Food City 500: Winners, Losers from the NASCAR Race Today at Bristol

We got a great Food City 500 this afternoon at Bristol Motor Speedway, with Ty Gibbs recording his first-ever Cup Series win. It came in overtime, beating out Kyle Larson and Ryan Blaney, which was just the icing on the cake for an eventful race at Bristol.

Let’s dive into our winners and losers from the NASCAR race today.

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Winner: Tyler Reddick Overcomes Short Track Demons

Four wins early in a season is great, but Tyler Reddick is only going to become a NASCAR Cup Series champion if he can improve on short tracks. He and the No. 45 team knew that two weeks ago at Martinsville, but starting eighth just ended with a 15th-place finish.

The signs of Reddick exorcising his demons first appeared Saturday, when he posted the second-best time in qualifying. He carried that over into on-track success when it mattered, even overcoming a speeding penalty on Sunday to snag a fourth-place finish. If this can carry over into other short tracks, 23XI Racing has a legitimate championship contender.

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Related: NASCAR Standings Today after Food City 500

Loser: William Byron and No. 24 Team’s Rough Bristol Weekend

The trouble for William Byron and the No. 24 team became evident immediately this weekend. With the car heavy in practice and struggling in the corners, he qualified 34th for the Food City 500 with the fourth-slowest qualifying time. With such a bad starting position, the team took the hit of dropping to the back of the field by making changes to the steering system. Byron was a lap down just 40 laps into Stage 1. It was just a disastrous day for the No. 24 team, but the good news is that the NASCAR race today was the first time all season they didn’t score 25-plus points.

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Winner: Tire Strategy Pays Off Early for Josh Berry and No. 21 Team

There was definitely still a bit of uncertainty regarding tire wear at Bristol Motor Speedway coming into Sunday. That means teams have to take some risks and go against the rest of the field, which is what the No. 21 team did in Stage 1. After the first caution, Josh Berry didn’t pit, with the No. 21 car staying out for the final stretch of the stage. They were rewarded for the gamble. Berry finished fifth in Stage 1 (six points) and placed sixth in Stage 2 for five more points. On the final stage, the No. 21 just got a little loose and subsequent contact put him into the wall to effectively keep him out of the top 30 for the rest of the day. Without those stage results, Berry scores just six points. Instead, he gets 16. Consider that entering the NASCAR race today, Berry was 25th in points and 55 back of Daniel Suarez, getting those 11 stage points feels like it might be season-saving for a team that was already struggling to stay in The Chase contention.

Read More: NASCAR O’Reilly Auto Parts Series Results Bristol

Loser: Christopher Bell after Stage 1

Stage 1 at Bristol went great for the No. 20 car. After qualifying 14th on Saturday, Christopher Bell raced his way to second place, and his car seemed to have the speed to challenge Kyle Larson for the win at Bristol Motor Speedway. It went downhill fast. Bell was dropped to the rear of the field after speeding on pit road. When he got caught up in traffic, the No. 20 got loose and spun, running into the wall and requiring significant repairs. Bell was 4 laps down well before the midway point of Stage 2, and his streak of five consecutive top-20 finishes, including four in the top seven, ended on Sunday. Those stage points helped him avoid an even greater points disaster at Bristol.

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Winner: Kyle Larson’s Co-Ownership of Bristol

Officially, Bristol Motor Speedway is owned by Speedway Motorsports. Kyle Larson deserves a partial stake in the track. The No. 5 car was truly dominant throughout most of the Food City 500, winning both stages (20 points) with ease and leading more than half (285 laps) of the entire race. Outside of Las Vegas, it had been a moderately quiet season for Larson by his elite standard. Sunday showcased how great he can be. Unfortunately for Larson, the final pit for 2 tires just didn’t work out.

Loser: Alex Bowman’s Bad Luck Continues

Everyone in NASCAR was rightfully happy this week when it was announced Alex Bowman would be making his return behind the wheel of the No. 48 car. After misisng four races due to vertigo issues, Bowman was back at a track where he had a very good history. Making The Chase might’ve been out of the question, but at least he could start stringing together good races. Unfortunately for Bowman, that was taken out of his control once more in a season where everything seems to be going wrong. Early in Stage 2, Shane van Gisbergen got loose and started spinning out. When John Hunter Nemechek yanked his car up to try and avoid the wreck, he pulled it right into the No. 48. Bowman’s car got plowed into the wall and hit from behind by Todd Gilliland. It’s just been that kind of year for him.

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Related: Alex Bowman Replacements in the No. 48 for 2027

Winner: Ty Gibbs Rebounds, Gets First Cup Win

Tip your cap to Ty Gibbs and the No. 54 team. After posting the fifth-fastest qualifying time on Saturday, Gibbs starting falling early on Sunday in the Food City 500 and ended Stage 1 in 13th place. Changes to the No. 54 got him going again and once he had the right feel and control for the car, he climbed his way back up to place seventh in Stage 2 (4 points) and he carried that momentum into the final stage.

With Blaney (4 tires) and Larson (2 tires) going down for tires on the penultimate restart, Gibbs had his first shot at the win. He was in position for it until Kyle Busch got some revenge on Riley Herbst, drawing the caution and forcing overtime. No matter, Gibbs still beat Blaney head-to-head to record his first-ever Cup Series win. Oh, by the way, he’s finished sixth or better in six consecutive races.

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Loser: Ryan Blaney’s Pit Crew

At what point does Team Penske have to make a change? Ryan Blaney’s pit crew has been an issue all season, most infamously with issues changing tires that have cost him spots and forced him to pit in a teammate’s box for an emergency fix. Even after a week off, Penske didn’t change anything. So, what happened at Bristol?

After winning the pole, Blaney’s pit crew had issues during stops following the first two stages, and the No. 12 lost multiple spots coming off pit road. Again, Blaney is so great at this that he finds a way to still pull off an incredible finish. It’s just inexcusable at this point; as the broadcast noted, Blaney has lost more than 30 spots on pit road than the second-worst team this season.

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Winner: Joey Logano Makes It a Points Day

Earlier this week, Joey Logano said on The Gluckcast that the key to success in this format is emphasizing both wins and just performing in the races where points become the objective. After qualifying 20th at Bristol on Saturday, it became pretty clear to the No. 22 team that all the adjustments in the world wouldn’t make this a race-winning car.

So, Logano made it a strong points day. After finishing 25th in Stage 1, he picked up 3 stage points with an eighth-place finish in Stage 2 and then kept his position to end the day in seventh. Performances like this tend to fly under the radar, but they can make a big difference months from now.

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Loser: Richard Childress Racing

We haven’t exactly been the biggest supporters of Kyle Busch this season, and his 101-race winless streak continued on Sunday at Bristol. With that said, the real embarrassment right now is Richard Childress Racing. Busch and Austin Dillon spent a majority of the day outside the top 20, just trying to avoid falling a lap down.

What happens when you are stuck in the middle of the pack? You can get a little bit loose and your car naturally gets hit from a car right behind you as we saw happen to Busch early on the final stage. What was once a storied team, largely because of legendary drivers, is now an afterthought on race weekend. The win-and-in system was really the only thing that made RCR playoff relevant in recent years, and now that it’s gone, well, let’s just say no one will have RCR drivers on The Chase watch.

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