Experience won the day at Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway in what turned into a tire conservation race.
For 500 laps around the 0.533-mile concrete oval, drivers and teams endured heavy tire wear due to the change in track surface.
With resin laid down on the track versus the typical PJ1 compound used in previous Bristol races on concrete, the race track never gained grip like it typically does.
The severe tire wear brought a hefty amount of lead changes, 54 to be exact, which was an all-time record on a short track in the NASCAR Cup Series.
While lead changes were plentiful in Sunday’s Food City 500, experienced drivers rose to the top of the leaderboard by race’s end.
Winner Denny Hamlin (43 years old), runner-up finisher Martin Truex Jr. (43 years old) and third-place driver Brad Keselowski (40 years old) are currently the three oldest full-time Cup Series drivers.
Coincidence? Not one bit.
All three competitors have driven various cars in the Cup Series and NASCAR Xfinity Series over the years, dating back to the fourth generation race car, which ran in the early 2000’s. The Car of Tomorrow and Gen 6 race cars followed, bringing more changes and adaptability.
With all the changes over the decades, all three drivers experienced tire degradation and various rules packages that forced them to conserve tire wear more frequently.
Thus, while young drivers like Ty Gibbs (led 137 laps) and Chistopher Bell (led 29 laps) flashed at the front at times, they faded as final pit stops ensued. Neither driver finished on the lead lap, with Gibbs placing ninth and Bell in 10th, both one lap down.
For Hamlin, it was his fourth Bristol win, with his last one coming last September on the concrete.
“Yeah, experience was a big part of it for sure,” Hamlin said after the race. “I was trying not to get pushed so much by Ty (Gibbs). I knew he was going to push a little too hard. Obviously, I knew Martin (Truex Jr.) was going to be the next guy in line that had the experience to challenge. Really proud of the team.
“Obviously, a really great job on the pit sequence there. Being able to hang on longer than others was the key to us being able to stop later and have some tires at the end.”
It was also a monumental day for Truex, who snagged his first top-five finish in the last 17 races. The 2017 Cup Series champion endured the negatives of pushing the tire too hard before dialing back his pace when it mattered most.
“Early in the race, went way too hard and realized your tires were gone,” Truex said. “And then, it’s like ‘Alright, we can’t run as hard as we can.’ Just had to figure out how hard you could push it and what kind of lap times you could run throughout the run. Then kind of manage it from there. It was tricky, honestly, I barely pushed harder there on that last run for 10 laps and you know, at the end, I was right rear corded.
“There’s a fine line and fortunately for us, we had a lot of speed in our Toyotas today and we were able to save tires and stay up front. That was the key.”