NASCAR At Bristol Motor Speedway: Start Time, Lineup, TV Listings And More

It’s NASCAR race day at Bristol Motor Speedway, and we’ve got the actual race start time, the starting lineup and some other facts for you below.

Race name: Today’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway is called the “Jeff Byrd 500” in honor of the track’s longtime president, who died last fall. Traditional sponsor Food City is giving up its name for the race in order to honor Byrd.

Start time: The command to start engines will be given by Byrd’s family members (wife Claudia and children Christian and Belton) at 1:07 p.m. Eastern time. The actual start time of the race is scheduled for 1:13 p.m. EDT. So if you want to skip all the pre-race stuff and just tune in for the race, turn on your TV at 1:13.

TV and radio: As for all of the races through May, FOX is televising the race. The radio broadcast can be found on your local Performance Racing Network (PRN) affiliate. Click here to see a list of PRN stations where you can listen.

National anthem: Country star Billy Ray Cyrus will sing the national anthem. He’s also doing an off-camera performance of his military tribute song “Some Gave All.” In an unusual move, Tennessee native Trevor Bayne will lead the fans in reciting the Pledge of Allegiance before climbing into his car.

Driver introductions: Bristol has a special tradition driver introductions. Each driver comes out to a song of their choosing (you can see the partial list of songs here). Unfortunately, only bits of this will be shown on TV. You can, however, see it later on YouTube.

Race distance: The Bristol race is not 500 miles, but rather 500 laps around the half-mile oval. The total distance of the race is actually 266.5 miles.

Starting lineup for the Bristol race today: