Food City 500 – Bristol Motor Speedway
Bristol, Tenn. – April 13, 2025
AUSTIN CINDRIC No. 2 SNAP-ON FORD MUSTANG
START: 21ST STAGE 1: 18TH STAGE 2: 17TH FINISH: 17TH POINTS: 22ND
RACE RUNDOWN: Austin Cindric and the No. 2 Snap-on Ford Mustang team finished 17th in Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. After rolling off 21st, Cindric worked his way into the top 20 early as the field settled into a single-file rhythm around the bottom groove. He finished Stage 1 in the 18th position, but a penalty for pitting outside the box due to a loose wheel forced him to restart at the tail end of the lead lap. He pressed on to the end of the segment to finish 17th and headed to pit road for four tires, fuel and adjustments to aid center-off turn and a loose condition. He restarted 16th on Lap 265 and informed his team on Lap 294 that the car was much tighter that run. The 26-year-old racer made a scheduled green flag pit stop on Lap 386 for four tires and fuel before ultimately crossing the line 17th to round out the day at “The Last Great Colosseum.”
CINDRIC’S THOUGHTS: “With a lot of unknowns going into today with the tires I felt we adapted pretty quickly in the first stage. We made up some spots and stayed on the lead lap. I think being able to recover from having to pit twice there after the pit stop and kind of come back up through the back and get a decent finish. I still feel like we needed a few more adjustments there to get this Snap-on Ford Mustang where we wanted it, but I’m proud of the no-give-up effort there. It’s a hard place to do it at and it was cool to drive the car with all the Snap-on folks here this weekend.”
RYAN BLANEY No. 12 MENARDS/RICHMOND FORD MUSTANG
START: 5TH STAGE 1: 7TH STAGE 2: 8TH FINISH: 5TH POINTS: 6TH
RACE RUNDOWN: Ryan Blaney raced his way to a fifth-place finish Sunday afternoon at Bristol, marking his third top-five result of the season. After firing off from fifth, Blaney maintained top-10 pace in the opening 125-lap stage that stayed green for its entirety as the No. 12 Menards/Richmond Ford crossed the line seventh in Stage 1. An early caution in Stage 2 brought Blaney to pit road as he was the first of the leaders to opt for service under yellow in order to fight to the front on fresh tires for the ensuing run. Blaney ultimately worked his way up to eighth in the running order by the end of Stage 2. Crew chief Jonathan Hassler made the call for Blaney to run long during the final stage, allowing him to take over the lead on lap 391 in the middle of the green flag pit cycle. Blaney went on to lead the next 48 laps and was the only car on the lead lap with 72 to go before Hassler called him to pit road with 61 laps remaining. Following the four tire stop under green, Blaney rejoined the field scored ninth in the running order and ultimately made his way to fifth with six laps to go for his third-career top-five at Bristol.
BLANEY’S THOUGHTS: “It was just kind of a learning thing all day. The first run of the race nobody really knew what the tires were going to do and everyone kind of just rode around there a little bit and we finally got going and we went so long. Then it was like, ‘Alright, we can go a little bit harder.’ The track widened out, which was good. I honestly don’t know if I really anticipated that with the track getting wide and really not having tire problems. I’m glad that’s the way it was. I think it put on a pretty decent race. There were a lot of comers and goers, except for the lead, I guess, but it was a pretty fun day and a really good finish. We kind of took a chance of running really long there, seeing if we’d get a caution and then we finally bailed and had to make all the ground up and got back to fifth. Overall, it was a solid weekend.”
JOEY LOGANO No. 22 SHELL-PENNZOIL FORD MUSTANG
START: 38TH STAGE 1: 26TH STAGE 2: 28TH FINISH: 24TH POINTS: 9TH
RACE RUNDOWN: Joey Logano started 38th and finished 24th in Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. Following contact with the outside turn two wall in qualifying Saturday, the Shell-Pennzoil crew repaired the primary car and started at the rear of the field for Sunday’s 500-lap battle. Logano gained eight spots early, but the torrent pace would see the Shell-Pennzoil Mustang get lapped near the end of Stage 1 with Logano crossing the line in 26th position. Logano continued to battle to get back on the lead lap to no avail in Stage 2 coming home 28th. The Shell-Pennzoil crew opted to take the wave around to begin the final stage of the race. Unfortunately, older tires and lack of track position relegated Logano to a 24th-place finish.
LOGANO’S THOUGHTS: “Tough day for overall for us with having to fight for track position all day. The long runs didn’t fall in our favor and forced us to take a shot with the wave around at the end of Stage 2. We’ll reset in the off-week and look ahead to Talladega.”
The NASCAR Cup Series next week off for Easter and will return to action Sunday, April 27 at Talladega Superspeedway. Live coverage of the Jack Link’s 500 begins at 3:00 p.m. ET on FOX with in-car camera angles available all race long through MAX Driver Cam.
