Popular worship leader Chris Tomlin will serve as the Honorary Starter and America’s Pastor Max Lucado has been named the Grand Marshal for the Food City Dirt Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, it was announced today by Food City during a press conference at the racetrack. 

Serving as Grand Marshal, Lucado will give the command to fire engines prior to the 7 p.m. start of the NASCAR Cup Series race. Before Lucado’s command, former Rascal Flatts lead singer Gary LeVox will perform the National Anthem.

The invocation will be provided once again by Mike Rife, pastor of the Vansant (Va.) Church of Christ. Rife has given the invocation for this race for more than two decades.

As Honorary Starter, Grammy-award winner Tomlin will wave the green flag from high above in the frontstretch flagstand as the 40 drivers mash the gas at the start of the NASCAR Cup Series race on the temporary half-mile dirt track.

“Jerry Caldwell and his team at BMS are working hard to ensure this will be a historic weekend for the entire family. They have an all-star lineup planned for both on and off the track,” says Steven C. Smith, Food City president and chief executive officer. “In conjunction with this special Easter weekend celebration, Food City is honored to have world-renowned pastor, speaker, and best-selling author Max Lucado serve as our race grand marshal and Grammy and Dove award winning contemporary Christian artist, Chris Tomlin serve as honorary starter.”

The Food City Dirt Race will showcase the NASCAR Cup Series on a dirt track for the second time in the modern era on Easter Sunday, April 17, when the green flag drops at 7 p.m. (FOX, PRN Radio and Sirius XM NASCAR Radio). 

For tickets, please visit www.bristolmotorspeedway.com or call the BMS Ticket Office at (866) 415-4158.

About Food City

Headquartered in Abingdon, Virginia, Food City is a local, family-owned company operating 138 retail supermarkets throughout southeast Kentucky, southwest Virginia, east Tennessee, north Georgia, and Alabama.  The company serves as the title sponsor of the spring Cup Series Food City Dirt Race and fall Food City 300 Xfinity race.  Celebrating 30 years of racing, Food City is Bristol Motor Speedway’s longest running sponsor and the second longest in NASCAR Motorsports.  Food City’s annual Family Race Night events have contributed more than $565,000 in proceeds to charitable organizations throughout the region over the past 35 years.

About Bristol Motor Speedway 

Forged amid the scenic mountains of Northeast Tennessee near the Virginia state line, Bristol Motor Speedway is The Last Great Colosseum, a versatile multi-use venue that hosts major auto races, football games, concerts and many other captivating events. The facility features a 0.533-mile concrete oval race track with 28-degree corner banking and 650-feet straightaways that offers racing in several NASCAR touring series, highlighted by two major Cup Series weekends each year. In 2020, the track also served as host of the prestigious NASCAR All-Star Race, and in 2021 began converting to a temporary dirt track each spring to take the Cup Series back to its racing roots. While at the track, fans are offered a unique viewing experience courtesy of Colossus TV, the world’s largest outdoor center-hung four-sided video screen with a 540,000-watt audio system. The adjacent quarter-mile dragstrip, Bristol Dragway, offers more than 50 events annually, including the marquee NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals. The Thunder Valley Amphitheatre presented by Ballad Health transforms Bristol Dragway into a premier outdoor concert venue for the world’s greatest music performers. Three football games have kicked-off inside the oval, most notably the 2016 Pilot Flying J Battle at Bristol, where border rivals the University of Tennessee and Virginia Tech met before an NCAA-record crowd of 156,990. In existence since 1961, Bristol Motor Speedway was purchased in 1996 by Speedway Motorsports, Inc., a publicly traded company that is a leading marketer and promoter of motorsports entertainment in the United States. For more information, please visit www.bristolmotorspeedway.com.