NASCAR Cup Series: 2025 Bristol qualifying, full starting lineup
For the third week in a row, the NASCAR Cup Series is scheduled to visit a venue which is also scheduled to host a playoff race, making Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway yet another particularly important event on the 26-race regular season calendar.
This race is race number nine of the 2025 season, and it is scheduled to be a 500-lap race around the four-turn, 0.533-mile (0.858-kilometer) high-banked Bristol, Tennessee oval.
The qualifying session is set to be a single-car session with just a single round, thanks to an offseason rule change. Because the “Last Great Colosseum” is a short track, each driver is set to get two qualifying laps as opposed to just one.
And thanks to another rule change, the qualifying order (linked here) was determined by a much simpler two-variable metric, not the four-variable metric that was used from 2020 to 2024. A full breakdown of the new metric can be found here.
There are 39 drivers on the entry list for this weekend, including three in non-chartered (open) entries to go along with the usual 36 chartered cars, all of which have full-time drivers.
Joe Gibbs Racing’s Denny Hamlin won at Bristol last March, and Hendrick Motorsports’ Kyle Larson won the playoff race in September.
NASCAR Cup Series starting lineup at Bristol
1st – Alex Bowman, No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
2nd – Ricky Stenhouse Jr., No. 47 Hyak Motorsports Chevrolet
3rd – Kyle Larson, No. 5 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
4th – Denny Hamlin, No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
5th – Ryan Blaney, No. 12 Team Penske Ford
6th – Ty Gibbs, No. 54 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
7th – Christopher Bell, No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
8th – A.J. Allmendinger, No. 16 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
9th – Carson Hocevar, No. 77 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
10th – Justin Haley, No. 7 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
11th – Josh Berry, No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford
12th – Ty Dillon, No. 10 Kaulig Racing Chevrolet
13th – Michael McDowell, No. 71 Spire Motorsports Chevrolet
14th – Chase Briscoe, No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota
15th – Kyle Busch, No. 8 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
16th – Brad Keselowski, No. 6 RFK Racing Ford
17th – Austin Dillon, No. 3 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
18th – Zane Smith, No. 38 Front Row Motorsports Ford
19th – Jesse Love, No. 33 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet
20th – Chase Elliott, No. 9 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
21st – Austin Cindric, No. 2 Team Penske Ford
22nd – Bubba Wallace, No. 23 23XI Racing Toyota
23rd – Daniel Suarez, No. 99 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
24th – Chris Buescher, No. 17 RFK Racing Ford
25th – Riley Herbst, No. 35 23XI Racing Toyota
26th – William Byron, No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet
27th – Tyler Reddick, No. 45 23XI Racing Toyota
28th – Erik Jones, No. 43 Legacy Motor Club Toyota
29th – Ryan Preece, No. 60 RFK Racing Ford
30th – Todd Gilliland, No. 34 Front Row Motorsports Ford
31st – Noah Gragson, No. 4 Front Row Motorsports Ford
32nd – John Hunter Nemechek, No. 42 Legacy Motor Club Toyota
33rd – Cole Custer, No. 41 Haas Factory Team Ford
34th – Cody Ware, No. 51 Rick Ware Racing Ford
35th – Ross Chastain, No. 1 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
36th – Shane van Gisbergen, No. 88 Trackhouse Racing Chevrolet
37th – Corey LaJoie, No. 01 Rick Ware Racing Ford
38th – Joey Logano, No. 22 Team Penske Ford
39th – Josh Bilicki, No. 66 Garage 66 Ford
