April 19, 2015 – Matt Kenseth endured rain delays and a long day of wild racing to win the Food City 500 in Support of Steve Byrnes at Bristol Motor Speedway. Kenseth had to finally fight off the field in a green-white-checkered finish that stretched the race to 511 laps, the longest in Bristol history. He wound up leading the final 34 laps to score his first win since 2013 and the 32nd (of 39) of his career. Jimmie Johnson came back from an early race accident to finish second to follow-up to his win at Texas Motor Speedway the previous week.
April 19, 2010 – Denny Hamlin didn’t let recovering from knee surgery get in the way as he drove to victory in the rain-delayed Samsung Mobile 500 at Texas Motor Speedway. Only nineteen days removed from ACL knee surgery, Hamlin passed Jeff Burton for the lead with 11 laps to go and went on to score his 10th career Sprint Cup win and first at TMS. Jimmie Johnson put on a furious charge in the closing laps on four fresh tires trying to run down Hamlin but was forced to settle for second. The race was marred by a huge wreck with 15 laps to go that took out several of the front-runners and sparked some hard feelings among many drivers. It was triggered when Tony Stewart and Jeff Gordon made contact as the field raced out of Turn 4. Stewart hit the wall and bounced back into Gordon who was collected by Carl Edwards, which then set off a chain reaction crash that forced NASCAR to red flag the race for nearly 20 minutes. Gordon and Stewart, who combined to lead 198 laps, finished 31st and 32nd, respectively.
April 19, 2010 – Kyle Busch outran his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Joey Logano to the checkered flag and scored his fifth straight Texas Motor Speedway NASCAR Xfinity (Nationwide) Series win in the rain-delayed O’Reilly Auto Parts 300. Busch led 153 of the 200 laps to score his second consecutive series victory and 33rd of his career.
April 19, 1998 – Ron Hornaday Jr. scored his second of six wins during his championship-winning season in the Chevy Trucks NASCAR 150 at Phoenix Raceway. Hornaday got by Jack Sprague with five laps to go and went on to score his first of two wins at Phoenix in his Hall of Fame career.
April 19, 1997 – Steve Park recorded his first career NASCAR Xfinity (Busch) Series win in the BellSouth Mobility/Opryland 320 at Nashville Speedway. Park led 123 laps, including the final 71, to capture his first of three wins that season driving the No. 3 Chevrolet for Dale Earnhardt, Inc. Matt Kenseth made his first start in the No. 17 Chevrolet for Robbie Reiser and finished 11th.
Other winners on this date: 1986 – Jack Ingram (South Boston Speedway, Busch Grand National); 1964 – Fred Lorenzen (North Wilkesboro Speedway); 1962 – Ned Jarrett (Greenville-Pickens Speedway); 1957 – Fireball Roberts (Southern States Fairgrounds); 1953 – Lee Petty (Richmond Fairgrounds)
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