RICK WARE RACING
Food City 500
Date: March 17, 2024
Event: Food City 500 (Round 5 of 36)
Series: NASCAR Cup Series
Location: Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway (.533-mile concrete oval)
Format: 500 laps, broken into three stages (125 laps/125 laps/250 laps)
Race Winner: Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 1 Winner: Ty Gibbs of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 2 Winner: Ty Gibbs of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
RWR Race Finish:
● Justin Haley (Started 32nd, Finished 17th/ Running, completed 498 of 500 laps)
● Kaz Grala (Started 33rd, Finished 19th/ Running, completed 498 of 500 laps)
RWR Points:
● Justin Haley (28th with 72 points, 113 out of first)
● Kaz Grala (33rd with 55 points, 130 out of first)
RWR Notes:
● This is the first time both RWR cars have scored top-20 finishes in the same race at Bristol.
● This was Haley’s fourth career start at Bristol. His best Bristol finish remains 12th, earned in September 2022.
● Haley’s 17th-place finish matched the previous team-best at Bristol earned by Cody Ware in September 2022.
● This was Grala’s first NASCAR Cup Series start at Bristol.
Race Notes:
● Denny Hamlin won the Food City 500 to score his 52nd career NASCAR Cup Series victory and his fourth at Bristol. His margin of victory over second-place Martin Truex Jr. was 1.083 seconds.
● There were nine caution periods for a total of 98 laps.
● Only five of the 36 drivers in the Food City 500 finished on the lead lap.
● Kyle Larson is tied with Truex for the championship lead with a seven-point advantage over third-place Ty Gibbs.
Sound Bites:
“We had a fast Ohanafy Ford Mustang Dark Horse. At the end the tires just fell off, but we ran in the top-10 almost all day and that’s awesome to establish that because it put a lot of smiles on a lot of people’s faces. I’m excited to keep digging. I feel like the cars have speed, we just need to keep running like that and we’ll be OK. I love this type of racing. I don’t know what social media says, but as a driver I thought it was fun because you had to manage it. You weren’t all-out the whole time, so it was fun to have a major part in how the car ran.” – Justin Haley, driver of the No. 51 Ohanafy Ford Mustang Dark Horse
“We had great speed in our Ford Mustang Dark Horse. I’m proud of everyone at Rick Ware Racing. Both of our cars were fast. We were just straight-up top-15, top-12 cars today, which was really cool. Unfortunately, we got behind on the very last run there tire cycling-wise. I got shoved to the top and that wore out our right-front a little early, so we ended up 19th, but we had a strong day. That’s cool to see. It gives us a lot of encouragement going forward. We’re upset with 19th because we ran better than that today, but it’s not a bad position to be in when you’re mad about that.”– Kaz Grala, driver of the No. 15 N29 Capital Partners Ford Mustang Dark Horse
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix on Sunday, March 24 at Circuit of the Americas in Austin. The race begins at 3:30 p.m. EDT with live coverage provided by FOX and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
