The eighth NASCAR Cup Series race of the 2023 season won’t be a clean one. The drivers are in Bristol, Tennessee to compete in the 2023 Food City Dirt Race at Bristol Motor Speedway. The race will air on Sunday at 7 p.m. ET on Fox and the Fox Sports App.
Kyle Larson heads into the race as the projected winner. He has pole position for the race and is coming off a win at Richmond Raceway last week, his first victory of the season. Larson is looking to win his second Cup Series title in three seasons. He won the championship in 2021 and finished seventh in the standings last year.ย
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“It’s really cool,” Larson said after winning at Richmond Raceway last week. “We’ve been close to winning a couple. William [Byron] has been extremely good this year. It was going to be between probably him, the 19, us, and the 20 was really good. So just things worked out. My pit crew had a great stop. So shout out to Brandon Johnson. He is our jackman. He just turned 30 today. Our spotter, Tyler Monn, he turned 30 today. Great day for them guys. What an awesome Hendrickcars.com Chevy. Can’t say enough about it. I got into the 99 on pit road there sometime in the second stage, and we were awful after that. I was hoping the damage was the reason why, but they had to calm me down a little bit and get refocused and was able to get it done.”
Another driver to watch is Kyle Busch who won the Food City Dirt Race last year. That was his only victory in 2022, and after winning at Auto Club Speedway in February, Busch has won at least one race for 19 straight years, which is a NASCAR Record. When speaking with NASCAR.com, Busch was asked if a race on a dirt track would play a big part in him making history.ย
“No, no, definitely not,” Busch said. “It certainly shines a light of just how important every single race, every single week is. And for the nature of us going to all these different venues and having the diversity that we do in the race tracks that we go to is fun to a point.” Busch has won two Cup Series titles in his career and is currently in sixth place in the points standings.
