Here are the winners and losers from Monday’s Cup dirt race at Bristol Motor Speedway, the series’ first dirt event since 1970:
WINNERS
Joey Logano — He’ll forever be known as the inaugural winner of the Bristol Cup dirt race. He did it by holding off Denny Hamlin on an overtime restart and pulling away for his first win of the season. Logano will have the chance to win this event again next year.
Fans who like variety — Joey Logano’s win marked the seventh different driver to win a Cup race to open the season. That last happened in 2014.
Ricky Stenhouse Jr. — Runner-up finish is his best result since placing second at Talladega in June 2020.
Denny Hamlin — While his bid to win on the overtime restart failed, his third-place finish marks his sixth top 10 in the first seven races. No one else matches that in Cup this season.
Daniel Suarez — With virtually no dirt experience, Suarez ran near the front a good part of the race, came close to winning the second stage, and went on to finish fourth to give Trackhouse Racing its best result.
Martin Truex Jr. — Won the Camping World Truck Series race Monday to become the 36th driver in NASCAR history to win at least one race in Cup, Xfinity and Truck. Asked afterward if he would run more Truck races since he won, Truex said: “You know, honestly, now that I won, probably not. I was hoping to run at least one Truck race this year, and I was really, really wanting to check the box of getting a Truck win because that’s the last NASCAR series that I needed to win at. … That was on my bucket list kind of for the year. Now that it’s out of the way, I don’t know if I’ll run anymore. … It would be fun to run another one or two if the schedule allows.”
LOSERS
Christopher Bell — A mistake on a restart caused him to spin and then he was hit by Kyle Larson and Ross Chastain, ending his race less than a quarter of the way through the event. Bell placed 34th.
Kyle Larson — One the pre-race favorites. His car was damaged from the incident with Christopher Bell and he lost multiple laps for repairs. He later suffered more damage during the race and finished 29th.
Aric Almirola — Spun after contact and ended up in the middle of the track. He was slammed into by three cars, ending his race. Almirola finished 36th, making the fourth time in seven races this season that he has placed 30th or worse.
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Bristol dirt race winners and losers originally appeared on NBCSports.com