Denny Hamlin held off Martin Truex Jr. to claim his 52nd win at the NASCAR Cup Series level in an exciting and action-packed race at Bristol Motor Speedway Sunday (March 17).
“Yeah, it’s just, it’s what I grew up doing here on the short tracks,” Hamlin told FOX Sports.
Brad Keselowski, Alex Bowman, Kyle Larson, John Hunter Nemechek, Chris Buescher, Chase Elliott, Ty Gibbs, and Christopher Bell rounded out the top 10 from third through 10th, respectively.
Stage one entertained with a chaotic 125 laps. Early contact with Joey Logano and Bell put William Byron into the wall, resulting in a broken toe link. In an attempt to test old tires, Tyler Reddick was swallowed after a restart, resulting in his spin and the stacking up of multiple cars in the back of the pack. This began the search for a strategy to combat extensive tire wear reminiscent of NASCAR’s past.
Beginning with Zane Smith midway through the stage and ending with Hamlin and Kyle Busch with two laps to go in the stage, three tires blew from the extensive tire wear seen throughout the field.
Stage one points were awarded to Gibbs, Larson, Buescher, Keselowski, Nemechek, Ryan Blaney, Truex, Ryan Preece, Josh Berry, and Bell from first through 10th, respectively. This marks Gibbs’s first stage win in Cup.
Drivers changed tactics for stage two, opting to race more conservatively to save tires. The continuous tire wear led to NASCAR allotting every team with an extra set of Goodyears. Many teams opted to utilize scuffed tires from Saturday’s practice to save a set of fresh Goodyears for the second half of the Food City 500. Gibbs swept the stages with an impressive run from the back to first place in stage two. Keselowski, Logano, Nemechek, Bell, Truex, Hamlin, Larson, Bubba Wallace, and Preece collected the remaining points from second to 10th, respectively.
The return to concrete for the Spring Bristol race proved to be entertaining and more competitive. Not only did the driver’s tire management come into play early in the race, the battle for the lead resulted in 54 lead changes, the most in a Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway since 1991 (40), and the most at any short track in NASCAR history.
Toyota, specifically Joe Gibbs Racing, continued to show an improvement in performance from last year, with five Toyotas finishing in the top 10.
Next Sunday (March 24), the NASCAR Cup Series travels to Texas for the first road…
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