Is the NASCAR Race at Bristol Delayed Today? When Will it Start?

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Is the NASCAR race at Bristol delayed today? Here’s the latest weather update and when the Food City 300 is expected to start.

Rain and lightning shut down Bristol Motor Speedway Friday, raising the possibility of a delay in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Food City 300 and testing Sheldon Creed’s points lead in the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Chase.

Creed built that edge with a win and a runner-up to open the Chase, but a long wait now raises questions about track position and tire strategy heading into stage racing.

When will the race start? “Sorry just don’t know,” wrote NASCAR insider Bob Pockrass at about 7:05 p.m. ET. “Rain has mostly stopped but there is a possibility of more rain. My guess would be 8ish but that is a guess.”

Lightning cleared Bristol’s grandstands around 3:30 p.m. ET, kicking off a string of extended holds documented on Bristol Motor Speedway’s weekend weather page. NASCAR called off O’Reilly Auto Parts Series qualifying by 4:05 p.m., pushing the Food City 300 lineup to the sanctioning body’s metric formula.

Friday’s forecast called for roughly even odds of rain with highs in the upper 80s, and scattered storms delivered on that promise all afternoon, according to an afternoon rundown of the delay. Observations from the area airport put temperatures near 73 degrees with humidity above 85 percent as the evening hold dragged on, according to the National Weather Service’s Bristol-area forecast.

Rain odds were sliding by early evening. Hourly odds showed chances near 65 percent around 6 p.m. dropping toward 15 percent by 9 p.m., with lows near 66 degrees overnight, according to WeatherBug’s hourly Bristol rain forecast data. Bristol Motor Speedway’s own updates still listed the Food City 300 as on schedule as of 6:07 p.m., even after Cup Series practice was scrapped.

Jesse Love, Sheldon Creed Set Bristol Lineup

Jesse Love starts on the pole in the No. 2 Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet, with Creed lined up second in the No. 00 Haas Factory Team car, according to Jayski’s O’Reilly Series race page. Sam Mayer, Carson Kvapil and Taylor Gray fill out the top five, and Justin Allgaier starts ninth, according to The Tennessean‘s coverage. Chase contenders Brandon Jones, Austin Hill and Corey Day start 11th, 20th and 26th, respectively, and Landon Huffman failed to qualify.

NASCAR insider Bob Pockrass reported mid-afternoon that lightning remained a threat and that a few drops had begun falling by 4:55 p.m. As of that update, NASCAR had not pushed the race off its 7:30 p.m. target.

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What a Delay Means for Sheldon Creed’s Chase Lead

A same-night delay would leave Love and Creed’s front-row starting spots intact, though NASCAR’s revised wet-weather rules now let teams decide independently when to swap rain tires for slicks, according to NASCAR’s newly revised wet-tire protocol rules. That flexibility puts extra pressure on strategy for cars starting deep, including Hill and Day.

A national-series race becomes official at the halfway point or the end of Stage 2, whichever comes first — lap 150 or lap 170 of Friday’s scheduled 300. Rain after that threshold hands the win to whoever leads at the time. A stoppage before it sends NASCAR toward resuming later or postponing outright rather than naming a winner. Either way, Friday’s metric lineup carries over to any makeup date, and Chase points stay frozen until the Food City 300 goes official.

Bristol’s lights mean darkness alone won’t stop the race; only standing water or active lightning can. Concrete dries fast once storms clear, which is why track officials kept Friday’s 7:30 p.m. green-flag target on the board even as rain pushed through the area.

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