Bristol Motor Speedway, Bristol, TN — April 8, 2023
“It’s Bristol Baby,” and they are “Doing It In The Dirt.” The Food City Dirt Race comes to Bristol Motor Speedway with the NASCAR Cup Series and Craftsman Truck Series paying a visit to the “Last Great Colosseum.”
Rain washed out practice on Friday evening, so drivers were getting their first laps on the track during qualifying heats Saturday afternoon and evening. Despite the amount of rain that was dumped on the track, the racing surface is perfect. The Bristol track crew did a spectacular job in prepping the track for tonight’s activities.
The Craftsman Trucks were first out for four 15-lap qualifying races.
Race One
Starting positions for both series were determined by a blind draw Friday. Stephan Parsons(20) started on the pole. But it was Ben Rhodes(99) who quickly moved out front to dominate the race. Hailie Deegan(13) moved from the sixth starting spot to second. Proving she could race her way around a dirt track. It was a one-two finish for Ford Performance.
Race Two
Stewart Friesen put on a similar performance in Heat Two. Starting fourth, Friesen(52) drove to the front and led every lap. There was a woman driver in this race as well. Friesen’s wife, Jessica Friesen(62). She placed ninth of ten drivers. Colby Howard(9) finished 10th after his truck broke on the first lap.
Race Three
The third Heat featured Cup Series drivers Joey Logano(66) and William Byron(51). Former Cup competitor, Matt DiBenedetto(25), was also in the race. However, it was Nick Sanchez(2) who led the first half of the race. Logano quickly moved to second from the fifth starting position and patiently waited for his opportunity to make a move on the leader.
Logano eventually made the pass and took the checkered flag. Ty Majeski(98) finished second in another Ford Performance one-two result. Sanchez held onto third, Byron and DiBenedetto ended up fifth and sixth, respectively.
Race Four
The best race of the early evening had Matt Crafton(88) and Rajah Caruth(24) nose to nose across the finish line. Caruth led six laps, and Crafton led nine. Including the one that counted the most. Crafton’s win gave Ford Performance three victories out of four heats. A good omen for tonight’s feature race, the Weather Guard Truck Race on Dirt.
Lawless Alan(45), Josh Reaume(34), Jessica Friesen, Jerry Bohlman(46), and Andrew Gordon(47) failed to qualify for the main event.
Ford F-150s took eight of the top ten starting positions.
1st Zane Smith(38) Love’s/Speedco Ford
2nd Ty Majeski(98) Soda Sense Ford
3rd Kaden Honeycutt(04) CarQuest/Technet Ford
4th Joey Logano(66) Hang 10 Car Wash Ford
6th Hailie Deegan(13) Ford Performance Ford
7th Ben Rhodes(99) Campers Inn RV Ford
8th Matt Crafton(88) Great Lakes Flooring/Menards Ford
10th Chase Briscoe(22) Production Alliance Group Ford
The Cup Series cars and drivers were next on the track.
Heat One
Former teammates Austin Dillon(3) and Tyler Reddick(45) battled it out for the win in Heat One. Josh Berry(9), filling in for Chase Elliott, made an early run toward the front but spun out and ended up in the eighth position.
Points listed in the results are qualifying points. As there were four individual heats, each driver earned points based on where they finished in their heat. They were also awarded points for every position they advanced from the blind draw starting position in their heat.
| 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Food City Dirt Race Heat 1 Results – Bristol Motor Speedway | ||||||
| Finish | Start | Car # | Driver | Total Pts | Laps | Led |
| 1 | 5 | 3 | Austin Dillon | 40 | 15 | 13 |
| 2 | 6 | 45 | Tyler Reddick | 35 | 15 | 0 |
| 3 | 8 | 20 | Christopher Bell | 34 | 15 | 0 |
| 4 | 2 | 48 | Alex Bowman | 33 | 15 | 1 |
| 5 | 1 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr | 32 | 15 | 1 |
| 6 | 4 | 31 | Justin Haley | 31 | 15 | 0 |
| 7 | 10 | 1 | Ross Chastain | 30 | 15 | 0 |
| 8 | 7 | 9 | Josh Berry | 0 | 15 | 0 |
| 9 | 9 | 6 | Brad Keselowski | 28 | 15 | 0 |
| 10 | 3 | 78 | BJ McLeod | 27 | 15 | 0 |
Heat Two
Ryan Blaney(12) led from start to finish. Chase Briscoe(14) gave Ford Performance another one-two finish on the night. William Byron(24) fared better in his Cup Heat than the Truck Heat run earlier, he took the third spot. Road racing specialist AJ Allmendinger(16) is not a dirt track specialist. Apparently, neither is Denny Hamlin(11). The pair finished seventh and eighth.
| 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Food City Dirt Race Heat 2 Results – Bristol Motor Speedway | ||||||
| Finish | Start | Car # | Driver | Total Pts | Laps | Led |
| 1 | 1 | 12 | Ryan Blaney | 40 | 15 | 15 |
| 2 | 2 | 14 | Chase Briscoe | 35 | 15 | 0 |
| 3 | 5 | 24 | William Byron | 34 | 15 | 0 |
| 4 | 4 | 21 | Harrison Burton | 33 | 15 | 0 |
| 5 | 6 | 10 | Aric Almirola | 32 | 15 | 0 |
| 6 | 9 | 38 | Todd Gilliland | 31 | 15 | 0 |
| 7 | 3 | 16 | AJ Allmendinger | 30 | 15 | 0 |
| 8 | 8 | 11 | Denny Hamlin | 29 | 15 | 0 |
| 9 | 7 | 42 | Noah Gragson | 28 | 15 | 0 |
Heat Three
Michigan’s Erik Jones(43) started on the pole. But Kyle Larson(5) and Ryan Preece blew past on the start and drove away from the field. Larson led every lap, with Preece in second. Jones ended up fourth.
| 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Food City Dirt Race Heat 3 Results – Bristol Motor Speedway | ||||||
| Finish | Start | Car # | Driver | Total Pts | Laps | Led |
| 1 | 6 | 5 | Kyle Larson | 40 | 15 | 15 |
| 2 | 5 | 41 | Ryan Preece | 35 | 15 | 0 |
| 3 | 9 | 15 | JJ Yeley | 0 | 15 | 0 |
| 4 | 1 | 43 | Erik Jones | 33 | 15 | 0 |
| 5 | 8 | 34 | Michael McDowell | 32 | 15 | 0 |
| 6 | 4 | 51 | Matt Crafton | 0 | 15 | 0 |
| 7 | 7 | 17 | Chris Buescher | 30 | 15 | 0 |
| 8 | 3 | 77 | Ty Dillon | 29 | 15 | 0 |
| 9 | 2 | 7 | Corey Lajoie | 28 | 15 | 0 |
Heat Four
Bubba Wallace(23) proved he knows dirt. Another start-to-finish performance gave Bubba the win easily. Last year’s dirt race winner, Kyle Busch(8), and Austin Cindric(2), put on a good battle for second, with Busch prevailing. Logano struggled in his Cup car after making it look easy in the Craftsman truck. He finished in the fifth position.
| 2023 NASCAR Cup Series Food City Dirt Race Heat 4 Results – Bristol Motor Speedway | ||||||
| FIN | ST | Car # | Driver | TOT PTS | Laps | Led |
| 1 | 1 | 23 | Bubba Wallace | 40 | 15 | 15 |
| 2 | 6 | 8 | Kyle Busch | 35 | 15 | 0 |
| 3 | 7 | 2 | Austin Cindric | 34 | 15 | 0 |
| 4 | 2 | 13 | Jonathan Davenport | 33 | 15 | 0 |
| 5 | 8 | 22 | Joey Logano | 32 | 15 | 0 |
| 6 | 4 | 54 | Ty Gibbs | 31 | 15 | 0 |
| 7 | 5 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr | 30 | 15 | 0 |
| 8 | 9 | 4 | Kevin Harvick | 29 | 15 | 0 |
| 9 | 3 | 99 | Daniel Suarez | 28 | 15 | 0 |
Austin Cindric was more than excited with his third-place finish in Heat Four. “That’s the greatest I’ve ever been on dirt, I can tell you that much. I don’t know where it’s gonna go from here, but certainly happy with the effort in the heat race. The positive thing is I actually did everything on purpose. It didn’t just fall in my lap.”
“By no means is this an end result for the race, but it’s definitely a win for me to start the weekend coming in with a lot of things that I know I wanted to work on be better at from last year. It was fun to be able to hang it out and get a good finish.”
The Lineup for the 2023 Food City Dirt Race at Bristol Motor Speedway
| Position | Car # | Driver |
| 1 | 5 | Kyle Larson |
| 2 | 3 | Austin Dillon |
| 3 | 15 | J.J. Yeley |
| 4 | 20 | Christopher Bell |
| 5 | 8 | Kyle Busch |
| 6 | 45 | Tyler Reddick |
| 7 | 2 | Austin Cindric |
| 8 | 41 | Ryan Preece |
| 9 | 12 | Ryan Blaney |
| 10 | 24 | William Byron |
| 11 | 23 | Bubba Wallace |
| 12 | 22 | Joey Logano |
| 13 | 34 | Michael McDowell |
| 14 | 14 | Chase Briscoe |
| 15 | 38 | Todd Gilliland |
| 16 | 1 | Ross Chastain |
| 17 | 48 | Alex Bowman |
| 18 | 43 | Erik Jones |
| 19 | 10 | Aric Almirola |
| 20 | 21 | Harrison Burton |
| 21 | 13 | Jonathan Davenport |
| 22 | 47 | Ricky Stenhouse Jr |
| 23 | 54 | Ty Gibbs |
| 24 | 51 | Matt Crafton |
| 25 | 31 | Justin Haley |
| 26 | 4 | Kevin Harvick |
| 27 | 19 | Martin Truex Jr |
| 28 | 17 | Chris Buescher |
| 29 | 16 | A.J. Allmendinger |
| 30 | 11 | Denny Hamlin |
| 31 | 9 | Josh Berry |
| 32 | 77 | Ty Dillon |
| 33 | 6 | Brad Keselowski |
| 34 | 99 | Daniel Suarez |
| 35 | 7 | Corey Lajoie |
| 36 | 42 | Noah Gragson |
| 37 | 78 | B.J. McLeod |
The Weather Guard Truck Race on Dirt from Bristol Motor Speedway
Stage One
Joey Logano started on the front row and led every lap in Stage One except the first one. That honor went to Ty Majeski. The two Ford F-150s were the class of the field as they walked away on every restart resulting from two caution periods in the first 40 laps.
William Byron worked his way up to the third spot after a poor qualifying effort. Three trucks stayed out at the end of Stage One. Logano and Majeski will line up behind Matt DiBenedetto, Bret Holmes(32), and Tanner Gray(15) at the start of Stage Two.
Stage Two
Logano is making it look easy. He pulled out to a large advantage over Byron and Majeski, who are staging their own personal battle for second place. Everyone else is just along for the ride. Will the Final Stage provide any excitement to the runaway Logano is working on?
The Final Stage
Joey Logano knows dirt. He led 138 of 150 laps and was never in danger from any of the 35 other competitors. At every drop of the green flag, Logano’s Ford immediately separated itself from the pack.
He cruised out front all night. No one could ever get to his bumper. Will it help him tomorrow in the Cup Series? That remains to be seen. But tonight, Joey Logano picks up another sword, symbolic of victory in the Colosseum over every other gladiator.
Results of The Weather Guard Truck Race from Bristol Motor Speedway
| POS | CAR | DRIVER | DELTA | LAPS |
| 1 | 66 | Joey Logano | — | 150 |
| 2 | 98 | Ty Majeski | 1.241 | 150 |
| 3 | 51 | William Byron | 2.272 | 150 |
| 4 | 88 | Matt Crafton | 4.259 | 150 |
| 5 | 23 | Grant Enfinger | 5.230 | 150 |
| 6 | 35 | Jake Garcia | 5.495 | 150 |
| 7 | 22 | Chase Briscoe | 7.186 | 150 |
| 8 | 15 | Tanner Gray | 7.264 | 150 |
| 9 | 4 | Kaden Honeycutt | 7.498 | 150 |
| 10 | 25 | Matt DiBenedetto | 7.778 | 150 |
| 11 | 24 | Rajah Carut | 7.881 | 150 |
| 12 | 5 | Dean Thompson | 8.051 | 150 |
| 13 | 13 | Hailie Deegan | 8.289 | 150 |
| 14 | 7 | Jonathan Davenport | 8.934 | 150 |
| 15 | 11 | Corey Heim | 9.363 | 150 |
| 16 | 12 | Spencer Boyd | 9.826 | 150 |
| 17 | 42 | Carson Hocevar | 9.910 | 150 |
| 18 | 2 | Nick Sanchez | 10.220 | 150 |
| 19 | 99 | Ben Rhodes | 10.572 | 150 |
| 20 | 32 | Bret Holme | 11.252 | 150 |
| 21 | 38 | Zane Smith | 11.557 | 150 |
| 22 | 43 | Daniel Dye | 12.142 | 150 |
| 23 | 52 | Stewart Friesen | 12.832 | 150 |
| 24 | 6 | Norm Benning | 13.535 | 150 |
| 25 | 56 | Timmy Hill | -2 | 148 |
| 26 | 30 | Tanner Carrick | -3 | 147 |
| 27 | 9 | Colby Howard | -3 | 147 |
| 28 | 4 | Chase Purdy | -3 | 147 |
| 29 | 41 | Tyler Carpenter | -33 | 117 |
| 30 | 19 | Christian Eckes | -54 | 96 |
| 31 | 75 | Parker Kligerman | -65 | 85 |
| 32 | 2 | Kris Wright | -75 | 75 |
| 33 | 16 | Tyler Ankrum | -125 | 25 |
| 34 | 17 | Taylor Gray | -142 | 8 |
| 35 | 33 | Mason Massey | -143 | 7 |
| 36 | 20 | Stefan Parsons | -143 | 7 |
