Food City 500
The Food City 500 left fans with quite a bit to unpack.
First off, the words of the race were “tires” and “marbles.” Early into the first run, drivers were complaining of, and experiencing, tire issues.
It was later discovered that potentially, the setup of the tires, combined with the resin applied to the track and possibly the weather, resulted in tires not lasting more than about 50 laps.
Corded tires, flat tires, blown tires – tires were the culprit behind many of the cautions, and near misses, on Sunday afternoon.
Then, throw in the 54 lead changes between 16 different drivers – a Bristol Motor Speedway record. This was an incredible feat that came following three-wide racing and a hodgepodge of pit strategies.
Drivers, and fans, seemed to mostly enjoy the chaos that came out of the Last Great Colosseum.
Once the checkered flag finally waved, Denny Hamlin stood victorious, claiming his fourth NASCAR Cup Series win at Bristol.
Rich MARvelous Move of the Race
Surprisingly, the Pit Pass Network team was unanimous when it came to picking the Rich MARvelous Move of the Race.
If you watched the race, you witnessed the field managing to not wreck for the final 120 laps.
Did drivers face tire issues? Of course! (It’s Bristol, baby!)
But, those who did have problems managed to make it to pit road without taking out other cars.
Also, drivers managed to successfully complete a round of green flag pit stops, which included tire issues, and no wrecks.
It was really quite a thing of beauty.
So it seems like a cop-out giving The Move to the entire field, but really, they made the most with what they had this weekend. Teams were forced to change strategy mid-race once the tire issue was discovered, they made that strategy work, and delivered an incredible race for fans.
Honorable Mention
We do want to give a bonus shoutout to NASCAR and Goodyear. Once the tire issue was discovered and the math showed teams would not have enough tires to make it to the end, Goodyear got to work mounting new tires. They went on to provide a full, extra set to each and every team in the field.
Finally, thank you to NASCAR and Bristol Motor Speedway for not, once again, covering up this amazing, historical track with dirt. It was (sort of) fun while it lasted. However, it was so nice to have concrete Bristol back for the Spring race.
