Alex Bowman wins pole at Bristol, first season with multiple for Hendrick Motorsports driver

Alex Bowman on Saturday won the pole position for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Bristol.

The Hendrick Motorsports driver chasing his first victory of the season finished on top after a tightly contested qualifying session, edging Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kyle Larson, Denny Hamlin and Ryan Blaney for his career-best second pole this year.

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It’s also Bowman’s second straight pole at Bristol, where he led the field before Larson’s win last fall in the most recent Cup race at the famed half-mile track.

There was extreme tire wear during practice and qualifying Saturday, following last year’s spring race at Bristol that saw NASCAR use resin instead of the PJ1 traction compound and deliver an epic green-flag run to cap Hamlin’s victory.

“In the spring last year, we rode around at what felt like half speed all day, and I thought I was going to get out of the car and everybody was going to be mad because we didn’t run hard all day,” Bowman said. “Everybody loved it because there was so much chaos. So in the fall, we just ran hard all day. You run hard every lap, and that’s kind of what Cup racing has become these days — how hard you have to run the car. There are some places you have to manage, but for the most part, you’re ten-tenths every lap.

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“I think (Sunday), it’s really going to depend on when the cautions come out and what they do. Look at the end of that spring race, and we didn’t get any cautions for a lot of things that could have been cautions, probably. But at the beginning of the race, we were getting cautions all the time. So there are two ways to predict that, right? If you save too much and you keep getting all these cautions, you’re just giving away track position. But if you don’t get the cautions and you run too hard, you’re killed on that, too.”

Odds and prediction for the Food City 500

Kyle Larson and Denny Hamlin are tied for the favorite at +450 odds on DraftKings Sportsbook, followed by Christopher Bell (+650), Ryan Blaney (+800), William Byron (+900) and Chase Elliott (+900).

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The Observer’s Shane Connuck is picking Larson to get his third Cup win at Bristol and second in as many races. He started in the top five in both of his victories at the half-mile track, and a P3 starting position Sunday gives him a good shot to find the front of the pack. Bowman starting the race on the pole will help the Hendrick Motorsports cars stay atop the field, and the No. 5 car will be fast at Bristol once again — considering Larson led 276 of 300 laps in his dominant Xfinity Series victory on Saturday.

How to watch the NASCAR Cup race at Bristol

Race: Food City 500

Place: Bristol Motor Speedway (Bristol, Tennessee)

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Track Length: 0.533-mile concrete oval

Date: Sunday, April 13

Time: 3 p.m. ET

Purse: $11,055,250

TV: FS1, 1:30 p.m. ET

Radio: PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR (Channel 90)

Distance: 266.5 miles (500 Laps)

Stages: Stage 1 ends on Lap 125; Stage 2 ends on Lap 250; and the Final Stage ends on Lap 500.

Starting lineup for the Food City 500