The NASCAR Cup Series caravan heads to Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend, marking the fifth race of the season. Over the years, Bristol has made a reputation for delivering high-octane, drama-filled racing action, and the same will be expected when the Cup Series stars take on the wheel during Sunday’s race.

Making this year’s event even more special, the Bristol Motor Speedway has announced a legendary lineup that will take over the grand marshal duties. NASCAR winningest driver, Richard Petty, his son Kyle Petty, and Cup Series team owners, Joe Gibbs and Richard Childress, will all contribute to kickstarting the Food City 500 event.

NASCAR icons to take the field to give out the starting command for the Bristol spring race

This is not the first time that the NASCAR Cup Series race has seen a star-studded grand marshal lineup. At the start of the season, at the Busch Light Clash, boxing superstar Canelo Alvarez was announced as the grand marshal. However, with the Clash moving ahead of the original schedule, the boxer could not feature during the race.

However, making up for the lost stardom from the Clash, the Daytona 500 delivered on its promise as they roped in Dwyane Johnson, “The Rock,” as the grand marshal. But the Bristol race will see the legends of NASCAR share this honorary duty in giving out the starting command.

Richard Petty and Kyle Petty are celebrating their family’s 75th anniversary in NASCAR. Celebrating their family’s legacy, they will be joining Cup Series team owners Richard Childress and Joe Gibbs as the grand marshals for this weekend’s race in Bristol. Last year, it was Rear Admiral Stephen “Josh” Jackson who served his role.

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However, the star-studded lineup is not the only reason for the fans to cheer about this weekend’s race. A big reason why the race is so highly anticipated is that NASCAR has finally decided to bring the race track back to its original version.

No more dirt racing at one of the iconic NASCAR venues

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One of the biggest changes in the NASCAR Cup Series schedule was to bring the Bristol spring race back on concrete after three years of dirt race experimentation. While there were discussions about continuing the trend of dirt racing at the venue for another year, NASCAR decided to do away with the dirt and bring back the concrete surface.

Most of the drivers and team were all game for the concrete racing in Bristol, and going by Chris Buescher’s statement, “I’m not gonna miss it one bit”, it can be said that drivers didn’t like to get dirty on the Bristol nights in the last three outings. However, there’s still a big challenge for the teams and drivers to deal with, and that is the short-track package.

The new short-track package made its first appearance at Phoenix last weekend. And going by the majority of drivers’s reviews, it felt the same as before. But why would that be a hindrance to racing, given that Bristol is back to traditional racing? Because the track at Bristol is half the length of Phoenix, this adds another layer of difficulty for the drivers to deal with.

What are your thoughts regarding the new short-track package? Is it a step in the right direction, or is it just another failed project rolled out by NASCAR?