Event statistics following the eighth race of the 2018 Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series season, the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway in Tennessee.
Kyle Busch recorded his second consecutive victory, passing Kyle Larson with six laps remaining in the race. The finish was postponed to Monday after 205 laps were completed Sunday, with inclement weather stopping and starting the race a number of times before the postponement. Jimmie Johnson was third, followed by Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Alex Bowman.
Food City 500
Bristol Motor Speedway – Bristol, Tennessee
- Winner (starting position): Kyle Busch (1st)
- Top Five: Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, Jimmie Johnson, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Alex Bowman
- Full Results: Kyle Busch, Kyle Larson, Jimmie Johnson, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Alex Bowman, Aric Almirola, Kevin Harvick, Clint Bowyer, Joey Logano, Ryan Newman, Daniel Suarez, David Ragan, Paul Menard, Denny Hamlin, Austin Dillon, Darrell Wallace Jr., A.J. Allmendinger, William Byron, Jamie McMurray, Landon Cassill, Matt DiBenedetto, Kurt Busch, Brad Keselowski, Trevor Bayne, Corey LaJoie, Erik Jones, D.J. Kennington, Ty Dillon, Chase Elliott, Martin Truex Jr., Gray Gaulding, Reed Sorenson, Chad Finchum, Kasey Kahne, Ryan Blaney, Chris Buescher, Harrison Rhodes, Michael McDowell, Ross Chastain
- Average Speed: 77.465 mph
- Laps Completed: 500
- Laps Completed: 500
- Race Leaders: 8
- Laps Led: Kyle Larson (200), Kyle Busch (117), Ryan Blaney (100), Brad Keselowski (67), Darrell Wallace Jr. (6), Daniel Suarez (5), Denny Hamlin (4), Joey Logano (1)
- Pole Position: Kyle Busch (128.822 mph; 14.895 seconds)
- Hard Charger: Kevin Harvick (+32; 39th to 7th)
- Margin of Victory: 0.628 seconds
- Margin of Victory: 0.628 seconds
- Car Count: 39
- Cars Entered: 39
- Cars Running at Finish: 30 (of 39; or 77 percent of the field)
- Drivers to Finish on Lead Lap: 12
- Cautions: 13 for 114 laps
- Lead Changes: 18
- Stage Winners: Brad Keselowski (1), Brad Keselowski (2)
- Weather at End of Race: 38 degrees Fahrenheit, cloudy, winds W 7 mph
- Manufacturer Breakdown: Chevrolet (18); Ford (13); Toyota (8)
Notes of Interest – Race/Weekend Recap
- This is Kyle Busch’s second Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory of the 2018 season and the 45th of his career. Overall, this is Busch’s 186th victory in NASCAR’s three national series.
- This is Busch’s seventh Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series victory at Bristol, putting him fifth on the series’ all-time list at the track behind Darrell Waltrip, Cale Yarborough, Rusty Wallace and Dale Earnhardt. This is his 21st victory at Bristol in NASCAR’s three national series.
- Busch, who entered the race as the points leader, is the first driver to win at Bristol as the points leader since Dale Earnhardt in 1987. Earnhardt was the points leader in both of his victories at Bristol that season.
- Busch is the second driver to win multiple Cup Series races this season, joining Kevin Harvick (three). Austin Dillon, Martin Truex Jr. and Clint Bowyer each have one victory this season.
- Busch has won multiple Cup Series races in each of the last four seasons and 10 seasons overall. Overall, he has at least one victory in 14 seasons.
- Kyle Busch now has back-to-back victories at Bristol for the first time since the 2010 fall and 2011 spring races. Brad Keselowski was the last driver to win two straight Bristol races, in the 2011 fall race and 2012 spring race.
- This is Busch’s sixth top-three finish, sixth top-five finish and seventh top-10 finish of the season. He leads all three categories, though he’s tied with Joey Logano in terms of top 10s.
- This is Busch’s 13th victory on a track measuring less than one mile, and second in the last three races (won 2017 fall race at Martinsville).
- This is Busch’s 10th career victory from the pole position, his first since last year’s playoff race at New Hampshire Motor Speedway, and fourth victory from the pole in the last eight wins, dating back to the 2016 Brickyard 400 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
- Busch is the second race winner this season to take the victory from the pole, joining Martin Truex Jr. from Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California.
- Busch is the first driver to win from the pole position at Bristol since Carl Edwards won from the top starting position in the 2016 spring race.
- Busch’s pole was the 29th of his career, the second of his season and second at Bristol (was polesitter for 2013 spring race as well). He has earned at least two poles in each of the last three seasons, and eight seasons since 2008. Overall, Busch has earned at least one pole in 13 seasons, including 11 straight.
- Busch is one of two drivers with multiple pole positions this season. Martin Truex Jr. has three.
- Busch last won back-to-back races since the 2017 playoff races at New Hampshire Motor Speedway and Dover International Speedway. Overall, this is the fifth time he’s won back-to-back races in his career.
- Busch won the race by 0.628 seconds over Kyle Larson, the closest finish for the series at the track since the 2015 summer race (Joey Logano won by 0.220 seconds over Kevin Harvick).
- Busch averaged 77.465 mph in the race, the slowest speed since the 2015 spring race (74.997 mph averaged by winner Matt Kenseth.
- This is Busch’s 41st victory with Joe Gibbs Racing, which leads all drivers, and 41st career victory driving a Toyota.
- Busch has led almost exactly the same number of laps in his two victories this season. He led 117 laps at Bristol, and 116 laps at Texas. Overall, Busch has led seven of the eight races this season, tied with Denny Hamlin for the most among drivers this year.
- Busch now has an average finish this season of 5.38, which leads all drivers who have competed in every race this season. He has finished no worse than third in the last six races, after starting the season with finishes of 25th and seventh.
- The leader of the most laps in a Bristol race has now won 62 of 115 races, but none of the last four races. The leader of the most laps at Bristol has led more than 200 laps in each of the last four races, though never finished better than second (Erik Jones in 2017 fall race and Kyle Larson in 2018 spring race). Overall, 11 of the last 13 Bristol races has been won by a driver who did not lead the most laps of a race.
- Overall this season, the winner of the race has failed to lead the most laps in three of eight races this season.
- The race saw 13 cautions for 114 laps, the most cautions since the 2016 spring race (15), and the most caution laps since the 2015 spring race (117). Both the 13 cautions and 114 caution laps were season highs.
- This is Joe Gibbs Racing’s second victory of 2018 and its 11th win at Bristol.
- This is Toyota’s 10th Cup Series victory at Bristol, all in the last 19 races.
- This marked the sixth consecutive Bristol race that went the scheduled distance. The last race that did not go the scheduled distance was the 2015 summer race, with Matt Kenseth winning the race in overtime.
- Kyle Larson finished second, matching his season-best finish of second at Auto Club Speedway and his third top-three finish in eight races this season.
- It was Larson’s third straight top-10 finish at Bristol, and the second time in the last three Bristol races Larson has led the most laps in a race but failed to win. Larson led 200 laps, the fourth consecutive Bristol race a driver has led 200 or more laps but failed to finish the race.
- Larson was the top Chevrolet driver. He moved from 10th to ninth in the points standings.
- Defending race winner Jimmie Johnson finished a season-best third in his 587th Cup Series race. Johnson now has 19 top-10 finishes in 33 races at Bristol, including six of the last eight races. Johnson has finished 2,999 of the last 3,000 laps at Bristol.
- Johnson now has 223 career top-fives and 343 career top 10s in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series. Johnson also earned the best finish for a Hendrick Motorsports driver since Chase Elliott finished third at ISM Raceway.
- Additionally, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished a season-best fourth, his first top-10 finish of the season. It was Stenhouse’s first top-five since last year’s summer race at Daytona International Speedway. It was Stenhouse’s fourth top-five finish at Bristol. Stenhouse drove the highest finishing Ford.
- Rounding out the top-five was Alex Bowman, his career-best finish and the first top-five finish of his career.
- With Johnson and Bowman in the top five, it marked the first time Hendrick Motorsports had two drivers in the top five since last year’s playoff race at Dover International Speedway.
- Aric Almirola was the fourth driver in the top six with a season-best finish, taking sixth, the highest finishing Stewart-Haas Racing car. It marked only the third race this season in which a Stewart-Haas Racing car failed to finish in the top five. Almirola has three top 10s this season.
- Almirola’s teammate, Kevin Harvick, was seventh, who climbed a race-high 32 positions from start to finish. Harvick now has six top 10s this season, the third most of a driver this season. Harvick did not lead a lap but remains the season’s laps leader at 520.
- Clint Bowyer claimed eighth, his third consecutive top-10 finish and fifth of the season, in the third SHR car to finish in the top eight.
- Joey Logano finished ninth, his fourth consecutive race and seventh this season he’s finished every lap of a race this season. Logano has finished all but one lap this season, completing 2,644 of 2,645 laps, which leads all drivers.
- Ryan Newman finished 10th, his second top-10 finish of the season and first since the Daytona 500.
- Daniel Suarez led his first race of the season (five laps) en route to finishing 11th. Teammate Denny Hamlin finished 14th, leading his seventh race out of eight in 2018.
- Darrell Wallace Jr. finished 16th. He led the first race of his career, for six laps. A total of 26 drivers have led at least one lap this season. Seven drivers who have competed in all eight races have yet to lead at least one race this season: Chris Buescher, Trevor Bayne, Gray Gaulding, Matt DiBenedetto, David Ragan, Jimmie Johnson and Ty Dillon.
- Other drivers who recorded or tied season-best finishes included: David Ragan (12th); Landon Cassill (20th); Corey LaJoie (25th); and Chad Finchum (33rd). Finchum was the only driver making both his 2018 season and Cup Series debut.
- Trevor Bayne (Knoxville) was the highest finishing driver from Tennessee, at 24th.
- Ryan Blaney, who finished an uncharacteristic 35th (accident on Sunday), led 100 laps. He led the 62nd lap, which completed the 30,000th mile in the Cup Series at Bristol.
- A total of 23 drivers improved on their starting position in the race.
- This is the fourth race out of eight this season in which one driver has not led at least half of the race’s laps.
- Thirty cars finished the race.
- The next Cup Series race will be Saturday, April 21, with the Toyota Owners 400 at Richmond International Raceway in Richmond, Virginia.
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