Food City 500: Day 2 Bristol highlights, stage results and more

It’s been touch and go for a while, but NASCAR is back underway from Bristol Motor Speedway, and we’re keeping you up to date with highlights and results.

Maybe Mother Nature isn’t a fan of short track racing even though most other people are. The Food City 500 got underway on Sunday, but the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series drivers didn’t even get halfway done before the weather literally rained on their parade.

It was an eventful opening stage, with Ryan Blaney crashing out despite leading almost 100 laps. Plenty of other drivers got into incidents as well, with fast cars like the ones belonging to Kevin Harvick and Kurt Busch trying to race from the back of the field to the front.

When the smoke clear and heavy rain came, Kyle Larson was in the lead. But things can definitely change quickly at Bristol, especially with conditions as unpredictable as they should be for the remainder of the race.

It rained and even sleeted on Monday morning, preventing the Food City 500 from resuming right at 1:00 p.m. as scheduled. Still, we’re underway now, and we’ll keep you updated with the latest from the Last Great Colusseum

Larson chose to stay out during the caution that started Day 2, gambling that he could get out in front and stay there until the end of Stage 2. That strategy almost worked, but Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch caught him and engaged in a pretty tense battle amid lapped traffic.

In the end, Keselowski prevailed, winning his second stage of the race and banking another bonus playoff point.

Stage 2 results

1. Brad Keselowski, 10 points plus one bonus playoff point
2. Kyle Busch, 9 points
3. Jimmie Johnson, 8 points
4. Denny Hamlin, 7 points
5. Kyle Larson, 6 points
6. Ricky Stenhouse Jr., 5 points
7. Alex Bowman, 4 points
8. Kevin Harvick, 3 points
9. Austin Dillon, 2 points
10. Bubba Wallace, 1 point

Think pit crew members aren’t great athletes? Check out one of Paul Menard’s team members catch a tire before it turned into a penalty, then help complete the service on the No. 21 Ford.

After the stage-ending caution period, Keselowski led the way, followed shortly by Kyle Busch. But Larson was able to run both of them down, passing Brad K. for the lead once they got to lapped traffic.

If you watched the race on Sunday, you’ll remember that Blaney found out the hard way that even being in the lead at Bristol is not a safe place. Larson found that out too, as he had been diving hard off the corners and tried to do that with Ryan Newman beneath him in the low groove, and that didn’t turn out too well. Still, he didn’t hit anything while spinning and actually came out of the pits in the top five.

Already up over double digits for cautions, the Food City 500 got another one when Reed Sorensen went around.

How about this for a feel good story? Rookie Bubba Wallace was able to chase down Keselowski after yellow flag pit stops and lead his first Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series laps.

Wallace didn’t stay there long, though, as Kyle Busch, Newman and Larson caught and passed him in short order.

After a brief caution for rain, it turned into the Kyle and Kyle show. Busch was in the lead, but Larson was able to catch him once things stayed green long enough. Could he stay there for the final 50 laps?

Of course, that would only matter if there were no more cautions the rest of the way. In a race that already was in the double-digits for yellow flags, there was bound to be one more, and Keselowski brought it out when he lost a left-front tire.

The final stretch came down to the two Kyles again, and after Busch caught Larson with five laps to go, the Skittles car was too fast to be caught.

The victory marked the fifth time in Busch’s career he’s won consecutive Cup Series races and made him the winningest active driver at Bristol Motor Speedway.