The frantic pace of the reconfigured NASCAR Cup Series schedule zooms the series from the wide-open spaces of Charlotte Motor Speedway Thursday to the ultra-tight confines of Bristol Motor Speedway Sunday. NASCAR returns to action Sunday at the high-banked half-mile Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway for the running of the Food City presents the Supermarket Heroes 500.

Supermarket Heroes 500 Up Next

The visit to Bristol Motor Speedway marks the first foray to bullring action for the series in 2020 and will mark the fifth event for the Cup Series since NASCAR returned to action from COVID-19 shutdown on May 17 at Darlington (S.C.) Raceway.

NASCAR ran two Cup events at Darlington followed by a pair of Cup events at Charlotte.

When it comes to the Supermarket Heroes 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, in the current landscape of Cup racing, there’s no looking past the fact that Kyle Busch is the reigning Superman at the track.

Busch (4.25-1) has a whopping eight Cup Series victories in 29 series starts at Bristol dating back to 2005. The two-time and reigning series champion three of the last five Cup Series events at the track. At a track where just finishing unscathed is an accomplishment unto itself, Busch top-10 finishes in 58.6 percent of his series starts at Bristol is a statistic to be glorified. And hunger for Busch can’t be discounted as he still looks for his first victory in eight events this season.

Chase Elliott (7-1) carries hottest driver in the series label into the Supermarket Heroes 500 at Bristol. He was victorious in Thursday’s event at Charlotte Motor Speedway and has been in contention to win in all four Cup Series events run by NASCAR since the season’s restart. Thought Bristol has been a favorite place for Elliott. In eight Cup Series starts at Bristol Elliott has been in the picture of inconsistency. He has three top-five finishes at the track but three finishes of 15^th or worse at the facility.

After winning two of the first four events of the season before the COVID-19 shutdown, Joey Logano (9-1) has struggled a bit in the restart phase of the season after the last four events. Logano has two sixth place finishes of the last four races but also a 13^th place and 18^th place finish. Bristol is a place where Logano has shined in the past and he could be in the mix for the Supermarket Heroes 500. In 22 Cup Series starts there dating back to 2009 Logano has a pair of victories and top-10 finishes in 10 starts. He hasn’t won at the track since 2005, but he has top-five finishes in three of the last six events there.

Like Elliott, Denny Hamlin (9-1) has been on fire over the recent four Cup events with a win, a second place and a fifth place since NASCAR returned to action.

In 28 Cup Series starts at Bristol since 2006 Hamlin has a pair of victories and has finished in the top-10 in 14 events. He won the second of two events at the track last year.

Kevin Harvick (10-1) has finished in the top-10 in all four Cup races since NASCAR return action, and has a win, a third and fifth place finish in that span.

Harvick has two career Cup Series victories in 38 starts at Bristol, with the first coming in 2005 and the most recent in 2016. He has finished outside of the top-five in the last five series events at the track.

Martin Truex Jr. is still looking for his first series win of 2020 and goes to Bristol Motor Speedway looking for his first career victory there. Bristol has not been kind to the 2017 series champion. In 28 career starts at the track Truex has just two top-five and three top-10 finishes. His best finish in the last five events at the track is 13^th.

That’s it for our preview of the Supermarket Heroes 500, see you soon!