Monday (3/29) NASCAR raced on dirt for the first time in more than 50 years on Monday in the Food City Dirt Race. The Food City Dirt Race had plenty of action following a weekend that included torrential rain and flooding at the track.
Saturday night’s qualifying heat races for the NASCAR Cup Series were rained out. Sunday’s actual race was flooded and muddied out and postponed to Monday. The dirt track event at Bristol was worth the wait.
There were only five lead changes among five drivers. However, the action was pretty much non-stop throughout the field for every spot on the track. Just because there were only five lead changes doesn’t mean there were only five attempts to take the lead. There were plenty of side-by-side battles at the front of the race. The dirt factor just made it a challenge to actually take the lead. This challenge provided some exciting racing for fans to enjoy.
Martin Truex Jr. led the most laps spending 126 laps of the 250 lap race as the leading car. He also captured the win in stage 1. Joey Logano was the winner of stage 2. There was a total of 10 caution flags including the two competition cautions and the end of the first two stages of the race.
Joey was the second highest on the lap leaders list. He led the final 61 laps of the race including the overtime period of the green-white-checkered finish. Joey claimed the first ever NASCAR Cup Series dirt race at Bristol Motor Speedway. He also becomes the seventh different 2021 NASCAR Cup Series winner in seven 20201 NASCAR Cup Series races so far.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. claimed the second place finish. Denny Hamlin ends the race in third place. Daniel Suarez and Ryan Newman rounded out the top five in fourth and fifth places respectively. See the complete race results for the Food City Dirt Race at Bristol here.
Denny Hamlin hangs on as the leader in the point standings following the dirt race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Joey Logano moves up a spot to second place following his win on the dirt. Martin Truex Jr. also moves up a spot to third place. Kyle Larson falls two spots to fourth place while Brad Keselowski holds steady in fifth place. See the complete NASCAR Cup Series point standings here.
NASCAR and Bristol Motor Speedway announced during the race that the spring race at the track in 2022 will again take place on dirt.
The NASCAR Cup Series will take this weekend off to celebrate Easter. The teams will go short trackin’ again, this time minus the dirt Saturday, April 10th at Martinsville Speedway for the Blue-Emu Maximum Pain Relief 500.
By: Buck Stevens
