2008 Food City 500


2008 Sprint Cup Series
Budweiser Shootout Gatorade Duels Daytona 500 Auto Club 500 UAW-Dodge 400 Kobalt Tools 500 Food City 500 Goody's Cool Orange 500 Samsung 500 Subway Fresh Fit 500 Aaron's 499 Crown Royal Presents the Dan Lowry 400 Dodge Challenger 500 Sprint Showdown and Sprint All-Star Race XXIV Coca-Cola 600 Best Buy 400 Pocono 500 LifeLock 400 Toyota/Save Mart 350 Lenox Industrial Tools 301 Coke Zero 400 Powered by Coca-Cola LifeLock.com 400 Allstate 400 at the Brickyard Sunoco Red Cross Pennsylvania 500 Centurion Boats at the Glen 3M Performance 400 Sharpie 500 Pepsi 500 Chevy Rock & Roll 400
Chase for the Sprint Cup
Sylvania 300 Camping World RV 400 Camping World RV 400 presented by Coleman AMP Energy 500 Bank of America 500 TUMS QuikPak 500 Pep Boys Auto 500 Dickies 500 Checker O'Reilly Auto Parts 500 Ford 400 Italics - Non-Points Races.

The 2008 Food City 500 was the fifth race of the 2008 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup season, and it was held on Sunday, March 16, 2008 at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee. This race aired on Fox starting at 1:30 PM US EDT with radio coverage handled by Performance Racing Network and Sirius Satellite Radio with programming starting at 1 PM US EDT. The race marked the last race utilizing the 2007 Top 35 owners points exemption. Starting with the Goody's Cool Orange 500 on March 30 each week's Top 35 teams will be exempt.

The race marked the 676th and final career points start for Dale Jarrett, who will make one final start in the Sprint All-Star Race XXIV. Dale's father, Ned, himself a former series champion and television commentator, waved the green flag for his son's final race. Starting on March 30 David Reutimann became the new driver of the #44 UPS sponsored car, while Michael McDowell made his debut in the #00 Aaron's "Dream Machine

Pre-Race News

Roush Fenway Racing announced they will not appeal the penalty handed down to the #99 Carl Edwards team, including the deduction of 100 owner and driver points, a $100,000 fine and a six-race suspension of crew chief Bob Osbourne which followed the UAW-Dodge 400 in a post-race inspection that saw a loose oil pan discovered.

Qualifying

Qualifying was canceled due to rain on March 14 so the field was set by the rulebook for the second (and final) time this year using the 2007 Owners' points. As a result, Jimmie Johnson was on the pole.

Race

Jarrett started deep in the field and fell one lap down to the leader just before the first competition caution on lap 50. That caution was brought out because the track surface had been washed clean by a rain the previous night. He finished 37th

Drivers that spun out include Kyle Busch (while in the lead) and Robby Gordon. The only car in the 43 car field that wasn't running at the end was driven by Brian Vickers.

With two laps left, Kevin Harvick bobbled entering a turn and pushed up into second place Tony Stewart. Stewart hit the wall, bringing out a caution, and finished as the last car on the lead lap in 14th. Denny Hamlin was leading at the time but he suddenly slowed after he had fuel pickup problems and quickly faded to finish eighth. The race went six laps past its scheduled length due to the green-white-checker finish rule, and was won by Jeff Burton. Richard Childress Racing finished 1-2-3 for the first time in team history, with Harvick finishing second and Clint Bowyer third.

Top Ten Finishers
Pos	Car #	Driver	Car Make	Team
1	31	Jeff Burton	Chevrolet	Richard Childress Racing
2	29	Kevin Harvick	Chevrolet	Richard Childress Racing
3	07	Clint Bowyer	Chevrolet	Richard Childress Racing
4	16	Greg Biffle	Ford	Roush Fenway Racing
5	88	Dale Earnhardt, Jr	Chevrolet	Hendrick Motorsports
6	11	Denny Hamlin	Toyota	Joe Gibbs Racing
7	9	Kasey Kahne	Dodge	Gillett Evernham Motorsports
8	8	Aric Almirola	Chevrolet	Dale Earnhardt, Inc.
9	38	David Gilliland	Ford	Yates Racing
10	17	Matt Kenseth	Ford	Roush Fenway Racing