Food City Dirt Race

Food City Dirt Race
Food City Dirt Race logo.png
Bristol Motor Speedway map.png
NASCAR Cup Series
VenueBristol Motor Speedway
LocationBristol, Tennessee, United States
Corporate sponsorFood City
Entertainment Industry Foundation
First race1961 (1961)
Distance133.25 miles (214.445 km)
Laps250
Stages 1/2: 100 each
Final stage: 50
Previous namesSoutheastern 500 (1961–1975, 1977–1979)
Southeastern 400 (1976)
Valleydale Southeastern 500 (1980)
Valleydale 500 (1981–1986)
Valleydale Meats 500 (1987–1991)
Food City 500 (1992–2010, 2012–2014, 2016–2019)
Jeff Byrd 500 presented by Food City (2011)
Food City 500 In Support Of Steve Byrnes And Stand Up To Cancer (2015)
Food City presents the Supermarket Heroes 500 (2020)
Most wins (driver)Rusty Wallace (6, paved surface)
Joey Logano
Kyle Busch (1, dirt surface)
Most wins (team)Hendrick Motorsports (8, paved surface)
Team Penske
Joe Gibbs Racing (1, dirt surface)
Most wins (manufacturer)Chevrolet (23, paved surface)
Ford
Toyota (1, dirt surface)
Circuit information
SurfaceDirt
Length0.533 mi (0.858 km)
Turns4

The Food City Dirt Race is an annual 250-lap, 133.25 mi (214.445 km) NASCAR Cup Series points race held at the Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee. This is one of two NASCAR races held at Bristol, the other being the Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race. It was the first venue of the 2007 NASCAR schedule to host the fifth-generation NASCAR premiership race car, a race won by Kyle Busch. For much of its history, from 1961 to 1992 the race was run on the original asphalt surface, then on concrete from 1993 to 2020 after Bristol changed surfaces, but was moved to a dirt layout beginning in 2021.

Kyle Busch is the defending race winner as of 2022.

History

The Food City 500 race logo

In 2008, Bristol Motor Speedway President & General Manager Jeff Byrd requested that NASCAR move the spring race to a later Spring date, to avoid the problems with rain, snow, and sleet that hit the area in late winter and early spring. This was not carried out until 2015. In 2015, the race moved from mid-March to April. Though every race besides 2016 has had some sort of rain alter the race including moving the race to Monday in 2017 and 2018.

In 2011, title sponsor Food City announced it would honor former Speedway President and General Manager Jeff Byrd, who died in October 2010, by renaming the 2011 Spring race the Jeff Byrd 500 presented by Food City.

In 2015, the race was renamed the Food City 500 In Support Of Steve Byrnes And Stand Up To Cancer to support NASCAR on Fox broadcaster Steve Byrnes in his battle with cancer, in association with the Entertainment Industry Foundation.

The 2020 race was dubbed the Food City presents the Supermarket Heroes 500 to honor grocery store workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2021, the race shifted to a dirt surface version of the track and was renamed the Food City Dirt Race. The race's stage lengths were initially set at 75 each for the first two segments followed by 100 in the final stage, but stages 1–2 were later adjusted to be 100 laps apiece following Friday practices.

In 2022, the race will become a night race, and be run on Easter Sunday. Part of the reason it will be moved from daylight to nighttime is because of visibility issues that plagued the event in 2021 with sunlight reflecting off the dirt.

Notable races

  • 1968: David Pearson won after a lengthy duel with Richard Petty and LeeRoy Yarbrough in a race prominently featured on the television series Car & Track.
  • 1971: Pearson won after tagging James Hylton into the wall; Pearson edged Richard Petty after Petty erased a two-lap deficit.
  • 1972: Mechanic (and later car owner) Junior Johnson saw the first of a plethora of Bristol wins over the ensuing two decades as Bobby Allison drove his Chevrolet to an easy win.
  • 1973: Driving Junior's Chevy, Cale Yarborough led all 500 laps, a feat he duplicated at Nashville in 1978 and by Jeff Burton at New Hampshire International Speedway in 2000.
  • 1974: Chevrolets swept the top ten finishing spots led by Yarborough.
  • 1975: Richard Petty posted only his second career Bristol win.
  • 1977: Cale led all but five laps in a race where five other drivers (including Janet Guthrie) needed relief help.
  • 1979: After Cale crashed out with Buddy Baker, rookie Dale Earnhardt took his first win.
  • 1981: Darrell Waltrip drove Johnson's Buick and edged Ricky Rudd, who was driving Waltrip's former car, the DiGard Racing Oldsmobile. Joe Millikan got into a wreck with Benny Parsons and said, "I lost my cool," to which car owner Bud Moore vowed, "I'll straighten out Millikan's cool."
  • 1984: Waltrip posted his seventh straight Bristol win and the eighth straight for Junior Johnson.
  • 1986: Rusty Wallace posted his first career win.
  • 1987: Dale Earnhardt was involved in several crashes en route to the win; Richard Petty finished second.
  • 1989: Wallace survived a chaotic race with multiple crashes and a wildcard victory bid by Greg Sacks.
  • 1990: A spirited event ended in a wild finish; Sterling Marlin was spun out by Ricky Rudd on the final lap while Davey Allison held off a last-lap charge from Mark Martin to win by inches.
  • 1991: Grasping for a solution to pit road crashes emanating from numerous incidents in 1990 (and never considering revoking the pit closure rule that was the ultimate cause), NASCAR had banned tire changes under yellow; for Bristol, this was replaced with the staggering of pit stops based on qualifying line — all "odd" cars (qualified first, third, etc.) would pit first under yellow while "even" cars would pit a lap later; the cars were denoted "odd" and "even" with stickers on their windshields after qualifying; restarts would be double-file based on "odd" and "even" stickered cars. More "even" cars wound up in contention, and this created chaos. Rusty Wallace was able to pass cars under caution to move into his proper restart line, and this helped him come back from two laps down on two occasions. The lead changed 41 times, a short track record, as Wallace edged Ernie Irvan at the finish. Sterling Marlin suffered burns in a fiery melee and needed relief help in subsequent weeks from Charlie Glotzbach.
  • 1992: Alan Kulwicki won the race; the last to be held at Bristol before the switch from asphalt to concrete pavement.
  • 1993: Wallace dominated days after defending race winner, and defending Winston Cup champion Alan Kulwicki died in a plane crash.
  • 1994: An ill-timed yellow trapped Geoff Bodine a lap down and put Dale Earnhardt into the lead en route to the win. Bodine had begun dominating the race in the car formerly owned by Kulwicki and running Hoosier Tires; with the Hoosiers Bodine was able to skip tire changes that Goodyear-shod cars had to make.
  • 1995: Jeff Gordon took the win, his third in the season's first six races; the race saw notable performances resulting in top-five finishes for Darrell Waltrip and Bobby Hamilton.
  • 1997: Gordon punted Rusty Wallace sideways on the final lap for the win.
  • 1999: Wallace ran away at the end, while John Andretti rallied to finish fourth; Andretti's Petty Enterprises Pontiac was impounded after the race as NASCAR had a disagreement with the engine's compression ratio; the engine, though, cleared on reinspection.
  • 2000: Rusty Wallace scores his 50th NASCAR Cup Series win.
  • 2001: Elliott Sadler edged Andretti for his first win, and the first 1-2 finish for the Wood Brothers and Petty Enterprises since 1977.
  • 2002: With NASCAR running high downforce on the cars via big rear spoiler and low airdam clearance, and running very hard tires, Kurt Busch pitted on Lap 325 and never visited the pits again. He bumped Jimmy Spencer for the lead and went on to claim his first Winston Cup win. The move was one of several incidents to occur between Busch and Spencer in what was becoming a heated feud. Rusty Wallace was incensed at the manner with which Busch won the race (by not pitting when others did and thus winning on old tires with no drop in speed) enough that he lobbied NASCAR to cut downforce and go to softer tires in later years to force pitstops.
    Dale Jarrett's team and fans honor Jarrett before the 2008 race.
  • 2003: In what was the 2,000th race in NASCAR Cup Series history, Kurt Busch came back from a spin to win the race. Also during the race, Kyle Petty got clipped by Ward Burton in the left rear and turned him very abruptly and into the wall driver's side. Petty's crash was then the biggest crash recorded by the black box, recording 80 G's of force on Petty.
  • 2004: The final race for Pontiac in the Cup Series as a whole, as Hermie Sadler No. 02 finished 31st.
  • 2005: Slight contact between Bobby Hamilton Jr. and Ken Schrader on lap 332 triggered a 14-car wreck. While Kevin Harvick was the winner, 22nd-place Bobby Labonte finished 32 laps down, a rarity for the series over the previous 25 seasons.
  • 2007: The Car of Tomorrow debuted. After Joe Gibbs Racing dominated the race, Kyle Busch drove a Hendrick Chevy to the win, then pointedly ripped the poor raceability of the COT in victory lane.
  • 2008: Dale Jarrett's last race.
  • 2010: Jimmie Johnson had never won at Bristol until this race; it was his 50th Winston Cup Series win.
  • 2011: After track president Jeff Byrd's death in late 2010, Food City and Bristol Motor Speedway agree to name the race in memory of Byrd in a one-year-only deal.
  • 2013: Kyle Busch won the pole with a then-new track qualifying record at 14.813 seconds (129.535 mph). Kasey Kahne won his first Bristol race. The race also marked the start of a feud between Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano, after Hamlin spun Logano during the race.
  • Matt Kenseth celebrates after winning the 2015 race which was delayed due to weather.
    2014: Denny Hamlin started on pole with a new track record, his first pole of the season. The race was delayed twice, just like the Daytona 500, for rain. Matt Kenseth was involved in a wreck at lap 163 when Timmy Hill rear-ended into him after caution was called for a spin by Cole Whitt. Carl Edwards was leading with a few laps left when a mysterious caution was out. During an attempt for a Green-white-checkered finish, the rain started falling and the race was unable to be restarted and would end under caution.
  • 2015: The race was scheduled to begin at noon ET and be televised by Fox, but rain delayed the start for 79 minutes. A crash between teammates Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano brought out the caution on lap 19. During the caution, rain began to fall again. The rain was delayed until night and because Fox had another programming, aired on Fox Sports 1. The race resumed at approximately 6:30 p.m. ET, almost 5 hours after the 1st green flag. Although rain threatened to end the race twice, the race was run to completion. Matt Kenseth won, breaking a 51 race winless streak.
  • 2018: Rain and four red flags plagued the race on Sunday only getting in 204 laps with the race continuing and concluding on Monday. It tied the record for most red flags in a single NASCAR race with the 2015 Quicken Loans 400, also red-flagged four times. All four red flags in that event were due to weather. Kyle Larson led the most laps for the second straight year (200) but got spun by the lapped car of Ryan Newman at lap 325. Larson was back in the lead with less than 100 laps to go; he was heading for victory until pole-sitter Kyle Busch performed the "Bump n' Run" on Larson with 6 laps to go to steal the win, his 7th at Bristol.
  • 2021 The NASCAR Cup Series ran its first race on dirt since 1970 (51 years). After multiple accidents took out several of the pre race favorites, Joey Logano survived a green/white/checker restart (NASCAR's version of overtime) to became the first Cup Series driver to win on dirt in the modern era.

Past winners

Year Date No. Driver Team Manufacturer Race distance Race time Average speed
(mph)
Report
Laps Miles (km)
Asphalt surface
1961 October 22 8 Joe Weatherly Bud Moore Engineering Pontiac 500 250 (402.336) 3:27:02 72.452 Report
1962 July 29 42 Jim Paschal Petty Enterprises Plymouth 500 250 (402.336) 3:19:16 75.276 Report
1963 March 31 22 Fireball Roberts Holman-Moody Ford 500 250 (402.336) 3:15:02 76.91 Report
1964 March 22 28 Fred Lorenzen Holman-Moody Ford 500 250 (402.336) 3:27:46 72.196 Report
1965 May 2 26 Junior Johnson Junior Johnson & Associates Ford 500 250 (402.336) 3:20:10 74.937 Report
1966 March 20 29 Dick Hutcherson Holman-Moody Ford 500 250 (402.336) 3:34:26 69.952 Report
1967 March 19 6 David Pearson Cotton Owens Dodge 500 250 (402.336) 3:17:32 75.937 Report
1968 March 17 17 David Pearson Holman-Moody Ford 500 250 (402.336) 3:14:11 77.247 Report
1969 March 23 22 Bobby Allison Mario Rossi Dodge 500 250 (402.336) 3:04:09 81.455 Report
1970 April 5 27 Donnie Allison Banjo Matthews Ford 500 266.5 (428.89) 3:02:42 87.543 Report
1971 March 28 17 David Pearson Holman-Moody Ford 500 266.5 (428.89) 2:52:23 91.704 Report
1972 April 9 12 Bobby Allison Richard Howard Chevrolet 500 266.5 (428.89) 2:50:18 92.826 Report
1973 March 11/25* 11 Cale Yarborough Richard Howard Chevrolet 500 266.5 (428.89) 2:57:43 88.952 Report
1974 March 17 11 Cale Yarborough Richard Howard Chevrolet 450* 239.85 (386.001) 3:42:50 64.533 Report
1975 March 16 43 Richard Petty Petty Enterprises Dodge 500 266.5 (428.89) 2:43:53 97.053 Report
1976 March 14 11 Cale Yarborough Junior Johnson & Associates Chevrolet 400 213.2 (343.112) 2:25:24 87.377 Report
1977 April 17 11 Cale Yarborough Junior Johnson & Associates Chevrolet 500 266.5 (428.89) 2:38:20 100.989 Report
1978 April 2 88 Darrell Waltrip DiGard Motorsports Chevrolet 500 266.5 (428.89) 2:53:03 92.401 Report
1979 April 1 2 Dale Earnhardt Rod Osterlund Racing Chevrolet 500 266.5 (428.89) 2:55:39 91.033 Report
1980 March 30 2 Dale Earnhardt Rod Osterlund Racing Chevrolet 500 266.5 (428.89) 2:44:53 96.977 Report
1981 March 29 11 Darrell Waltrip Junior Johnson & Associates Buick 500 266.5 (428.89) 2:58:36 89.53 Report
1982 March 14 11 Darrell Waltrip Junior Johnson & Associates Buick 500 266.5 (428.89) 2:49:52 94.025 Report
1983 May 21 11 Darrell Waltrip Junior Johnson & Associates Chevrolet 500 266.5 (428.89) 2:51:07 93.445 Report
1984 April 1 11 Darrell Waltrip Junior Johnson & Associates Chevrolet 500 266.5 (428.89) 2:50:10 93.967 Report
1985 April 6* 3 Dale Earnhardt Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 500 266.5 (428.89) 3:15:42 81.79 Report
1986 April 6 27 Rusty Wallace Blue Max Racing Pontiac 500 266.5 (428.89) 2:58:14 89.747 Report
1987 April 12 3 Dale Earnhardt Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 500 266.5 (428.89) 3:31:27 75.621 Report
1988 April 10 9 Bill Elliott Melling Racing Ford 500 266.5 (428.89) 3:12:23 83.115 Report
1989 April 9 27 Rusty Wallace Blue Max Racing Pontiac 500 266.5 (428.89) 3:30:18 76.034 Report
1990 April 8 28 Davey Allison Robert Yates Racing Ford 500 266.5 (428.89) 3:03:15 87.258 Report
1991 April 14 2 Rusty Wallace Penske Racing Pontiac 500 266.5 (428.89) 3:39:37 72.809 Report
1992 April 5 7 Alan Kulwicki AK Racing Ford 500 266.5 (428.89) 3:05:15 86.316 Report
Concrete surface
1993 April 4 2 Rusty Wallace Penske Racing Pontiac 500 266.5 (428.89) 3:08:43 84.73 Report
1994 April 10 3 Dale Earnhardt Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 500 266.5 (428.89) 2:58:22 89.647 Report
1995 April 2 24 Jeff Gordon Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 500 266.5 (428.89) 2:53:47 92.011 Report
1996 March 31 24 Jeff Gordon Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 342* 182.286 (293.36) 1:59:47 91.308 Report
1997 April 13 24 Jeff Gordon Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 500 266.5 (428.89) 3:33:06 75.035 Report
1998 March 29 24 Jeff Gordon Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 500 266.5 (428.89) 3:13:00 82.85 Report
1999 April 11 2 Rusty Wallace Penske Racing Ford 500 266.5 (428.89) 2:51:16 93.363 Report
2000 March 26 2 Rusty Wallace Penske Racing Ford 500 266.5 (428.89) 3:01:40 88.018 Report
2001 March 25 21 Elliott Sadler Wood Brothers Racing Ford 500 266.5 (428.89) 3:03:54 86.949 Report
2002 March 24 97 Kurt Busch Roush Racing Ford 500 266.5 (428.89) 3:14:20 82.281 Report
2003 March 23 97 Kurt Busch Roush Racing Ford 500 266.5 (428.89) 3:29:53 76.185 Report
2004 March 28 97 Kurt Busch Roush Racing Ford 500 266.5 (428.89) 3:13:34 82.607 Report
2005 April 3 29 Kevin Harvick Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 500 266.5 (428.89) 3:26:20 77.496 Report
2006 March 26 2 Kurt Busch Penske Racing Dodge 500 266.5 (428.89) 3:21:19 79.427 Report
2007 March 25 5 Kyle Busch Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 504* 268.632 (432.321) 3:16:38 81.969 Report
2008 March 16 31 Jeff Burton Richard Childress Racing Chevrolet 506* 269.698 (434.036) 3:00:15 89.775 Report
2009 March 22 18 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 503* 268.099 (431.463) 2:54:35 92.139 Report
2010 March 21 48 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 500 266.5 (428.89) 3:20:50 79.618 Report
2011 March 20 18 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 500 266.5 (428.89) 2:53:55 91.941 Report
2012 March 18 2 Brad Keselowski Penske Racing Dodge 500 266.5 (428.89) 2:51:52 93.037 Report
2013 March 17 5 Kasey Kahne Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 500 266.5 (428.89) 2:53:25 92.206 Report
2014 March 16 99 Carl Edwards Roush Fenway Racing Ford 503* 268.099 (431.463) 3:11:23 84.051 Report
2015 April 19 20 Matt Kenseth Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 511* 272.363 (438.325) 3:37:54 74.997 Report
2016 April 17 19 Carl Edwards Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 500 266.5 (428.89) 3:15:52 81.637 Report
2017 April 24* 48 Jimmie Johnson Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet 500 266.5 (428.89) 3:04:29 86.674 Report
2018 April 15/16* 18 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 500 266.5 (428.89) 3:26:25 77.465 Report
2019 April 7 18 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 500 266.5 (428.89) 2:56:38 90.527 Report
2020 May 31* 2 Brad Keselowski Team Penske Ford 500 266.5 (428.89) 3:19:02 80.338 Report
Dirt surface
2021 March 29* 22 Joey Logano Team Penske Ford 253* 134.849 (217.018) 2:43:53 46.313 Report
2022 April 17 18 Kyle Busch Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota 250 133.25 (214.445) 3:34:27 34.973 Report

Notes

  • 1973: Race started on March 11 but suspended until March 25 after 52 laps due to rain.
  • 1974: Race shortened due to energy crisis.
  • 1985: Race postponed from March 31 due to rain.
  • 1996: Race shortened due to rain.
  • 2007–09, 2015 and 2021: Races extended due to NASCAR overtime.
  • 2014: Race extended due to NASCAR overtime, but overtime restart was aborted and race called due to rain.
  • 2017: Race postponed from Sunday to Monday due to rain.
  • 2018: Race suspended until Monday due to rain.
  • 2020: Race postponed from April 5 to May 31 due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
  • 2021: Race postponed from Sunday to Monday due to heavy rain and flash flooding.

Track length notes

  • 1961–1969: 0.5 mile course
  • Since 1970: 0.533 mile course

Multiple winners (drivers)

Asphalt/concrete surface
# Wins Driver Years won
6 Rusty Wallace 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1999, 2000
5 Darrell Waltrip 1978, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984
Dale Earnhardt 1979, 1980, 1985, 1987, 1994
Kyle Busch 2007, 2009, 2011, 2018, 2019
4 Cale Yarborough 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977
Jeff Gordon 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998
Kurt Busch 2002, 2003, 2004, 2006
3 David Pearson 1967, 1968, 1971
2 Bobby Allison 1969, 1972
Carl Edwards 2014, 2016
Jimmie Johnson 2010, 2017
Brad Keselowski 2012, 2020
Dirt surface
# Wins Driver Years won
1 Joey Logano 2021
Kyle Busch 2022

Multiple winners (teams)

Asphalt/concrete surface
# Wins Team Years won
8 Hendrick Motorsports 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2007, 2010, 2013, 2017
7 Junior Johnson & Associates 1965, 1976, 1977, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984
Team Penske 1991, 1993, 1999, 2000, 2006, 2012, 2020
6 Joe Gibbs Racing 2009, 2011, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019
5 Holman-Moody 1963, 1964, 1966, 1968, 1971
Richard Childress Racing 1985, 1987, 1994, 2005, 2008
4 Roush Fenway Racing 2002, 2003, 2004, 2014
3 Richard Howard 1972, 1973, 1974
2 Petty Enterprises 1962, 1975
Rod Osterlund Racing 1979, 1980
Blue Max Racing 1986, 1989
Dirt surface
# Wins Team Years won
1 Team Penske 2021
Joe Gibbs Racing 2022

Manufacturer wins

Asphalt/concrete surface
# Wins Manufacturer Years won
23 Chevrolet 1972, 1973, 1974, 1976, 1977, 1978, 1979, 1980, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1987, 1994, 1995, 1996, 1997, 1998, 2005, 2007, 2008, 2010, 2013, 2017
18 Ford 1963, 1964, 1965, 1966, 1968, 1970, 1971, 1988, 1990, 1992, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003, 2004, 2014, 2020
6 Toyota 2009, 2011, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019
5 Pontiac 1961, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1993
Dodge 1967, 1969, 1975, 2006, 2012
2 Buick 1981, 1982
1 Plymouth 1962
Dirt surface
# Wins Manufacturer Years won
1 Ford 2021
Toyota 2022

This page was last updated at 2022-10-19 20:20 UTC. Update now. View original page.

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