The sun couldn't shine any brighter at Bristol Motor Speedway, setting the grandstands ablaze for a spectacle of the ages! Despite the luminous sky, temperatures in the high-30's have promoted record-setting lap times, with pole-sitter John Tharp capping the charts with a 130 mile-per-hour time. Expect similar speeds during the first quarter of the run, as race-day favorites Johnny Reed Foley and John Battista attempt to crawl from the back of the field.

Race Results

Points Standings

Race Recap

An enormous crash on lap 1 takes out Dalton Lucas after contact between Rob Scarberry and Ken Joynt sends the back-half of the field into a frenzy. Joynt and John Battista narrowly slide through, as the aftermath from behind collects Lucas, Scarberry, Chauncey Redmond Jr., Bill Werkheiser and Steven Spears. The #88 went for a duel-flip across the turn-3 apron, ending his day immediately.

Points leader Johnny Reed Foley carefully meandered by the lap-1 accident. The restart saw a miracle pit crew performance from the #46 team capitalize on Corbat's outside front-row start by giving him the lead! Not long afterwards, William Perry and Dave Daniels tangled in turn-1, impacting the outside wall hard and sliding directly into traffic. Craig Lee, Adam Crapser and Tim McDonnell survive with minor impairment, while Aaron Cummings and Logan Sheets slammed into the carnage with severe front-end damage. Perry, Daniels and Sheets would all fail to continue, dropping Logan from 4th to 9th in the standings. Both Perry and Cummings would drop outside the top-35 in points after the race, needing to qualify for the show next week at Martinsville.

Ziggy Moonglow led the field to the green flag, leading his first 17 laps since his pole-sitting performance at Atlanta. Miracle-man Kevin Corbat took the lead on lap 36 and remained there for the following 37 circuits, dropping the lead to Alex Crapser one lap later. he would grab his five bonus-points and hand the top-spot over to Dakota Wilkins.

A blown right-rear tire from points leader Johnny reed Foley dropped him three laps down, forcing him to fight through attrition for the remainibg 400+ laps to keep himself atop of the standings. Up front, Steven Spears pulled off Foley's plan of taking the lead on lap 99 after starting outside the top-30. He would remain there through lap 155, in easily his most dominant  Extravaganza Series performance to date. He, Matt Raboin, Alan Nesfeder, Ryan Heuser, Tony Pizzaro and Rod Weston would swap the top-5 positions for the following 20-laps. 

The third accident of the event mimicked the Perry-Daniels crash entering turn-1. This one involved Donald Stewart and Jonathan Skrabacz, with the #55 pulverizing the outside wall and escaping any residual impacts from the traffic behind. Afterwards, Alex Crapser destroyed the front end of his car in the same corner, ending his day as well as Stewart's. Both drivers would fall outside the top-10 in points after finishing 37th and 38th.

Lap 177 saw Ganza-whacker Rod Weston take the lead for the first time in 2023. Finishing 21st in the Bonanza race didn't dispell his spirits, qualifying 6th for the 500-lapper and staying up front through lap 220. Alan Nesfeder and Tony Pizzaro would exchange the lead several times in the following 20 laps, with the #78 earning the halfway bacon bonus.

For the first time in his Extravaganza Series career, Steven Spears would lead a race twice. A lap 240 pass over Pizzaro and a hard-fought battle between he and Nesfeder put him up front for a third time, remaining there before the Team Danger Zone wagon-train caught him from behind. Zakk Miller and Steven Spears would lead for the remaining green flag run, with Matthew Dominique lurking from behind.

An enormous check-up in turn-1 sent Jimmie Stevens into the rear of Ryan Heuser, spinning the #138 around rear-first into the outside retaining wall. He would continue on to finish 8th despite the setback, as leader Zakk Miller took the field to the green. Tony Pizzaro and Zach Michael flew by him with 150 laps to go, swapping the top-spot several times before Matthew Dominique snuck it away from both of them. He would pull away from the field by over two seconds.

Dominique's failure to navagate through the lapped traffic brought his teammate Matt Raboin into the picture to steal the victory away, sticking Pizzaro into a Quantum Racing sandwich for the win. Raboin, Pizzaro and Zach Michael all flew by the worn tires of the #25, leaving the top-2 side-by-side with 10 laps remaining. The final pass was on lap 492, with Pizzaro entering turn-1 first with slower cars close ahead in the distance.

The Fenway Frank machine would surpass the lapped traffic in immaculate style, pulling ahead of Matt Raboin for the victory! It is his second win of the season, tying John Battista for the series lead. Troubles with Foley would have the #12 come away with the points lead as well, ahead of Adam Crapser by only 8. Congrats to Pizzaro, crew chief Neil Justice and the entire Race-2-Win Motorsports organization for an excellent victory!

2023 Food City 500 Video