From the intro songs to the beating and the banging that comes with short-track racing, here is what was surprising and not surprising from the 53rd annual Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Surprising: Hendrick Motorsports’ Kasey Kahne is a Bristol victory virgin no more. The driver of the No. 5 Great Clips Chevrolet scored his first ever win in nineteen races at Thunder Valley and his first win of the young 2013 season.
“This is a big win,” Kahne said. “The whole team was flawless.”
“I feel like for myself it’s a big accomplishment to win here,” Kahne continued. “We’ve prepared pretty hard this year and it feels good to win.”
Not Surprising: Both Busch brothers earned their stripes as ‘come back kids’, overcoming adversity to finish in the top five.
Kyle Busch, behind the wheel of the No. 18 M&Ms Toyota, overcame a speeding penalty to finish second and Kurt Busch, driver of the No. 78 Furniture Row/Beautyrest Chevrolet, contended with a loose wheel, as well as some damage to his race car, to battle back to a fourth place finish.
This was Kyle Busch’s second top-10 finish in 2013 and Kurt Busch’s best finish of the 2013 season, as well as his best finish so far with Furniture Row Racing.
“I need to stop getting penalties and stay up front all race,” Kyle Busch said. “I wish there was more to have there. But it’s a good day I guess.”
“Considering how much we had to battle back from adversity today, the finish was even more gratifying” Kurt Busch said. “We battled hard and the poor No. 78 car – she’s used up.”
Kyle Busch is now in the top ten in points and Kurt Busch vaulted from 29th to 16th in the point standings.
Surprising: While Jeff Gordon and Matt Kenseth have had issues between one another in the past, they had a surprisingly tough encounter on the track at Bristol. With Gordon in the lead and Kenseth right behind, Gordon blew a tire, hit the wall and Kenseth plowed into him from behind after his throttle apparently stuck.
“As soon as I got into the banking, I felt the tire go,” the driver of the No. 24 Drive to End Hunger Chevrolet said. “I really hate that for Kenseth.”
“There was not a lot either of us could do,” the driver of the No. 20 Home Depot/Husky Toyota said. “It will take a lot of Husky tools to fix that thing.”
“We had a great car but we didn’t make it to the end.”
Not Surprising: Yes, it was Bristol and there were some temper flare ups, especially between Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano, who do have a history with one another.
Hamlin, who had had an eventful week deciding not to appeal his $25,000 fine from NASCAR, got a bit peeved with Joey Logano and ended up turning his former teammate and sending him spinning.
The driver of the No. 11 FedEx Freight Toyota, finished 23rd and Logano, driving the No. 22 Shell Pennzoil Ford, finished 17th.
“Really, you’ve got to control your car and he slid up in front of me,” Hamlin said. “I meant to run into him but didn’t mean to spin him out.”
“We finished bad. He finished bad,” Hamlin continued. “It’s even.”
“That’s a freaking genius behind the wheel of the 11 car – probably the worst teammate I ever had, so I learned that now,” Logano said. “He decided to run in the back of me, so whatever.”
“I have a scorecard and I’m not putting up with that,” Logano continued. “What goes around comes around.”
And yes, the disagreement spilled over into Twitter-world, first with Logano tweeting, “Hey @dennyhamlin great job protecting that genius brain of yours by keeping your helmet on” and Hamlin responding, “Last time I checked he had my cell and direct message button to choose from if he’s got a problem. Otherwise hush little child.”
Surprising: It was a surprisingly difficult day for the drivers of the cereal cars, with Jeff Burton, driver of the No. 31 Cheerios Chevrolet, and Carl Edwards, driver of the No. 99 Kellogg’s/Frosted Flake Ford Fusion, involved in an early wreck.
Burton finished 32nd while Edwards soldiered on, in spite of being ill most of the race and reportedly throwing up in his car, to finish 18th.
“I have to thank the infield medical folks and folks with NASCAR medical,” Edwards said. “They really helped me out a lot today.”
“That’s the most miserable race I’ve ever been through, but there was a little bit of satisfaction to come back and finish 18th.”
Not Surprising: Brad Keselowski, who finished third in the No. 2 Miller Lite Ford Fusion and now leads in the point standings, was not satisfied in the least.
“We weren’t close at the start but at the end, the car was pretty good,” Keselowski said. “The 2 team did a great job adjusting on the car during the race. “
“We’ve been so damn close and just haven’t sealed the deal.”
Surprising: In spite of bringing out the first caution with a flat tire, spin and a wreck, Tony Stewart still managed to keep his sense of humor throughout the rest of the race.
On lap 254 with only half of the race completed, Stewart radioed in to his ailing crew chief Steve Addington to say, “The good news is that it’s halfway over.”
Addington, who was battling the flu, replied simply, “Don’t make me laugh too hard right now.”
Not Surprising: While he may not have been stellar, he has been consistent so far in the 2013 season. Fan favorite Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished sixth and is just nine points behind Keselowski, sitting second in the point standings.
The driver of the No. 88 National Guard Chevrolet solely credits the consistent performance to crew chief Steve Letarte, who Earnhardt Jr. referred to after the race as ‘magic man.’
“I have to give all the credit to Steve Letarte,” Junior said. “He made a couple, two, three great pit calls there at the end and gave us the opportunity to get some guys on old tires and beat a few guys that we probably weren’t going to beat.”
“Great call by him.”
Surprising: There were some surprising names in the top ten when the checkered flag waved at Bristol, including Brian Vickers, Paul Menard and Jamie McMurray.
“Honestly after today, it felt like a win,” Vickers, driver of the No. 55 RK Motors Toyota, said. “We had some damage but got that fixed and we got back to the top 10.”
Not Surprising: In spite of a stellar Daytona, Danica Patrick has continued to struggle at the tracks following the season kick off. The driver of the No. 10 GoDaddy.com Chevrolet, finished 28th at Bristol, several laps down.
“We just never really got it completely freed up like we needed to,” Patrick said. “It was better later in the race, but by then the damage was done.”
Patrick is looking forward to the next race at Fontana, in spite of never having driven a Cup car at that track before.
“There are a lot of things that I have to work on at this point in time,” Patrick said. “The most important thing is to find a decent balance to start off the race so that we don’t drop back.”
