NASCAR O'Reilly Series

Roush Fenway driver Chris Buescher took his first ever lap at Bristol Motor Speedway (BMS) on Friday, during Nationwide Series practice at the .533-mile track known at "Thunder Valley."

Going to Bristol last August, hugely changed my perspective of that track and why fans love the Bristol Motor Speedway so much. Bristol isn’t just a race track, it’s a community.

Trevor Bayne, driver of the No. 6 Ford EcoBoost Mustang, is coming off back-to-back fourth-place finishes in the NASCAR Nationwide Series and has moved from 26th to eighth in the point standings. Bayne hosted a Q&A session Friday morning in the Bristol Motor Speedway infield media center to discuss the start to his season and hopes for this weekend.

ump and Run, brother and sister raccoons, debut today as the official mascots of Bristol Motor Speedway and Dragway prior to this weekend’s Food City 500 festivities.

Daymond John, President, CEO and Founder of FUBU and Shark on ABC’s Emmy® nominated hit reality show Shark Tank, will serve as Honorary Starter for the Royal Purple 300 NNS race at Auto Club Speedway on Saturday, March 23.

SR2 Motorsports will host a very special family this week at Bristol Motor Speedway. Bill Halstead, whose son Tripp was critically injured when a large tree branch fell onto his head in Winder,Ga., will be attending the race with his brother as guests of the Buford, Ga.-based Nationwide Series team. SR2 Motorsports will also have special decals on each of its three cars to help raise awareness for Team BOOM, which was established to support the Halstead family.

In the first three weeks of the 2013 NASCAR season, Toyota drivers achieved a trio of milestones. First, Johnny Sauter earned the 100th Tundra win in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series (NCWTS) when he claimed the victory at the season-opener in Daytona.

The fourth race of the season finds the Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Series heading to East Tennessee to take on the half-mile bullring that is Bristol Motor Speedway. After taking on a superspeedway in Daytona, a flat track in Phoenix, and a 1.5 mile intermediate speedway in Las Vegas, these drivers will take on the fourth different track type in as many races and will look to build on early season momentum or try to turn around early season bad luck. Either way, the races at “The Last Great Colosseum” are sure to provide us moments to talk about long after the checkered flag falls.

Bayne on Racing at his home track: Bristol is one of my favorite tracks and the place I have the most experience out of the NASCAR schedule. We are normally fast there, but are still looking for that first win in front of the hometown crowd!

Saturday’s race is Pastrana’s first NASCAR Nationwide Series (NNS) start at Bristol Motor Speedway (BMS). The Roush Fenway Racing (RFR) driver made one start at BMS last season in the K&N Pro Series East. He started 19th and finished 12th, completing all 127 laps.