Rating the Race: Bristol – Food City 500

After the rainy skies of Tennessee deprived us of qualifying on Friday and shortened Sprint Cup practices over the weekend, many fans weren’t sure what to expect from Sunday’s running of the Food City 500. Would there be more than the normal number of comers and goers in the early to middle stages of the race? Would a pile of slower cars up front lead to numerous pileups on the track? We’ve waited since last Fall for NASCAR to bring us back to the short-track mayhem that we’ve all come to enjoy, and on Sunday afternoon we discovered our answers to all those questions.

Jeff Burton picked up the victory in a green-white-checkered overtime finish, but it didn’t come without a little bit of luck and help from his Richard Childress teammates. Despite running in or around the top-five for the entire day, the first lap he led was on lap 505 of the regularly scheduled 500 lap race, and even he admitted that he didn’t have a winning car.

Tony Stewart led 267 laps throughout the day, clearly establishing the no. 20 Home Depot Toyota as the car to beat. However, with just 12 laps remaining in regulation, Brian Vickers got into the wall to bring out the ninth caution of the day. Stewart – who was leading at the time – and his JGR teammate Denny Hamlin both elected to remain on the track, as did Dale Earnhardt Jr. Kevin Harvick gave up his second place position on the track to make a pit stop for some fresh tires, and the rest of the cars on the lead lap followed suit. The cars lined back up for the restart with five laps left, and Hamlin took the lead away from Stewart. Harvick also quickly disposed of Earnhardt for third position and then began working on Stewart for second. With the two racing side-by-side, Harvick’s left side tires got down on the apron going through turn 2, and it caused him to climb up the track just enough to catch Stewart, spinning him into the walls. The incident brought out the tenth and final caution of the day, and also sent the race into overtime.

The field lined up for the restart with Hamlin leading the race, followed by Jeff Burton and Kevin Harvick, who lost the second position to Burton during the incident with Stewart. When the final green flag of the day dropped, Hamlin’s fuel pickup failed him, and he was quickly passed by the five cars behind him, essentially handing the win over to Burton. Harvick went onto finish second, and behind him was the other RCR car of Clint Bowyer – who also led eighty plus laps during the first portion of the race. The race marked the first time that Childress had ever earned a 1-2 finish, let alone the 1-2-3 finish that he was rewarded with at Bristol. Unfortunately for Stewart, this was the third straight year that he led the most laps at the Spring Bristol race, yet his best finish in any of those races was 12th back in 2006. He finished today’s race 14th. Greg Biffle and Earnhardt Jr rounded out the top-five. Denny Hamlin went onto finish sixth.

Kyle Busch came into the race leading the points standings by 73 points over Greg Biffle. He was forced to start in 22nd place due to qualifying being rained out, but had managed to climb to the lead by lap 275. He was still leading the race when his power steering stuck on lap 291, sending him for a spin. He eventually finished the race two laps down, but still managed a 17th place finish, which was enough to maintain his top position on the standings. He now leads Biffle by 30 points. His brother, Kurt Busch, was the biggest mover of the race. After transferring his car owner points to Sam Hornish Jr at the beginning of the season, he had to rely on a past champion’s provisional and started all the way back in 36th. He finished the day in 12th.

The biggest surprise of the day was no doubt the no. 01 car driven by Aric Almirola who made his first Sprint Cup start of the season and managed to use it to grab hold of a solid 8th place finish. Directly behind him was David Gilliland whose ninth place effort gave the no. 38 team their first top-ten finish on the year after starting 32nd and falling a lap down early on in the race.

Dale Jarrett made the last scheduled points race start of his career, ending with a very disappointing 37th place run. Sam Hornish Jr. finished in 29th, but it was enough to move him into the top-35 in owners points, making him safe for the next race in Martinsville. Falling from the top-35 was Jamie McMurray, who finished in 43rd and now sits just four points behind Hornish.

After the incident involving Harvick and Stewart, Tony apparently expressed a few choice words concerning Harvick over his team radio, which also seems to have spawned a verbal sparring between their spotters at the end of the race. Stewart was very frustrated following the race, as did Harvick. Kevin admitted fault in his post-race interview, acknowledging that he got too far down onto the apron. He was also displeased by the actions taken by the spotters, claiming that he and Tony would be able to work things out just fine and that they didn’t need some ‘idiotic’ spotters fueling the fire.

Grades:
the Race:  95%
the Drama:  94%
Coverage:  82%
Pre-Race:  74%

Overall Grade: 90.1%

Complete Results (from nascar.com):

 Sprint Cup Standings (from nascar.com):