BRISTOL, Tenn. -- Jesse Love will make his Cup Series debut on Sunday afternoon at Bristol Motor Speedway. He will attempt to complete all 500 laps in what will be the longest race of his career.
This debut is wildly different than those of current Cup Series drivers, the majority of whom made previous starts at NASCAR's top level before taking on the banked turns of the Last Great Colosseum. They had time to adapt to the Cup car and the level of competition.
For these drivers, their first Cup Series starts at Bristol Motor Speedway were incredibly memorable, albeit not always for the best reasons.
Here's what some Cup drivers had to say about their first brushes with 500-lap races at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Erik Jones
Race details: Replaced an injured Denny Hamlin after 22 laps and a four-hour rain delay in 2015. He finished 26th after dropping to the rear of the field for his first Cup restart.
"Well, my unofficial first start was hectic," Jones told AltDriver. "I came here in...What year was that? 2015? Denny had to get out of the car, and I flew in and hopped in late. So mine was not a great representation.
"But even that day was tough beyond that, just the physicality of it. I'd never run a race longer than 400 laps, and that was in a late model. That wasn't in a Cup car. So just super physical at the time."
Joey Logano
Photo credit: Nigel Kinrade Photography
Race details: Made his debut during the 2009 season. He started 23rd but finished 38th after engine issues. He completed 490 laps.
"I remember you start making laps and keep going, and it's the long green flag runs that will get you. You keep going and going, and you just start to wonder like, 'Gosh, is there ever gonna be a caution? I'd love a break.' It doesn't happen as much for me anymore, but for probably the first eight or 10 years I came here, that first few laps of practice you would be huffing and puffing after five (laps).
"You'd be in there just hanging on and thinking, 'How in the world am I gonna make 500 laps? There's no way.' Now I've become more relaxed and understand the scenario, and I'm not hanging on for my dear life in there, so it's changed, but the first few times you come here, that's how you feel.
"You run the first 10 laps in practice and think, 'There is no way in hell I'm gonna make it to the end of this thing.' You just figure it out. That's what makes this place special. It's hard. It's challenging. Five hundred laps around here, it's a long one."
Alex Bowman
Race details: Made his debut in 2014 while driving for BK Racing. Started 33rd and finished 32nd after dealing with multiple issues.
"I think it had some rain delays, and the battery fell out, and there was a lot of stuff that went on. I remember Darrell Waltrip said we had toilet paper holding our battery in because the battery, when it fell out, got hit, and it had like fiberglass matting inside of it, and it looked like there was toilet paper all over the racetrack.
"So, it was an interesting day."
Carson Hocevar
Photo credit: Getty Images
Race details: Made his debut in 2023 while replacing a suspended Noah Gragson. Started 16th and finished 11th. Ran as high as fifth before a loose wheel dropped him in the running order in the final stage.
"I remember being really excited with it being the Bristol Night Race. My first few Cup races I did -- I got to do Gateway, obviously a cool track and unique. But I got to do the Southern 500, and the Bristol Night Race as my second and third ever Cup start. So super cool tracks to fire off and get going.
"I was not pumped, but it was Luke (Lambert's) favorite race, and he made me super confident that we were going to be good. I don't think he expected us to be that good, but it was a lot of fun driving by a lot of heroes of mine and everything. I still remind Rodney (Childers) that was the race that (Kevin Harvick) went like six laps down on speed. So I remind him of that, and it's fun to rag on him a little bit."
Chase Elliott
Race details: Made his Bristol Cup debut in 2016, his rookie season. He started 19th and finished fourth after staying on the lead lap.
"I think the big one for me, first, was just the 500 laps. That's a lot of laps around this place. The Xfinity race is really pretty short overall, in my opinion. ...The first thing that kind of jumped out at me was just the length of the race."