Joey Logano Wins Bristol Motor Speedway's Inaugural Dirt Race
Joey Logano earned his first victory of the 2021 season at Bristol Motor Speedway on Monday, March 29th, holding off Ricky Stenhouse Jr. in overtime by a .554 margin-of-victory. The event was the series' first time on dirt since 1970.
Logano led the final 61 laps of the Food City Dirt Race to become the seventh different winner in the seven races this season.
“It’s incredible! How about Bristol on dirt!” Logano said, “We did a lot of work in the dirt department the last few weeks with my buddy Ryan Flores. It’s amazing to get this Shell Pennzoil Mustang in victory lane.”
“To do it on dirt, it’s special.”
Denny Hamlin finished third, despite an attempt at the lead in overtime. Daniel Suarez, who led 58 laps and won the first stage, finished fourth, his first top-five finish since 2019. Ryan Newman rounded out the top five.
The race got pushed to overtime after late model champion Mike Marlar spun on the frontstretch. There was a total of 10 cautions, seven of them being for incidents at the half-mile track.
Aric Almirola finished 36th of 39 cars after being involved in an early race incident. Almirola spun, but was hit by Shane Golobic and Anthony Alfredo, sending the No. 10 Smithfield Ford into the No. 7 of Corey LaJoie.
Kyle Larson and Christopher Bell were the favorites going to the event because of their dirt experience, but separate incidents ended their days early. They finished 29th and 34th, respectively.
Stewart Friesen finished a respectable 23rd in his Cup Series debut, one lap down.
The Cup Series will return to the dirt at Bristol in 2022, the track announced before the conclusion of Monday’s race. Exact dates are to be determined, though tickets are on sale now.
