By Matt Marr
Ryan Blaney led the field to green with Josh Berry alongside him in the front row.
The first caution came out on lap 23 for debris that fell off William Byron’s car after he made contact with the wall.
Tyler Reddick didn’t pit under caution, and wound up leading the ensuing restart on lap 31. However, his old tires were no match for everyone behind him and it wound up bringing out the caution one lap later. Reddick spun off of turn 4, creating an accordion effect that collected more cars in the back.
Later, Zane Smith blew a tire bringing out the caution with 54 laps to go in Stage One.
Ty Gibbs passed Ryan Blaney with 6 laps to go and hung on to win Stage One.
On lap 176 there was an incident involving Daniel Hemric, Zane Smith and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. which brought out the caution.
Chris Buescher gambled on pit road taking two tires, making him the leader on the restart on lap 190.
Kyle Busch spun for the second time of the day bringing out another caution with 23 to go in Stage Two.
Gibbs held off Brad Keselowski to win Stage Two.
After contact with Austin Cindric, Stenhouse spun right in front of the leader Denny Hamlin, bringing out the caution. Hamlin made it through unscathed.
It came down to a battle of tire management between Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, Hamlin and Martin Truex Jr. in the closing laps. Hamlin held on to win the Food City 500.
Food City 500 Top 5:
1. Denny Hamlin
2. Martin Truex Jr
3. Brad Keselowski
4. Alex Bowman
5. Kyle Larson