2024 Food City 500: Denny Hamlin Crowned Concrete Bristol’s Victor as Forgotten ‘Driver-Tire Management’ Tactic Resurfaces

After three years in the dirt, Bristol Motor Speedway returned to concrete this Sunday. While the race offered a lot of entertainment, it was Denny Hamlin who grabbed all the attention with his emphatic victory. It was overall his fourth win at the 0.533-mile track and first win of the 2024 Cup Series campaign.

From a neutral point of view, the race almost had everything. Most importantly, it was an evenly poised affair with plenty of unpredictability until the very end. In fact, the challenges with the concrete track made it even more interesting.

Denny Hamlin triumphs in a challenging affair as tire management makes a comeback at Bristol Motor Speedway

Defending Cup Series champion Ryan Blaney led the line on Sunday after winning his first pole since 2022. However, Josh Berry took to the lead almost immediately at the beginning of the race in the 3rd lap. While the Stewart-Haas Racing driver kept the lead for more than 11 laps, Denny Hamlin showed some great speed to take over around the 20th lap.

On the other hand, Hendrick Motorsports faced a major blow early on. William Byron slapped the wall off Turn 2, breaking a toe link and needing to go down the pit road. Unsurprisingly, this brought out the first caution of the race with debris on the track.

As the race resumed, except for Tyler Reddick, everyone else opted to pit. However, the strategy didn’t help the 23XI Racing driver as he spun while battling for the lead. It only got worse as the wreck ended up with Zane Smith crashing into Reddick. Unfortunately, this incident resulted in a stack-up involving multiple cars.

While the race resumed, Bubba Wallace led the field to the green. However, it didn’t take Josh Berry much time to take back the leading position. In fact, the first 50 laps involved 7 lead changes, resulting in more lead changes than the three dirt races on the Bristol track. Safe to say, the race provided entertainment right from the word go.

In the 61st lap, Chase Elliott passed then-leader Denny Hamlin. By doing so, he led Hendrick Motorsports’ 80,000th lap in the Cup Series. With 10 lead changes in the 65th lap, the tally matched the entire total from last September’s night race (entire 500 laps).

Around the 70th lap, both Noah Gragson and Zane Smith struggled with tire issues, resulting in a caution. As the race resumed in the first stage, it enjoyed further lead changes. However, things changed drastically as the race reached the closing phase of the first Stage.

With Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin struggling with tires, Ty Gibbs took the lead in stunning fashion. After starting the race at P19, he finished Stage 1 as the leader. With half the field struggling with tires in the first 125 laps, the concrete track provided a different level of challenge on Sunday.

Eventually, Gibbs led the first stage followed by Kyle Larson, Chris Buescher, Brad Keselowski, and John Hunter Nemechek. Surprisingly, none of the starting five drivers finished in the top five after Stage 1. Ty Gibbs’ first career-stage victory indeed came in an entertaining fashion.

On came Stage 2 and changes in leaders continued thoroughly with Joey Logano leading for the first time in the 244th lap. However, he couldn’t get the better of Ty Gibbs. Eventually, the Joe Gibbs Racing driver made an impressive run to not only record his second stage win on Sunday but also in his Cup Series career.

With the start of the third stage, it was confirmed that NASCAR would be providing teams with one extra set of tires. However, that still posed a massive challenge to tactfully use the tires available. Meanwhile, Austin Cindric ran into the side of Brad Keselowski on pit road in the 256th lap, upsetting the Keselowski camp.

In the 310th lap, Josh Berry spun in turn 2, bringing out the caution. It was a pity considering how well he started the race. However, there was some good news after 323 laps. In the 124th Bristol race, the event witnessed a record-breaking number of changes in the lead.

Later in the 368th lap,  Austin Cindric and Ricky Stenhouse Jr were involved in a spin in Turn 4. Following that, Denny Hamlin led the field to the green but was taken over by Ty Gibbs in the 399th lap. As the race progressed in Stage 3, plenty of drivers started facing the inevitable tire issue.

Ryan Blaney lost a tire in the 435th lap but the field stayed green. Even Christopher Bell faced a similar issue five laps later as he went to pit road. In the 449th lap, even Carson Hocevar suffered with a flat tire. Unsurprisingly, the tires added a new dynamic in the final phase of Stage 3.

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With 48 laps left, Denny Hamlin led the field and looked sharp while his colleagues struggled with tire issues. Despite a tough fight from JGR teammate Martin Truex Jr, Hamlin triumphed in the end. Interestingly, the race ended with 54 lead changes, an all-time NASCAR record at a short track.

Safe to say, the race was a memorable one given the competition it provided. However, the key role that influenced the victory was the tire management, a tactic not recently seen in the sport.

The 2024 Food City 500 presented an unprecedented challenge on Sunday

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With the Bristol short track returning to concrete, the Cup Series race on Sunday witnessed an unlikely occurrence. It saw tires wearing out at an unsustainable pace, something that hasn’t been seen recently in the competition. While the Food City 500 race witnessed that, NASCAR provided an extra set of tires to each team.

However, that didn’t help the team’s cause given the impromptu occurrence of this issue. Early on, before the 20th century, facing such wearing-out tire issues was a common phenomenon. While it added more flavor to the competition, it only made it more tactical from a driver-team point of view.

As NASCAR veteran Dave Moody pointed out, the race was straight out of 1985. Even the legendary Dale Earnhardt Jr couldn’t contain his excitement watching the tire-management issue existing with the Next Gen car. In his opinion, tire wear issues add a different dynamic to NASCAR racing.

In fact, even winner Denny Hamlin was quick to highlight how he liked his odds when the race went to tire management. He said, “Once it became a tire management race, I really liked our chances.” Eventually, his experience helped him register back-to-back wins at Bristol.

It might be an old-school technique or requirement but the fact that it helped present an entertaining race speaks volumes of its importance in modern-day racing. Undoubtedly, the 2024 Food City 500 was one of the most eventful NASCAR races to have taken place in recent times.

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