Denny Hamlin manages his tires, wins chaotic Food City 500 at Bristol
In what may end up being the best race of the 2024 season, Denny Hamlin battled tire management to win the Food City 500. Hamlin has now won back-to-back races at Bristol, going back to his win in the NASCAR Playoffs last season.
This race presented a unique issue for Denny Hamlin and the rest of the Cup Series. The Goodyear tires were shredded by the concrete of Bristol. Rubber never laid into the track, creating grip. This was an old-fashioned NASCAR race through and through.
Through a chaotic afternoon, with tires being destroyed constantly, Hamlin picks up his fourth career win at Bristol. 52 career wins.
After getting the win, Denny Hamlin rubbed it in a little bit, showing just how much rubber he was able to save, and burned it down for a couple of minutes. A very impressive victory for the Joe Gibbs Racing driver.
Once this became a tire management race, it was going to be a veteran driver who won. The guys who grew up racing late models, saving tires on short tracks, and then gunning it at the end to win the race.
Denny Hamlin felt most comfortable in this situation, his team executed the best, and he pulled out a win in a race that will be talked about for years to come.
Ty Gibbs owned the stages
This race was so much fun because of how surprising these tire issues were. Goodyear did distribute an extra set of tires for each team just to make sure they could get to the end of the race.
While teams and fans panicked to start, once these teams figured things out, they got more comfortable. That didn’t eliminate the suspense as everyone waited for the tires to blow out or shred until they became nonexistent.
Ty Gibbs was impressive in the first two stages. He is young, but showed that he knew how to manage his equipment just as well as the veterans. Gibbs won Stage 1 in convincing fashion. Then, he went out and won Stage 2 almost with ease, choosing to take the lead when he pleased.
Tires, tires, tires
There has been a lot of talk about the product on the track recently. People didn’t love Daytona. They didn’t love Phoenix. Atlanta was a wonderful, three-wide finish. Las Vegas was a dominant win for Kyle Larson but it was solid racing.
No one expected this to happen today. Bristol has earned a reputation for being boring. Today was anything but. Teams were stressed out, drivers didn’t know what to do, and it made for a fun afternoon of racing.
The concrete tore these tires up. Shredded them like a cheese grater. Denny Hamlin figured something out that others couldn’t, and drove a fantastic race for 500 laps.
Denny Hamlin has four career wins at Bristol
With this win at Bristol, Denny Hamlin joins a great group of drivers with four career wins at Bristol. Hamlin has two wins in the last two races on the concrete at the track and that has moved him up the all-time wins list at the East Tennessee track.
Hamlin is now tied with Bobby Allison, Carl Edwards, and Matt Kenseth with his fourth win at Bristol. Kyle Busch is the only active driver with more wins at Bristol, and he has eight. So, I’m not sure Hamlin will catch up to that.
Just a wonderful race. NASCAR at its best on a short track. Only five cars finished on the lead lap, something that hasn’t happened for 20 years. It was a record for passes for the lead on a short track. And Denny Hamlin is the driver who gets to say he won the most chaotic and challenging race of the season.