September 15, 2025

Christopher Bell of Joe Gibbs Racing won Saturday's Bass Pro Shops Night Race, taking place at Bristol Motor Speedway. Bell began the race from the ninth position, but lost ground in the first stage and even fell outside of the lead lap. He did not have the car or the right circumstances to go his way through pit road and ended the first stage in 19th. In the second stage, his team improved his car, and he got back to the lead lap. Bell ran as high as the top five before pit stops moved him outside of the top 10 by the end of the stage. Bell finished stage two in 12th and did not earn any stage points for the race. In the final stage, Bell cycled towards the top five through pit stops and ran there for most of the stage. The No. 20 Toyota driver made no further mistakes and stayed on the lead lap through the rest of the stage. Bell eventually restarted fourth on what would be the race's final restart behind Carson Hocevar and Zane Smith and was alongside Brad Keselowski. It was on this restart that Bell tapped Smith out of the way into Hocevar for the race lead and then held off a hard-charging Keselowski for the final three laps. As a result, Bell collected his first Bristol victory and his fourth overall for the 2025 season, advancing him to the Round of 12 in the playoffs. --Sean Engel - RotoBaller
Source: NASCAR.com

September 15, 2025

Hendrick Motorsports driver Alex Bowman had a rollercoaster performance during Saturday's Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Starting in the 15th position, Bowman needed to basically win or have help in order to advance in the playoffs. In the first stage, he suffered a setback when he spun late in the stage. As a result, he was mired back in the pack and ended the first stage in 27th. In the second stage, Bowman made up ground by taking care of his car and managing his tires better than most other drivers, and made it up to the top 10. Extra cautions during the stage helped to solidify his position in the top 10, as others fell off the lead lap while Bowman remained on the lead lap. He ended the second stage in the third position, gaining several stage points, but it would not be enough to overcome the points deficit he was facing without help. In the final stage, Bowman ran inside the top five for most of the stage and was a threat to compete for the win, even getting on a tire strategy that aimed to have him take the lead from Brad Keselowski, Carson Hocevar, and others. A late race caution derailed Bowman's plan, forcing him to stay out on old tires for the race's final restart. Unfortunately for Bowman, his old tires would not give him enough grip to maintain his position, and he fell back to eighth, where he finished the race. Despite earning the sixth top-10 finish of his Cup career at Bristol, Bowman was 10 points short of advancing to the Round of 12 and was eliminated from the 2025 playoffs.--Sean Engel - RotoBaller
Source: NASCAR.com

September 15, 2025

Joe Gibbs Racing driver Chase Briscoe became one of the more competitive threats as the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway went on, but ultimately settled for a top-10 finish. Briscoe started the race deep in the field from the 31st position. He spent the entire first stage trying to make up ground on the field, both on pit road and on the track. Briscoe ended the first stage in 13th, failing to score stage points. In the second stage, Briscoe did make it up to the top 10, but as pit stops occurred, he fell back outside of the top 10 and ended the stage in the 11th position, falling short of stage points. In the final stage, Briscoe finally made it up to the front and acquired the lead after pit stops cycled him to first. He led for most of the final stage until lap 416, when his teammate Ty Gibbs bumped him out of the way for the lead. Briscoe never made it back up to first from this point, but still executed on pit stops and restarts in order to leave Bristol with a finish of ninth. This marks Briscoe's third career top-10 finish at Bristol as well as his third consecutive in the Cup Series.--Sean Engel - RotoBaller
Source: NASCAR.com

September 15, 2025

Team Penske's Ryan Blaney needed to have a clean day in order to advance to the next round of the playoffs, and that is exactly what he got during the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway on Saturday night. Blaney began the race from the second position and ran inside the top five for most of the first stage outside of pit stop sequences. He battled with Ty Gibbs throughout the stage and eventually edged him out for the stage one victory to score 10 playoff points. The second stage went much like the first for Blaney as he ran in the top five outside of pit stops. He even clashed with Gibbs again for the stage win at the end of stage two, but this time fell short and settled for second, earning more stage points. In the final stage, Blaney continued to run well despite many pit stops that occurred throughout the stage. Blaney did experience a slight pit road setback before the final restart, where his team needed extra time to tighten his left front tire, but that did not change how fast he would be on the final run to the checkered flag. Blaney went from the back half of the top 10 to finishing in fourth, tying his best career finish at Bristol and advancing to the Round of 12 in the playoffs at the same time.--Sean Engel - RotoBaller
Source: NASCAR.com

September 15, 2025

Truck Series regular and part-time Cup driver Corey Heim finished in the sixth position in Saturday Night's Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Heim started the race from the 38th position and was not much of a factor in the early part of the event. Heim earned no stage points, as he placed 31st at the end of the first stage and 26th at the end of the second stage. In the final stage, Heim did take care of his equipment, and as a result, he would continue to pass drivers who struggled with tires until he made it to the top 10. After a few late-race cautions that allowed him to restart on the lead lap in the top 10, Heim made a charge for the top five on the race's final restart but ended up with a sixth-place finish. It is Heim's first career top-10 finish in the Cup Series in what is expected to be his final start of the 2025 Cup season.--Sean Engel - RotoBaller
Source: NASCAR.com

September 14, 2025

For most of Saturday night's race at Bristol, Ty Gibbs looked like he was going to interrupt the playoff drivers' party and win his first race in the NASCAR Cup Series. In a race that was somewhat similar to the wacky tire-preservation race in the spring of 2024, where Gibbs led 137 laps, he improved on that with a career-high 201 laps led on Saturday night, tripling his laps led count for the season, even though his teammate, Christopher Bell, ended up winning. Despite finishing 10th, Gibbs won Stage 2, scored the second-most points, posted the best driver rating (129.6), and had the fifth-best average running position. However, Gibbs was unable to decelerate quickly enough to make his final pit stop and got hit from behind. He ran slowly enough until he actually made his pit stop to fall a lap down, but he eventually regained it and finished 10th. Although it was a disappointing result, the performance suggests that maybe some people wrote him off too quickly.--Sean Wrona - RotoBaller
Source: Racing Reference

September 14, 2025

Even though Chase Elliott crashed and finished 38th and scored only one point since he didn't score any stage points either, he still advanced to the Round of 12 in the NASCAR playoffs because he had enough of a gap over the drivers below the cutl ine, and even if his teammate Alex Bowman had won, Bowman would've knocked out Austin Cindric instead of Elliott. However, he still didn't run very well in this round, and with only a five-point lead over the new playoff cut line (where Cindric currently sits), it would be no surprise to see Elliott fail to advance to the Round of 8. He's probably just as likely to make it as not, however, since Cindric, Ross Chastain, Joey Logano, and Tyler Reddick are arguably running worse, so it's likely Elliott will remain at or near the playoff cut line for the entirety of the next round.--Sean Wrona - RotoBaller
Source: Racing Reference

September 14, 2025

As expected, Austin Dillon wasn't even particularly close to being in contention to advancing to the Round of 12 in the NASCAR playoffs. For all the speed he has recently shown at Richmond, he's never been particularly strong at Bristol and last night was no exception as he started 23rd and finished 28th four laps down ad he never even ran better than 19th in a race where only three other drivers: Austin Hill, Cody Ware, and Chad Finchum had a worse peak running position. It was pretty obvious that Alex Bowman, Dillon, Shane van Gisbergen, and Josh Berry would be the four drivers to fail to advance since the 12 drivers who did advance pretty obviously had significantly better seasons than all of them.--Sean Wrona - RotoBaller
Source: Racing Reference

September 14, 2025

It was really unlikely for Shane van Gisbergen to advance to the Round of 12 in the NASCAR playoffs on Saturday night since there were no road courses in that round, and two of the tracks in this round (Darlington and Bristol) tend to benefit the drivers with a great deal of stock-car experience as opposed to rookie outsiders like SVG. He was caught up in three incidents in Saturday night's race. Early in Stage 2, Riley Herbst sent Ricky Stenhouse Jr. into him, although SVG did not make significant contact and continued. Late in Stage 2, he was running very slowly and holding up traffic when he spun by William Byron. He spun out again at the start of Stage 3, but none of these incidents badly damaged his car. He finished 26th, three laps down, but didn't come close to making the playoffs. Admittedly, nobody really expected him to.--Sean Wrona - RotoBaller
Source: Racing Reference

September 14, 2025

Josh Berry was pretty outmatched in the NASCAR playoffs. Although nobody really expected him to advance to the Round of 12 since he's had a pretty mediocre season even despite his win at Las Vegas, Berry became the first playoff driver to finish last in each race of a playoff round with his 39th place finish at Bristol last night. While running seventh in Stage 1, Berry's brake rotors caught fire and he struggled to be able to make it into the pits as smoke billowed inside his car. He had to be extricated from the car while on pit road, but he appeared to be unhurt. There is a strong chance after this start that he will finish 16th and last in the playoffs since it's hard to see him overcoming the 40-point deficit to all other drivers, but few people expected him to make the playoffs to begin with so he arguably overachieved anyway.--Sean Wrona - RotoBaller
Source: Racing Reference

September 13, 2025

RFK Racing's Chris Buescher will start the Bass Pro Shops Night Race from 21st in this week's Cup Series race at Bristol. Buescher ended up being the lowest-qualifying driver of the three RFK entries in this week's race, but by only one position. In 17 Cup starts at Bristol, Buescher has one win, eight top-20 finishes, and an average finish of 18.6. In 28 Cup races this year, Buescher has 21 top-20 finishes and an average finish of 13.8. In practice for this week's race, Buescher ranked 34th in overall lap averages while ranking 18th in 20 consecutive lap averages. Buescher has historically been solid at Bristol and is one of the more consistent drivers in terms of finishing position this year. Although his practice speeds are not the best, history points to Buescher being a favorable DFS option this week for all formats, and his equipment is capable of competing for a top-15 finish.--Sean Engel - RotoBaller
Source: DriverAverages.com

September 13, 2025

Richard Childress Racing's Kyle Busch will start the Bass Pro Shops Night Race from the 32nd position after qualifying at Bristol Motor Speedway. This will mark Busch's lowest starting position at the site in his Cup career since August 2013, when he started from the 43rd position. Busch is one of the most accomplished drivers in NASCAR history at Bristol with eight wins, 19 top-10 finishes, and 2,597 laps led in 37 Cup starts. With 28 races completed this season, Busch has 17 top-20 finishes and an average finish of 17.9. In practice for this week's race, Busch ranked 13th in overall lap averages and as high as 26th in 20 consecutive lap averages. Busch has plenty of upside from his starting position, and although he has never scored a top-10 at Bristol while driving for RCR since joining them in 2023, he is in equipment that should move up a couple of positions. For DFS this week, Busch works as a pick for all potential formats, but especially is a great cash game option due to his upside.--Sean Engel - RotoBaller
Source: DriverAverages.com

September 13, 2025

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. of Hyak Motorsports earned a starting position of 11th after qualifying for the Bass Pro Shops Night Race at Bristol Motor Speedway. This is Stenhouse's fourth-highest starting position of his Cup Series career at Bristol. In 22 Cup starts at the site, Stenhouse has 12 top-20 finishes with seven being inside of the top 10. Stenhouse has an overall average finish of 19.2 in his Cup career at Bristol. Through 28 races this season, Stenhouse has 12 top-20 finishes with an average finish of 22.4. In practice for this week's race, Stenhouse ranked 21st in overall lap averages and as high as 13th in 30 consecutive lap averages. Stenhouse has an extremely high starting position for a driver with a value tier salary and although he did have a few solid runs previously, his Bristol history is mixed. Overall, there are more favorable value options available to recommend with less risk and better historical performance at Bristol compared to Stenhouse for DFS this week.--Sean Engel - RotoBaller
Source: DriverAverages.com

September 13, 2025

Spire Motorsports driver Michael McDowell will start 25th for this week's Cup race at Bristol Motor Speedway, the Bass Pro Shops Night Race. McDowell is the only driver from Spire to qualify outside of the top 20 in this week's Cup race. In 27 Cup races at Bristol, McDowell has nine top-20 finishes, including four of the last five Cup events. After 28 races completed so far this season, McDowell has 16 top-20 finishes with an average finish of 19.5. In practice, McDowell ranked seventh in overall lap averages and as high as second in 10 consecutive lap averages. With McDowell's starting position being towards the middle of the pack and his favorable speeds, McDowell is likely to place in the top 20 and be an overall solid value DFS option for this week's race.--Sean Engel - RotoBaller
Source: DriverAverages.com

September 13, 2025

Although some people will tell you Chase Elliott is having a great season because he is currently leading the traditional full-season Winston Cup points standings and people erroneously think that was a good points system, he has had an overrated season and hasn't been running nearly as well as that would imply. He ranks ninth, 28 points ahead of Austin Dillon for the final spot in the Round of 12 and should be safe considering how consistent he typically is. Despite how well Elliott has run here, he surprisingly hasn't won and he probably won't tonight either since despite his two second-place finishes in the 2022 and 2024 night races, he's only led five laps here with the Next Gen car. He should finish better than his starting position of 16th here - he nearly always does - so he definitely has some strong Place Differential potential for DFS, but he might not lead enough to be the overall best option.--Sean Wrona - RotoBaller
Source: Racing Reference