BRISTOL – Denny Hamlin fought off a fierce charge from his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Martin Truex Jr. to win Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Hamlin led a race-high 163 laps for his first points-paying victory of 2024 and second straight on the concrete in Thunder Valley. The No. 11 Toyota faced a stiff battle from Truex with 15 laps to go with the two leaders mired in heavy lapped traffic and exchanged the lead, but ultimately scored the win by 1.083 seconds.
RFK Racing’s Brad Keselowski finished third ahead of Hendrick Motorsports’ Alex Bowman and Kyle Larson, who completed the top five — the only drivers of the 36 who finished on the lead lap after a chaotic race around the 0.533-mile bullring.
There was a track-record high of 54 lead changes, the most since April 14, 1991 (40), and the number of leaders matched the previous record of 16, first set on April 9, 1989.
There were nine caution periods for a total of 98 laps.
Kyle Larson and Truex leave Bristol tied for the championship lead with a seven-point advantage over third-place Ty Gibbs.
Race Winner: Denny Hamlin of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 1 Winner: Ty Gibbs of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stage 2 Winner: Ty Gibbs of Joe Gibbs Racing (Toyota)
Stewart Haas Racing Finish:
- Josh Berry (Started 2nd, Finished 12th / Running, completed 499 of 500 laps)
- Chase Briscoe (Started 6th, Finished 13th / Running, completed 498 of 500 laps)
- Ryan Preece (Started 25th, Finished 14th / Running, completed 498 of 500 laps)
- Noah Gragson (Started 22nd, Finished 34th / Running, completed 494 of 500 laps)
Stewart Haas Racing Points:
- Chase Briscoe (19th with 107 points, 78 out of first)
- Josh Berry (27th with 74 points, 111 out of first)
- Noah Gragson (32nd with 56 points, 129 out of first)
- Ryan Preece (34th with 54 points, 131 out of first)
Josh Berry earned his first top-15 of the season in his first career NASCAR Cup Series start at Bristol.
This was Berry’s best finish so far this year. His previous best was 20th, earned March 3 at Las Vegas Motor Speedway.
“That was a good weekend. We had good speed,” said Josh Berry, driver of the No. 4 SUNNYD Ford Mustang Dark Horse. “I was really pretty happy with the car, but obviously there were a number of issues going on and I’m really kind of speechless on that part, but I thought we did a good job managing everything. We just seemed to make some adjustments at the end that seemed to cause the (tire) cording a little bit sooner and that kind of tied our hands a little bit there toward the end. But all in all, it was a great effort. Hate that we didn’t get a top-10, but it was a positive day and, honestly with everything going on, it was a lot of fun.”
Berry finished 10th in Stage 1 to earn one bonus point. He led twice for 25 laps – his first laps led at Bristol.
Berry was the highest-finishing rookie.
He qualified second for the Food City 500, his best qualifying effort in 17 career NASCAR Cup Series starts. His previous best was 14th, earned Feb. 24 at Atlanta Motor Speedway.
Chase Briscoe earned his third top-15 of the season, and his third top-15 in four career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Bristol.
His 13th-place result equaled his previous best finish at Bristol, earned initially in September 2021.
“Crazy race, by far the most bizarre race I’ve ever been a part of trying to not go hard trying to save your tires, and then you’d feel good, and they would just go all at once – they would be blowing,’ said Chase Briscoe, driver of the No. 14 Mahindra Tractors Ford Mustang Dark Horse. “It was definitely weird just how you had to run that race, a cat-and-mouse game, which I think would’ve been really fun if you didn’t have to worry about the tires blowing or coming apart. Thirteenth for us, we were definitely way better than 13th, but there at the end, my tire went down, and I was just trying to make it to the end without having to pit again. To be frustrated with 13th from where we were last year just as a season says a lot about where we are this year. We’ll just have to move on and continue to get better.”
Ryan Preece earned his first top-15 of the season, and his fourth top-15 in seven career NASCAR Cup Series starts at Bristol.
“I’d rather things go the way they did today than get beat by somebody with a faster car that day,” said Ryan Preece, driver of the No. 41 HaasTooling.com Ford Mustang Dark Horse. “Obviously, they’ve got some work to do, the (tire) wear was excessive, but we maximized our day. If we didn’t have that tire come apart there at the end, we could’ve finished maybe top-10, but it is what it is.”
This was Preece’s best finish so far this year. His previous best was 16th, earned Feb. 25 at Atlanta.
Preece finished ninth in Stage 1 to earn two bonus points and 10th in Stage 2 to earn one more bonus point.
“We put ourselves in a box there early,” said – Noah Gragson, driver of the No. 10 Bass Pro Shops/Ranger Boats/Tracker Boats & ATVS Ford Mustang Dark Horse. “We made a lot of speed on the first run, got up to 13th running the outside, then we cut a right-front down, or wore the right-front all the way down to the cords. Came down pit road, got trapped a lap down. We just didn’t execute today, especially myself, I hit the wall later in the race getting up into the marbles. There was a ton of tire rubber out there. But there are no excuses. I need to get it together for the Bass Pro Shops team and just didn’t run a good race. I appreciate all the hard work by everyone. We’ll keep it going. It was a tough weekend, a tough result, but we’ve got to rebound next weekend.”
Next Up:
The next event on the NASCAR Cup Series schedule is the EchoPark Automotive Grand Prix, which will be held on Sunday, March 24, at Circuit of the Americas (COTA) in Austin, Texas. The race begins at 3:30 p.m. EDT and will be covered live by FOX and SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
