The Food City 500 at The World’s Fastest Half-Mile is back in action. After running 204 laps between four red flags on Sunday, NASCAR decided to postpone the race in Bristol, Tenn., to Monday afternoon to due to rain in the area.
Kyle Larson will get things going from the lead as the field hopes to race the remaining 296 laps. Rain is forecasted for Monday as well, but the race will become official after the drivers complete 46 laps to end Stage 2. Larson will be looking to join last week’s winner, Kyle Busch, and Martin Truex Jr., Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer and Austin Dillon in the playoffs.
Ryan Blaney led 100 laps on Sunday and nearly took the green-and-white checkered in Stage 1, but he got caught up in a lapped-traffic wreck, which ended his day 10 laps before the stage ended. Two red flags were thrown in the stage, the first being for rain and the second was for track clean-up. Brad Keselowski avoided the wreck and went on to win Stage 1 after a one-lap sprint following the delay.
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Stage 1: Rain and wrecks
Kyle Busch got out to a roaring start but not even five laps into the race Michael McDowell went spinning and caused a massive pile-up across the start-finish line. Martin Truex Jr., Chase Elliott, Aric Almirola AJ Allmendinger and others all suffered damage with Truex taking the brunt of it.
They were able to go green rather quickly after the first pile-up, but Allmendinger encountered more trouble shortly after, bringing the caution back out. Busch got loose and lost the lead on the restart, dropping back as Ryan Blaney assumed the top spot.
Despite clean(ish) racing for 48 laps, NASCAR threw the red flag, suspending the race as rain came into the area. Blaney entered the stoppage as the race leader while Busch fell all the way back to ninth. After a short 25-minute delay, engines re-fired and cars were able to get back out on the track.
Blaney won the race off pit road under yellow and shot out to a solid lead on the restart. Similarly to the last time however, the caution came out almost immediately. This time it was Ricky Stenhouse Jr. getting loose and going spinning after making contact with Erik Jones.
Stenhouse didn’t suffer any damage, but had to move back to the rear of the field. Blaney again had no problem holding the lead on the restart. Some drivers who started in the rear of the field — Kevin Harvick, Kurt Busch and Jimmie Johnson — were able to crack the top-15 rather quickly under green.
Brad Keselowski began challenging Blaney for the lead with less than 10 to go in the stage when Blaney caught himself in the wrong place at the wrong time. Chris Buescher and Trevor Bayne got loose, with Harrison Rhodes getting sent high into the wall and wrecking Blaney. He had led 100 laps before going down.
Keselowski emerged from the wreckage as the race leader and drove on to win Stage 1 via a one-lap sprint after a six-minute red flag.
Stage 1 results:
- Brad Keselowski (10 points plus 1 playoff point)
- Ryan Newman (9 points)
- Clint Bowyer (8 points)
- AJ Allmendinger (7 points)
- Kyle Larson (6 points)
- Erik Jones (5 points)
- Jimmie Johnson (4 points)
- Aric Almirola (3 points)
- Ricky Stenhouse Jr. (2 points)
- Kurt Busch (1 point)
Stage 2: (Part I)
Keselowski came into the pits between stages and lost track position as Kyle Larson assumed the race lead. The cautions continued early though, as Trevor Bayne went spinning 20 laps into Stage 2.
Rain crept into the area under caution and NASCAR decided to throw the red flag yet again. This one lasted about 25 minutes before cars got rolling again. Kyle Larson emerged as the race leader and absolutely took off to a massive lead as the field battled behind him.
Kurt Busch reported a possible loose wheel with just under 70 to go in the stage and decided to bring his Ford down pit road. He nearly lost it on his way in but pulled off a strong save to keep himself in the race.
With a little under 50 laps to go in the stage, rain started pouring and the red flag was once again thrown. Larson was the leader at the time of the postponement.
How to watch the Food City 500 on Monday
Location: Bristol Motor Speedway
Date: Monday, April 15 (first 204 laps were run on Sunday, April 14)
Time: 1p.m. ET
Length: 296 laps remaining
Stage 1 winner: Brad Keselowski
Stage 2: Ends on lap 250
Final stage: Scheduled for lap 500
TV: Fox
Live stream: fuboTV (Try for free)
Source : CBSsports
