Food City 500 Tag

By David Morgan, NASCAR Writer After scoring his best career finish in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series last weekend at Texas, Chase Elliott and the other Cup Series rookies headed into Bristol ready to get a crash course in racing on the half-mile bullring. All five rookies started outside of the top-15 and although Bristol seemed to have their number early on, most of them found a way to turn things around by the time the checkered flag flew. Leading the way once again was Elliott, who fell two lapsRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Landon Cassill may not have ended up with a career-best finish in Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, but he had arguably his best race of his NASCAR Sprint Cup Series career. The 26-year old driver started the day from the 28th-position, but his car wasn’t handling to his liking as he didn’t make up much ground on the first run of the day. After the team’s first pit stop, Cassill radioed to crew chief Donnie Wingo, “You definitely helped me, but just a little bit. NeedRead More

By Joey Barnes, Editor-in-Chief Matt Kenseth’s season of consistent struggles continued Sunday in the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. After looking a sure contender for the race win, Kenseth crashed just 187 laps into the 500 lap event. Kenseth confirmed that it was a tire failure that plagued his No. 20 Dollar General Toyota, forcing hard contact with the wall and damaging the right side of his car. The Joe Gibbs Racing driver managed to work his way up to third after restarting 26th, but not long afterRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Kyle Busch came into Bristol Motor Speedway on a two-race winning streak in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, and considering he’s a five-time winner at ‘The World’s Fastest Half-Mile,’ many expected another good day from Busch. However, Busch suffered a melted bead on his right front tire early in the race, and he endured cut tires all day long, which finally resulted in a hard accident on lap 257. Busch would wind up finishing 38th after retiring on lap 258 because of unrepairable damage to hisRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BRISTOL, Tenn. – Danica Patrick and Denny Hamlin had had their differences in the past, but what happened in Saturday morning’s first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series practice at Bristol Motor Speedway had nothing to do with old grudges. Nevertheless, contact between their two cars bent the sheet metal on both vehicles, Hamlin’s on the right front and Patrick’s on the left rear. Patrick, on new tires, was struggling with the handling of her No. 10 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet and had difficulty holding the bottom.Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BRISTOL, Tenn. – When Carl Edwards wins the pole at Bristol, good things happen – for Edwards. So forgive the driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing if he feels optimistic about Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway (1 p.m. ET on FOX), the eighth NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race of the season. With the only sub-15-second lap in the money round of Friday’s knockout qualifying at the .533-mile short track, Edwards won his second Coors Light Pole Award of theRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Kyle Busch has been great so far in 2016, and he’s in the midst of a hot streak. He also has a very good past at Bristol Motor Speedway, the site of this week’s Food City 500. Chances are Busch either wins again this weekend — for the third time in a row at the Sprint Cup level — or at the very least he contends. But there are a number of drivers who haven’t won yet in 2016 who are also not too shabbyRead More

By David Morgan, NASCAR Writer As the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to Bristol for this weekend’s Food City 500, it’s that time of the week again when we take a step back in history to look at a significant race from Bristol’s past. On the docket for this week’s “Throwback Thursday Theater” is the 1990 Valleydale Meats 500, which came down to a photo finish to determine the winner. Ahead of the spring race weekend at Bristol that year, the track had put down a sealer on the thenRead More

By Toby Christie, NASCAR Editor Roush Fenway Racing is coming off of arguably its strongest race in a couple of seasons. Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Trevor Bayne were top-10 competitors all night long in the Duck Commander 500 at Texas, and Greg Biffle was a solid top-15 car as well. However, they all faced difficult outcomes. Stenhouse was collected in a 13-car pileup, Bayne was caught a lap down by a wonky pit strategy and Biffle was crashed by Kasey Kahne. But nonetheless you can feel the momentum building forRead More

BRISTOL, Tenn.—In a race delayed and interrupted by rain, and ended in overtime, Matt Kenseth broke a drought of more than a year’s standing in Sunday’s Food City 500 in Support of Steve Byrnes at Bristol Motor Speedway. In a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race that went 11 laps past its scheduled distance of 500 laps—making it the longest race in the history of the .533-mile short track—Kenseth crossed the finish line .287 seconds ahead of Jimmie Johnson, who recovered from a succession of issues to claim the runner-up finish.Read More