Bristol Dirt advance: Recapping Hendrick penalties, NASCAR rule changes, how to watch

Some fans love it. Some don’t care for it.

But none can deny its power to produce heart-thumping finishes.

The NASCAR Cup Series returns to Bristol Motor Speedway’s dirt track on Sunday at 7 p.m. You can watch the race on Fox or listen to it on PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.

This will mark the third time Cup drivers of this generation have driven on Bristol Dirt — the half-mile course at one of the sport’s most vaunted venues that is packed in with dirt on top of the track’s concrete. The previous two races have come down to the end: The 2021 race featured Joey Logano edging Ricky Stenhouse Jr. by less than a second, and the 2022 race saw a Chase Briscoe slide cause chaos and clear the way for Kyle Busch’s only win of last year.

Speedway Motorsports CEO Marcus Smith told media on Thursday that a decision hasn’t yet been made on whether Bristol’s spring race next year will be run on dirt. But the excitement he has for this weekend’s race is palpable — even if that excitement is a bit at odds with how drivers feel.

“All of it is a big risk, a big challenge,” Smith said. “I think that, No. 1, our team at Bristol has done a phenomenal job of executing that challenge: to bring dirt in and make a legitimate dirt race happen at Bristol Motor Speedway.”

He added: “Looking into next year, I can tell you that we’re starting to look at the calendar. We have not made any decisions on that yet. But we’re certainly looking at that. I think it’s been a success when you consider the challenges that we had. We sold more tickets this year going into this weekend than we had last year. We’re pleased with that. ... Sunday night should be a great race, and I’m looking forward to it.”

Here are three story lines to catch you up on all things NASCAR ahead of Sunday’s Cup race.

▪ NASCAR changes rule book. After an eventful week-and-a-half of penalties and appeals and general controversy, NASCAR has made a subtle but important modification to its rule book. The sanctioning body said that the National Motorsports Appeals Panel (as well as the Final Appeal Officer) “may not completely remove any element of the originally assessed penalty provided in the Penalty Notice as defined in Rule Book Section 10.5.2 Determination of Penalties.” This rule would prevent the issue that happened last week — when Hendrick Motorsports got all of its points restored after suffering hefty points penalties the week before.

Another rule book change: NASCAR now has the right to publish the Appeals Panel/FAO justification for modifying or rescinding a penalty. This was instituted in response to fan and driver and race-team frustration for the general lack of transparency around the appeals process.

▪ Hendrick Motorsports slapped with penalties again. NASCAR elected to take the No. 24 and No. 48 cars — both Hendrick Motorsports cars — back to the R&D facility in Concord for inspection after the race at Richmond Raceway. Some saw it as a way to check the power of Hendrick Motorsports, after the race organization for all intents and purposes “got off clean” after incurring an L2 penalty for modifying single-source supplied parts last month.

The race team suffered further penalties earlier this week. NASCAR found that both teams made illegal modifications to the greenhouse (windows/roof). The crew chiefs of the 24 team (William Byron’s team) and the 48 team (Alex Bowman’s team) were fined $75,000 and suspended from two NASCAR Cup races. In addition, the teams were assessed with the loss of 60 points and five NASCAR playoff points. (The crew chief suspension is in effect after this weekend’s race at Bristol.)

▪ Can Kyle Larson turn two in a row? Larson won last weekend’s race at Richmond, finally getting the trip to Victory Lane he deserved after several race wins just slipped through his grasp earlier this season. The driver of the No. 5 Cup car is renowned as one of the best dirt racers in the country and is an understandable favorite for Sunday. But he shrugged off those odds when asked about it last weekend.

“I could have ran last in every single race leading into Bristol, and the media is probably going to point to me as being the favorite anyway at Bristol just because it’s a dirt track,” Larson said with a patented nonchalance. “So I don’t know. It does not matter to me. I know that we’re going to be good at every racetrack, so that’s promising.”

Per CBS Sports via SportsLine, Larson is the favorite to win the race with +450 odds. Then it’s Christopher Bell and Tyler Reddick at +600 odds, then Chase Briscoe (dirt racer by trade) at +900 odds, then Kyle Busch (last year’s winner) at +1000.

Food City Dirt Race: How to watch

• Place: Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt

• Date: Sunday, April 9

• Time: 7 p.m. ET

• Purse: $7,808,640

• TV: FOX, 6 p.m. ET

• Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio

• Distance: 125 miles (250 laps)

• Stages: Stage 1 (Lap 75), Stage 2 (Lap 150), Stage 3 (Ends on Lap 250)

Starting lineup for Bristol race