Bristol Motor Speedway’s Food City 500: 11 historic moments

Food City and Bristol Motor Speedway have had a 26-year partnership for the track's spring race. As the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series returns for the Food City 500, we look at 11 of the best moments from Bristol's spring race.

April 5, 1992: Alan Kulwicki passed Dale Jarrett with 26 laps to go, but the race wasn't over. Kulwicki held on to win, with Jarrett trailing by only .72 seconds.

April 4, 1993: Rusty Wallace and Dale Earnhardt made the second Food City 500 a race to remember, with Wallace beating 'The Intimidator' by .82 seconds. The No. 2 Team Penske driver then capped off the celebration by performing a 'Polish victory lap' going clockwise around the track in a salute to the reverse-victory lap founder, Alan Kulwicki, who passed away days before.

April 13, 1997: Rusty Wallace had led 240 laps at his best track based on wins (nine), hopeful to close in on another win at the .533-miler. That was until Jeff Gordon closed in on his fellow champion. Gordon made several attempts to pass Wallace and eventually did so by bumping him on the final lap, nudging the No. 2 Ford out of the way while Gordon took the checkered flag. Wallace later called the incident a 'love tap.'

March 26, 2000: Rusty Wallace's best track was Bristol Motor Speedway, and he seemed to like it most in the spring. The 2000 Food City 500 was Wallace's eighth win here and his last victory in the spring race. He won the fall race that season as well, capping off wins in three of four races at The Last Great Colosseum from 1999-2000.

March 24, 2002: Jimmy Spencer, driver of the No. 41 Ganassi Racing Dodge, and Kurt Busch, then driving the No. 97 for Roush Fenway Racing, tangled repeatedly over several years. At the 2002 Food City 500, Busch spun Spencer en route to the victory.

March 26, 2006: Short tracks have a tendency to spark short tempers and the 2006 Food City 500 was no different. Battling for position, Jeff Gordon nudged Matt Kenseth out of the way late to better his chances of securing the win. Kenseth returned the favor, ultimately spinning Gordon out. The four-time champion tracked down Kenseth on pit road after the checkered flag and delivered a hard, two-handed shove. Kenseth would apologize.

March 21, 2010: On the path to his fifth premier series championship, Hendrick Motorsports driver Jimmie Johnson earned his 50th series win at Bristol, celebrating the landmark victory with his No. 48 team. Johnson now is up to 83 career wins.

March 20, 2011: Kyle Busch has six wins at Bristol, the most the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing driver has at any track. Prior to his night race win in 2017, his previous one came six years ago at the Food City 500, which was renamed the Jeff Byrd 500 presented by Food City to honor the speedway president who died in 2010.

March 17, 2013: Planting the seed for what would later turn into a larger confrontation, Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano got into it after Hamlin made contact with the No. 22 Ford's bumper, sending Logano spinning. Hamlin later said (echoing Earnhardt's famous quote), 'I meant to run into him, didn't mean to spin him out.' After the race, Logano greeted Hamlin by sticking his head in the No. 11 Toyota and lunging after Hamlin before crew members pulled the Team Penske driver away. The dust didn't settle there between the former teammates, as one week later, the two drivers were involved in a final-lap wreck at Auto Club Speedway, resulting in Hamlin injuring his back.

April 17, 2016: Carl Edwards performs his trademark backflip after winning the Food City 500. No one knew at the time that it might be Edwards' last victory at the track, as he abruptly walked away from Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series racing after the 2016 season.

April 24, 2017: Jimmie Johnson nabs the victory in a race that was moved to Monday due to plenty of rain in Thunder Valley. Johnson surged late for the victory; just his second win at Bristol. Interestingly enough, the race came the day before Dale Earnhardt Jr. announced his retirement from full-time competition at the end of 2017.