Bristol Motor Speedway opened in 1961 with a 0.5-mile asphalt oval. By 1970 the track had been reconfigured to its present 0.533-mile length with steeply banked turns, a layout that rewards aggressive racing and punishes any lapse in attention. From 1961 through 1992, the spring race was run on the original asphalt surface. Bristol resurfaced the oval with concrete in 1992-93, which changed the racing character significantly — tire wear patterns and handling balance shifted, and the new concrete lasted through 2020.
In 2021, Bristol converted the spring race to a dirt surface layout, renaming the event the Food City Dirt Race. The experiment ran through 2023, with some races held at night to address visibility issues caused by sunlight reflecting off the dirt during daytime running. In September 2023, Bristol announced a return to concrete for the 2024 race, with the Food City 500 name restored.
Food City, a regional supermarket chain based in the American Southeast, became the title sponsor in the early 1990s and has maintained the naming rights through the race's multiple surface configurations. In 2011, the race was temporarily renamed the Jeff Byrd 500 presented by Food City to honor the speedway's former president and general manager, who had died in October 2010.
The 2020 running was renamed the Food City presents the Supermarket Heroes 500 to recognize grocery workers during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The 1979 race marked Dale Earnhardt's first career Cup win, taken in the spring Bristol event after Cale Yarborough and Buddy Baker crashed out. Earnhardt's rookie season breakthrough at one of the circuit's most demanding short tracks foreshadowed a dominant career.
In 1986, Rusty Wallace posted his first career win at Bristol in the spring race.
The 1992 running was the last on the original asphalt surface and was won by Alan Kulwicki. Kulwicki died in a plane crash the following year, just days after defending race winner Rusty Wallace dominated the 1993 edition — a moment that carried obvious emotional weight for those present.
Kurt Busch won the 2002 race by staying out on old tires during a late caution while competitors pitted — a strategy that allowed him to take his first Winston Cup win without making a final pit stop. The approach drew complaints from Rusty Wallace and others, who argued that tire and fuel strategies should compel all drivers to pit.
In 2003, Kyle Petty sustained what was reported as the hardest recorded crash in NASCAR's black-box era at that time, registering 80 G's of force after contact from Ward Burton sent Petty's car into the wall driver's-side first.
The 2007 race introduced the fifth-generation NASCAR Cup chassis. Kyle Busch won driving a Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet and used victory lane remarks to criticize the new car's handling characteristics publicly.
Dale Jarrett made his final Cup start in the 2008 Food City 500.
The 2013 race saw Kyle Busch set a then-qualifying record at 14.813 seconds (129.535 mph), while Kasey Kahne took the race win — his first at Bristol. The event also started a feud between Denny Hamlin and Joey Logano following contact during the race.
In 2021, NASCAR ran its first Cup race on a dirt surface since 1970, more than half a century earlier. Joey Logano survived an overtime restart to become the first Cup driver to win on dirt in the modern era.
The 2024 race returned to concrete and featured a record 54 lead changes driven by cooler ambient temperatures that created unusual tire wear patterns. Denny Hamlin won but was subsequently penalized after Toyota Racing Development disassembled the engine before NASCAR could inspect it.
The Food City 500 occupies one half of Bristol Motor Speedway's double-race calendar, distinct in character from the late-summer night race by its spring timing and its occasional role as an early-season championship statement. The race has hosted significant firsts: Earnhardt's first win in 1979, Busch's Gen 5 critique in 2007, and the dirt-era restart in 2021. Darrell Waltrip's record 12 total Bristol wins spans both events and covers the period from the asphalt through the early concrete era; his seven straight wins through the early 1980s define the most concentrated period of single-driver Bristol dominance in the track's history.