NASCAR: The 4 drivers making their Cup debuts at Bristol
By Asher Fair
Four drivers are set to make their NASCAR Cup Series debuts in this Monday afternoon’s dirt track race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Not one, not two, not three but four drivers who have never competed in the NASCAR Cup Series before are set to make their series debuts in this Monday afternoon’s race on dirt at Bristol Motor Speedway. All three of these drivers have dirt track racing backgrounds.
This 250-lap Food City Dirt Race at the four-turn, 0.533-mile (0.858-kilometer) high-banked oval in Bristol, Tennessee is the first Cup Series race on a dirt surface in more than five decades, and it was initially scheduled to take place on Sunday afternoon prior to the inclement weather.
A total of 1,659 of the 2,648 Cup Series races that have been contested all-time have been contested since the most recent dirt track race at the North Carolina State Fairgrounds in September 1970.
Three of the four drivers set to make their debuts this Sunday are set to drive chartered entries.
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Stewart Friesen, who competes full-time in the Truck Series, is set to compete in this race behind the wheel of the #77 Chevrolet for Spire Motorsports, which had been driven by Justin Haley in the last five races.
Shane Golobic, who does not have any NASCAR national series starts to his name, is set to drive the #78 Ford for Live Fast Motorsports, replacing full-time driver B.J. McLeod.
Chris Windom, who competed in the Truck Series races at Eldora Speedway in 2017 and 2018 as well as three other Truck Series races during those two seasons, is set to drive the #15 Chevrolet for Rick Ware Racing, a car usually driven by James Davison.
The one driver who is set to make his Cup Series debut in a non-chartered entry is Mike Marlar, who is set to replace Timmy Hill behind the wheel of the #66 Toyota for MBM Motorsports. Marlar has made one career Truck Series start and one career Xfinity Series start, with the former coming on dirt at Eldora Speedway in 2019.
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Tune in to Fox at 4:00 p.m. ET this afternoon for the live broadcast of the Food City Dirt Race from Bristol Motor Speedway.