Monday’s resumption of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Food City 500 has been delayed by inclement weather at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Just 204 of the scheduled 500 laps were completed Sunday afternoon before rain bumped the remainder to a 1 p.m. ET start (FOX, PRN, SiriusXM) Monday. But rain mixed with wintry precipitation late in the morning, plus a cloudburst just 20 minutes before the scheduled restart, have placed the race’s resumption on hold.
Kyle Larson will be scored as the leader when the race resumes with 46 laps remaining in the second stage. Larson led 74 laps and had stretched out a significant advantage when rain stopped the event. Four red flags slowed Sunday’s action — three for weather, one for crash clean-up.
NASCAR officials announced Monday morning that the track would attempt to re-apply a light coat of PJ1 traction compound if time and weather conditions allowed. Teams also were granted the option for an extra set of new or scuffed tires for the remainder of the event.
NASCAR has an allotment of eight Air Titan dryers, five jet dryers (three side-draft and two down-draft), two track vacuums, one Elgin sweeper and one tractor broom to prepare the .533-mile track.
The one-day race postponement of Bristol Motor Speedway’s Food City 500 to Monday, combined with unfavorable weather conditions forecast for Michigan International Speedway this week, has forced the rescheduling of a Goodyear tire test.
Goodyear officials have postponed this week’s scheduled Tuesday and Wednesday test at Michigan and will instead hold the session April 24-25.
That late April date was originally a planned test at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, but because the Michigan race weekend is June 8-10 and the Indianapolis race weekend is not until Sept. 7-9, officials decided to reschedule.
“Given the postponement of the Bristol race and the extremely cool conditions forecast for Michigan this week, Goodyear and NASCAR felt it best to reschedule the tire test at MIS until next week,” Goodyear’s Director of Racing Greg Stucker said Monday. “Hopefully this will give us much more representative conditions of what to expect for race time in June (at Michigan.)”
Stucker said the company was hopeful to move the Indianapolis tire test to another date in either June or July.
Martin Truex Jr. (Furniture Row Racing), Alex Bowman (Hendrick Motorsports), Brad Keselowski (Penske Racing), Austin Dillon (Richard Childress Racing) and Aric Almirola (Stewart-Haas Racing) are scheduled to test at Michigan.
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NASCAR Drive for Diversity driver Rajah Caruth and NASCAR Diversity Internship Program graduate and current Rick Ware Racing engineer Monon Rahman organized the George Floyd 100 – an iRacing event helping raise awareness within the motorsports community about the Black Lives Matter movement. The race will take place Friday night at 8:30 PM ET and will be broadcast on YouTube provided by STN Racing.
Each entrant racing in the George Floyd 100 donated $9 to the Official George Floyd Memorial Fund and as of June 3, the over 101 entrants helped raise $1,286. During the race broadcast there will also be information for viewers to donate to the NAACP Legal Defense fund. Trading Paints will be backing a donation of $1 per unique stream/viewer of the race up to $1,000.
During the race, there will be a competition caution on Lap 20 to have three minutes of silence to signify the three minutes Floyd was unconscious. All iRacing participants have been encouraged to have paint schemes that pay tribute to Floyd, Breonna Taylor and others who have been killed.
Rajah Caruth spent his first season with Rev Racing, participating in the NASCAR Drive for Diversity Youth Development Program, running in the U.S. Legend Car Series. In 2020, In 2020, Caruth will pilot a full-time ride in the Whelen All-American Series as well as participate in the Bojangles Summer Shootout at Charlotte Motor Speedway beginning next week. Caruth is the first driver from a majority iRacing background to be selected for the program. He is a product of the eNASCAR IGNITE Series – a grassroots youth racing platform that identifies drivers without access to traditional racetracks around the world.
Brad Keselowski won both stages and did it in a span of over two days in the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Keselowski won an eventful opening stage Sunday, taking the top spot when teammate Ryan Blaney crashed to lead the way at the quarter mark of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race. Then, he took the second stage when the race resumed Monday because of inclement weather.
In Stage 1, Keselowski’s Team Penske No. 2 Ford led just eight of the 125 laps, which featured a handful of crashes and a pair of red flags. Keselowski’s stage win was his second of the season, earning him a playoff point to bank for the postseason.
Ryan Newman surged to second place, and Clint Bowyer, AJ Allmendinger and Kyle Larson completed the top five on the .533-mile track.
Blaney’s No. 12 Ford led 100 laps before sustaining race-ending damage to the front end during a Lap 117 pile-up. Chris Buescher and Trevor Bayne tangled on the backstraight, collecting Jamie McMurray, Harrison Rhodes and Blaney in their wake.
The race was slowed by two caution periods before the third yellow flag flew because of rain. The first was the largest, a multicar stack-up triggered by Michael McDowell’s spin off Turn 4 on Lap 4. McDowell’s No. 34 Ford collected the cars of Chase Elliott, William Byron, Allmendinger, Martin Truex Jr. and others on the frontstretch.
A solo spin by Allmendinger brought out the second caution. The third yellow flag (which developed into a 25-minute, 25-second red flag for rain) also served as a scheduled competition caution period.
Finish
Driver
Team
Race points
1
Brad Keselowski
Team Penske
10
2
Ryan Newman
Richard Childress Racing
9
3
Clint Bowyer
Stewart-Haas Racing
8
4
AJ Allmendinger
JTG-Daugherty Racing
7
5
Kyle Larson
Chip Ganassi Racing
6
6
Erik Jones
Joe Gibbs Racing
5
7
Jimmie Johnson
Hendrick Motorsports
4
8
Aric Almirola
Stewart-Haas Racing
3
9
Kurt Busch
Stewart-Haas Racing
2
10
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
Roush Fenway Racing
1
STAGE 2
Keselowski rolled to a Stage 2 victory, his third of the season, Monday afternoon at Bristol Motor Speedway, leading at the halfway point of the Food City 500.
Keselowski swept past second-stage dominator Kyle Larson with six laps left in the 125-lap stage to collect his third stage win of the season. The eighth Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race of the year is scheduled for 500 laps.
Pole-starter Kyle Busch took second place at the drop of the green-checkered flag. Jimmie Johnson, Denny Hamlin and Larson completed the top five.
The stage took place over two days, as intermittent rain Sunday afternoon suspended the race until Monday with 204 laps complete. Larson was leader at that point, having led 74 consecutive laps.
Ryan Blaney’s high hopes for Bristol Motor Speedway ended in a crash near the end of Sunday’s first stage in the Food City 500.
Blaney led twice for 100 laps, but his Team Penske No. 12 Ford was collected when Trevor Bayne and Chris Buescher tangled on the backstretch, clogging the track on Lap 117 of a scheduled 500. Harrison Rhodes and Jamie McMurray also piled in, but Blaney’s front-running car sustained race-ending front-end damage.
“It’s obviously frustrating when lapped cars wreck and take the leader out. That’s unfortunate,” Blaney said after being checked out at the infield care center. “They weren’t lap-down cars yet, I guess, but I don’t know. I didn’t really see much. By the time I got away from the car right in front of me they were already turned right up the race track and I was already going to the top.
“I kind of saw them spinning low and I thought that top was gonna be OK and then they slid back up and got us. That stinks. I thought we had a good car and nothing to show for it.”
Blaney was in position to clinch his third stage win of the season, but teammate Brad Keselowski took over the top spot and held on for his second stage victory of 2018.
Bayne continued after the contact, but Buescher and Rhodes were sidelined for the rest of the day.
“Unfortunately, I hate that it did collect Blaney and everybody involved,” Buescher said. “I hate that we all got a bunch of torn-up race cars. All three or four of us were trying to get clear of one car for a long time and it got very frustrating. The top (groove) was coming in. It was exciting, I think it’s going to be a great race to the end. I’m just pissed off that we are not participating anymore.”
The clean-up forced the second red flag of the cool, damp day at the .533-mile track. The red flag period lasted six minutes.
BRISTOL, Tenn. — NASCAR Nation cast more than 100,000 votes during the last month to pick song choices for the 39 drivers who will enter The Last Great Colosseum during driver introductions for today’s Food City 500.
NASCAR’s best gladiators are prepared to do battle, beginning their routine with heart-pumping entrances that has their fans stamp of approval. Bristol Motor Speedway officials worked with each Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series driver and teams to identify three songs that were eligible for the fan vote.
Kyle Busch, a master of the iconic East Tennessee half-mile, has won a lot at Bristol (20 wins across NASCAR’s top three series and six in Cup), so it was only fitting that the fans chose “All I Do Is WIN” by DJ Khalid, which received 47 percent of the vote. The 2015 Cup Series Champion swept the August Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race week last year and will take today’s 1 p.m. green flag from the pole.
Brother Kurt Busch, who has a not-to-shabby five Cup wins at Bristol, qualified second and will enjoy the fans choice. Nicknamed the Outlaw, fans chose Chris Stapleton “Outlaw State of Mind,” garnering 47 percent.
Fans of seven-time Cup Series champion Jimmie Johnson decided to honor him in style. The two-time and defending Food City 500 winner will have his “Seven Nation Army” with him as The White Stripes classic earned 50 percent.
Chase Elliott has perhaps the most unique driver intro song. The fans went to bat for the Elliott family, voting for “A Crazy Racin’ Man” by Bill Elliott, a song off the 1983 album Stock Car Entertainers of the Year. The song garnered 58 percent of the vote.
William Byron and Trevor Bayne will have school spirit for their walkouts. Byron, a Liberty University student, will enter to “Fan the Flames” (41 percent of the vote), while Bayne, a Knoxville native, will get the crowd going with “Rocky Top” (60 percent), representing the orange and white of the University of Tennessee.
Two-time Bristol winner Kevin Harvick may have the most ironic song choice in the field. Harvick will be using the Pharrell song “Happy,” but the driver of the No. 4 is starting 39th. It remains to be seen whether Harvick will be a happy camper at The Last Great Colosseum.
Other top highlights included Brad Keselowski (The Beach Boys’ “Little Deuce Coupe”), Ryan Blaney (Johnny Cash’s “Folsom Prison Blues”), Daniel Suarez (“Speedy Gonzalez” by Pat Boone) and Chris Buescher (“Pork and Beans” by Weezer, an ode to his sponsor for the race, Bush’s Beans).
Driver
Song, artist
Vote percentage
Kyle Busch
“All I Do is WIN” by DJ Khaled
47 percent
Brad Keselowski
“Little Deuce Coupe” by The Beach Boys
40 percent
Ryan Blaney
“Folsom Prison Blues” by Johnny Cash
54 percent
Kyle Larson
“Dirt Road Anthem” by Jason Aldean
56 percent
Paul Menard
“R.O.C.K. in the USA” by John Mellencamp
50 percent
Alex Bowman
“Rise” by I Prevail
60 percent
Michael McDowell
“Taken it to the Streets”, by The Doobie Brothers
66 percent
Joey Logano
“Brass Monkey” by The Beastie Boys
47 percent
William Byron
“Fan the Flames” by Liberty University
41 percent
Daniel Suarez
“Speedy Gonzalez” by Pat Boone
50 percent
Erik Jones
“You Ain’t Seen Nothin Yet” by Bachman Turner Overdrive
37 percent
Clint Bowyer
“Country Boy Can Survive” by Hank Williams Jr.
51 percent
Kasey Kahne
“5-1-5-0” by Dierks Bentley
41 percent
Chase Elliott
“A Crazy Racin’ Man” by Bill Elliott
58 percent
Landon Cassill
“Going to Mars” by Judah and the Lion
Ryan Newman
“Huntin, Fishin & Lovin Every Day” by Luke Bryan
53 percent
Jamie McMurray
“One” by Metallica
42 percent
Ty Dillon
“Walk it Like I Talk It” by Migos
51 percent
Trevor Bayne
“Rocky Top” by the Pride of the Southland Marching Band
The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series’ Food City 500 was halted by weather for a third time on a soggy Sunday afternoon at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Kyle Larson was scored as the leader with 204 of a scheduled 500 laps complete. Denny Hamlin was in second place, with Paul Menard, pole-starter Kyle Busch and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. completing the top five.
Erik Jones was scored as the leader with 165 of a scheduled 500 laps complete. Kyle Larson was credited with second place, with Alex Bowman, Paul Menard and William Byron completing the top five.
Rain also interrupted the race at Lap 165 (26 minutes, 54 seconds of red-flag time) and Lap 49 (25 minutes, 25 seconds).
After seeing warm and sunny skies on Friday and most of Saturday, Sunday’s forecast that called for thunderstorms and 100 percent chance of precipitation proved correct. Storm clouds moved in Sunday, and morning precipitation dampened the track.
The start of Sunday’s event was set for 1 p.m. ET, but was delayed to an approximate 1:28 p.m. ET green flag as track officials got the track to a race-worthy condition. NASCAR has a crew of eight Air Titan dryers, five jet dryers (three side-draft and two down-draft), two track vacuums, one Elgin sweeper and one tractor broom to prepare the .533-mile track.
Hendrick Motorsports driver Jimmie Johnson is the defending race winner.
The remainder of Sunday’s Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway has been postponed to Monday because of rain.
On-track action is scheduled to begin at 1 p.m. ET on Monday, with TV coverage on FOX (PRN and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio will have the radio coverage).
Kyle Larson was scored as the leader after 204 laps when the race’s fourth red flag flew. There were three stoppages for rain (at Laps 49, 165 and 204) and one for crash clean-up (Lap 119).
Intermittent rain also delayed the start by approximately a half-hour. The green flag was initially set for 2 p.m. ET on Sunday, but NASCAR officials decided Saturday to move the start time up to 1 p.m ET. Sunday morning rain adjusted the start time to 1:28 p.m. ET.
Sean Gardner | Getty Images
Larson led 74 laps and had opened up a significant edge before the rains came for a final time. His Chip Ganassi Racing No. 42 Chevrolet was able to steer clear of rampant trouble in the race’s first half.
Larson said he was optimistic about his chances whenever the race resumed. He started from the pole position and led a race best 202 laps in last year’s Spring race at Bristol but finished sixth.
“Yeah, it’s hard to get a rhythm with all the rain and stuff and then getting out of your car and getting back in,” Larson said. “Our McDonald’s Chevy is really fast, I would just like to get some racing going, but then again, I feel like I always do better or do worse once the track gets a bunch of rubber on it.
“So, if we keep getting all these stops and jet dryers and stuff to take the rubber off the track, maybe it will help us out. But, feeling good about it so far.”
Some of those early pitfalls snagged early leader Ryan Blaney, who led 100 of the first 117 laps before his Team Penske No. 12 Ford was swept into a crash near the end of Stage 1. A collision involving the cars of Trevor Bayne and Chris Buescher obstructed the track, collecting Jamie McMurray, Harrison Rhodes and Blaney, who retired in 35th place with heavy front-end damage.
A Lap 3 stack-up sidelined other Bristol hopefuls. Michael McDowell lost control through Turn 4, and his spinning No. 34 Ford entangled Chase Elliott’s No. 9, Martin Truex Jr.’s No. 78 and AJ Allmendinger’s No. 47.
Brad Keselowski led once for 13 laps to win Stage 1, vaulting to the front when Blaney, his Team Penske teammate, crashed out. He was scored in 14th place when the race was forced to a Monday conclusion.
After seeing warm and sunny skies on Friday and most of Saturday, Sunday’s forecast that called for thunderstorms and 100 percent chance of precipitation proved correct. Storm clouds moved in Sunday morning and it began raining shortly after 10 a.m. ET.
Hendrick Motorsports driver Jimmie Johnson — currently scored eighth after starting at the back of the pack — is the defending race winner. Last spring’s Bristol race was also contested on a Monday.
Ever wonder what goes on in a driver meeting? We’re here to help.
This year, we’ll publish the actual rules video your favorite Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers will watch before climbing into their stock cars. Above is the video for the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Kyle Busch, the most recent Bristol winner, won the Busch Pole Qualifying Award and will start in the top position in Sunday’s Food City 500 (1 p.m. ET on FOX, PRN, SiriusXM NASCAR Radio) at Bristol Motor Speedway. After three practice sessions for this race, we’ve dissected the numbers and 10-lap averages to offer a suggested lineup worthy of your Fantasy Live consideration as you go to make roster decisions for the eighth Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series race of 2018.
RJ Kraft’s revised Fantasy Live lineup following practices and the lineup being set:
1: Kyle Busch
2: Erik Jones
3: Joey Logano
4: Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
5: Chase Elliott
Garage: Kurt Busch
Analysis: From my original lineup, I have taken Clint Bowyer and Denny Hamlin out and dropped in Kyle Busch and Chase Elliott. I had every intention of saving a Kyle Busch usage and stacking my bonus picks with him, but the results are hard to ignore. He’s on the pole, he topped the 10-lap board in final practice and he is the most recent winner here. I’ll worry about how to make the usage work down the line. Elliott was in the top four for 10-lap averages in both of Saturday’s practice sessions. He was also second on the overall speed charts in final practice and has two straight top-seven finishes here in the spring race. I haven’t used Elliott much, but I like taking that chance here. Bowyer suffered a little damage in final practice and should be fine; I just like the speed Elliott has shown.
Logano, Stenhouse and Jones were part of my original lineup and nothing I have seen in practices has convinced me to make a change. I also have not used these drivers that much thus far. If anything, Jones topping the 10-lap board in second practice reinforced my belief to stay with him. My one wrinkle is that I am sticking with Kurt Busch despite him moving to the rear (from his second-place starting spot) after a late wreck in final practice. The SHR driver has five wins here and has been fast this weekend — second in 10-lap averages in the final session. I will move him to the garage and evaluate where he is at towards the end of Stage 2 and make a decision from there.
