Bristol dirt heat race grids set

Rather than a traditional qualifying format, the NASCAR Cup and Camping World Truck Series‘ races on Bristol Motor Speedway‘s dirt layout will have their fields set by four heat races apiece on Saturday. On Thursday, NASCAR revealed the starting lineups for the eight races.

While a practice session is scheduled for Friday, the heat grids were set by random draw.

The two feature races—the Trucks’ Pinty’s Dirt Truck Race on Saturday night and the Cup Series’ Food City Dirt Race the next day—will have their starting orders set by heat points: the sum of one’s finishing position in their heat and passing points that are earned based on how many spots they advanced from where they started. If one wins a heat, they receive ten points, while second receives nine and so on. For passing points, those who start fifth and finish second will receive three. For example, a driver who starts tenth and wins will receive ten heat finish points and nine passing points for nineteen in total; ties are broken based on owners’ standings. These points do not go toward the championship.

Cup: Houff, Keselowski, Bowman, LaJoie on poles

With thirty-nine cars entered, all but one of the heats (the fourth being the exception) have ten drivers each. As it does not exceed the maximum allowed in a field, the heats will only serve to set the starting lineup with no drivers failing to qualify for the feature.

Quin Houff is not a name that many anticipate seeing at the front, but he will start on the pole for the first heat; currently in his second full-time Cup season, he has never started a race higher than twenty-fifth. In Wednesday night’s eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series race at Bristol, he squeezed into the feature after taking the final transfer spot in his heat. On the other hand, starting opposite him is Kyle Larson, who is one of the top dirt track racers and already locked into the playoffs. Also in the heat is Shane Golobic, a USAC ace who starts ninth in his Cup début; he will pilot Live Fast Motorsports‘ #78 that was driven by team owner B.J. McLeod in last week’s race.

Brad Keselowski sat out the PIS race but drew the pole for Heat #2. Also on the front row is another Cup newcomer with Mike Marlar in MBM Motorsports‘ #66; a former World of Outlaws Late Model champion, Marlar will also run the Truck race. Ironically, the #66 is primarily Timmy Hill’s ride, and Hill had driven Keselowski’s #2 in the PIS after Keselowski and original PIS driver Austin Cindric agreed to let him take over. William Byron, who won the PIS event, starts sixth in the heat. Starting ninth is Austin Dillon, who won the previous week’s 602 Late Model class feature at the Bristol Dirt Nationals.

A pair of Arizona natives in Alex Bowman and J.J. Yeley comprise the front row for Heat #3. Bowman owns a USAC midget racing team, a discipline in which Yeley enjoyed tremendous success prior to beginning his NASCAR career; Yeley is one of two drivers in the field to achieve the USAC Triple Crown by winning the sanctioning body’s Silver Crown, National Sprint Car, and National Midget championships. Bristol will be Yeley’s first Cup race of 2021, while he had already made two Xfinity Series starts earlier in the year. Ty Dillon starts third in his first Cup race since the Daytona road course in mid-February.

Corey LaJoie and Matt DiBenedetto will lead the field to green for the final heat. The qualifying race will feature two Cup newcomers with Chris Windom (third) and Stewart Friesen (sixth). Windom, the other USAC Triple Crown winner, is running his first NASCAR race since 2018 in the Trucks as a team-mate to Yeley at Rick Ware Racing, while Friesen is a Truck regular taking over the #77 of Spire Motorsports that has been primarily run by Xfinity driver Justin Haley.

Heat #1

Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer
1	00	Quin Houff	StarCom Racing	Chevrolet
2	5	Kyle Larson	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet
3	6	Ryan Newman	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford
4	11	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
5	19	Martin Truex Jr.	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
6	23	Bubba Wallace	23XI Racing	Toyota
7	43	Erik Jones	Richard Petty Motorsports	Chevrolet
8	38	Anthony Alfredo	Front Row Motorsports	Ford
9	78	Shane Golobic	Live Fast Motorsports	Ford
10	1	Kurt Busch	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet

Heat #2

Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer
1	2	Brad Keselowski	Team Penske	Ford
2	66	Mike Marlar	MBM Motorsports	Toyota
3	99	Daniel Suárez	Trackhouse Racing Team	Chevrolet
4	34	Michael McDowell	Front Row Motorsports	Ford
5	52	Josh Bilicki	Rick Ware Racing	Ford
6	24	William Byron	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet
7	47	Ricky Stenhouse Jr.	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet
8	20	Christopher Bell	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
9	3	Austin Dillon	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet
10	17	Chris Buescher	Roush Fenway Racing	Ford

Heat #3

Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer
1	48	Alex Bowman	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet
2	53	J.J. Yeley*	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet
3	96	Ty Dillon	Gaunt Brothers Racing	Toyota
4	4	Kevin Harvick	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford
5	8	Tyler Reddick	Richard Childress Racing	Chevrolet
6	41	Cole Custer	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford
7	51	Cody Ware	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet
8	10	Aric Almirola	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford
9	22	Joey Logano	Team Penske	Ford
10	37	Ryan Preece	JTG Daugherty Racing	Chevrolet

Heat #4

Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer
1	7	Corey LaJoie	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet
2	21	Matt DiBenedetto	Wood Brothers Racing	Ford
3	15	Chris Windom	Rick Ware Racing	Chevrolet
4	18	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing	Toyota
5	42	Ross Chastain	Chip Ganassi Racing	Chevrolet
6	77	Stewart Friesen*	Spire Motorsports	Chevrolet
7	12	Ryan Blaney	Team Penske	Ford
8	9	Chase Elliott	Hendrick Motorsports	Chevrolet
9	14	Chase Briscoe	Stewart-Haas Racing	Ford

Trucks: Marlar, Snider, Deegan, Heffner comprise poles

Unlike the Cup Series, the Trucks have forty-four entries, meaning eleven drivers in each heat and four will go home. The top thirty-five will be set based on heat points, while the final five will go to those highest in owner points who did not lock themselves via qualifying race.

The luck of the draw seems to have blessed Marlar as he will also start on the front row for the first heat, though on the pole this time ahead of Tate Fogleman. It will be Marlar’s first Truck race since his NASCAR début at Eldora Speedway—then the only dirt track in NASCAR—in 2019, where he finished fourth; he will drive the #56 Hill Motorsports truck owned by Timmy Hill. Starting behind him is Jake Griffin in his first start since the 2019 Eldora race and seventh of his career; incidentally, Griffin is driving for Reaume Brothers Racing, for whom Marlar raced at Eldora. Cup drivers Bubba Wallace and Kevin Harvick are also in the heat as they start eighth and tenth, respectively; Wallace, the 2014 Eldora winner, is running his first Truck race since 2019 while Harvick enters his first since 2015. Friesen, the last NASCAR national series dirt winner after triumphing at Eldora in 2019, starts fifth.

It is not uncommon for Cup drivers to run lower series races for extra seat time as Wallace and Harvick are, but Heat #2 pole sitter Myatt Snider is the lone example of an Xfinity driver dabbling in the Trucks for the fun of it. While his series has no dirt races, Snider joins Reaume for his return to the Trucks after last racing in it as a substitute driver for Johnny Sauter; Sauter will start the heat directly behind Snider in third. Ryan Truex starts second, while his older brother and Cup regular Martin Truex Jr. begins his first Truck start since 2006 for Kyle Busch Motorsports in sixth. Friesen’s wife Jessica starts eighth as she hopes to qualify in her NASCAR début; fellow female driver Jennifer Jo Cobb is ninth.

The third woman in the race is rookie Hailie Deegan, a former off-road racer who will start on the pole for Heat #3 ahead of Carson Hocevar. Trevor Collins, a late model racer, will make his second attempt at qualifying in the Trucks after missing the 2018 Eldora event; he starts third. A trio of Cup drivers—Daniel Suárez, 2016 Eldora winner Larson, and 2018 Eldora victor Chase Briscoe—will respectively start eighth, ninth, and eleventh. Driving the #02 for Young’s Motorsports (which rookie Kris Wright vacated after testing positive for COVID-19 the previous week), Suárez runs his first Truck event since 2016, as is Larson.

J.R. Heffner entered the Eldora race from 2013 to 2018, and drew the Heat #4 pole in his return to the Truck Series as he drives Jordan Anderson Racing‘s #3. Ryan Newman, driving for newly-formed DCC (Diversified Custom Concepts) Racing, is the lone Cup racer in the qualifying race as he starts third and hopes to make his first Truck start since 2018. Andrew Gordon starts fourth as he aims for his maiden start in NASCAR. Cody Erickson, who participated in the 2014 and 2015 Eldora events, returns to Cram Racing Enterprises‘ #41 for the second time after first driving for the team at Bristol in 2020; Erickson starts ninth.

Heat #1

Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer
1	56	Mike Marlar*	Hill Motorsports	Chevrolet
2	12	Tate Fogleman	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet
3	34	Jake Griffin	Reaume Brothers Racing	Toyota
4	23	Chase Purdy	GMS Racing	Chevrolet
5	52	Stewart Friesen	Halmar Friesen Racing	Toyota
6	26	Tyler Ankrum	GMS Racing	Chevrolet
7	18	Chandler Smith	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota
8	11	Bubba Wallace*	Spencer Davis Motorsports	Toyota
9	22	Austin Wayne Self	AM Racing	Chevrolet
10	17	Kevin Harvick*	David Gilliland Racing	Ford
11	16	Austin Hill	Hattori Racing Enterprises	Toyota

Heat #2

Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer
1	33	Myatt Snider*	Reaume Brothers Racing	Chevrolet
2	40	Ryan Truex	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet
3	13	Johnny Sauter	ThorSport Racing	Toyota
4	15	Tanner Gray	David Gilliland Racing	Ford
5	75	Parker Kligerman	Henderson Motorsports	Chevrolet
6	51	Martin Truex Jr.*	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota
7	4	John Hunter Nemechek	Kyle Busch Motorsports	Toyota
8	62	Jessica Friesen	Halmar Friesen Racing	Toyota
9	10	Jennifer Jo Cobb	Jennifer Jo Cobb Racing	Chevrolet
10	88	Matt Crafton	ThorSport Racing	Toyota
11	25	Timothy Peters	Rackley WAR	Chevrolet

Heat #3

Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer
1	1	Hailie Deegan	David Gilliland Racing	Ford
2	42	Carson Hocevar	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet
3	24	Raphaël Lessard	GMS Racing	Chevrolet
4	83	Trevor Collins	CMI Motorsports	Chevrolet
5	98	Grant Enfinger	ThorSport Racing	Toyota
6	45	Brett Moffitt	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet
7	20	Spencer Boyd	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet
8	02	Daniel Suárez	Young’s Motorsports	Chevrolet
9	44	Kyle Larson*	Niece Motorsports	Chevrolet
10	6	Norm Benning	Norm Benning Racing	Chevrolet
11	04	Chase Briscoe*	Roper Racing	Ford

Heat #4

Start	Number	Driver	Team	Manufacturer
1	3	J.R. Heffner	Jordan Anderson Racing	Chevrolet
2	38	Todd Gilliland	Front Row Motorsports	Ford
3	39	Ryan Newman*	DCC Racing	Ford
4	49	Andrew Gordon	CMI Motorsports	Chevrolet
5	9	Codie Rohrbaugh	CR7 Motorsports	Chevrolet
6	21	Zane Smith	GMS Racing	Chevrolet
7	30	Danny Bohn	On Point Motorsports	Toyota
8	2	Sheldon Creed	GMS Racing	Chevrolet
9	41	Cody Erickson	Cram Racing Enterprises	Chevrolet
10	99	Ben Rhodes	ThorSport Racing	Toyota
11	19	Derek Kraus	McAnally-Hilgemann Racing	Toyota