NASCAR O'Reilly Series

At the age of five years old, Trevor Bayne sat in the grandstands at Bristol Motor Speedway watching his heroes of the sport battle on the high-banks. Seeing their battles inspired one thought in the young man's mind - wanting to be a NASCAR driver one day. Flash forward to today, Bayne has made his mark in the sport in winning a Daytona 500 and fulfilling other accomplishments.

On Thursday afternoon at Bristol, Nationwide Series Points Leader Chase Elliott would lead the first practice for the Food City 300, while Kyle Larson would lead the second and final practice.

NASCAR announced today it has elevated the responsibilities of Steve Phelps and Steve O’Donnell with both assuming leadership roles in NASCAR’s Charlotte region offices effective immediately. The moves are designed to balance the company’s senior leadership across NASCAR’s various offices and accelerate the implementation of several key growth initiatives.

“Bristol is all I heard it would be,” Earnhardt said. “You can watch cars go around the track from the infield and be amazed at the speeds, but putting one on the track and going around there is incredible. It’s like a big rollercoaster. You’re out of one turn for what seems like a second, and then you’re in the next.”

One of the world’s fastest half-mile race tracks will host the Nationwide Series for Friday night’s Food City 300, and Landon Cassill, driving the Flex Seal Chevrolet for JD Motorsports with Gary Keller, will be starting his 11th race at the speedway.

Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) announces today that Carl Edwards will join the organization in 2015 to compete full time in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series.

David Starr will be back behind the wheel of the No. 44 NCCER/Build Your Future Camry this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway. Starr has two previous NASCAR Nationwide Series starts at "The Fastest Half-Mile" speedway. He has an average starting position of 30.5 and an average finishing position of 36.0. In his seventh race with the TriStar Motorsports crew, Starr is ready to go from running super speedways to running a short-track race.

After a strong run in last weekend's event at Mid-Ohio, Mike Bliss is ready to return to the "Fastest Half-Mile" this weekend for the Food City 300. With 20 starts at Bristol Motor Speedway, Bliss has an average starting position of 20.4 and an average finishing position of 17.6. Bliss has two top-5s and four top-10 finishes at the speedway and has completed 5,130 laps.

Hermie Sadler is taking off his reporting hat and putting on his VA Lottery helmet this weekend at Bristol Motor Speedway. This will be Sadler's first time behind the wheel of a Nationwide Series car since 2010. With 16 starts at the "Fastest Half-Mile", Sadler has an average starting position of 19.5 and an average finishing position of 20.1.

Coming off his best finish of 2014, and his career-best NASCAR Nationwide Series finish, Dakoda Armstrong looks to carry that momentum to one of the toughest short tracks on the circuit, Bristol Motor Speedway.