Food City 500 Race Review

Bristol Motor Speedway -- 03/16/08

Author: Becca Gladden

Published: Monday Mar 17 2008 12:48am

There are some interesting sets of threes that came out of Sunday's Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

The race was won by three Richard Childress Racing cars - the first time they've ever finished 1-2-3 in a race. Jeff Burton was the winner, followed by teammates Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer.

All three Joe Gibbs Racing drivers - Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, and Kyle Busch - led laps at some point in the race before suffering a mishap not necessarily of their making. Stewart had the dominant car all day, leading 267 of 500 laps, and was running 2nd with a couple of laps to go when he was punted, albeit unintentionally, by Kevin Harvick attempting to pass on the inside. Hamlin and Busch each had mechanical issues - Hamlin with an apparent fuel pickup problem and Busch with a power steering issue.

Then there are the three big names at Hendrick Motorsports (not counting Casey Mears), who again failed to demonstrate the kind of dominance that has been expected of them - Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson in particular, though Dale Earnhardt Jr. has not won a Cup race this year either. Junior was again the highest-finishing Hendrick car, coming in 5th despite having some confusion with Crew Chief Tony Eury Jr. regarding whether or not to pit for tires late in the race. Gordon and Johnson both finished outside the top 10, at 11th and 18th, respectively, while Mears, for the record, came in 42nd after contact with Denny Hamlin about halfway through.

Also notable is the fact that all three Michael Waltrip Racing cars are currently in the top 35 in owner points - an important fact now that we're passed the five-race mark, after which the top 35 teams are locked in to the race each week based on this year's owner points rather than last year's. Things may change at MWR starting in Martinsville, however, with Dale Jarrett's retirement from racing prompting a driver shuffle and possible points transfer at MWR. You can't talk about Sunday's race at Bristol without mentioning two drivers who had exceptionally good runs - Aric Almirola and David Gilliland. Almirola, in the No. 8 car for DEI, was making his first Cup start since Phoenix in November of 2007. Starting 16th on the basis of car owner points for the 8 car last year, Almirola had a clean race and finished 8th. Gilliland, in the No. 38 Ford for Yates Racing, had his best race by far this year, starting 32nd and finishing 9th. His previous best finish in '08 was a 17th at Fontana.

Overall, there were five Chevys and three Fords in the top 10, along with one each Toyota and Dodge. Greg Biffle, the highest-finishing Ford driver at 4th, remains 2nd in points behind Kyle Busch, but Biffle's strong run coupled with Busch's misfortunate narrowed the gap between them from 73 to just 30. Denny Hamlin had the highest-finishing Toyota at 6th and Kasey Kahne the only Dodge in the top 10 at 7th. Last year at this point in the season, Kahne was 34th in points. Right now, he's 6th.

The race itself has gotten mixed reviews from fans - many complaining that it was little dull, though the ending proved to be dramatic. When the green flag flew on Lap 495 of a scheduled 500 laps after a caution, the top 5 were as follows: Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick, and Greg Biffle - notice Jeff Burton's name is not on that list. One lap later (lap 496), Hamlin took the lead, putting Stewart in 2nd. On lap 498, Harvick tried to get past Stewart on the bottom. Though Stewart later said he thought he gave the 29 plenty of room, Harvick got into Stewart's left rear, spinning the 20 car and bringing out another caution, taking Stewart out of contention (he finished 14th) and setting up a green-white-checkered finish.

The race restarted again on Lap 504 with the top 5 being Hamlin, Burton, Harvick, Bowyer, and Earnhardt Jr. Hamlin then suffered the fuel pickup problem - ironically, the same thing that spoiled a Bristol win for him last year - handing the top-3 finishing spots to Burton, Harvick, and Bowyer. "Bristol is a tough place sometimes to even finish," noted Richard Childress after the race. "To have all three cars end up 1-2-3 was great. I'm really proud of everybody at RCR for everything they've done, (and) AT&T for sponsoring our car. It's just a great time for RCR. Hopefully we can win more of them."

Next week, the Cup series takes a break for the Easter holiday. After that, it's more short track action at Martinsville, where Jimmie Johnson has won three straight - and four of the last seven - Cup races.