Sharpie 500 Race Preview

Bristol Motor Speedway -- 08/23/08

Author: Becca Gladden

Published: Thursday Aug 21 2008 1:35am

Bristol. It's a name that's almost synonymous with NASCAR, and for good reason.

The track nicknamed Thunder Valley seats 160,000 fans and has traditionally created the kind of racing fans have come to expect. I could try and describe, but I'll let Ryan Newman (+3500) tell you instead:

"Everyone will tell you that Bristol has always been a game of survival. Everything happens so fast there. You don’t have time to think or blink. I learned that in 2003 when I won the pole there. I knew I had a good car, but I never anticipated that I could put down a lap that fast. You just don’t realize how quickly everything happens at Bristol. You could have the best car out there, but everything is completely out of your hands. One minute you could be running in the lead and just seconds later, you could be wrecked in the corner and out of the race and it (would ) be no fault of your own. You won’t even realize what has happened to you until afterwards."

Bristol is a 0.533 mile short track and one of just a few concrete-surfaced tracks on the Cup schedule. It features high-banked corners from 24 to 30 degrees with 6 to 10 degrees of banking on the straightaways. The Cup series has been coming here twice a year since 1961, with a total of 95 races now on the books.

Carl Edwards (+650), winner of last week's Busch and Cup races at Michigan, won the August race at Bristol last year, while Jeff Burton (+1800) took home the trophy this spring. Edwards led 182 of 500 laps for the victory, though Kasey Kahne (+1350) had the dominant car, leading 305 laps but finishing 2nd.

Among active drivers, Kurt Busch (+1650) and Jeff Gordon (+950) top the chart with five wins a piece. Busch won 4 out of 5 races here from 2002-2004 in his former Roush Racing Ford, along with the spring race in 2006 in a Penske Dodge.

Jeff Gordon's wins date all the way back to 1995, with his most recent coming in August of 2002.

Looking at just the August race, the last five winners were Kurt Busch, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. (+900), Matt Kenseth (+1350) twice and Carl Edwards.

Looking at the last five consecutive races, fall and spring, the winners were Kurt Busch, Matt Kenseth, Kyle Busch (+600), Carl Edwards and Jeff Burton.

Yes, you read that right. Current points leader Kyle Busch does have one victory here, as does Tony Stewart (+800), Elliott Sadler (+5000), and Kevin Harvick (+1000) in addition to those mentioned above.

KyBu's Bristol win in March of 2007 went down in the record books as the first-ever Car of Tomorrow race. Busch was in a Hendrick Chevy at the time. Toyota has never won a race here, though Busch now leads all active drivers in points accumulated at Bristol, including bonus points, over the last five races. He's followed in that category by Earnhardt Jr., Harvick, Edwards and Burton.

Interestingly, although he's yet to win a Bristol race, Greg Biffle (+1500) leads all active drivers in the average finish category with a 9.7 in 11 starts. He's followed by Kevin Harvick with a 9.9, Earnhardt Jr., 11.3, Jeff Gordon, 11.7, and Matt Kenseth 12.4.

Many pundits have already sized up this season's title hunt as a showdown between Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards, who have combined to win 14 of 23 races this season and 5 of the last 6.

Between the two, Edwards might get the nod this weekend because of his excellent record on concrete surfaces. Rusty Wallace, with nine Bristol victories himself, has nicknamed him "Concrete Carl."

On the other hand, it's hard to vote against Busch right now, who incidentally won Wednesday night's truck race at Bristol for his 17th win of the season across all three racing series - Cups, Nationwide and trucks.

Confidentially, I have a hunch that Jeff Gordon will return to form this weekend and might even find victory lane. That's not based on science or stats, mind you - so your mileage may vary.