From the Crossville Chronicle – Crossville, Tn. Wednesday March 19, 2008
By Joe Dunn / joe@onpitroad.com
The weekend rains passed before Sunday, clearing the way for the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. It was a chilly day but the fans warmed to an exciting race where Tony Stewart had the dominant car all day, but in the final laps it was a Richard Childress Racing day with a 1-2-3 finish.
Jeff Burton savored the win and felt redemption for his second place finish last year. But the race sure looked to be a Joe Gibbs race again as Stewart led for 267 laps. On a restart on lap 496 his teammate Denny Hamlin got by Stewart for the lead and on lap 498 Kevin Harvick pushed Stewart into the wall, bringing out a final caution. On the final restart Hamlin had a fuel pickup problem which opened the door for the RCR cars. This was the first ever 1-2-3 finish for RCR.
Kyle Busch retains the points lead this week with Biffle still in second, as Harvick, Burton and Dale Earnhardt Jr. round out the top five. Sam Hornish Jr managed a 29th place finish that enabled him to get the 77 car into the top 35 in points as the 2008 points begin the lock in starting with the next race at Martinsville.
The day was also a special celebrated day as Dale Jarrett competed in his final Nascar Sprint Cup points race. Dale will compete again in the All Star race, but he now moves to the broadcast booth working for ESPN on the Nascar Nationwide Series races. David Reutimann will move from the 00 Aarons car to take over the 44 UPS car from Jarrett.
Sunday was the bright spot for the weekend as Qualifying on Friday was washed out by the rain. On Saturday, the Nationwide race started late and ended early because of the rain. Clint Bowyer took the win for RCR on Saturday.
The Bristol races were not the only events affected by the weather, as all of the local dirt track racing from Bulls Gap, Tazewell, Winchester, Maryville, Wartburg, Seymour and Spring City, Tennessee were rained out. For local fans, work continues at the Crossville Raceway with the first practice scheduled for March 30.
