Iconic NASCAR Race Recap - 2021 Food City 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway

I've been pretty vocal about my opinion on driving standards in NASCAR over the past five years or so. Races tend to devolve into guys running over each other as they go on, and that's only exacerbated at short tracks, where moving people out of your way is the only way to pass. Still, sometimes short tracks manage to put on a show. For example, the finish to the 2021 Food City 300, which I consider to be one of the greatest finishes I've ever watched. So, let's go back in time to recap if the race itself was as good as the finish.

Let's set the stage before we get started. This is the regular-season finale for the NASCAR Xfinity Series. The regular-season champion will score 15 playoff points, which they will be able to carry with them throughout the championship campaign. In a format where advancing to the next round frequently comes down to just a handful of points, that's a pretty big deal. Mathematically, only AJ Allmendinger of Kaulig Racing and Austin Cindric of Team Penske can claim the regular-season crown, with Allmendinger just five points ahead of Cindric in the standings.

This was still in the midst of the COVID-19 era. This meant that, both for safety and cost-saving reasons, qualifying was not held, and the starting order was instead decided by a mathematical formula based on owner points and recent race finishes. By this metric, JR Motorsports would lock out the front row, with the 9 car of Noah Gragson starting on the pole alongside Justin Allgaier in the 7. Rookie Ty Gibbs in the 54 car, running a part-time schedule and having three wins under his belt in that short time, would start third next to his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Daniel Hemric in the 18. The 11 of Justin Haley and the 20 of Harrison Burton would start in row 3, and Jeb Burton in the 10 and Riley Herbst in the 98 would make up row 4. Our championship protagonists, Cindric in the 22 and Allmendinger in the 16, would start next to each other in row 5.

Stage 1

Gragson would get a good launch and hang on to the lead at the race start, with Hemric managing to get by Allgaier for second. Allgaier would settle into third in front of Harrison Burton and Gibbs. It was a race to get to the bottom lane, where the PJ1 traction compound was laid down to give the cars some extra grip in what was traditionally the unpreferred line.

Coming off turn 4 on lap 5, Gragson got loose, opening the door for Hemric to take over the lead. Meanwhile, Harrison Burton would get moved out of the bottom lane by Gibbs, losing him several spots. Allmendinger was fighting a tight racecar, and lost six spots early on, only able to get one of them back.

The first caution would come out on lap 10 for the 02 of Brett Moffitt, who hit the wall hard after what appeared to be a mechanical failure. This early into the race, the leaders chose not to pit.

Hemric would get a good jump from the outside lane when the race restarted on lap 17, jumping back to the bottom of the track and retaining the lead. Allgaier would jump his teammate for the second position. Gibbs, who dropped from fourth to sixth to restart in the outside lane, would end up regretting that decision, losing spots to the 11, 10, 22, and 20.

Cindric would keep working his way forward, breaking into the top 5, while Allmendinger continued trying to drive his way back into the top 10.

Lapped traffic would come into play as the leaders caught the back of the field. Hemric would be a little too patient with the slow 48 car of Jade Buford, opening the door for Allgaier to move him out of the bottom lane and take the lead. That would create an opening for Haley to take over the second spot, and close the gap to Cindric, who had made his way up to fourth.

Due to the lack of practice, NASCAR scheduled a competition caution around lap 40 to allow the teams to check their tire wear. That caution came out on lap 41 as the battles toward the front started to calm down. However, very few teams chose to take advantage of this opportunity, with the leaders choosing track position over fresh tires yet again. Allgaier would, however, try to use the pace car to get a piece of debris unstuck from his grill.

As the race was about to go green, the 90 car of Spencer Boyd would leave pit road with a fuel can still attached to the car. He would manage to get it unstuck, but the can would break and dump fuel onto the track, extending the caution for cleanup. It would, however, lead to a highlight of a track worker slipping and falling, so I guess we can forgive Boyd for making a mess.

The race restarted again on lap 52, with Allgaier getting a good enough jump to retain the lead. Haley had a terrible restart, losing position to Hemric and dropping into the clutches of Gragson. Further back, Sam Mayer in the 8 car was able to jump to the sixth position using the outside lane. Gragson also began moving up to the second lane to try to hold position on Haley. While Haley stayed in touch with the 9, it was the first sign that the top lane might be starting to become a viable option.

Allmendinger had made it up to sixth in front of Cindric. He managed to get to the inside of the 8, but the outside lane once again showed that it could hold its own, and Allmendinger wasn't quite able to make it past.

As the stage began to wind down, Josh Berry, filling in for Michael Annett in the 1 car, would begin smoking. He would eventually bring the car to pit road and then to the garage. Fortunately, he didn't leak any fluid onto the track surface itself, and we would be able to keep the track green.

While lapped traffic kept the lead close, Allgaier was able to hang on for the stage win in front of Hemric. Allmendinger would finish sixth in front of Cindric, extending the points lead to six.

Stage 2

At the stage break, the leaders would finally come to pit road for the first stops of the day. Allgaier would win the race off pit road, with Gragson jumping Hemric for second. Jeremy Clements in the 51 car would be scored third out of the pits, but only because he didn't change tires. Cindric was able to pass Allmendinger in the pits as well, scored sixth.

On the restart, Hemric got back past Gragson for second, while Allgaier retained the lead. The old tires on the 51 would hang on for about 2 1/2 laps before the field finally shuffled him back to his rightful position mid-pack.

Allmendinger was able to get past Cindric and move up into the fifth position. Ty Gibbs got to the inside of the 22, but wasn't able to complete the pass before the caution came out on lap 103 for a spin from Tommy Joe Martins in the 44 off the nose of the 15 car driven by BJ McLeod. Martins managed to get away with just a graze of the nose against the inside wall and a set of flat-spotted tires, otherwise undamaged.

The restart would come on lap 109. Allgaier wouldn't get as big of a jump, opening the door for Hemric to hang on to his inside. As they entered turn 1, the 7 would get completely sideways, drifting through the corner and opening the door for the 18 to clear and the 9 to jump to his inside. Allgaier would salvage second before the next caution came out on lap 110.

The 99 of Matt Mills would be hit from behind by Boyd, sending the 99 spinning into the inside wall. Mills would try to show his displeasure to the 90, but he tried to throw a water bottle over the tow truck that had come to pick up his car and would end up hitting that instead. Not the most well-thought-out plan I've ever seen.

On lap 117, the restart would be much more orderly, with Hemric hanging on to the lead and Allgaier able to outrun Gragson for second. Cindric would jump to fourth, and Allmendinger would drop behind Haley for sixth.

While Hemric would pull away a little, lapped traffic would once again bring Allgaier back into the mix. The 48 of Buford would once again block Hemric and put the 7 back into the lead.

The lead would be erased when Allgaier got impatient with the 07 car of Joe Graf Jr. while trying to put him a lap down. Allgaier would spin himself off the nose of the 07, bringing out the caution on lap 154. While Allgaier contested that he maintained the lead when the caution came out, NASCAR would score him in third, behind both Hemric and Gragson, who passed him as he was drifting through the corner. A few cars chose to pit now, flipping the stage to give up stage points in exchange for track position when the leaders would eventually pit at the stage break.

It would be a short run to the end of the stage, with Gragson choosing to start in the outside lane on the restart, giving up the second position to Allgaier, who chose the inside. Allgaier would get a good jump on the restart on lap 162, but the 18 would prevail coming out of turn 2. The 9 wouldn't get as good of a restart as he had hoped, staying in the third position.

Allgaier would stay close, but wouldn't be able to catch Hemric, giving the stage win to the 18. Cindric would finish the stage in fifth, with Allmendinger in sixth, bringing the regular-season championship back to five points.

With all the stage points worked out, the points situation became much simpler. In the event of a tie, Cindric would win the tiebreaker, having scored five wins over the course of the season compared to Allmendinger's three. That meant Cindric would need to finish the race five positions in front of Allmendinger to claim the regular-season championship.

Stage 3

The cars that didn't flip the stage would pit now. Of those, Harrison Burton and the 23 of Ty Dillon would come off first and second, choosing not to change tires. Allgaier and Gragson would both jump Hemric in the pits, although both would be penalized for speeding and would drop to the rear of the field before the race restarted. Cindric would be the sixth car off, with Allmendinger losing positions to Haley and the 19 of Brandon Jones to come off ninth.

With the pit strategies converging, Jeb Burton would take over the lead, with Mayer giving up second to start in the outside lane, elevating Herbst to the front row. The first of the cars that pitted was Harrison Burton in eighth. Cindric would restart on the outside of the sixth row, with Allmendinger starting right behind him.

The restart would come on lap 180. The 10 would not get a good restart, and would be very loose throughout the lap, but Jeb Burton would be able to prevail against Herbst, who would drop back to third by the end of the lap. Eventually, Mayer would use the outside lane to clear the 10, taking over the lead of the race. Cindric would use the outside lane as well, cutting through traffic better than Allmendinger to maintain track position. The 7 and 9 would continue working their way from the back, making it up to 16th and 17th, respectively.

The action would pause on lap 198 thanks to a flat tire for Carson Ware in the 17. The leaders would choose not to pit, and the race would restart again on lap 205 with Mayer in the lead. The 8 would not get a great launch, but would be able to clear Jeb Burton for the lead. Hemric made his way up to third and put an attack on the 10, with Cindric following behind. Cindric would then be able to get to the second position when the 18 got loose, opening the door to the inside. Allmendinger behind would make it back up to fifth, staying in touch with Cindric points-wise. Allgaier would also keep fighting forward, cracking back into the top 10.

As the leaders caught the back of the field, the gap between the 8 and 22 began to close. Cindric was able to catch Mayer, but had a hard time getting close enough to actually attempt the pass. Eventually, Mayer made a mistake, opening the inside lane for Cindric, However, Cindric still wasn't able to complete the pass, with the outside lane truly coming into its own. He only managed to clear by slamming the 8 car hard into the outside wall. Mayer was able to continue, but the car was clearly injured, allowing Cindric to pull away.

The next caution would come on lap 238 as Martins took out the 66 of David Starr with a sloppy divebomb that almost collected a handful of other cars. With one final set of tires available, the leaders came down pit road one final time. Cindric and Mayer would be the first two cars off, with Herbst, Allmendinger, and Allgaier each gaining a position as the 18 lost three.

The restart would come on lap 248. Herbst would not get a good jump, and Cindric would retain the lead, with Mayer, Allgaier, and Jones also getting past in the outside lane. Further back, Gragson would hit the wall, getting a little too high on the track and catching the marbles. He would keep the car straight and continue, and the track would stay green.

The drama would continue, with the 10 losing a tire and the 39 of Ryan Sieg pitting with a fuel issue. Both would make it to pit road in chaotic fashion, but we would manage to avoid a caution.

The teammates Mayer and Allgaier closed the gap to the 22 as they began to catch lapped traffic. Mayer was happy to get aggressive with Cindric, using the bumper, but wasn't able to get by, and Cindric managed to maintain position. This opened the door for the 8, but Mayer defended beautifully, managing to maintain enough momentum to keep the second spot. As Mayer got stuck behind two lapped cars, Allgaier got impatient again, getting into the left-rear corner of his teammate, spinning him out and collecting the 92 of Josh Williams with him, bringing out the caution one more time and setting up an overtime restart.

Cindric chose to restart in the outside lane, which had worked the best on restarts all night. Allgaier went with the safe play of choosing behind Cindric, giving up the front row for the more reliable restart lane. Allmendinger took advantage to jump up to the front row on the inside. It would be a green-white-checkered finish, or a two-lap shootout to decide the winner of the race.

Words can't really do justice to describe exactly what happened next.

Cindric got a good launch as they came to the green, clearing Allmendinger, but decided to run turns 1 and 2 in the second lane, opening the door for Allmendinger to get to his inside. Cindric maintained the lead, but Allmendinger overdrove turns 3 and 4, getting into the side of the 22 as they came down the frontstretch to take the white flag. Allmendinger would drop behind Cindric, and Allgaier took advantage, jumping to Cindric's inside into turn 1. However, he, too, overdrove the corner, leaving a wide open space for Allmendinger to take the lead back on the backstretch. Allgaier would blow a tire as he made more contact with the 98, dropping him out of the lead battle.

Allmendinger would choose to run the outside line through turns 3 and 4, giving him enough momentum to maintain the lead as they came down the frontstretch. However, Cindric would run into Allmendinger's left rear, trying to spin him out. Both cars would wreck across the line, with Allmendinger in front to take the win. Unfortunately, he would spin back out into traffic, collecting several other cars in the mix.

Not that he seemed to mind much. Man just loves to collect trophies.

Conclusion

Overall, beyond the finish, this race was actually pretty good, with action all throughout and enough cautions to keep things interesting. Even if the race stayed green to the finish, I'd have said this one was pretty good.

However, even though it goes against both my complaints about driving standards in NASCAR and my dislike of overtime finishes, there's no doubt in my mind that this is one of the greatest finishes in NASCAR history. Seeing three guys leaving everything on the track and running at and beyond the limits of their equipment was spectacular. That kind of full-contact racing is exactly what NASCAR has built its reputation on.