NSCS: Matt Kenseth Wins Rain Delayed Food City 500 in Support of Steve Brynes at Bristol

With a solid restart on the Green-White-Checkered, Matt Kenseth would hold off Jeff Gordon and Jimmie Johnson to win the Food City 500 in Support of Steve Brynes at Bristol Motor Speedway.

“It means a lot. I got a great race team,” Kenseth stated. “Last year was tough, and not winning so far this year yet was tough. Jason and these guys have been working hard on building good cars so thanks to all the guys at JGR.”

The race started off with an hour delay due to rain before initially getting started. Pole sitter Kenseth led early, before handing over the lead to Kevin Harvick. Harvick would lead till the first caution at lap 23 when Brad Keselowski would get loose, leaving his Team Penske teammate Joey Logano nowhere to go as the pair wrecked together.

“It happened quick,” Logano commented. “You think very early in the race and you just want to settle in. Brad just got loose underneath the lap car. It looked like he’d have it saved, but he checked up more than I thought so and I ran into the back of him.”

The race would then be red flagged as rain would fall under the caution, something Keselowski sighted as a cause for his incident.

“It’s been raining since we started the race,” Keselowski said. “It was a very light sprinkle and the track was barely dry. The car just took off on me. I’d like to blame the rain, but I just don’t know. Usually if the car steps out like that, there’s a reason behind it. I hate that I caught my teammate up in it. It’s a bummer for Team Penske. I hate racing in the rain and it’s just one of those days that it’s going to be raining off and on all day, trying to get as many laps as we can in for the fans. But unfortunately, we’re racing in the rain to do that.”

There would be a four hour delay, with the race resuming once again at 7pm EST under the lights. Harvick and Kenseth would lead early, but a shift in strategy through the middle handed the advantage to Carl Edwards and Kenseth. They would find themselves restarting just outside the top-five with 150 laps to go when the top seven cars stayed out, handing Kyle Larson the lead.

Larson would head out to the advantage, however ran into trouble at lap 367 when he’d get into Landon Cassill while trying to put him a lap down. Larson would get into Cassill, causing Cassill to bounce off of Jeb Burton and hit the wall.

“I’m fine, just frustrated,” Cassill shared. “I knew he was there and the 26 went to the bottom so I went to go down with him, and all my spotter said was ‘leader inside’ and he was there. I hope he didn’t get a lot of damage. They’re playing a good pit strategy. Hope it doesn’t hurt them.”

The wreck wouldn’t hurt Larson, but his strategy came to an end when he had to pit under green for fuel and tires with 65 laps to go.

Kenseth would take over the lead ahead of Kurt Busch. Busch would then pass Kenseth 10 laps later, and looked set on claiming his first victory of the year. However, the caution would fly with 28 laps to go when Jamie McMurray blew a tire, resulting in Josh Wise running into McMurray, Clint Bowyer then running into Wise and Erik Jones getting into Michael Annett; Danica Patrick also got spun in the process. Bowyer would comment on his radio afterwards that his wrist was hurting, and he was pretty sure that he sprained it. Under caution, Kurt Busch headed down pit road – the only lead lap car to take tires -handing the lead back to Kenseth.

Kenseth wouldn’t have it easy, though, as he would have to fend off the field through a series of cautions leading to the end of the event. Busch looked to fend a charge against Kenseth, though saw his rebound come to an end with seven laps to go. Carl Edwards would get loose underneath Jeff Gordon while racing for second, resulting in his Toyota slowing up; Busch wouldn’t get slowed down in time, running into the back of Edwards, sustaining heavy damage to his car.

The caution with seven to go set up the green-white-checkered, that only took place after yet another rain delay for rain.

Jimmie Johnson would edge Jeff Gordon at the line to grab second. It marked a comeback of sorts for Johnson after he was involved in a series of cautions throughout the night.

“That was a wild night,” Johnson commented. “I just have to thank my crew for all the hard work. They burned the midnight oil on Friday night working some things to get ready for practice on Saturday. Maybe had a shot at a win, but glad to get a good solid second place finish here.”

Gordon would finish third, and it marked a solid night for the four-time champ following an unscheduled pit stop for a loose wheel.

“That was tough on such old tires and trying to carry momentum to the line and not spin the tires with guys with fresh tires behind you,” he shared. “Pretty happy with the 3M Chevrolet to come home third. That was just chaos. It was chaos the entire race.”

Ricky Stenhouse Jr. finished fourth, followed by Ryan Newman, Tony Stewart, Kyle Larson, Justin Allgaier, Danica Patrick, Austin Dillon, Paul Menard and Bowyer.

“It was tough,” Stenhouse stated. “It was a battle all night. We still lack a bit of speed to go up there and contend, but we had a good run tonight. The team worked hard all day on giving me a quick car.”

Kevin Harvick, who entered the race as a favourite and led early, ended up finishing multiple laps down after getting involved in an incident at lap 295. Johnson would give Burton a shove, causing both to spin. David Ragan hits the tail of Burton for heavy front end damage, with Harvick then hitting Ragan as Ragan sat in middle of the track.

“Sometimes when you race at the back with the squrriels, you find the nuts,” Ragan stated. “That’s just Bristol. Burton was probably slower, and Jimmie got impatient and got into him. As soon as he got in there, I was into the 48 and done. We had lost a couple of laps, but we were working on it trying to get it better.”