Sunday’s (April 13) Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway was a NASCAR Cup Series race straight out of 1975 in the year 2025.
It was a blast from the past, and it had that old school NASCAR feel — but no, not that old school NASCAR feel. Not the kind where older fans reminisce about great racing, “stock” stock cars and the “good ol’ days.”
Sunday’s Cup race was rather reminiscent of the old school races that are frequently overlooked when viewing the past with rose-colored glasses: the races that were snoozers with minimal action throughout the field while one driver and team were in their own zip code.
Kyle Larson was in a league of his own on Sunday, as he led 411 of the 500 laps — including a streak of 350 straight — on the way to his second win of the 2025 season.
It was Larson’s second straight win at Bristol, and he’s combined to lead a whopping 873 of the 1,000 laps in the process, and just like last September, Larson was virtually untouchable the moment he took the lead. There were moments where runner-up Denny Hamlin came close to running him down in the final stage, but there was never a point where Hamlin was in position to make a pass, nor was he ever stuck behind Larson in dirty air with a faster car.
With a Next Gen car that has seemingly increased the in-race parity and parity in the winner’s circle, the last three races at Martinsville Speedway, Darlington Raceway and Bristol have been a complete 180 from that notion.
There are only nine races in the Next Gen era where a driver has led more than two-thirds of a race, and it’s now happened in three consecutive weeks. It’s also the first time since September 2015 that Cup has had three consecutive races where one driver led at least 200 laps.
But hey, total domination — while less frequent than it used to be — still happens in 2025, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with it. But Larson’s monopoly of the top spot is not the reason why fans have been up in arms about Sunday’s race.
Dominant cars can still be challenged the for the lead, but the last three weekends have been devoid of action out front. The last 1,072 laps of Cup competition have seen a whopping 10 lead changes, while Darlington and Bristol each had four. Only 17 Cup races since 1983 have featured four (or fewer) lead changes, and it’s now happened in back-to-back races.
To find the last time Cup had back-to-back races with fewer than 5 lead changes, you’d have to go all the way back to the late 1970s.
Darlington & Bristol mark the first time the Cup Series has seen back-to-back races with 4 (or fewer) lead changes since… 1976-77.
— Stephen Stumpf (@stephen_stumpf) April 14, 2025
'76 Ontario (season finale) had 4 lead changes while the '77 season opener at Riverside had 3.#FoodCity500
Martinsville wasn’t much better with nine swaps of the lead, and the Cup Series has now recorded three consecutive races with single-digit lead changes for the first time since 1978.
What didn’t help the action in general is that Sunday’s race had just three cautions, the fewest in a 500-lap Bristol race since 1982. There was only one caution for cause in stage two, and the entire final stage went green, with a near unprecedented 235-lap green flag run to the finish.
It was the first 200-lap green flag run in the stage racing era (at one of the few tracks where such a run is mathematically possible) and the first since 2016. It was the longest green flag run — in terms of laps — since a 301-lap run at Dover Motor Speedway in 1997, and it was the longest green flag run at Bristol since a 257-lap run in the spring of 1996.
The long runs and the lack of cautions made Sunday’s Cup race just the fourth at Bristol to feature an average speed greater than 100 mph. Larson broke the 53-year-old race record with his win last fall, and it was nearly broken in the very next race (side note: wasting 40 laps under yellow for three cautions is absolutely absurd, but that’s a story for another time).
The crazy thing about all the statistics I’ve provided is that none of them alone make a race “bad.”
One driver could dominate, and there could still be action throughout the field. There could be four lead changes, two lead changes or no lead changes, and there could still be action throughout the field. There could be a 200-lap green flag run — or even a caution-free race — and there could still be action throughout the field.
The problem is that the action wasn’t there on Sunday. That, combined with Larson’s domination, the lack of battles for the lead and the lack of cautions, is why the fanbase is seeing red.
Short tracks are all about action, which comes in the form of close quarters racing and, most importantly, the ability to make contact with another car.
We’re more than three years into the Next Gen era, and the problem is still at square one. The Next Gen cars are all running the same speed at a track like Bristol, and they are nearly incapable of running close enough to other cars to attempt passes or bump them out of the way. The Next Gen car has essentially brought intermediate-style racing to short tracks, and that product has put NASCAR’s short tracks — the bread and butter of stock car racing for three-quarters of a century — in dire straits.
Richmond Raceway is down to one date for the first time in 67 years. There are already calls from select fans for Bristol’s spring date to return to dirt just two years after it ended. How long can Martinsville keep two dates in its current state?
Fingers can be pointed at Goodyear and the (lack of) tire wear, but there’s only so much it can do. It’s tasked with fixing a car design flaw with tire wear, and even if there are races like last year’s Food City 500 that mask the problem, the underlying issues remain, and it isn’t going to go away on its own.
Martinsville, Darlington and Bristol — three tracks that were essentially guaranteed bangers in years past — have all fallen flat this year. It’s hard for 2025 to live up to the incredible finishes and storylines we saw at the start of 2024, but this year’s racing on non-intermediates is still well, well below expectations. And up next in two weeks is Talladega Superspeedway, where the entire race can be mapped out in advance: the field will run four-wide while saving fuel, only to be unable to pass at full throttle in the closing laps before a wreck takes out half the field.
This isn’t rock bottom for the Next Gen car, but there aren’t many more seasons of leeway it can get without significant progress. All of the tracks that were once Cup’s golden gooses are becoming staler by the race, and the quick fixes haven’t been quick enough. A much larger change — whether it be more horsepower, a redesign of the car or even a Gen 8 car — should be in the works and on the horizon. Sunday’s race should not become the new normal, and lasting damage will take place if it does.
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Find Stephen on Twitter @stephen_stumpf