BRISTOL, Tenn. -- The trend of increased timing zones won't include this weekend's events at Thunder Valley. NASCAR will not increase the number of timing zones for this week's events at Bristol Motor Speedway. The number will remain at 14 instead of 18. NASCAR decided not to increase them because it's comfortable with the number of zones in place.
It was Bristol, baby. The half-mile track in "Thunder Valley", exciting or not, is always eventful. Sunday was no different. Here was what was surprising and not surprising from the 56th annual Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
The point I'm driving at here is that the race track is a dangerous place and you must have constant awareness of your surroundings. If you don't, you're going to get yourself injured or killed. If fans continue to not pay attention, NASCAR will start coming down harder on you and make hot passes harder to get.
It was a spectacular race. I would even say it's been the best since the grinding down of the top lane back in 2012. Sitting in the media center watching the event, I was thinking to myself, "This is Bristol. This is Bristol at its finest."
After several weeks of unhappy fans, lackluster racing, and multiple Sprint Cup regulars winning all of the XFINITY Series events, Saturday's Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300 provided a much-needed shot in the arm for a division struggling with credibility.
Matt DiBenedetto was teary-eyed following his top-10 finish at Thunder Valley. The driver of the No. 83 BK Racing Toyota earned his career best sixth-place finish in the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. had to overcome a loss of power and loss of laps to come home runner-up at Thunder Valley. After making an unscheduled stop on lap 1 for lack of power and falling two laps down, the driver of the No. 88 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet rallied back to a second-place finish in the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Carl Edwards led over half the race on his way to scoring the victory at Thunder Valley. The driver of the No. 19 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota led 276 of the 500 laps on his way to winning the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. It's his 26th career victory in the Sprint Cup Series and third at Bristol.
Erik Jones got a great restart in the closing laps and passed the leader to score the victory at Thunder Valley. The driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota passed to the outside of Kyle Larson with three laps to go to win the Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway. It's the third win in the XFINITY Series for the 19 year old rookie out of Byron, Michigan.
Denny Hamlin topped the chart in final Sprint Cup Series practice at Bristol Motor Speedway. The driver of the No. 11 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota was the fastest in the final practice session with a time of 15.213 and a speed of 126.129 mph.
