Bristol

NASCAR Xfinity Series Race Report

Friday, September 16, 2022

Race 26 of 33 in the NASCAR Xfinity Series

Location: Bristol Motor Speedway

Format: 300 Laps - 159.9 Miles

Nick Sanchez’s Finish: 29th

Welcome, N.C. - ARCA Menards Series driver, Nick Sanchez, made his Big Machine Racing debut in the NASCAR Xfinity Series, for the Food City 300, at Bristol Motor Speedway this past weekend. Nick spent the night before racing the famed half-mile oval in the rolling hills of East Tennessee as part of the ARCA Menards Series, Bush’s Best 200, where he finished 12th. The exciting night race under the lights of Bristol Motor Speedway followed practice and qualifying earlier that day - Sanchez’s first time in the No. 48 Big Machine Vodka Spiked Coolers Chevrolet where Nick ran 14th fastest in practice and qualified 24th with a lap time of 16.135 seconds.

Just after 7:30pm ET, we were set to go racing at “The Last Great Colosseum” under the lights. Just after the drop of the green flag, Nick Sanchez was already working his way to the front and had made it up to p17 by lap 3. On lap 5 of 300, Nick had a right-front tire go flat almost sending him into the outer wall on the exit of turn two. Sanchez was able to get the No. 48 Chevrolet back to pit road where Crew Chief, Patrick Donahue, readied the crew to put on new right side tires. It was a race off pit road to beat the pace car and stay on the lead lap.

Caution number three of the night came with Nick spinning to the bottom of the track in turn 3 on lap 38. Sanchez said on Twitter, “Rough night in Bristol. Had some unlucky moments. Made some mistakes. Car was bad fast at the end, wish I would’ve been in position to show it. Need to be better for Texas.”

Sanchez displayed an incredible amount of speed and power from the No. 48 Big Machine Vodka Spiked Coolers Chevrolet - passing a number of cars fighting to be in contention for the Free Pass but would end the night with a 29th place finish.

With Bristol in the books, the team’s attention turns to the Andy’s Frozen Custard 300 at the Texas Motor Speedway. The Texas race will be Sanchez’s second race with the team and return for Las Vegas and Homestead in October.

Results:
Practice - 14th fastest
Qualifying - 24th
Stage 1 - 34th
Stage 2 - 27th
Final - 29th