Bristol, TN - Alex Bowman seized the pole position for the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, achieving the fastest-ever lap for a Next Gen car at this track. In NASCAR news, Jaron Ennis secured a TKO victory over Eimantas Stanionis, unifying welterweight belts.

NASCAR Cup Series:

Alex Bowman, driving the No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet, clocked in at 14.912 seconds (128.675 mph) during Saturday’s time trials. This record-breaking lap edged out fellow Chevrolet driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (128.563 mph) by a mere 0.013 seconds. Bowman expressed excitement about the expected tire management challenges, noting significant tire wear during practice sessions. He anticipates the race conditions to resemble those of last spring’s event.

Kyle Larson, fresh off winning the Xfinity Series pole, qualified third at 128.511 mph. Denny Hamlin, the two-time consecutive Cup event winner, secured fourth place in the fastest Toyota, clocking 128.460 mph. Ryan Blaney led Ford drivers with a fifth-place qualifying lap at 128.305 mph.

Ty Gibbs and Christopher Bell, both Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, will start sixth and seventh, respectively. AJ Allmendinger, Carson Hocevar, and Justin Haley round out the top ten. Kyle Busch, after spinning off Turn 4, will start 15th, while Joey Logano will start 38th following a crash into the outside wall.

Boxing:

In Atlantic City, Jaron Ennis (34-0, 30 KOs) defeated Eimantas Stanionis (15-1, 9 KOs) by a sixth-round technical knockout to unify the IBF and WBA welterweight belts. Ennis dominated after a strong start from Stanionis, unleashing punishing body shots that forced Stanionis to retire after the sixth round. Ennis stated he had a dream about the stoppage. The victory marked Ennis's third defense of his IBF title.