2013 Food City 500

Bristol Motor Speedway, the track where the race was held.

Bristol Motor Speedway, is a four-turn short track oval that is 0.533 miles (0.858 km) long.[4] The track's turns are banked from twenty-four to thirty degrees, 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 the Drivers' Championship with 129 points, while Brad Keselowski stood in second with 124 points. Dale Earnhardt, Jr. followed in the third position, seventeen points ahead of Denny Hamlin and Carl Edwards in fourth and fifth. Mark Martin, with 95, was two points ahead of Matt Kenseth and Greg Biffle, as Clint Bowyer was one point ahead of Aric Almirola in tenth, and two points ahead of Ricky 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 in 2012.[6]

Kyle Busch won the pole position, the eleventh of his career

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 and Kyle 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 of David 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's qualifying procedure.[11] Busch clinched his eleventh career pole 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 the grid by Kahne.[12] Hamlin qualified third, Brian Vickers took fourth, and Paul Menard started fifth, after being scored fifteenth in the final practice session.[12] McMurray, Keselowski, Tony Stewart, Martin Truex Jr., and Joey Logano completed the first ten positions on the grid.[12] The driver that failed to qualify was Scott Riggs.[12]