Bristol, TN — Justin Allgaier to the lead on the start, taking over pole sitter Cole Custer. Then, just five laps into the race, the first caution of the day came out as Christopher Bell in the No. 20 gets into the wall coming out of turn four. This caused a slinky effect behind him as multiple cars tried to check up. The No. 24 of Kaz Grala got spun around after getting hit by Jeremy Clements in the No. 51 from behind. This cause Grala to get into the back of Ty Majeski in the No. 60. Alex Labbe in the No. 36 got sideways as well, but was able to avoid significant damage. While trying to get by the wreckageChase Brisco in the No. 98 got into the wall on the backstretch and then into the back of Clements in the No. 51, destroying the left side of his car. Clements took the brunt of the wreck, ending his day.
The field went back to green flag racing on lap 17 with Justin Allgaier still in the lead, with Daniel Hemric in the No. 21 riding right behind him. Things would remain that way and stay green up till the competition caution came out on lap 45.
Most of the leaders came into the pits during the caution, except for Daniel Hemric, who didn’t hear communication from his crew, who told him to pit three times. He would be the leader as the field came to the green flag. Winning the battle off pit road was Cole Custer in the No. 00, whose pit crew had a fire in their pit stall, where the gas man’s boot actually caught on fire.
Shortly after getting back to green flag racing on lap 54, Christopher Bell overtook Hemric for the lead. Then on lap 59 the caution would fly again as Allgier got into the back of Matt Tift in the No.2. This caused the No. 1 of Elliott Sadler and the No. 42 of John Hunter Nemechek to get into each other.
On lap 66 the green flag dropped with Christopher Bell out in the front of the pack. Then before the field could get back to the start-finish line, Matt Tift blew a right front tire going into turn one and slammed into the wall to bring the caution back out. This would end his day. The field went back to green with just 12 laps left in stage 1.
Hemric would battle with Bell hard in the final 12 laps of the stage, at one point even getting into Bell and sending him into the wall. However, Bell was able to compose himself and maintain the lead through the end of the stage.
