greatly exaggerated. The driver of the No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota followed up his first top 10 of the season last week at Darlington Raceway with his top five of the campaign at Bristol, a third place showing.
Gibbs achieved that due in no small part to his over-the-wall crew. On their two yellow flag pit stops, the No. 54 crew gained a total of five spots, helping to push Gibbs into the top five from his sixth starting spot.
Then, on lap 386, Ty Gibbs pitted under green from the fifth position for what turned out to be his final stop of the day. By the end of the pit cycle, Gibbs settled into his ultimate finishing position of third, another two spots gained by the pit crew.
If the past two weeks are any indication, Gibbs and new No. 54 crew chief Tyler Allen are starting to build chemistry and momentum going into the Easter off weekend for the Cup Series.
Look Ahead to Next Week
The drivers of the Cup Series go on their one and only off week of the 2025 season for the Easter weekend. The Cup Series will return to action in two weeks on Sunday, April 27, for the running of the Jack Link’s 500 at Talladega Superspeedway.
Andrew Stoddard joined Frontstretch in May of 2022 as an iRacing contributor. He is a graduate of Hampden-Sydney College, the University of Richmond, and VCU. He works as an athletic communications specialist at Eastern Mennonite University in Harrisonburg, Va.