With the Tuesday addition of Chase Briscoe to the entry list of Friday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event at Bristol Motor Speedway, a total of seven NASCAR Cup Series competitors are slated to compete in the 250-lap Truck Series race as a tune-up for Sunday’s Food City 500.
Briscoe, the full-time driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing NASCAR Cup Series entry, was revealed as the driver of the No. 5 TRICON Garage Toyota Tundra TRD Pro in a social media post by TRICON Garage on Tuesday afternoon.
Friday’s race will mark Briscoe’s first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series start since the 2023 season, a season in which he ran a one-off event for AM Racing at the dirt track version of Bristol Motor Speedway.
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Briscoe, a five-time NASCAR Cup Series race winner and 11-time NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series winner, has two career wins in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series heading into this weekend’s event at Bristol Motor Speedway.
In addition to Briscoe, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Kyle Busch, Ross Chastain, Christopher Bell, Daniel Suarez, and Carson Hocevar will compete in Friday’s NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Tennessee Army National Guard 250.
Stenhouse, who had never competed in a NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series event prior to the 2026 season, will make his third start of the season for Niece Motorsports, as he’ll pilot the No. 4 Chevrolet Silverado on Friday night.
Busch, a two-time NASCAR Cup Series champion and winningest driver in NASCAR Truck Series history (68 wins), will pilot the No. 7 Chevrolet for Spire Motorsports. Busch won his only other NASCAR Truck Series start this season, which came earlier this year at EchoPark Speedway, driving the No. 7 Chevrolet.
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Chastain, who has remained in the driver rotation for Niece Motorsports since contending for a Truck Series championship with the organization in 2019, will make his second start behind the wheel of the team’s No. 42 Chevrolet Silverado. In his first start of the season, Chastain held the lead on the final lap of the race at Darlington Raceway, however, Corey Heim, utilizing fresher tires, was able to blast past him in the final turn of the race for the win.
Bell, a 13-time NASCAR Cup Series race winner and 2017 NASCAR Truck Series champion, will make his second start of the season, driving the No. 62 Toyota Tundra TRD Pro for Halmar Friesen Racing.
And Spire Motorsports will fill out its three-truck lineup at Bristol with two of its full-time NASCAR Cup Series drivers, Suarez and Hocevar, behind the wheel.
Hocevar is a five-time winner in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, and is always in the mix for the win, when he drops down to compete in the series. While this will be Suarez’s first NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series start in five years. Suarez does have one career NASCAR Truck Series win in 28 career starts.
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The NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Tennessee Army National Guard 250 at Bristol Motor Speedway is scheduled for Friday, April 10, and will be televised on FS1. Television coverage of the event is slated to begin at 7:30 PM ET, and the NASCAR Racing Network and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will provide the radio broadcast of the event.
This article was originally published on www.si.com/onsi/racing-america as Seven NASCAR Cup Drivers To Compete In Bristol NASCAR Truck Race.
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