Who… should you be talking about after the race?
Saturday night (Sept. 13) looked a little like the Bristol Motor Speedway night race of old with a largely one-groove racetrack, and it came down to tire strategy.
Ty Gibbs dominated early, finishing second in the first stage and winning the second, but a mistake trying to get to pit road under green cost Gibbs his chance for his first win after leading a race-high 201 laps.
With Brad Keselowski leading and just 11 laps remaining, an incident between Bubba Wallace and Cole Custer set up the ultimate strategy play.
With right-side tires that showed significant falloff in just a handful of laps and fell apart after 40 laps if not managed well, most teams had bolted on their last set before that final yellow flew.
Everyone who had a set left pitted for a change and when the green flag flew for the last time with four laps to go, Christopher Bell, with four fresh Goodyears, was able to charge past the drivers who had stayed on track before the first lap after the restart was complete.
Even with older tires, Keselowski shook himself clear and made a final-lap run at Bell but couldn’t quite get close enough to move him up the track and race him for the win. Bell held him off to win by .343 seconds.
It’s Bell’s fourth win of 2025 and the 13th of his Cup Series career.
On the other hand…
Notably missing from the conversation Saturday night were a pair of drivers responsible for winning five of the last six races at Bristol. Both Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson entered the weekend as favorites to win, but when it was all over, neither was within shouting distance of the lead. Instead, they combined for a total of one stage point and thee laps led — all by Hamlin — and both finished outside the top 30.
Larson started fifth and Hamlin sixth (after Hamlin got a dig in at the sanctioning body by choosing the Law & Order theme song for his walkup song, a nod to their ongoing lawsuit), but both faded early as the tire wear took its toll and neither recovered. Both had more problems later as Larson spun on lap 365 and Hamlin lost a wheel on lap 384.
Hamlin limped home 31st, five laps down and just one spot ahead of Larson who finished 32nd, also five laps in arrears.
What… does this mean for the points standings?
Twelve teams are still standing in the playoffs after Saturday’s elimination race. Among those whose postseason runs are over are Alex Bowman, Austin Dillon, Shane van Gisbergen and Josh Berry. Other than Bowman, that’s probably the group that should have been eliminated; all were outside the top 20 in full season points and lacked the consistency that should be a big part of a championship.
Bowman was a bigger surprise in comparison to his regular season, where he was consistent and inside the top 10 in points, but he had terrible luck in the playoffs and Hendrick Motorsports as a whole has been a little lackluster of late.
Thanks to a strong regular season, two of Bowman’s teammates sit just behind points leader Hamlin after the latest reset. Hamlin, William Byron, Larson, Bell and Ryan Blaney sit in the top five, separated by just seven points.
Chase Briscoe, who has been on a hot streak, is sixth, 16 points behind Hamlin. Even with momentum on his side, Briscoe will be looking over his shoulder as he’s just 10 points ahead of ninth and the cut line. It’s even closer for Chase Elliott and Bubba Wallace, who leave Bristol just four and one point ahead of the cut line respectively.
Outside the cut to kick off the round of 12 are Austin Cindric, Joey Logano, Ross Chastain and Tyler Reddick, but they’re all within just three points of the other side of the line.
The next round features a flat one-mile oval (New Hamlshire Motor Speedway), a 1.5-mile intermediate (Kansas Speedway) and a road course (Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL), so there are opportunities for drivers to play upon different strengths and change the playoff picture over the next three weeks.
Where… did he come from?
Four drivers started outside the top 20 on Saturday and drove into the top 10, but none of them came from as far back as Corey Heim. The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series title favorite played his cards just right at Bristol, driving a fourth 23XI Racing entry.
Heim qualified 38th but avoided the chaos that befell many of his competitors and put himself in position to capitalize on the final caution, finishing a solid sixth.
Could Saturday night have been more than just a good one-off for Heim? With 23XI embroiled in a legal battle with NASCAR, Reddick could become a free agent if the team has its charters permanently revoked, and rumors are already swirling that he may look for a new ride. That could be the perfect opportunity for Heim to land a seat.
When… was the moment of truth?
Tire management was absolutely the name of the game, and in the end, it’s why Bell won the race. However, it looked like there might have been a closer battle had there been another lap or two at the end.
While that’s often true, this time, there was something else at play — the yellow flag. Saturday night’s race saw 137 of 500 laps, more than a quarter of the race, run under caution. According to the broadcast, that’s a Modern Era record.
There will always be debate about whether a specific incident warrants a caution, or if the yellow flag was thrown too soon or too late. These are decisions being made by humans in the moment, and aren’t always as consistent as maybe they could be.
But Saturday night saw more questions about the length of some of the cautions than about whether they were legit or not.
The broadcast networks like them long because they can squeeze in more commercials, and unfortunately, they’re always going to have a hand in those decisions. And to be fair, laps at Bristol, even under caution, tick off very quickly, and there was so much rubber buildup that NASCAR wanted cleaned off the track. The red flag isn’t an answer, except perhaps for very late in the race and coupled with a quickie yellow to get teams on and off pit road very quickly.
It seemed like there were a lot of wasted laps, though.
Why… should you be paying attention this week?
From the penalty files: Hamlin was held for two laps Saturday night after the right front wheel parted company from his car. But will he face further penalty? A runaway wheel usually comes along with crew suspensions. When a wheel comes off a car, it’s a safety issue. It can bounce into the stands or pits or cause an on-track incident. NASCAR comes down hard because of this.
But Hamlin’s wheel appeared to break rather than fall off due to being improperly tightened. Part of the wheel was caught under Hamlin’s car as he limped to the pits. Whether that happened due to contact with AJ Allmendinger is questionable as there appeared to be sparks from underneath Hamlin’s car just before he veered into the No. 16.
If that’s the case, will NASCAR be lenient with the No. 11 team? Keep an eye on the penalty report this week.
The next round of the playoffs kicks off next weekend at New Hampshire Motor Speedway. With two wins in the last three races at NHMS and coming off a win Saturday night, Bell enters as a favorite to win. Hamlin and Kyle Busch lead all active drivers with three wins apiece, and Hamlin’s 9.9 average finish is the best among the Cup regulars.
If you like your horses a little darker, keep an eye on Keselowski. He came within car lengths of winning at Bristol, and he’s got two wins at Loudon and falls just behind Hamlin with a 10.5 average finish. He’s hungry and headed for a track where he’s been one of the best.
How… did this race stack up?
Once teams realized they would have to manage their tires much more carefully than they thought, the contenders were able to adapt quickly and the combination of strategy and the inside groove remaining the best way around the track all night made for an entertaining race. It was closer to “old Bristol” than fans have seen in a long time.
Had the final caution not flown, the finish might have been even better with the field on equal tires, but the race came down to which teams had a fresh set left. The race was in the drivers’ and crews’ hands from start to finish, which is what racing at this level should look like, and it made for the best showing on a short track this season, if not overall for the Next Gen racecar.
However, it felt more like a band-aid than a complete fix. Tires should always last less than a fuel run and create strategy, but they should not be the only reason the race is good. And it felt like if the tires hadn’t worn so quickly, the race would have been another short-track struggle.
Tommy Joe Martins isn’t wrong here, though. Good racing shouldn’t be followed up with a yeah, but…
Fans saw a competitive, entertaining race, but there’s still a long way to go to make that happen regularly, and the racing can’t depend on one thing to make it happen.
Amy is an 20-year veteran NASCAR writer and a six-time National Motorsports Press Association (NMPA) writing award winner, including first place awards for both columns and race coverage. As well as serving as Photo Editor, Amy writes The Big 6 (Mondays) after every NASCAR Cup Series race. She can also be found working on her bi-weekly columns Holding A Pretty Wheel (Tuesdays) and Only Yesterday (Wednesdays). A New Hampshire native whose heart is in North Carolina, Amy’s work credits have extended everywhere from driver Kenny Wallace’s website to Athlon Sports. She can also be heard weekly as a panelist on the Hard Left Turn podcast that can be found on AccessWDUN.com's Around the Track page.