It's Bristol Baby!
In a wild finish in NASCAR’s only Cup Series dirt event, Kyle Busch came from third to first off the final turn at Bristol Motor Speedway to win the Food City Dirt Race Sunday night in Bristol, Tenn.
Chase Briscoe ran down leader Tyler Reddick in a 24-lap shootout at the end, then Briscoe slid into Reddick and wrecked both cars, which slid down onto the Turn 4 apron.
"We got one, doesn't matter how you get them, it's all about getting them," Busch said after the race. "I don't know why we just couldn't fire off after the rain. Every time it rained, both times, it just would not fire and took me about 20 laps to get going. Overall just real pumped to be back. Real pumped to get a win. This one means a lot. I can win on any surface here in Bristol. Bring it on baby."
Reddick, who is still looking for his first career Cup Series win, finished the rainy evening race having led for a career-best 99 laps, leading the field from the start of the third stage up until he was passed at the end.
The race was NASCAR’s second attempt at running a Cup race on dirt and it turned into a wet and muddy mystery when rain paused the racing and most of the drivers seemed clueless about the rules.
Bristol dumped more than 2,300 truckloads of Tennessee red clay onto its beloved concrete 0.533-mile bullring to help NASCAR add variety to the schedule at a time the stock car series is experimenting with radical changes. Fox Sports then convinced NASCAR to take the prime-time television slot on Easter Sunday, the first time since NASCAR’s 1949 inception the Cup Series deliberately chose the date.
NASCAR had held 10 previous Cup races on Easter Sunday in its history, but all because of weather-related rescheduling. This purposeful event was designed to dominate a television audience gathered together as a family the same way the NFL and NBA do on Thanksgiving and Christmas.
Food City Dirt Race Results:
Kyle Busch
Tyler Reddick
Joey Logano
Kyle Larson
Ryan Blaney
Alex Bowman
Christopher Bell
Chase Elliott
Michael McDowell
Ty Dillon
Brad Keselowski
Daniel Suarez
Cole Custer
Justin Haley
Chris Buescher
Austin Cindric
Todd Gilliland
William Byron
Corey LaJoie
Harrison Burton
Martin Truex Jr.
Chase Briscoe
Aric Almirola
Erik Jones
Josh Williams
Cody Ware
Noah Gragson
Bubba Wallace
Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
JJ Yeley(i)
Austin Dillon
Kurt Busch
Ross Chastain
Kevin Harvick
Denny Hamlin
Justin Allgaier
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