Christopher Bell held off Tyler Reddick, Chase Briscoe and several other NASCAR Cup Series stars with dirt racing backgrounds to win the Food City Dirt Race at Bristol Motor Speedway, picking up his first win of the 2023 season and the fifth win of his Cup career. Bell took the lead to start Stage 3 after staying out under the final stage break, then held it throughout the final 100 laps thanks in part to running all the way up on the cushion to hold off Reddick, Briscoe and others.
Bell's win was secured on the final lap when a caution came out for a crash on the backstretch, which thwarted a potential last-ditch effort by Reddick to try and score the win. In three Bristol Dirt races so far, Bell's win is the first for any driver with an extensive background in dirt racing.
Food City Dirt Race unofficial results
- #20 - Christopher Bell
- #45 - Tyler Reddick
- #3 - Austin Dillon
- #47 - Ricky Stenhouse Jr.
- #14 - Chase Briscoe
- #31 - Justin Haley
- #19 - Martin Truex Jr.
- #38 - Todd Gilliland
- #4 - Kevin Harvick
- #54 - Ty Gibbs (R)
In a race that had been won by drivers who grew up racing on asphalt in its first two runnings, Bell led the way among the contingent of NASCAR Cup Series stars who grew up racing on dirt. All of the top five finishers have extensive experience in either dirt late models or sprint cars, experience that helped Bell tread a delicate line up top with little margin for error.
"Those were some of the longest laps of my entire life," Bell told Fox Sports. "This place is so much fun whether it's dirt or concrete, and whenever the cushion got up there on the top, it was very tough because you couldn't drive it super hard. Otherwise you'd get sucked in -- if you got your right front into it you'd push a little bit, if you got your right rear into it, you'd slide. It was a lot of fun."
Beyond Bell and Reddick in first and second, the top five was filled out by other dirt aces like Austin Dillon, Ricky Stenhouse Jr. and Chase Briscoe. Dillon and Briscoe both scored their best finishes of the season, while Stenhouse posted his second top five at Bristol Dirt and his first top five since winning the Daytona 500 in February.
Preece Parks Larson
In Stage 1 of Sunday's race, it appeared as though the Bristol Dirt Race would be Kyle Larson's to lose. After starting from the pole, Larson led the first 75 laps of the race and looked like he would be a factor all night. And perhaps he would have been, had he not gotten on the wrong side of Ryan Preece.
While racing each other for fifth early in Stage 2, Larson ran Preece up the racetrack off Turn 4 and onto the frontstretch, causing Preece to make a significant right side impact with the outside wall. Preece let his displeasure with Larson be known under the next caution, and the Modified standout from New England was even less thrilled when he spun after breaking a right rear toe link later on.
"You know what I'm sick of? ... Excuses," Preece said on his team radio. " From now on, I think it's game over."
"There's got to be a repercussion for things or people are gonna continue to do it, right?", a crew member said in response.
For Larson, the repercussion came with 76 laps to go. With Preece running the outside line, Larson tried to squeeze his car between Preece and the wall up on the cushion, leading to the two colliding yet again. Preece then appeared to hang a right into Larson's car on the entry to Turn 1, spinning Larson into the outside wall and ending his night.
Speaking to Fox Sports afterwards, Larson quickly surmised exactly what Preece's motivations were: "I'm guessing he was paying me back for whatever I did earlier and ran me straight in the fence," he said.
For his part, Preece claimed while speaking to reporters that the contact between himself and Larson was purely accidental, giving himself a solid alibi.
"I mean, I don't race dirt. I don't know," Preece said. "I tried running the top ... I know he was making speed up top, and I tried to move up there and we were too loose. Ultimately, I still agree that a lot of people are going to stand their ground, but by no means was that intentional. I was just trying to get all I could."
Preece's frustrations had been mounting heading into Bristol, as he has had several good runs early in the season get ruined by accidents not of his own making. Unfortunately for Preece, that trend continued after he was collected in the crash on the last lap and finished 24th.
The Spin Cycle
With cornering on dirt amounting to what's essentially a controlled slide, quite a number of drivers ended up stepping over the edge of out of control on Sunday night. The yellow flag flew 14 times, and several more incidents occurred that did not draw a caution.
Some spins were much more spectacular than others, with some drivers having a particularly dizzying night. Perhaps the highlight spins of the evening belonged to Michael McDowell, who did a complete 360 in front of traffic before driving off on one occasion -- and then immediately did the same thing several laps later before eventually finishing 11th.
Race Results Rundown
- Back in the day, drivers like Darrell Waltrip, Ricky Rudd and Ricky Craven had the honor of piloting the fabled orange and yellow Tide Ride. Sunday night was Justin Haley's turn, and he would come out looking squeaky clean in sixth place -- his best finish of the 2023 season and his second top 10 of the year.
- One week after a late caution and a miscommunication on pit strategy ruined his chance to win at Richmond, Martin Truex Jr. was finally able to put a complete race together and came home seventh. That ties Truex's best finish of the entire season, and it also marks just his second top-10 finish this year.
- Todd Gilliland's hot streak continues, as he was able to make his way up into the top five in Stage 3 by employing the same strategy that Christopher Bell and nine other cars did. Gilliland stayed there throughout the rest of the night before finishing eighth, giving him his second top 10 in the last three races and his fourth straight top-15 finish.
- For the fourth straight week, Ty Gibbs finished in the top 10 with a 10th-place finish. Gibbs' top 10 streak has allowed him to widen what is becoming a significant gap between him and Noah Gragson in the Rookie of the Year fight. Despite a promising run, Gragson broke a toe link with around 50 laps to go and finished many laps down in 33rd.
- At one point, Harrison Burton picked up an unwelcome passenger when a sponsor banner got ripped off the wall and lodged itself on the nose of his Ford Mustang. That oversized piece of debris, however, didn't stop Burton from finishing 15th to tie his season-best finish.
- Journeyman driver J.J. Yeley turned heads by qualifying third to earn his first top-10 starting spot in any Cup race since late in the 2007 season. Yeley later fell back to midpack, but he would earn a 20th-place finish -- his first top 20 in any Cup race since he finished 12th at Daytona in July 2019.
- After finishing fourth in the Craftsman Truck Series race on Saturday, series great Matt Crafton made his third career Cup start subbing for Cody Ware, who missed Sunday's race due to a personal matter. Crafton would suffer an engine failure after 185 laps and finished 34th.
- Jonathan Davenport may be Superman in dirt late models, but the jump to racing Cup on dirt ended up being kryptonite for one of the biggest stars in dirt racing. Davenport spun out to draw the yellow flag early in Stage 2, then got collected in Kyle Larson's dustup with Ryan Preece and finished 36th in his first Cup start.
Next Race
The NASCAR Cup Series gets back to racing on asphalt next weekend with a trip to the timeless Martinsville Speedway for the NOCO 400 next Sunday at 3 p.m. ET on FS1.
