The 2009 Sharpie 500 was a

NASCAR The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948, and hi ...

Sprint Cup Series The NASCAR Cup Series is the top racing series of the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR). The series began in 1949 as the Strictly Stock Division, and from 1950 to 1970 it was known as the Grand National Division. In 1971 ...

stock car Stock car racing is a form of automobile racing run on oval tracks and road courses measuring approximately . It originally used production-model cars, hence the name "stock car", but is now run using cars specifically built for racing. It ori ...

race that was held on August 22, 2009, at

Bristol Motor Speedway 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. Bristol is among the m ...

Bristol Bristol () is a city, ceremonial county and unitary authority in England. Situated on the River Avon, it is bordered by the ceremonial counties of Gloucestershire to the north and Somerset to the south. Bristol is the most populous city in ...

Tennessee Tennessee ( , ), officially the State of Tennessee, is a landlocked state in the Southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th-largest by area and the 15th-most populous of the 50 states. It is bordered by Kentucky to th ...

. The 500 lap race was the twenty-fourth in the

2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series The 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series was the 61st season of professional stock car racing in the United States, the 38th modern-era Cup series, and the last Cup season of the 21st century's first decade, the 2000s. The season included 36 races an ...

Kyle Busch Kyle Thomas Busch (born May 2, 1985) is an American professional stock car racing driver and team owner. He currently competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 8 Chevrolet Camaro ZL1 for Richard Childress Racing and part-t ...

, of the

Joe Gibbs Racing Joe Gibbs Racing (JGR) is an American professional stock car racing organization owned and operated by former Washington Redskins (today the Washington Commanders) coach Joe Gibbs, which first started racing on the NASCAR circuit in 1991. His s ...

team, won the race, with

Mark Martin Mark Anthony Martin (born January 9, 1959) is a retired American stock car racing driver. He has the second most wins all time in what is now the Xfinity Series with 49. He scored 40 Cup Series wins. He finished second in the NASCAR Cup Series st ...

finishing second, and

Marcos Ambrose Marcos Ambrose (born 1 September 1976) is an Australian former racing driver and current Garry Rogers Motorsport competition director. He won the Australian V8 Supercar series' championship in 2003 and 2004. In 2006, Ambrose relocated to the Un ...

third. There were 11 cautions and 12 lead changes throughout the course of the race.

Summary

It took three hours, eight minutes and thirty-one seconds to fully resolve the race. An incredibly packed racetrack of 160,000 people would see eleven cautions for a duration of 76 laps. Approximately 15% of the race was held under caution; with accidents being the predominant cause of the yellow flags. Four drivers failed to make the race: Mike Skinner,

Max Papis Massimiliano "Max" Papis (born 3 October 1969) is an Italian professional motorsport driver who has competed in several top-level motorsports events such as Le Mans 24 Hours, Formula One and Champ Car. He has three Champ Car victories. He is the ...

Mike Wallace Myron Leon Wallace (May 9, 1918 – April 7, 2012) was an American journalist, game show host, actor, and media personality. He interviewed a wide range of prominent newsmakers during his seven-decade career. He was one of the original correspo ...

and

Aric Almirola Aric Michael Almirola (born March 14, 1984) is an American professional stock car racing driver. He competes full-time in the NASCAR Cup Series, driving the No. 10 Ford Mustang for Stewart-Haas Racing. A graduate of Hillsborough High School in T ...

. The average green flag run was 35 laps; with a ten-lap caution period for rain.

Dave Blaney David Louis Blaney (born October 24, 1962) is a semi-retired American professional stock car racing driver. Blaney was a successful sprint car driver before he started racing in NASCAR, competing in both the Sprint Cup Series and Nationwide Serie ...

was the worst driver of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup Season coming out of this race with a last-place finish; leaving the race on lap 8 due to an accident.

was the undisputed best driver in the 2009 Sprint Cup Series season after this event; even though he finished in second place behind Kyle Busch. Gambling pundits were marvelled over Kyle Busch's victory in the 2009 Spring Bristol race along with another previous win at the Spring 2007 Bristol race. The same critics would pan the inferior performance of Kevin Harvick at Bristol Motor Speedway; acquiring only an average finish of 11th place in the seventeen previous races at Bristol before this one.

Top ten finishers

Timeline

* Start of race: Mark Martin started with race in first place * Lap 8: Dave Blaney had a terminal crash; forcing him to become the last-place driver * Lap 27: Tony Raines had problems with his transmission and had to exit from the race * Lap 48: Joe Nemechek developed wheel bearing issues in his vehicle; making him the second DNF of the event * Lap 244: Terry Labonte cracked his vehicle's rear end; causing his race weekend to end suddenly * Lap 353: David Gilliand had a terminal crash; which prevented him from getting a respectable finish * Lap 438: Kevin Harvick had a terminal crash; forcing him to leave the race prematurely * Lap 490: Michael Waltrip had a terminal crash; ending any hopes of getting a "top 10" finish * Finish: Kyle Busch was officially declared the winner of the event

References

{{Irwin Tools Night Race

Sharpie 500 The Bass Pro Shops Night Race is a NASCAR Cup Series stock car race held at Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee. It is one of two NASCAR Cup Series races held at Bristol, the other being the Food City Dirt Race, but it is by far the mor ...

NASCAR races at Bristol Motor Speedway