The2013 Food City 500 was aNASCARSprint Cup Series stock carrace held on March 17, 2013, atBristol Motor Speedway inBristol, Tennessee. Contested over 500 laps on the 0.533 mile (0.858 km) concrete oval, it was the fourth race of the2013 Sprint Cup Series championship.Kasey Kahne ofHendrick Motorsports won the race, whileKyle Busch finished second.Brad Keselowski,Kurt Busch, andClint Bowyer rounded out the top five.

2013 Food City 500

Race details[1][2][3]
Race 4 of 36 in the2013 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series
Date	March 17, 2013 (2013-03-17)
Location	Bristol Motor Speedway inBristol,Tennessee
Course	Permanent racing facility
Course length	0.533 miles (0.858 km)
Distance	500 laps, 266.5 mi (428.89 km)
Weather	Rain with a temperature around 66 °F (19 °C); wind out of the SW at 9 miles per hour (14 km/h)
Average speed	92.206 mph (148.391 km/h)
Pole position
Driver	Kyle Busch	Joe Gibbs Racing
Time	14.813 seconds
Most laps led
Driver	Denny Hamlin	Joe Gibbs Racing
Laps	117
Winner
No. 5	Kasey Kahne	Hendrick Motorsports
Television in the United States
Network	Fox
Announcers	Mike Joy,Darrell Waltrip, andLarry McReynolds
Nielsen ratings	4.6/11 (7.519 million viewers)

Bristol Motor Speedway, is a four-turn short trackoval that is 0.533 miles (0.858 km) long.^[4] The track's turns arebanked from twenty-four to thirtydegrees, while the front stretch, the location of the finish line, is banked from six to ten degrees. The back stretch also has banking from six to ten degrees.^[4] The track has a seating capacity of 160,000 people.^[4] The race consists of 500 laps, which is equivalent to a race distance of 266.5 miles (428.9 km).^[4]

Before the race,Jimmie Johnson was leading theDrivers' Championship with 129 points, whileBrad Keselowski stood in second with 124 points.Dale Earnhardt Jr. followed in the third position, seventeen points ahead ofDenny Hamlin andCarl Edwards in fourth and fifth.Mark Martin, with 95, was two points ahead ofMatt Kenseth andGreg Biffle, asClint Bowyer was one point ahead ofAric Almirola in tenth, and two points ahead ofRicky Stenhouse Jr.Paul Menard completed the first twelve positions with 82 points.^[5] The defending winner of the race was Keselowski, who won the race in2012.^[6]

(R) - Denotes rookie driver.

(i) - Denotes driver who is ineligible for series driver points.

Three practice sessions were held before the race. The first session, held on March 15, 2013, was 90 minutes long. The second and third were held on March 16, and were both 60 minutes long.^[7] During the first practice session, Keselowski was quickest with a time of 14.869, ahead of Kenseth andKyle Busch in second and third. Bowyer followed in the fourth position, ahead of Hamlin in fifth.^[8]

In the Saturday morning session, Busch was quickest, ahead of Kenseth and Hamlin in second and third.Jeff Burton and Kahne followed in the fourth and fifth positions.^[9]Kevin Harvick,Jeff Gordon,Jamie McMurray,Kurt Busch, and Johnson rounded out the first ten positions.^[9] Busch and Keselowski were quickest during ten consecutive laps with an average speed of 124.874 miles per hour (200.965 km/h) and 124.702 miles per hour (200.688 km/h), respectively.^[9] In the final practice session for the race, Busch remained quickest with a time of 15.372 seconds.^[10] Kahne followed in second, ahead ofDavid Gilliland and Kenseth in third and fourth.^[10] Hamlin, who was third quickest in second practice,^[9] only managed fifth.^[10]

During qualifying, forty-four cars were entered, but only forty-three were able to start because of NASCAR'squalifying procedure.^[11] Busch clinched his eleventh careerpole position, with a record-setting^[3] time of 14.813 seconds.^[12] After his qualifying run, Busch commented, “The car felt great during that lap. We’ve never really worried too much about qualifying runs. We unloaded with a really good race car and we just kept fine-tuning to make it a little bit better – and we were able to get it where it was pretty quick in practice.”^[3] He was joined on the front row of thegrid by Kahne.^[12] Hamlin qualified third,Brian Vickers took fourth, andPaul Menard started fifth, after being scored fifteenth in the final practice session.^[12] McMurray, Keselowski,Tony Stewart,Martin Truex Jr., andJoey Logano completed the first ten positions on the grid.^[12] The driver that failed to qualify wasScott Riggs.^[12]