Carl Edwards dominated the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway to score his first win of the 2016 NASCAR Sprint Cup season.

Bristol Motor Speedway is tough on cars, drivers and teams when NASCAR races at the short track. Many drivers were reminded of this fact through the race starting with Dale Earnhardt Jr. as he had technical issues with his #88 Chevrolet when the green flag waived. His car lost power when the rest of the field was accelerating when the green flag waived forcing him to hit pit road and start the race two laps down on lap one. It took strategy, aggressive driving by Dale Jr., some luck and nearly half the race for him to get back on the lead lap.

Other drivers had issues as well from blown tires, pit road penalties and accidents that either put them laps down or out of the race as there were 15 caution periods during the race at Bristol.

The one driver who had a near perfect race was Carl Edwards. He started the race from the pole position and led a race high 276 laps in the 500 lap race. Unlike his three Joe Gibbs Racing teammates, he didn’t make any pit road mistakes nor did he have any tire issues.

When it came down to the final laps Carl held off the challenge from Dale Jr. and Kurt Busch to capture his first checkered flag of the 2016 NASCAR season and his fourth career Sprint Cup victory at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Dale Jr. worked all race long to rally back from two laps down on lap one to grab the second place finish holding off Kurt Busch who finished in third place. Rookie Chase Elliot continues to have an outstanding debut season in his first full-time Sprint Cup season as he captured a fourth place finish in his first Bristol race in NASCAR’s top division. Trevor Bayne rounded out the top five in finishing positions. See the complete race results for the Food City 500 at Bristol here.

Kevin Harvick moved up two spots to the number one place in the point standings with Carl Edwards also moving up a couple of spots to take over second place. Jimmie Johnson slipped back a spot to third while Joey Logano moved up a place to fourth. After winning the last two races and moving to the lead in the point standings, Kyle Busch falls four spot to fifth place. See the complete NASCAR Sprint Cup point standings here.

Carl’s win at Bristol now all but guarantees him a spot on the Chase Grid along with the other five drivers who have won at least one race this season. See the Chase Grid as it stands following the race at Bristol here.

The NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers and teams will again face a short track challenge this week as they head to Richmond International Raceway for the Toyota Owners 400 on the 0.75-mile track.

By: Buck Stevens