Bass Pro Shops Night Race

Bass Pro Shops Night Race

NASCAR Cup Series
Venue	Bristol Motor Speedway
Location	Bristol, Tennessee, United States
Corporate sponsor	Bass Pro Shops
First race	1961 (1961)
Distance	266.5 miles (428.890 km)
Laps	500 Stages 1/2: 125 each Final stage: 250
Previous names	Volunteer 500 (1961–1979) Busch Volunteer 500 (1980) Busch 500 (1981–1990) Bud 500 (1991–1993) Goody's 500 (1994–1995) Goody's Headache Powder 500 (1996–1999) goracing.com 500 (2000) Sharpie 500 (2001–2009) Irwin Tools Night Race (2010–2015) Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race (2016–2021)
Most wins (driver)	Darrell Waltrip (7)
Most wins (team)	Junior Johnson & Associates Joe Gibbs Racing (9)
Most wins (manufacturer)	Chevrolet Ford (23)
Circuit information
Surface	Concrete
Length	0.533 mi (0.858 km)
Turns	4

The Bass Pro Shops Night Race is a NASCAR Cup Series race held at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee. It is one of two NASCAR Cup Series races held at Bristol, the other being the Food City 500. Historically held in August from 1978 to 2019, and again in 2027. The race was moved to September from 2020 to 2026.

The race is currently the third race in the NASCAR Chase. Joey Logano is the defending race winner.

History

From 1961 to 1977 the race was not held at Night and was held during the day due to the track not having lights. The second date historically suffered from attendance issues during this period and was slid up and down the schudle from dates ranging from Early July to November though most early races where held in July.

In 1977 after Bristol Motor Speedway founder Larry Carrier sold the track to Lanny Hester and Gary Baker and improvements were made to the facilities, they lobbied NASCAR to stabilize their two race dates with them asking for the spring race to be moved near April 1 and to move the second date from November to Late August. With the decision to race during the night primarily occurring due to heat concerns. The lights used in the 1978 race consisted of a high school football stadium system lights and temporary light towers. The first Night Race saw increased attendance and all subsequent editions of the race also held at night continued to see high attendance.

From 2001 to 2015, Newell Brands has been the title sponsor of the race, and until 2009 their marker pen brand Sharpie lent its name to the race. Newell Rubbermaid elected to change the race branding to promote one of its other brands, Irwin Industrial Tools. For the 2016 season, the main title sponsor switched to outdoor recreational retailer Bass Pro Shops.

In 2020, the race was moved from its traditional August date to mid-September, becoming a NASCAR Chase race.

Past winners

• 1983: Race shortened due to rain.
• 2016: Race started on Saturday night but was finished on Sunday afternoon due to rain.

Notable races

• 1964: Richard Petty led 442 laps but broke the rear end coming to the white flag and Fred Lorenzen erased a deficit of several laps to take the win.
• 1969: David Pearson survived multiple wrecks to win the first race with Bristol's new banking; the track banked its turns from 18 degrees to 36 to boost speeds; the change was criticized by most drivers due to the speeds, the resulting wrecks, and the greatly increased physical strain.
• 1971: Charlie Glotzbach needed relief help from Friday Hassler to post the win, the first for the new Richard Howard Chevrolet team wrenched by Junior Johnson; the race was run caution-free.
• 1973: Benny Parsons needed relief help from John Ustman to post his only win of the season; it was enough to help win the season championship.
• 1974: Neil Bonnett tore open forty feet of inside guardrail but was uninjured. On the final lap, Cale Yarborough forearmed Buddy Baker sideways out of the lead; the win was the first for Junior Johnson since Carling Brewery sponsorship helped him purchase the team from Richard Howard.
• 1977: Janet Guthrie needed relief help from John Utsman, who drove Guthrie's Chevrolet home sixth, the best NASCAR finish of Guthrie's career. Cale Yarborough took the win, his eighth of the season.
• 1978: Yarborough took the win in the first night running of the Volunteer 500. Following the announcement that Darrell Waltrip would drive for Harry Ranier in 1979, Ranier's present driver Lennie Pond got into several on-track skirmishes with Waltrip.
• 1979: Richard Petty won the final pole of his driving career and finished second to Darrell Waltrip.
• 1981: Waltrip finished a season sweep of Bristol races has Dale Earnhardt survived a brutal crash into pit road.
• 1984: After seven straight wins by Waltrip, Terry Labonte ended the streak by scratching to his second win of the 1984 season, a key win in his run to the '84 title.
• 1986: Darrell Waltrip scored his 1st Bristol win since winning his 7th straight race in the Spring of 1984. Darrell Waltrip scored his 10th Bristol win, passing Cale Yarborough as the all-time winningest driver at Bristol Motor Speedway. As of today, Darrell Waltrip is the only driver in NASCAR History to score 10 wins at Bristol.
• 1990: After Dale Earnhardt fell back Ernie Irvan beat Rusty Wallace in a late sprint to his first win.
• 1992: After Alan Kulwicki won the Spring race, the track was resurfaced from asphalt to concrete, and Darrell Waltrip became the 1st Bristol winner on the new surface. This would be Darrell Waltrip's 12th and final Bristol win.
• 1993: Fatigue affected Rusty Wallace as Mark Martin took the win, his third straight of 1993.
• 1995: Multiple crashes and the start being delayed by rain pushed the finish past midnight. Rusty Wallace was spun by Dale Earnhardt on lap 33, with NASCAR black-flagging Earnhardt and sending him to the tail of the lead lap. Bobby Hamilton received a similar penalty for twice wrecking Brett Bodine. Earnhardt worked his way back through the field and caught leader Terry Labonte on the final lap as he ran into lapped traffic. Earnhardt got into Labonte coming off turn 4 and spun him into the wall crossing the stripe, although Labonte still claimed the win and infamously drove his wrecked Chevrolet Monte-Carlo into victory lane. A furious Wallace threw a water bottle at Earnhardt during their post-race exchange.
• 1998: Mark Martin took the win and dedicated the race to his father Julian, who had died weeks earlier in a plane crash.
• 1999: Terry Labonte was leading with less than ten laps to go when he was spun out by Darrell Waltrip as they checked up for a caution. Labonte pitted for fresh tires and staged a furious charge from sixth to the lead, moving Dale Earnhardt for the lead coming to the white flag. Earnhardt responded by spinning Labonte in turn 2 on the final lap, wiping out several other leading cars in the process. The win was booed savagely by the surprised audience, with Earnhardt famously quoting that he never intended to wreck Labonte, and that he only meant to “rattle his cage”. This would be Earnhardt's 9th and final victory at Bristol, tying Cale Yarborough for 2nd on the all-time Bristol wins list (as of today).
• 2000: Rusty Wallace would pull off the 2000 Bristol season sweep by winning the Spring race, and this event. This would be the only time in his Career that Rusty Wallace would win both Bristol races in the same year. Rusty scored his 53rd career Cup Series win in this race, extending his record at the time as the 8th winningest driver in NASCAR History (currently 11th all-time as of today). This would be Rusty's 9th and final victory at Bristol, putting him in a 3-way tie with Cale Yarborough and Dale Earnhardt for 2nd on the all-time Bristol wins list (as of today).
• 2002: Jeff Gordon ended an at the time unprecedented 31 race winless streak after pulling a bump-and-run on Rusty Wallace with 3 laps to go. Gordon and Dale Earnhardt Jr. were the dominant drivers, Earnhardt leading the opening 130 laps. The race was full of flaring tempers, with a lot of drivers being summoned for various reasons to the Big Red Truck. The most memorable incident was Ward Burton, who threw his heel pads at Earnhardt after Earnhardt wrecked him on lap 403.
• 2003: After a post race confrontation with Kurt Busch the previous week at Michigan, Jimmy Spencer was suspended for a week by NASCAR. Busch was booed heavily during driver introductions, but went on to claim the win and sweep the season's races at the track.
• 2004: Dale Earnhardt Jr. became the first driver to sweep the weekend, winning the Busch race and the Cup race on the same weekend. In victory lane he labelled it as one of the biggest wins of his career, when asked why he added the quote “It’s Bristol baby!”.
• 2005-8: Roush Fenway Racing won four straight Sharpie 500s with the wins split by Matt Kenseth (2005 & 2006) and Carl Edwards (2007 & 2008).
• 2010: Kyle Busch won after dominating despite a tire going down on the final lap. This put Busch in the record books as the first driver to sweep all three top series' races on the same track on the same weekend, dubbed "The Trifecta". He also won the Camping World Truck race on Wednesday night and the Nationwide race on Friday night. Out of a possible 956 laps, he led 116 out of 206 in the truck event (race ended with G-W-C finish six laps past the scheduled distance of 200), 116 of 250 in the Nationwide event, and 282 of 500 in the Cup event. Together he led 514 of 956 laps or about 53.8% of the laps run.
• 2012: Denny Hamlin won, holding off Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson. This was the first race after the top groove had been reground, leading to the return of bump-and-run racing. There were several on-track altercations. On lap 333, Matt Kenseth and Tony Stewart tangled fighting for the lead, and Stewart responded by throwing his helmet at Kenseth's hood. Later, Danica Patrick was wrecked by Regan Smith and wagged her finger at him.
• 2013: Matt Kenseth held off Kasey Kahne over the last 40 laps to win his fifth race of the season. This was the third race of the season where Kahne was within striking distance of the lead but was just unable to overtake Kenseth.
• 2017: Kyle Busch wins and sweeps all three top series' races for the second time at Bristol, having won the Camping World Truck race on Wednesday night and the Xfinity race on Friday night.
• 2021: Chase Elliott and Kevin Harvick were battling for the lead in the latter stages until contact between them saw Elliott cut a tire. A furious Elliott returned to the track two laps down and aggressively blocked Harvick, allowing his Hendrick teammate Kyle Larson to pass the latter for the win. Harvick confronted Elliott on pit road after the race.
• 2026: Carson Hocevar and Ryan Blaney were battling for second place in the final stage until contact between them saw Hocevar hit Blaney, sending him up into the wall. A furious Blaney returned to pit road after the race, won by Joey Logano, and fought Hocevar.

References

External links

• Bristol Motor Speedway race results at Racing-Reference