NASCAR may have accidentally found a winning formula at Bristol
NASCAR Cup Series driver Denny Hamlin (11) wins the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, the fifth race of the 2024 NASCAR Cup Series season, probably wasn’t the type of race the series was envisioning.
Instead, it was one of the most interesting short-track races in recent memory.
After complaints that there wasn’t enough tire wear in previous Bristol races with NASCAR’s Gen 7 car, Goodyear brought a softer tire this time around. Perhaps a bit too soft, if anything.
As a result of absurdly fast tire falloff, it became quickly evident that the race would be more about equipment conservation than raw speed, and with everyone backing off to save their tires, there were 54 lead changes among 16 drivers.
Additionally, the race ended on a 121-lap green-flag run, and as the field got spread out, all but five cars ended up falling a lap down at the finish. Winner Denny Hamlin, along with Martin Truex Jr., Brad Keselowski, Alex Bowman and Kyle Larson were the only lead lap finishers.
It felt like a race straight out of the 1980s or early 1990s, back when equipment was much less reliable and most weekends were about pacing and survival above all else. Only, rather than being some random roulette wheel of parts failures, virtually all of the control was in the drivers’ hands, and those who were able to conserve their tires were the ones who made it to the end with a shot at the win.
In today’s NASCAR, fans are accustomed to white-knuckle action in which every lap is run with the same intensity as a qualifying run. Yet at the end of the day, a NASCAR race is a marathon, not a sprint.
Sunday was a much-needed reminder of that, and whether intentional or not, the 2024 Food City 500 was one to remember.
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