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Although he has three top 10 starts in five races this season, Cindric's  fourth place finish at Atlanta is his only finish better than 22nd and finds himself mired in 21st in the series standings.

The biggest issue I found with Sunday’s tire conversation-dominated event was who to thank for it because still today, nobody seems to know the exact reason how it came about.

Read about Denny Hamlin's victory at Bristol Motor Speedway in the NASCAR Cup Series race and the challenges faced by drivers due to tire issues. Get insig...

Hamlin, who won last fall’s Bristol Night Race, found himself in a much different scenario in Sunday’s race, which was the first spring Bristol event held on the asphalt since 2020. The race has been run on dirt for the past three years.

The 33-year-old native of Hendersonville, Tenn., stepped in Stewart-Haas Racing’s No. 4 Ford this year following the retirement of star Kevin Harvick and his subsequent move to the Fox Sports NASCAR TV booth.

Sunday’s race will be the first in the spring on the asphalt surface at Bristol since 2020. The spring race has been run on dirt the past three seasons, with Christopher Bell the most recent winner last year.

Kobayashi, 37, became the first Japanese driver to run a Cup race in 20 years when he made his debut at the Indianapolis Road Course last year. He started 28th and finished 33rd after being involved in a few incidents during the event.

Confirmation of the split after what will be four seasons has been provided by Ganassi managing director Mike Hull, who told Autosport that “we are ending this chapter” of a long relationship with Cadillac parent company General Motors that has straddled IndyCars, NASCAR and Extreme E as well as sportscars. 

At Phoenix, Toyota drivers absolutely dominated, leading all but 14 laps with Christopher Bell ultimately taking the checkered flag.