The 2015 Irwin Tools Night Race was a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race held on August 22, 2015, at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee. Contested over 500 laps on the .533 mile (.858 km) concrete short track, it was the 24th race of the 2015 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series season. Joey Logano won the race, making this his second consecutive and overall at the track and his third of the season. Kevin Harvick finished second for the tenth time in the season while Denny Hamlin, Jimmie Johnson and Clint Bowyer rounded out the top five.
Hamlin won the pole for the race and led 54 laps on his way to a third-place finish. Kyle Busch led a race high of 192 laps on his way to an eighth-place finish. The race had 14 lead changes among five different drivers, as well as eight caution flag periods for 52 laps.
This was the 11th career victory for Joey Logano, third of the season, second at Bristol Motor Speedway and 12th at the track for Team Penske. Despite winning the race, he left Bristol trailing Kevin Harvick by 43-points in the drivers points standings. Ford left Bristol trailing Toyota by one-point for second in the manufacturer standings and Chevrolet by 71 for the points lead.
The Irwin Tools Nights Race was carried by NBC Sports on the cable/satellite NBCSN network for the American television audience. The radio broadcast for the race was carried by the Performance Racing Network and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio.
Report Background
Bristol Motor Speedway is a oval short track in Bristol, Tennessee. Kevin Harvick entered Bristol with a 48–point lead over Joey Logano. Dale Earnhardt Jr. entered 82 back. Martin Truex Jr. entered 111 back. Brad Keselowski entered 112 back.
Entry list The entry list for the Irwin Tools Night Race was released on Monday, August 17 at 11:17 a.m. Eastern time. Forty-six cars were entered for the race. All but two cars were entered in the previous week's race at Michigan. The only driver change for this race was the No. 33 Hillman-Circle Sport LLC Chevrolet which was driven by Mike Bliss.
Driver Team Manufacturer 1 Jamie McMurray Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 2 Brad Keselowski (PC3) Team Penske Ford 3 Austin Dillon Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 4 Kevin Harvick (PC1) Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 5 Kasey Kahne Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 6 Trevor Bayne Roush Fenway Racing Ford 7 Alex Bowman Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet 9 Sam Hornish Jr. Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 10 Danica Patrick Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 11 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 13 Casey Mears Germain Racing Chevrolet 14 Tony Stewart (PC4) Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 15 Clint Bowyer Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota 16 Greg Biffle Roush Fenway Racing Ford 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Roush Fenway Racing Ford 18 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 19 Carl Edwards Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 20 Matt Kenseth (PC6) Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 21 Ryan Blaney (i) Wood Brothers Racing Ford 22 Joey Logano Team Penske Ford 23 J. J. Yeley (i) BK Racing Toyota 24 Jeff Gordon (PC7) Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 26 Jeb Burton (R) BK Racing Toyota 27 Paul Menard Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 30 Travis Kvapil (i) The Motorsports Group Chevrolet 31 Ryan Newman Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 32 Josh Wise Go FAS Racing Ford 33 Mike Bliss (i) Hillman-Circle Sport LLC Chevrolet 34 Brett Moffitt (R) Front Row Motorsports Ford 35 Cole Whitt Front Row Motorsports Ford 38 David Gilliland Front Row Motorsports Ford 40 Landon Cassill (i) Hillman-Circle Sport LLC Chevrolet 41 Kurt Busch (PC5) Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 42 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 43 Aric Almirola Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 46 Michael Annett HScott Motorsports Chevrolet 47 A. J. Allmendinger JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet 48 Jimmie Johnson (PC2) Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 51 Justin Allgaier HScott Motorsports Chevrolet 55 David Ragan Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota 62 Reed Sorenson Premium Motorsports Chevrolet 78 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet 83 Matt DiBenedetto (R) BK Racing Toyota 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 95 Michael McDowell Leavine Family Racing Ford 98 Timmy Hill (i) Premium Motorsports FordOfficial initial entry listOfficial final entry list Key Meaning (R) Rookie (i) Ineligible for points (PC#) Past champions provisional
Practice First practice
Kyle Larson was the fastest in the first practice session with a time of 14.779 and a speed of . Towards the tail-end of the session, Martin Truex Jr. blew a right-front tire and slammed the wall exiting turn 2. The damage done to the left-front control arm forced him to switch to his backup car. Because this change took place prior to qualifying, he won't start the race from the rear of the field.
Pos Driver Team Manufacturer Time 1 42 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 14.779 129.833 2 20 Matt Kenseth Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 14.921 128.597 3 18 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 14.923 128.580Official first practice results
Final practice
Kyle Busch was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 14.631 and a speed of .
Pos Driver Team Manufacturer Time 1 18 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 14.631 131.146 2 55 David Ragan Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota 14.687 130.646 3 42 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 14.758 130.018Official final practice results
Qualifying
Denny Hamlin won the pole with a new track record time of 14.602 and a speed of . "Our FedEx Ground Camry obviously was very fast that last round and Dave (Rogers, crew chief) made the great adjustments to it to pick up the speed and I think that hopefully we’ll have something that we can race with them tomorrow night,” Hamlin said. “The first round just got loose and that kind of put us behind the whole time," Kevin Harvick said after qualifying seventh. "Other than that the car drove pretty good, really throughout every round. Had a little bit of trouble with all the engine stuff shutting off at the end of the straightaway so that was definitely hurting us." “All of our cars have had good speed today, we just missed the setup there a little bit for qualifying and couldn’t really fix it from the pit box," said Matt Kenseth after qualifying 13th. "We got the best lap we could out of it – wish we could have made it to the last round there. Just didn’t quite have enough in it.” "We didn’t qualify very good here the last time we were here and heck, I think this time we were worse than we were the last time," Jeff Gordon said after qualifying 24th for his final start at Bristol. "But we raced really good. I thought our race runs looked decent today. It’s hard to pass. The groove is up top there, so I was hoping we were going to qualify better than this, especially with this pretty awesome Rainbow paint scheme that Axalta has this weekend for us. But, it just wasn’t meant to be. I don’t know. We were just really struggling when we put it into qualifying trim.” Jeb Burton, Travis Kvapil and Reed Sorenson failed to qualify for the race.
Qualifying results Pos Driver Team Manufacturer 1 11 Denny Hamlin Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 14.760 14.764 14.602 2 18 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 14.679 14.682 14.618 3 19 Carl Edwards Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 14.849 14.742 14.686 4 55 David Ragan Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota 14.682 14.788 14.708 5 22 Joey Logano Team Penske Ford 14.897 14.780 14.721 6 2 Brad Keselowski Team Penske Ford 14.773 14.781 14.723 7 4 Kevin Harvick Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 14.864 14.770 14.726 8 17 Ricky Stenhouse Jr. Roush Fenway Racing Ford 14.831 14.781 14.746 9 15 Clint Bowyer Michael Waltrip Racing Toyota 14.806 14.778 14.754 10 48 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 14.759 14.724 14.766 11 41 Kurt Busch Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 14.745 14.641 14.823 12 42 Kyle Larson Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 14.880 14.770 14.892 13 20 Matt Kenseth Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 14.859 14.797 — 14 51 Justin Allgaier HScott Motorsports Chevrolet 14.885 14.834 — 15 21 Ryan Blaney (i) Wood Brothers Racing Ford 14.870 14.850 — 16 3 Austin Dillon Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 14.877 14.857 — 17 16 Greg Biffle Roush Fenway Racing Ford 14.919 14.895 — 18 31 Ryan Newman Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 14.865 14.909 — 19 5 Kasey Kahne Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 14.899 14.920 — 20 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 14.899 14.928 — 21 1 Jamie McMurray Chip Ganassi Racing Chevrolet 14.897 14.960 — 22 6 Trevor Bayne Roush Fenway Racing Ford 14.921 14.968 — 23 78 Martin Truex Jr. Furniture Row Racing Chevrolet 14.902 14.972 — 24 24 Jeff Gordon Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 14.910 14.992 — 25 47 A. J. Allmendinger JTG Daugherty Racing Chevrolet 14.925 — — 26 9 Sam Hornish Jr. Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 14.961 — — 27 34 Brett Moffitt (R) Front Row Motorsports Ford 14.970 — — 28 13 Casey Mears Germain Racing Chevrolet 15.000 — — 29 27 Paul Menard Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 15.014 — — 30 95 Michael McDowell Leavine Family Racing Ford 15.037 — — 31 43 Aric Almirola Richard Petty Motorsports Ford 15.042 — — 32 10 Danica Patrick Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 15.045 — — 33 35 Cole Whitt Front Row Motorsports Ford 15.054 — — 34 32 Josh Wise Go FAS Racing Ford 15.065 — — 35 46 Michael Annett HScott Motorsports Chevrolet 15.080 — — 36 7 Alex Bowman Tommy Baldwin Racing Chevrolet 15.084 — — 37 38 David Gilliland Front Row Motorsports Ford 15.113 — — 38 23 J. J. Yeley (i) BK Racing Toyota 15.130 — — 39 40 Landon Cassill (i) Hillman-Circle Sport LLC Chevrolet 15.151 — — 40 14 Tony Stewart Stewart–Haas Racing Chevrolet 15.161 — — 41 98 Timmy Hill (i) Premium Motorsports Ford 15.221 — — 42 83 Matt DiBenedetto (R) BK Racing Toyota 15.278 — — 43 33 Mike Bliss (i) Hillman-Circle Sport LLC Chevrolet 15.293 — —Failed to qualify 44 30 Travis Kvapil (i) The Motorsports Group Chevrolet 15.163 — — 45 26 Jeb Burton (R) BK Racing Toyota 15.240 — — 46 62 Reed Sorenson Premium Motorsports Chevrolet 15.332 — —Official qualifying results
Race First half Start
Under a clear East Tennessee evening sky, Denny Hamlin led the field to the green flag at 7:52 p.m. Starting on the bottom line, which isn't the norm at Bristol, he shot ahead of teammate Kyle Busch to lead the first lap. By lap 15, Hamlin caught the tail-end of the field and completed the short track conveyor belt. By lap 18, Busch ran down his teammate and pressured him for the lead. Eventually, the No. 18 Toyota used the lap traffic to pass the No. 11 and take the lead on lap 28. The lapped traffic allowed Kyle to pull away from Denny in the ensuing laps. A. J. Allmendinger bumped Paul Menard in turn 3 and about sent the No. 27 car spinning in front of the race leader, but he saved his car and the race continued. Debris in turn 3 brought out the first caution of the race on lap 52. Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin swapped the lead on pit road with the former pitting on the backstretch. It was ultimately Busch whom exited pit road with the lead. Ryan Blaney and Danica Patrick were tagged for speeding on pit road and restarted the race from the rear of the field.