Food City 500 Race Preview

Bristol Motor Speedway -- 03/16/08

Author: Becca Gladden

Published: Wednesday Mar 12 2008 3:00am

Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tennessee, bills itself as a track that offers "racin' the way it ought 'a be," and fans of short-track beatin' and bangin' would likely agree. It's also known as the "world's fastest half mile," though its more common nickname is Thunder Valley - a reputation earned by the tall, stadium-like seating that encircles the track, holding 160,000 screaming fans.

The noise level at ground zero during a Bristol race is thunderous, to say the least. It is a short 0.533 mile track and one of only a few that NASCAR races on with a concrete surface. The oval configuration features high-banked corners ranging from 24 to 30 degrees, with 6 to 10 degrees of banking on the straightaways.

The Cup series has been racing in Thunder Valley since 1961 and, historically speaking, the track could be known as the Darrell Waltrip raceway. Waltrip has the most Bristol wins of any driver, 12 in 52 Cup starts, including seven straight from March 1981 through April 1984.

Among active drivers, Kurt Busch (+950) might be considered the modern-day D.W. on this track. Though Busch and Jeff Gordon (+805) each have five wins here, Gordon's came in 30 starts while Busch reached that win total in just 14 races. Busch has won 5 of the last 12 races at Bristol, though his last win came in this race two years ago in a Penske Dodge, while his previous wins were in a Roush Ford.

Other multi-race winners here are Matt Kenseth (+950) and Mark Martin, each with two wins, while the following drivers have one Bristol victory a piece: Tony Stewart (+1050), Kyle Busch (+705), Dale Earnhardt Jr. (+805), Elliott Sadler, Dale Jarrett, Kevin Harvick (+1025) and Carl Edwards (+705).

Kyle Busch's win was in this race last year, going down in the record books as the first-ever winner of a Car of Tomorrow race. Joe Gibbs Racing teammates Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin (+855) combined to lead a total of 434 of 500 laps in that race, but each suffered a mechanical problem that dropped them from contention.

The track was reconfigured in the summer of 2007 with a new concrete racing surface and somewhat different banking than had existed previously. Most drivers were happy with the changes and felt it produced more multi-groove action. "From a driver's perspective, I thought they did a great job with the changes," five-time Bristol winner Jeff Gordon said this week. "The configuration and the transitions in and off the corners are phenomenal. They basically gave us more room to race here, and I think you could see that in the race last August. I had never seen so much racing all over the track. I didn't think you could make Bristol any cooler or any more fun, but they did." Ford drivers have accounted for six of the past 10 victories at Bristol, though four of those were the aforementioned Kurt Busch, now in a Dodge. The others were Matt Kenseth in August, 2006, and Carl Edwards in August, 2007. GM has had three wins during that time - Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kevin Harvick, and Kyle Busch, who's now driving a Toyota, as are Stewart and Hamlin. Kurt Busch's Penske win in 2006 was the first for a Dodge driver on this track since Richard Petty back in the '70s.

Interestingly, Greg Biffle (+1485) leads all active drivers in the average finish category with a 10.3 AF in 10 starts. Though he's never won a Cup race at Bristol, the Biff has three top 5s, six top 10s, and has never finished worse than 22nd (in 2003). He finished 5th here last spring and 10th in August. Biffle is closely followed by Kevin Harvick with an average finish of 10.5, then Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon, each at 11.7.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. has actually accumulated more points than any other driver over the last five Bristol races, when you factor in bonus points. Junior is followed in this category by Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Kyle Busch (tied), and Greg Biffle.

Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards, who appear to be the hot-streak drivers early in the 2008 season, are also the two most recent Bristol winners.

A note of interest: Dale Jarrett is making his final start in a Cup series points race this weekend, retiring after his run at Bristol on Sunday. "When I realized (my last race) was Bristol, I was pleased about that and it worked out, too, because I think it’s very fitting. It’s a place that I enjoy racing and there’s going to be so many fans there - and I know there’s 160,000 people there - but it seems like so many more than that. So it will be a fitting way for me to finish my racing as far as points racing goes."