BRISTOL, Tenn. — A little ray of sunshine was all Alex Bowman needed to secure the pole position for Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Well, not quite all. Bowman also had to turn a blistering lap in his No. 48 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet during Saturday’s time trials at the 0.533-mile short track, and he did just that.

Bowman covered the distance in 14.912 seconds (128.675 mph) — the fastest lap ever run at Bristol in the NASCAR Cup Series Next Gen car. That was good enough to hold off fellow Chevrolet driver Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (128.563 mph) by 0.013 seconds to secure the top starting spot for the ninth Cup Series race of the season.

It wasn’t just the Busch Light Pole Award that had Bowman salivating. Extensive tire wear in the practice session that preceded qualifying compared to last year’s spring event in Thunder Valley, where tire fall-off was a crucial aspect of the competition.

“I think we’re all much more prepared than we were last spring,” said Bowman, who ran his lap under favorable cloud cover — with the sun coming out shortly after his qualifying attempt and warming the track slightly on an otherwise chilly day.

“I’m excited for a tire management race. It’s going to be a lot of fun. We’ll see what we’ve got,” he added.

“We started practice with rubber already on the track from the Xfinity cars, peeled it right up and sawed the tires right off. Yeah, confusing why we’re doing it again when we didn’t do it in the fall.

“It’s going to be warmer tomorrow. Maybe that changes it. It’s really difficult to say. I think it’s going to be like that [the spring race], but we’ll find out together, I think.”

Kyle Larson (128.511 mph) qualified third after winning the pole position for Saturday’s Xfinity Series race earlier in the day. Denny Hamlin, winner of the past two Cup events, was fourth in the fastest Toyota at 128.460 mph, and Ryan Blaney topped all other Ford drivers with a fifth-place qualifying lap at 128.305 mph.

In seven of the past eight Cup races at Bristol, the winner has come from the top five spots on the starting grid — two from the pole and two from the second starting position.

Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Ty Gibbs and Christopher Bell claimed the sixth and seventh starting spots, with AJ Allmendinger, Carson Hocevar and Justin Haley claiming eighth, ninth and 10th, respectively.

Kyle Busch was 15th fastest in qualifying, but he spun off Turn 4 on his second lap and flat-spotted his tires. Joey Logano, who qualified immediately after Busch, broke loose off Turn 2 and smacked the outside wall with the right rear of his No. 22 Team Penske Ford. Logano will start 38th on Sunday.

In response to the preliminary injunctions granted to 23XI Racing — owned by Michael Jordan and Denny Hamlin — and Front Row Motorsports, NASCAR filed a brief on Friday urging the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit to reverse the decision.

In the appeal, NASCAR contends that 23XI and Front Row sought and received injunctions binding them to the 2024 charter agreement despite contending that the charter violates antitrust law.

NASCAR asserted that U.S. District Judge Kenneth D. Bell misapplied antitrust laws and portrayed the release of claims as standard business practice, not anti-competitive conduct. NASCAR argued that businesses, per case law, have a right to choose the terms and conditions of their agreements and that it’s the teams’ choice to accept or decline those terms.

Per the appeal, NASCAR went on defend exclusivity agreements with racetracks and limited non-compete clauses, emphasizing their importance in cost control and consistency for race operations and media rights.

NASCAR presented 23XI Racing and Front Row Motorsports as investments by entrepreneurs such as Jordan, contrasting them with antitrust cases involving athletes restricted by monopolistic environments.

In the appeal, NASCAR explained its competitiveness in attracting capital, fans and owners, citing high turnover and the need for continual investment.

Meanwhile, 23XI and Front Row in court filings have maintained that NASCAR’s business practices are monopolistic and anticompetitive and deny teams a fair shake.

Former LSU receiver Kyren Lacy, who was found dead Saturday night in Houston, died in an apparent suicide in his car while being pursued by authorities, according to a Harris County (Texas) sheriff’s report released Sunday.

According to Harris County authorities, police responded to a call from a female family member who said Lacy had discharged a firearm into the ground during a verbal argument late Saturday night. When they arrived on the scene they learned that the suspect, Lacy, had fled in a vehicle.

Authorities say their pursuit of Lacy ended when Lacy crashed. When officers approached the vehicle to extract Lacy, they say he had died from what appeared to be a self-inflicted gunshot wound, the report said.

Lacy, 24, was pronounced dead at the scene by emergency responders. He had been facing criminal charges stemming from a fatal car accident in Louisiana in December.

“We’re saddened to learn of the tragic passing of former LSU football student-athlete Kyren Lacy,” LSU said in a statement. “Our thoughts and prayers are with his family and loved ones, as well as his former teammates and coaches impacted by his passing.”

In a social media post Sunday, Lacy’s father, Kenny Lacy, urged parents to check in on their children’s mental health from an early age.

“Our lives have changed forever and this will never be ok, but God needed my baby more than he was needed here,” Kenny Lacy wrote on Facebook. “This has to be the biggest pill our families have had to swallow but I know the love and compassion in our families will get us through.”

Kyren Lacy was accused of causing a crash that killed a 78-year-old man Dec. 17 and then fleeing the scene without rendering aid or calling authorities. On Jan. 12, he turned himself in to authorities, was jailed and then released on $151,000 bail, according to police records.

Lafourche (Louisiana) Parish Sheriff’s Office records indicated that Lacy was charged with negligent homicide, felony hit-and-run with death and reckless operation of a vehicle. A grand jury was to begin hearing evidence in the case Monday.

“It is with profound sorrow that we confirm the tragic passing of Kyren Lacy. First and foremost, we ask that the public and the media give his family the space and time they need to grieve this unimaginable loss in peace,” Lacy’s attorney, Matthew Ory, said in a statement to ESPN’s Mark Schlabach.

Ory added that he was “very confident the evidence, after being fully collected and reviewed, would lead to a declination of charges” and that, “we will be demanding a full and transparent review of how this investigation was conducted and why.”

Lacy declared for the NFL draft Dec. 19, two days after the crash, and did not play in LSU’s win over Baylor in the Texas Bowl. He participated in March at LSU’s pro day and was ranked as high as the No. 6 receiver prospect in the draft by ESPN’s Mel Kiper Jr. in December. Lacy was not ranked among the top 10 available wide receivers in Kiper’s most recent Big Board, which was published last month.

Lacy played three seasons at LSU after starting his career at Louisiana. Lacy had his best season last year when he caught 58 passes for 866 yards and a team-leading nine touchdowns.

Information from ESPN’s Chris Low and Adam Schefter and The Associated Press was included in this report.