Rain interrupts Food City 500 for a third time at Bristol
The Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series’ Food City 500 was halted by weather for a third time on a soggy Sunday afternoon at Bristol Motor Speedway.
Kyle Larson was scored as the leader with 204 of a scheduled 500 laps complete. Denny Hamlin was in second place, with Paul Menard, pole-starter Kyle Busch and Ricky Stenhouse Jr. completing the top five.
Erik Jones was scored as the leader with 165 of a scheduled 500 laps complete. Kyle Larson was credited with second place, with Alex Bowman, Paul Menard and William Byron completing the top five.
Rain also interrupted the race at Lap 165 (26 minutes, 54 seconds of red-flag time) and Lap 49 (25 minutes, 25 seconds).
After seeing warm and sunny skies on Friday and most of Saturday, Sunday’s forecast that called for thunderstorms and 100 percent chance of precipitation proved correct. Storm clouds moved in Sunday, and morning precipitation dampened the track.
The start of Sunday’s event was set for 1 p.m. ET, but was delayed to an approximate 1:28 p.m. ET green flag as track officials got the track to a race-worthy condition. NASCAR has a crew of eight Air Titan dryers, five jet dryers (three side-draft and two down-draft), two track vacuums, one Elgin sweeper and one tractor broom to prepare the .533-mile track.
Hendrick Motorsports driver Jimmie Johnson is the defending race winner
The race will now resume on Monday at 1 PM ET.
