Food City Dirt Race Tag

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service  BRISTOL, Tenn. – Before Sunday night’s Food City Dirt Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, Christopher Bell lamented that a “dirt guy” hadn’t won the NASCAR Cup Series’ only race on the red clay in Thunder Valley.  Bell fixed the problem—in a race that also saw hard feelings between pole winner Kyle Larson and Ryan Preece boil over.  Holding off charging Tyler Reddick in the final stage of the 250-lap race, Bell held a slim lead over Reddick when NASCAR called the 14th caution with 200Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service  BRISTOL, Tenn. – It didn’t take long for Kyle Larson to assert his superiority on the dirt track at Bristol Motor Speedway. Starting sixth in the third of four 15-lap qualifying heat races, Larson had stormed into the lead before the end of the first lap and held off charging Ryan Preece for a wire-to-wire victory. The combination of finishing position and passing points gave Larson 15 total points, good for the pole position for Sunday’s Food City Dirt Race at Thunder Valley (7Read More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor As the laps wound down in Sunday’s Food City Dirt Race at Bristol, Tyler Reddick and Chase Briscoe were battling it out to see which of them would be taking home the win. By the time the checkered flag fell, neither of them would end the night in Victory Lane. Reddick and Briscoe combined to lead 158 of the 250 laps on the night, with Reddick leading a race-high 99 laps – almost the entirety of the final stage of the race. With Reddick’s No. 8Read More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service BRISTOL, Tenn. – Kyle Busch has a special fondness for Bristol Motor Speedway, but the driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota needed a huge stroke of luck on Sunday night to rekindle his love affair with the half-mile track. Busch won the Food City Dirt Race from a distant third place after the Ford of second-place Chase Briscoe slid up the high-banked dirt track into the Chevrolet of leader Tyler Reddick in the final corner, turning both cars sideways.  Reddick rightedRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Charge from the back nets Cole Custer first pole on Bristol Dirt BRISTOL, Tenn. – Cole Custer charged from ninth to second in the first of four 15-lap qualifying heat races on Saturday to earn the pole position for Sunday night’s Food City Dirt Race at the Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt track (7 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). Custer surged from fifth to second moments after a restart with six laps left in the qualifying race. He finished second toRead More

By David Morgan, Associate Editor For the first time since 1989, the NASCAR Cup Series is racing on Easter weekend as it makes its return to the dirt on Bristol Motor Speedway for Sunday night’s running of the Food City Dirt Race. A year after the Cup cars made their dirt debut at Bristol on a sunny Monday afternoon, the 2022 version of the event will see the Next Gen car make its dirt debut under the lights on Easter Sunday. The car was put through its paces on the dirtRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer A week after a pit penalty bit Daniel Suarez’s bid of a strong result at Atlanta, he was able to deliver big at Bristol. Suarez crossed the line in fourth, bringing Trackhouse Racing its maiden top-five in just their seventh race. Despite being a dirt track, not only Suarez adapted extremely well, he even led 58 laps in Monday’s race. It wasn’t a maiden NASCAR Cup Series win for him and Trackhouse, but certainly felt sweet. “To be honest, I had no idea what I wasRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Joey Logano made history on Monday afternoon. Leading the final 61 laps in the face of a determined charge by Denny Hamlin, Logano won the rain-delayed Food City Dirt Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, the first dirt-track race for the NASCAR Cup Series since 1970. But there won’t be that long a gap in the future, given that BMS executive and general manager Jerry Caldwell announced during the race that NASCAR will return to the Bristol dirt in 2022. Logano grabbed the lead fromRead More

By Reid Spencer, NASCAR Wire Service Dirt—that’s the great unknown when NASCAR Cup Series drivers venture to the transformed Bristol Motor Speedway for Sunday’s Food City Dirt Race (3:30 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio). NASCAR’s top series hasn’t raced on dirt since Sept. 30, 1970, when Richard Petty beat runner-up Neil Castles by more than two laps at North Carolina State Fairgrounds Speedway in Raleigh. Accordingly, Sunday’s event is arguably the most anticipated race of the Cup season. Conventional wisdom says that drivers with extensive experienceRead More

By Luis Torres, Staff Writer The NASCAR Cup Series’ most anticipated race in quite some time is this Sunday. Folks have their obvious picks as to who’ll win the Food City Dirt Race at Bristol Motor Speedway. No question the large consensus will pick Kyle Larson due to his dirt racing dominance. However, a couple competitors could steal Larson’s thunder. The man himself said Austin Dillon could be the one leaving “Thunder Valley” with the win, outside of him of course. Dillon is no slouch in dirt racing. In fact, heRead More