What’s Happening?

NASCAR returns to Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend to revitalize the traditional Food City 500. Situated in the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, cold air, rain, and even snow have haunted the spring race at the track through the years. Will that trend continue this weekend?

• Since 2014, 7 of 20 Bristol races have been impacted by weather in some way, which is the second most in NASCAR only to Daytona. Of those 7 dreary days, 5 came during the spring race weekend including 3 postponements.
• Bristol has traditionally held one race during either late March or early April every year since 1962. NASCAR reconfigured Bristol into a Dirt Track for the spring weekend from 2021 to 2023, but, the concrete returns for the spring date this weekend.
• Fans are excited to see the return of the traditional “Food City 500”. However, fans are equally concerned about bad weather hampering the weekend.

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Weekend Weather Forecast (via National Weather Service)

Saturday, March 16: Truck Series Weather Guard Truck Race (8:00 PM ET)

• Forecast: Partly Cloudy
• Temperature: High 59°F; Dropping into Mid-Low50s°F
• Rain: 2%
• Wind: SW 7-9 MPH

Sunday, March 17: Cup Series Food City 500 (3:30 PM ET)

• Forecast: Partly Sunny
• Temperature: High 61°F
• Rain: 9%
• Wind: W 13-15 MPH; Gusting to 21-22 MPH

Bristol Spring Weather History

Rain showers have plagued the spring race at Bristol plenty of times throughout the years. In 2014, for example, rain early in the race caused a long rain delay that pushed the event into the evening. After the rain delay, a mysterious caution with 2 laps to go thanks to a caution light malfunction pushed the race into Overtime, but, rain hit again. NASCAR surrendered to Mother Nature at that point, giving Carl Edwards the win.

Spring races at Bristol have been postponed 3 times since 2017. The most recent instance at the concrete track came in 2018. Despite caution coming out for rain 3 times over two days, NASCAR managed to get all 500 laps in, and Kyle Busch took home the win.

Rain is in the forecast once again this weekend. Hopefully, it stays away this time.