2010 Food City 250

The 2010 Food City 250 was a NASCAR Nationwide Series race held at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee on August 20, 2010. The race was the 29th iteration of the event and the 24th race of the 2010 NASCAR Nationwide Series. Elliott Sadler won the pole but it would be Kyle Busch who would dominate the race, leading the most laps and winning the race after he spun Brad Keselowski for the lead.

Background
The Bristol Motor Speedway, formerly known as Bristol International Raceway and Bristol Raceway, is a NASCAR short track venue located in Bristol, Tennessee. Constructed in 1960, it held its first NASCAR race on July 30, 1961. Despite its short length, Bristol is among the most popular tracks on the NASCAR schedule because of its distinct features, which include extraordinarily steep banking, an all concrete surface, two pit roads, and stadium-like seating. It has also been named one of the loudest NASCAR tracks.

Entry List

 * (R) denotes rookie driver

Qualifying
Elliott Sadler won the pole for the race with a time of 15.934 and a speed of 120.422. The biggest surprise was when Willie Allen qualified the Day Enterprise Racing No. 05 car in 7th on the grid.

* - Made the field via owners points.

Race
Outside pole sitter Joey Logano took the lead from pole sitter Elliott Sadler and Logano led the first lap of the race. On lap 31, Kyle Busch took the lead from his teammate. The first caution of the race flew on lap 56 for debris in turn 3. Kyle Busch won the race off of pit road but Brad Keselowski did not pit and Keselowski led the field to the restart on lap 62. On the restart, Busch took the lead from Keselowski immeadietly. On lap 82, a big and strange crash would occur in turn 1. It started when Justin Allgaier went to pass a lap car in Robert Richardson Jr. but Allgaier got stuck in the middle in between Trevor Bayne and Kasey Kahne. Allgaier made contact with Bayne which barely shot him up into Kahne and Allgaier squeezed Kahne into the outside wall on the frontstretch to a point where Kahne's right side tires climbed onto the wall and Kahne's car rode the wall all the way through turn 1 bringing out the second caution of the race. The race would restart on lap 91. On lap 117, the third caution would fly when Ryan Newman blew a right front tire and hit the outside wall in turn 2. Kyle Busch won the race off of pit road but Carl Edwards, Elliott Sadler, Ricky Stenhouse Jr., Parker Kligerman, and Michael McDowell did not pit and Edwards led the field to the restart on lap 124. On lap 129, Elliott Sadler took the lead from Edwards. On lap 135, Kyle Busch attempted to take the lead from Sadler but failed to get in front of him. Busch tried again on lap 143 but ended up losing second and third in the process.

Final laps
On lap 155, Clint Bowyer took the lead from Sadler. One lap later, Joe Nemechek hit the wall in turns 1 and 2 after he got bumped by Mike Bliss and had right rear damage and was slow. Two laps later on lap 158, Nemechek got hit in the side off of turn 4 by Sean Caisse and both Nemechek and Caisse crashed on the frontstretch right in front of Bowyer who hit Mike Wallace from behind and turned Wallace towards where Nemechek and Caisse crashed and gave Bowyer right front damage. This also brought out the 4th caution of the race. Bowyer came in and pitted to fix the fender and gave the lead to Brad Keselowski and Keselowski led the field to the restart on lap 166. On lap 187, the 5th caution flew when Justin Allgaier crashed in turns 3 and 4 after he made contact with Jason Keller while also collecting Josh Wise in the process. The race would restart on lap 193. At around 40 laps to go, Kyle Busch and Brad Keselowski fought hard for the lead. Busch attempted to pass Keselowski multiple times until with 32 to go when he got in front of Keselowski in turn 2. Busch attempted the slide job which looked like it paid off for him. However, Keselowski did not lift and ran into the rear of Busch and put him in the wall on the backstretch and Keselowski took it back. This flustered Kyle and Busch decided to immediately take out his frustrations on Keselowski and Busch retaliated by hitting Keselowski's left rear corner panel enough that caused Keselowski to spin in turn 4 and slap the left front into the outside wall and bring out the 6th caution of the race. Keselowski was the points leader coming into the race 347 points ahead of Carl Edwards while Busch was in 3rd 503 back. Busch was the new leader and he never gave it up as the race restarted with 26 laps to go. With 25 to go, a stack up occurred on the frontstretch bringing out the 7th caution. It started when Jason Leffler bumped Joey Logano from behind off of turn 4 and caused Logano to spin. Others checked up but ran into each other causing others to crash and spin like Michael Annett, Clint Bowyer, Brad Keselowski, Reed Sorenson, Brendan Gaughan, Steve Wallace, and Paul Menard. 9 cars were involved in the accident. The race restarted with 17 laps to go. With 16 to go, the 8th and final caution flew when Reed Sorenson and Brian Scott made contact that sent Scott up in front of Brendan Gaughan where Gaughan bumped Scott in turn 2 turning Scott around before Gaughan got spun after he got bumped by Willie Allen. The race would restart with 10 laps to go. Kyle Busch took the lead and held onto it as Busch would win his 10th race of the 2010 season. Jason Leffler, Elliott Sadler, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Carl Edwards rounded out the top 5 while Trevor Bayne, Clint Bowyer, Reed Sorenson, Parker Kligerman, and Joey Logano rounded out the top 10. As soon as Busch got out of his car after doing his burnouts, fans in the stands immeadietly boo'd him and Busch gestured back at them first putting his arms out and then doing a crybaby sign back at the fans before getting the checkered flag. When asked about spinning Keselowski, Busch did admit he dumped him on purpose because Keselowski did not do a "Earnhardt crossover move" and instead ran into the back of him. Busch also quoted "you play that game, I'll play it back. So I dumped him."

Eventually, the feud between Keselowski and Busch came into the Cup Series race the following night, this time during driver intros where the drivers would introduce themselves to the crowd. Once again, Busch was boo'd by the Bristol crowd and sarcastically stated "all of yall are so loving! Thank you!" before he told the crowd his name, his car, and his slogan which was "ready to win it again," since Busch had won the Truck Series race the night before the Nationwide race, and walked off. Behind Busch was actually Keselowski. Keselowski picked up the microphone and said "Brad Keselowski, driver of the Penske racing Dodge, Kyle Busch is an ass!" and walked off to the cheers of the fans in attendance. The reason Keselowski did it was to express how he felt but also was because of the conversation he had between him and Juan Pablo Montoya about it to which Montoya said "I wouldn't do it." to where Keselowski said "Hell yeah I'll do it!" Keselowski then asked the preacher "would you be offended if I said 'Ass?'" to which the preacher replied "No man! 'Ass' is in the bible." and allowed Keselowski to do it anyway. But Busch would have the last laugh as he made NASCAR history by being the first driver to sweep the whole Bristol event by winning a Truck race, Nationwide series race, and Cup series race on the same weekend at Bristol. When asked about Keselowski's comments Busch replied "Who? I don't know who you're talking about." and then being told Keselowski drives the 12 car which Busch replied "I saw it, but I passed it." after Busch lapped him during the race.