The Bristol Dirt Race was finally won by a dirt track veteran. Christopher Bell won the Food City Dirt Race Sunday evening (4/9) at Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt.
The first two years of this special race in the NASCAR Cup Series were won by Joey Logano (2021) and Kyle Busch (2022). Neither of those two have a background in racing on the dirt tracks. However, many others in the top division of NASCAR do.
This year’s Bristol Dirt Race was a better race over-all than the first two years, in my opinion. They seemed to have found a better construction for the track itself. There was side-by-side racing all through the race. It was three-wide and even four-wide at times. I attribute that to the quality of the racing surface. The dirt worked in to provide a very wide racing area that had multiple grooves for the drivers to race in.
There were battles for the lead and throughout the field for position. There were only four official leaders in the race. However, many times there would be multiple cross-over moves on a single lap by the two cars racing for the lead.
Cars would do a 360-degree spin and keep on racing. There were also crashes and spins that would bring out the caution flag a total of 14 times. Two of those were at the end of the first two stages of the race. Kyle Larson was the winner of stage one and Tyler Reddick was the winner of stage two.
The only time drivers could fuel their cars or change tires that were not flat was at the end of the first two stages during non-competitive pit-stops. That led to some strategy that played out. Christopher Bell chose to stay out at the end of stage two of the race. That put Bell out front for the start of stage three.
Bell was able to keep that lead through the final 100 laps of the race, the race-high number of laps led. Tyler Reddick was trying to challenge Bell in the final lap. However, the final caution flag waived as the two cars entered turn three on the last lap. That ended the race and froze the field in the order they were for the finish.
The win was Christopher Bell’s first Cup Series win at Bristol, on the dirt or concrete. It is his first win of the 2023 NASCAR season and his fifth career win in the NASCAR Cup Series. Tyler Reddick took home the second-place finish with Austin Dillon getting third. See the complete race results for the 2023 Food City Dirt Race here.
Leaving Bristol Motor Speedway Dirt, Christopher Bell leads the point standings. Ross Chastain sits in second-place with Kevin Harvick in third. See the complete NASCAR Cup Series Point Standings here.
The NASCAR Cup Series has another week of short trackin’ ahead. This time it is on the asphalt straightaways and concrete turns of Martinsville Speedway. The NOCO 400 takes place Sunday, April 16th.
By: Buck Stevens
