The Food City 500 is an annual 500-lap, 266.5 mi NASCAR Cup Series points race held at the Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee. This is one of two NASCAR races held at Bristol, the other being the Bass Pro Shops Night Race. It was the first venue of the 2007 NASCAR schedule to host the fifth-generation NASCAR premiership race car, a race won by Kyle Busch. For much of its history, from 1961 to 1992 the race was run on the original asphalt surface, then on concrete from 1993 to 2020 after Bristol changed surfaces, but was moved to a dirt layout beginning in 2021, under the name Food City Dirt Race. Beginning in 2024, the race was held on the concrete oval. Denny Hamlin is the defending race winner.

History

In 2008, Bristol Motor Speedway President & General Manager Jeff Byrd requested that NASCAR move the spring race to a later Spring date, to avoid the problems with rain, snow, and sleet that hit the area in late winter and early spring. This was not carried out until 2015. In 2015, the race moved from mid-March to April. Though every race besides 2016 has had some sort of rain alter the race including moving the race to Monday in 2017 and 2018. In 2011, title sponsor Food City announced it would honor former Speedway President and General Manager Jeff Byrd, who died in October 2010, by renaming the 2011 Spring race the Jeff Byrd 500 presented by Food City. In 2015, the race was renamed the Food City 500 In Support Of Steve Byrnes And Stand Up To Cancer to support NASCAR on Fox broadcaster Steve Byrnes in his battle with cancer, in association with the Entertainment Industry Foundation. The 2020 race was dubbed the Food City presents the Supermarket Heroes 500 to honor grocery store workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Dirt Configuration

In 2021, the race shifted to a dirt surface version of the track and was renamed the Food City Dirt Race. The race's stage lengths were initially set at 75 each for the first two segments followed by 100 in the final stage, but stages 1–2 were later adjusted to be 100 laps apiece following Friday practices. In 2022, the race became a night race, and was run on Easter Sunday. Part of the reason it was moved from daylight to nighttime is because of visibility issues that plagued the event in 2021 with sunlight reflecting off the dirt. On September 15, 2023, Bristol announced that the Food City 500 would return to the concrete oval, beginning in 2024.

Notable races

Past winners

Track length notes

Multiple winners (drivers)

Multiple winners (teams)

Manufacturer wins