On Sunday, NASCAR Cup Sequence stars will take to Bristol Motor Speedway’s excessive banks for the ninth race of the 2025 season.
This is what you must know forward of Sunday’s Meals Metropolis 500 at Bristol.
Favourite: Kyle Larson (+450, per DraftKings)
Larson and Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin are tied atop the oddsboard going into Sunday’s race, however Larson will get the nod coming off a near-perfect efficiency in final season’s playoff race. Larson led 462 of the five hundred laps in that race. Since becoming a member of Hendrick Motorsports forward of the 2021 season, Larson has completed inside the highest 5 in all 5 of his begins at “Thunder Valley.”
After a disastrous weekend at Darlington with a pair of spins, Larson ought to have a superb shot at arguably his finest observe.
Underdog: Ty Gibbs (+2200, per DraftKings)
After placing collectively just one top-20 end by way of the season’s first six races, Gibbs ran within the high 10 for a lot of the Martinsville race earlier than settling for thirteenth and scoring his first top 10 with a ninth-place consequence at Darlington.
Gibbs has two high 10s in 4 Bristol begins, led 137 laps and swept the levels within the 2024 spring race. Do not be shocked to see Gibbs in rivalry on Sunday, particularly if he can maintain his nostril clear at “The Final Nice Coliseum.”
Denny Hamlin seeking to put Joe Gibbs Racing on a listing of its personal
It will not be a Bristol race weekend with out mentioning Hamlin. He has been certainly one of Larson’s fiercest rivals, and Sunday must be no totally different, given the success each of them have skilled there.
Ought to Hamlin, a four-time Bristol Cup Sequence winner, discover victory lane on Sunday, it might be his third consecutive win this season. He would be a part of teammate Christopher Bell on that listing and make JGR the first team in series history to have a number of drivers win three straight races in a single season. If momentum and observe historical past are any indication, Hamlin might put his group within the historical past books on Sunday.
How does William Byron reply after disappointing runner-up at Darlington?
For the primary 243 laps of the Goodyear 400 at Darlington, Byron was the race’s chief for all of them and gave the impression to be on his technique to main each lap within the race. Byron’s dominant day fell quick after staying on observe longer in the course of the remaining green-flag pit cycle and coming off pit highway third for the time beyond regulation restart.
Surprisingly, Bristol is the one observe Byron has remodeled three begins without leading a lap. In 11 begins, he solely has 4 high 10s and a median end of 17.4. You may by no means depend Byron and the No. 24 staff out however do not be shocked if he isn’t among the many front-runners on Sunday.
How will the racing look on Sunday?
The 2024 Bristol races had been opposites of each other. The spring race, which returned to the concrete floor for the primary time since 2020, featured dramatic tire fall-off all through the occasion. There have been 9 cautions for 98 laps and a brief observe document of 54 lead modifications amongst 16 drivers.
The autumn race solely had 5 cautions — tied for the fewest within the final 78 races at Bristol — and was utterly dominated by Larson. Will probably be fascinating to see how Sunday’s race performs out and whether or not passing turns into a problem.
