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Tag: Food City 500

  • Blaney Says ‘There’s Really Been No Rivalry’ with Elliott

    Blaney Says ‘There’s Really Been No Rivalry’ with Elliott

    BRISTOL, Tenn.– Despite being neck and neck in the Rookie of the Year battle, Ryan Blaney says there’s no rivalry going on with Chase Elliott.

    Speaking before the media during his press conference this morning, the driver of the No. 21 Wood Brothers Racing Ford was asked if there’s a rivalry in the making with the driver of the No. 24 Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolet with the two of them controlling the rookie battle after seven races of the 2016 Sprint Cup Series season.

    “There’s really been no rivalry between us,” Blaney said. “It’s been pretty fun to race with Chase every single weekend. I haven’t really had the opportunity to do that, ever. We never really raced together every single weekend. Even growing up in late models, we were never around each other that much. So it’s nice to do that and have fun with your friends on the race track.

    “They do a great job over there (Hendrick Motorsports), so it’s been fun and we’re just trying to get our cars better. But you notice where they’re running. I like to know where my teammates are running and where some friends of mine are running on the race track. But at the same time, you have to go back and worry about your own deal and try to make your car better. It’s great that they’re running good, but we have to make sure our car is better and just worry about our program.”

    Elliott currently leads the rookie battle with 87 points. Blaney sits in second place, 13 points back.

    During the availability, he also addressed working on his conditioning with the longer races in the Sprint Cup Series.

    “I feel like I haven’t really changed that much, to be honest with you, as far as preparation or anything like that,” Blaney added. “I got a small taste of it last year running half the schedule and we were able to do a handful of 500-mile races. We did the (Coca-Cola) 600 in Charlotte, so not a lot of that has changed. I feel like the biggest thing is it’s not really physical for me, it’s more mental and trying to keep mentally focused for 500 miles. I think that’s what most of the drivers fight and that’s something I’ve been trying to work on and make better. That’s helped out a lot. I had a great opportunity to kind of train with DeAngelo Williams, who plays for the (Pittsburgh) Steelers now, but he was in Charlotte and I was hanging out with him a little bit and he kind of told me his preparation and what he does mentally.”

  • Rusty Wallace to Give Command on Sunday

    Rusty Wallace to Give Command on Sunday

    BRISTOL, Tenn.– Rusty Wallace will deliver “the most famous words in motorsports” for Sunday’s race at Thunder Valley.

    Speaking at the corporate headquarters in Abingdon, Virginia, Steven C. Smith, president and CEO of Food City, announced that the NASCAR Hall of Famer will give the command to fire engines for this Sunday’s Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

    “Over the years, Rusty has always been one of the greatest supporters of Food City and our racing program,” Smith said. “As the driver who boasts the most Food City 500 wins (six), we thought it appropriate to recognize his tremendous contributions to our company and the sport by naming him Grand Marshal for the 25th running of the Food City 500.”

    In 44 career starts at Bristol, the 1989 Sprint Cup Series champion amassed nine wins (including four season sweeps), 22 top fives (50 percent) and 29 top-10s (65.91 percent),a 9.6 finishing average and 3723 total laps led. In 14 of those 44 starts, he led more than 100 laps and he also led at least one lap in 29 starts at Bristol.

    Wallace’s last two wins at Thunder Valley came in a season sweep of the races in 2000. He started sixth and led 86 laps on his way to winning in the spring. In the summer, he started on the pole and led 279 laps on his way to winning.

    He finished his career tied with Dale Earnhardt and Cale Yarborough for second on the all-time wins list at Bristol behind Darrell Waltrip and his 12 wins.

     

  • 2016 Food City 500 Preview

    2016 Food City 500 Preview

    BRISTOL, Tenn.– “In my Tennessee mountain home, life’s as peaceful as a baby’s sigh. In my Tennessee mountain home, the sound of roaring thunder sings in fields nearby.”

    This week, the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series heads to my part of the country – Bristol, Tennessee – to run the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway. The 500-lap race on the .533 mile (.858 km) concrete short track will be the eighth race of the 2016 season.

    I have no problem saying that Bristol is my single favorite track on the entire schedule. What’s not to love about it? It’s got the bumping and banging that we all love about short track racing and it’s got actual racing. It’s also my home track being just a 90-minute drive from where I live in Knoxville.

    Inevitably, there will be someone out there moaning about how it’s not like it used to be. Those people are right. Bristol is not like it used to be. It’s better! I will argue the point until the day I die that Bristol today is far superior to the Bristol of yesteryear, but that’s an argument for another day.

    There are two ways to approach Bristol; the classic against the wall on the straights and dive to the bottom in the turns and the current ride against the wall all the way around. The latter became more prevalent back in August of 2012 and is now the main way to get around the concrete short track.

    Passing becomes a challenge at Bristol as it is at most short tracks. In the past when the only way around Bristol was the bottom, you had to forcibly move a guy out of the way or wait for him to make a mistake. Now, you either move the guy in front out of the way and into the wall or you dive bomb under the car in front. This carries a lot of risks because you have to slow down the car a lot more so as to not slam the wall and it allows the car behind to get by you very easily. If you can keep the car you passed behind through the whole process, then you can move on and focus on the next car.

    We’ve seen on many occasions over the years at Thunder Valley that tempers do flare. Controlling the beast inside is key to doing well at Bristol.

    Now let’s get to the drivers to watch this weekend.

    We start off with the odds-on favorite to win this weekend at 6/1 (Vegas Insider), one Kyle Thomas Busch.

    In 21 career starts at Bristol, the driver of the No. 18 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota has amassed five wins, eight top fives (38.10 percent) and 13 top-10’s (61.91 percent) for an average finish of 12th.

    He’s also riding a hot streak of two straight wins at Martinsville and Texas coupled with two straight weekend sweeps.

    Now here’s where the numbers aren’t in his favor.

    Since the introduction of the Gen-6 car, he’s finished second, 11th, 29th, 36th and eighth for a 17.2 average finish. That’s 43.3 percent worse than his career average.

    He’s also not won at Bristol in Cup since 2011.

    He does, however, tend to be up front near the lead at Bristol. In his last five starts, he’s led 56, zero, 73, eight and 192 laps.

    So while I expect him to be in victory lane at Bristol in the XFINITY Series, Sunday will be more of a toss-up. Given the run he’s on as of late, I would be wrong to discount him on Sunday.

    The next driver on my list at 7/1 is Joseph Thomas Logano.

    In 14 career starts at Bristol, the driver of the No. 22 Team Penske Ford has amassed two wins, three top fives (21.43 percent) and four top-10’s (28.57 percent) for an 18.6 finishing average. While that doesn’t sound all that great, all those top fives and three of those top-10s have come during his time with Penske. In his time with Penske, he’s finished 17th, fifth, 20th, first, 40th and first for an average finish of 14th. That’s 24.73 percent better than his career average.

    Interestingly, none of them have come in the spring race at Bristol.

    He’s no stranger to being in the lead at Thunder Valley with a career total of 408 laps led. The only other track where he’s led more is Martinsville. The last time we visited Bristol, he led 176 laps on his way to scoring the victory.

    I expect to see Logano fighting for the win on Sunday.

    The next driver to watch at 7/1 is Kevin Michael Harvick.

    In 30 career starts at Bristol, the driver of the No. 4 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet has amassed one win, 10 top fives (33.3 percent) and 13 top-10s (43.3 percent) for a 14.6 career finishing average.

    His stats are even less impressive when you use the sample size of the last six races. In the last six, he’s finished 14th, 38th, 39th, 11th, 38th and second for a 23.7 finishing average. That’s 62.33 percent worse than his career average.

    Why I bring him up is because even with the poor finishes, he still has a strong car that’s up front. In the last six races at Bristol, he’s led zero, seven, 28, 75, 184 and zero laps. That’s an average of 49 laps led per race. He was in control of this race a year ago before being caught up in a late-race wreck with David Ragan (who was subbing for Busch at the time).

    I expect Harvick to be a contender on Sunday.

    Next at 8/1 is Bradley Aaron Keselowski.

    In 12 career starts at Thunder Valley, the driver of the No. 2 Penske Ford has amassed two wins, four top fives (33.3 percent) and five top-10s (41.67 percent) for a 14.3 career average.

    For Keselowski, Bristol has been either hit or miss. That’s clear in his last six starts with finishes of third, 30th, 14th, second, 35th and sixth for a finishing average of 15th. That’s 4.90 percent worse than his career average.

    Unlike the others on this list, Keselowski is the one driver I’m iffy on. Granted, his record is comparable to Harvick’s. But Harvick has been bringing strong cars to Thunder Valley the last two years while Keselowski has been bringing cars that are just good at best.

    While I expect to see Keselowski get a top-10 finish, I don’t see him winning on Sunday.

    The final driver at 10/1 is Matthew Roy Kenseth.

    In 32 career starts at Thunder Valley, the driver of the No. 20 JGR Toyota has amassed four wins, 13 top fives (40.63 percent) and 20 top-10’s (62.5 percent) for a 12.8 finishing average.

    In his last six starts at Bristol, he’s finished 35th, first, 13th, third, first and 42nd for a 15.8 finishing average. That’s 23.44 percent worse than his career average.

    In his last six starts, he’s led 85, 149, 165, 62, 47 and zero laps for a combined total of 508 laps. That’s 35.53 percent of the nearly one-thousand 500 laps (1430) that he’s led overall at Bristol.

    It’s also worth noting that this season has been anything but kind to Kenseth after eight races with only one top-10 finish.

    If there’s one track that’s been kind to him over his career, it’s Bristol. After the monsoon of last April, Kenseth had enough fuel to end a 53-race winless drought and scored the victory.

    I expect Kenseth to get it together sooner rather than later and there’s a good chance that he does it this Sunday at Thunder Valley.

    You can catch the Food City 500 this Sunday at 1 p.m. ET on FOX and on the radio via the Performance Racing Network and Sirius XM (subscription required for the latter). Since this is my home track, I’ll be on location starting today bringing you all the happenings from the media center and press box at Thunder Valley.

  • Matty’s Picks 2015: Bristol – Part 1

    Matty’s Picks 2015: Bristol – Part 1

    It has been a couple weeks since you’ve heard from me, and I couldn’t pick a better track to make my return on. Not only is it one of the best venues on the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series circuit, but its one of the best venues in all of sports. From the 160,000 seats, to the extreme banking, to the tiny pit stalls, to the extreme speeds for a short track, Bristol is a bucket list race for any NASCAR fan, despite the claims that the racing was ruined in 2007 when the track was re-paved and progressive banking added. If you’re a fan of racing, Bristol Motor Speedway is on your list.

    I watched my first race at Bristol Motor Speedway in August of 2002, amongst a sold out crowd of over 150,000 when I watched Jeff Gordon execute the bump and run on Rusty Wallace with three laps remaining in the Sharpie 500. I happened to be sitting with a Rusty Wallace fan at the time, who was not happy with the move, but later on admitted if the roles were reversed, Wallace would have done the same thing. It’s just the way things went back then, if you were not on the bottom, you were losing positions. With the progressive banking, drivers are using all parts of the track to improve their position. The top side can be as good as the bottom, and the middle groove offers a safe haven for drivers with ill-handling cars that will not make it to the bottom or for those without the courage to run up next to the wall.

    I will save you all the grief of reading through my last few weeks of finishes, and let you know that I am sitting fourth in the CNY Sports Fans group and 12,044th on the FoxSports Fantasy Auto Leaderboards. I will let you know that I’ve finished second and third the last two weeks on my trek out of the basement.

    (more…)

  • Surprising and Not Surprising: Bristol Food City 500

    Surprising and Not Surprising: Bristol Food City 500

    Just as in the Daytona 500, starting in day and ending at night due to extensive rain delays, here is what else was surprising and not surprising from the 54th annual Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

    Surprising:  Creating his own ‘March Madness’, the leader of the Stewart-Haas Racing team rebounded from having to use a provisional to get into the race to finishing in the top five.

    “To start 37th and end up fourth today, I’m pretty excited about that,” Tony Stewart said. “I’m really excited for Chad Johnston (crew chief) and everybody on this Bass Pro Shops/Mobil 1 team.”

    “We had a long way to go from Friday when we weren’t very good, and every day we just got better and better. So, I’m really proud of this team.”

    Not Surprising:  With a gladiator’s sword as the prize for the victor, it was appropriate that the race ended as a survival of the fittest contest. And the survivor of this race was indeed fit, as demonstrated by his back flip on a wet start finish line in the track known as ‘the Last Great Coliseum.’

    Carl Edwards, behind the wheel of the No. 99 Kellogg’s / Frosted Flakes Ford, scored his first win of the 2014 season, making him the fourth different driver to win in the season and qualifying him for the Chase. This was Edwards’s third victory and eighth top-10 finish at Bristol.

    “I just can’t believe it,” Edwards said. “We were terrible on Saturday, so I’m just glad we turned it around.”

    “We had no clue we were going to win this race.”

    Surprising:  While typically the action ensues when the green flag flies, in this race most of the intense crashing took place when the caution flag came out. There were two instances where the yellow flew yet two drivers were struck from the rear at fairly high rates of speed.

    The first incident occurred when Timmy Hill drilled Matt Kenseth from behind and the second occurred when Brad Keselowski was unable to slow down and hit Jamie McMurray in the rear.

    One of the more bizarre incidents occurred on pit road under caution when Danica Patrick attempted to pull out of her pit stall, got sideways and drilled Clint Bowyer’s machine.

    “It was an eventful night,” Patrick said. “I lost first and second gear and then finally third gear.  That’s why I hit Clint (Bowyer) in the pits.”

    “It wouldn’t go so I dipped the clutch and got sideways, and when it was about to spin around, I lifted, it caught and then it went straight and it wouldn’t stop.”

    “So, I hit him,” Patrick said. “I apologized to his crew after the race.”

    Not Surprising:  Kyle and Kurt Busch had an ‘O Brother Where Art Thou’ moment on lap 394 when Kyle spun out after losing his car in the marbles and big brother Kurt hit the wall trying to avoid him. As a result of that damage, Kurt Busch had to go back behind the wall to repair the right front suspension.

    Kurt Busch finished 35th and brother Kyle finished 29th.

    “Had a moment of brightness but it went downhill from there,” Kyle Busch tweeted after the race. “Really thankful no one hit me when I was sideways.”

    Surprising:  While the streak of top five finishes sadly ended for NASCAR’s most popular driver Dale Earnhardt Jr., another streak surprisingly was born.

    Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jeff Gordon scored his fourth consecutive top-10 finish, which the four-time champ has never been done before in his career to start the season.

    Not Surprising:  Bristol is one of the most physically demanding tracks so it was no wonder that Joey Logano was feeling the need to improve his upper body workout regimen. Logano lost his power steering prior to the rain delay but soldiered on to finish 20th in his No. 22 Shell Pennzoil For.

    “I was already huffing and puffing pretty hard trying to get the thing to turn,” Logano said. “It was intermittent for a while once we restarted and then it just went away.”

    Surprising:  Jimmie Johnson and his crew chief Chad Knaus must have remained in previous race Las Vega mode, gambling with taking left sides only early in the race and then cutting a right front tire down as a result.

    The tread on the No. 48 Kobalt Tools Chevrolet unwound, which forced him to the pits, losing several laps to the leader.

    “The tire still had air in it,” Johnson said. “It didn’t wear it out.”

    “Something made it come apart.”

    Not Surprising:   It was only a matter of time for these two drivers to have a bit of a break out in the Sprint Cup Series, both posting their career best finishes.

    Ricky Stenhouse, Jr., behind the wheel of his No. 17 Nationwide Insurance Ford, finished second, bettering his previous career high finish in third at Talladega in October 2013. And Aric Almirola, in his No. 43 Smithfield Ford Petty blue machine, finished third, bettering his previous career best at Homestead in 2010.

    “It helps our confidence for sure,” Stenhouse Jr. said. “We’re just slowly working and getting better and better.”

    “It was a good night for us,” Almirola said after the race was finally concluded. “It seemed like our car got better and better.”

    “I’m really proud of everybody on our team because they gave me a really good car.”

    Surprising:  A strange new hashtag on Twitter was surprisingly born after one of the most bizarre equipment malfunctions occurred. As a result, rookie driver Alex Bowman tweeted “#badluckbowman is getting freaking ridiculous. Solid top 20 car and the battery literally fell out. Now I get to ride around all day.”

    And with that tweet, the young Rookie of the Year contender picked up ad additional ten thousand followers of his Twitter handle @AlexBRacing.

    Not Surprising:  Speaking of rookie contenders, young Kyle Larson, piloting the No. 42 Target Chevrolet, finished top-10 and also was the highest finishing rookie of the race.

    “We had a really good run today,” Larson said. “Started off in 20th and got to the top ten pretty easily there in the beginning.”

    “Ran in second and third for a long time,” Larson continued. “Pretty much stayed in the top ten for the whole race and inched our way up to the front.”

    The Cup Series heads back across country next week for the Auto Club 400 at Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, California.

  • The biggest star of the Bristol may not be who you think

    The biggest star of the Bristol may not be who you think

    Bristol, TN – (March 15, 2014) – When the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series travels to the high-bank half-mile oval in beautiful northeast Tennessee, you think of the stars who usually perform well there. Dale Earnhardt Jr, Kurt Busch, Denny Hamlin quickly come to mind.

    For this weekend’s Food City 500, however, there is an unusual star getting the majority of the media attention. No, it’s not a rookie, or a start and park driver. It is a piece of pit equipment. Specifically, the Cool Down Box!

    Thanks to NASCAR’s modification to the qualifying format that no longer permits the slow speed cool down laps that teams were using to cool their cars after a hard qualifying run. The new rule permits the use of the Cool Down Box to cool the engine.

    What is a Cool Down Box you ask? It is a portable unit with a reservoir that contains water. The teams also add ice to the water. Additionally, attached to the unit is a radiator and fan. When a car comes in after a run, the crew hooks two hoses from the unit to connectors on the car. The cold water is pumped through the car’s cooling system removing the heat from the engine components. Once the engine is cool, it is ready to head back to the track for another run.

    The Cool Down Box was definitely the hot topic on Friday at the track. Media members, crew chiefs, and drivers were all talking about how the new rule will affect qualifying. Marcos Ambrose weighed in on the new rule, “This is way better. To even think we did it the other way is crazy. This is the way it should be because it allows the fastest cars to go out there and put on the right show and not confuse the fans. I think it’s a good change for us and I think these qualifying sessions are gonna get more and more exciting as the drivers and teams work out how to do it.”

    Before qualifying on Friday, Matt Kenseth talked about having no cool down laps, saying, “With no cool down laps, less chaotic and confusing hopefully. I think it’s going to look more practice somewhat and more like a normal qualifying session except there will be more cars out there.”

    2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup Series champion, Brad Keselowski, who, including this weekend at Bristol, has started on the front row three times in a row, was asked if the new rule made his run Friday possible. Brad replied, “Oh, absolutely. I think that rule change has just made qualifying even better.”

    When it was all said and done Friday afternoon, everyone seemed to be very complimentary of NASCAR’s changes. Increased safety, less confusion, and much less chaos led to a very exciting qualifying session at the World’s Fastest Half-Mile. Though many criticize NASCAR, it seems they have once again made the right call and, as a result, made the “Cool Down Box” the newest star of the Sprint Cup Series.

     

  • Preview and Predictions: Food City 500

    Preview and Predictions: Food City 500

    After we nearly saw Dale Earnhardt Jr. clinch his first multi-win season since 2004, the series heads over to the first short track race of the season at Bristol Motor Speedway. With zero top-fives in the last 10 races there, Dale Jr. will have his work cut out for him if he wants to maintain his streak of top-two finishes. However, his rival Brad Keselowski could very easily maintain his streak of top-five finishes.

    Bristol Motor Speedway is a tough half-mile race track, with racing there being equated to flying jet fighters in a gymnasium. With the current surface, we’ve seen a lack of bump-and-runs that made Bristol so exciting. But with this new points system that puts a large incentive on winning, I wouldn’t be surprised to see a driver put the bumper to another guy in order to win. Almost every driver will tell you they wouldn’t wreck a guy to win a race, but they may consider “rattling their cage.” In any case, here’s a couple drivers to keep an eye on, and one of them might end up in victory lane.

    Kyle Busch 

    In recent memory, when you think of Bristol, you think of Kyle Busch. He’s scored a whopping 160 more points than any other driver in the last 10 races there, and he’s found victory lane in four of those races, the latest being the spring race of 2011. Add that to his impressive average finish of 7.8 over the last 10 starts at Bristol and it becomes easy to see why Rowdy Busch is always the man to beat at Bristol. 

    Brad Keselowski

    I’m not entirely sure what Team Penske has done to their race cars, but they have been extremely fast all year long. Joey Logano sits fourth in points with two top-fives in three races, but his teammate Brad Keselowski is even better. Keselowski is just one point behind points leader Dale Earnhardt Jr. and has three top-fives in three races. In very recent memory, Brad K. has made Bristol Motor Speedway one of his best tracks, winning two of the last five. His average finish of 13th may not sound so great, but with the success and speed Team Penske have had this year, it would be a surprise to not see the White Deuce run up front. 

    Jimmie Johnson

    When you think of Jimmie Johnson’s best tracks, Bristol usually doesn’t spring into mind, but after some research, I was surprised by how consistent Johnson has been at the half-mile race track. His five top-fives and seven top-10 finishes in the past 10 races there are equal to Kyle Busch, and he won a Bristol race in 2010. Also keep in mind that Johnson will be driving Chassis 728 this weekend. This chassis completely dominated at Pocono last year, won at Indy in 2012, and finished second at Indy last year. The success of Chassis 728 will continue on Sunday and Johnson will come home solidly inside the top-10. 

    Even though six-time has shown great consistency at Bristol over the past few years, I still believe the race will be between Brad Keselowski and Kyle Busch, and I actually will give the edge to Mr. Keselowski. With the speed Team Penske has had in 2014, it’s evident that he looks a little better than his Joe Gibbs Racing rival Kyle Busch. As a diehard race fan, I can’t wait to see who conquers Thunder Valley.

    All statistics retrieved from Racing-Reference.info.

  • Why NASCAR fans love Bristol

    Why NASCAR fans love Bristol

    Ask any fan what their favorite NASCAR track is and usually you will get multiple answers; however, almost always, Bristol is on that list. Fans flock to Bristol, those that have been there cannot wait to get back, and for those that have never been there it’s usually on their “bucket list”.

    The beginning was in 1960 when two men, Carl Moore and Larry Carrier had gotten the idea when traveling to North Carolina to see the first race at Charlotte Motor Speedway, built by a local businessman turned race promoter O. Bruton Smith and the legendary driver Curtis Turner. Charlotte Motor Speedway would become the inspiration, however, they had decided they wanted a track that was smaller, more intimate, and the fact it would take up less land was a plus. In 1960, Moore, Carrier, and R.G. Pope began work on a half mile track that would become Bristol International Speedway. The track itself was a perfect half-mile, measuring 60 feet wide on the straightaways and 75 feet wide in the turns, which were banked at 22 degrees.

    Although, the track ran weekly races, the first NASCAR driver to take to the track in practice was Tiny Lund on July 27th, 1961. The first NASCAR race, The Volunteer 500, at the then renamed Bristol Motor Speedway was on July 30th, 1961 with another well known driver Fred Lorenzen on the pole. When the Volunteer 500 was over, a driver named Jack Smith would be written into the history books as the first winner.  However, with the heat blistering his feet badly after 290 laps, he would request a relief driver named Johnny Allen to finish the race in his place. A total of 42 cars started the first race at BMS but only 19 finished. For the next several years Bristol quickly became one of the most sought after wins for drivers, as it was one that was hard earned.

    Fast forward to April 5th, 1992, a new sponsorship would come to the track “The Food City 500” and actually is still the sponsor to this day. That day, Alan Kulwicki would dominate the race and it would be the final race on an asphalt surface, as well as the last one to be run on bias-ply tires. With the increasing tire traction and other factors, the track was beginning to need to be resurfaced or patched after every few races.  The track owners were looking for a solution to the problem and the answer came on August 29, 1992 for the “Bud 500”. Bristol became the first speedway to host a NASCAR Cup event that boasted a track surface of all concrete.

    Bristol is also known for some of the most horrific crashes fans have ever seen, despite its size. August 27th, 1988 during practice, driver Rusty Wallace slid into the fourth turn wall and ended up barrel-rolling about five times down the front straightaway. He escaped any major injuries and was kept overnight in the hospital for observation.

    It was 1990 when driver Michael Waltrip also survived unscathed from a horrific crash during a NASCAR Busch Series (now known as the Nationwide Series) race. He hit a turnout gate at the corner exit, breaking the gate and went head on into the end of the wall literally destroying his car to the point that no one believed anyone could survive that impact. To his brother Darrell Waltrip’s relief not only had Michael survived but like Wallace, had only suffered minor injuries.

    August 22nd, 2002 during a practice session for the Busch Series, driver Mike Harmon had something break in the car sending him into the wall and into a crossover gate where his car  would be virtually destroyed. It would come to rest on the track where it would be hit again by driver Johnny Sauter. Harmon was uninjured and walked away.

    That is the history of Bristol, but that is just a few of the reasons that fans are in love with Bristol. Fans love it because it is by far one of the toughest and most exciting tracks that NASCAR runs. It is side by side paint swapping racing, and the noise is said to be deafening as the cars race. It has been stated that Bristol is the equivalent of running fighter jets in a gymnasium. Bristol can make the most refined level headed driver lose his cool. We have seen helmets thrown, drivers going at each other, often creating feuds that will last throughout the year. At times there is so much going on that fans have a hard time keeping up with all that is happening. It tests the drivers’ skills and their ability to not let tempers get the best of them.

    We head into Bristol Motor Speedway this year with even more excitement now that NASCAR has put the emphasis on winning more than points. How will the drivers respond? Will it make for even more aggressive driving? One thing with Bristol is that it is anyone’s guess who will win or who will lose their temper, but either way the fans love it so bring it on as we can’t wait.

  • Hamlin wins the pole for the Food City 500

    Hamlin wins the pole for the Food City 500

    This week’s changes to qualifying procedures did not hurt Denny Hamlin’s strong start to the 2014 season. In Friday’s qualifying for the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, Hamlin posted a fast lap of 129.991 mph in his Fed-Ex Toyota Camry. Hamlin’s lap once again broke the track record, a feat that has become the norm in the Sprint Cup Series. Today’s pole was the 18th of Hamlin’s career, and his second at Bristol.

    The changes that NASCAR implemented this week that eliminated the “cool down” laps that teams were using in the first three races of the season. Many teams, drivers and fans alike were raising concerns about the cool down laps due the significant difference in speed between them and cars that were on a full speed run. Drivers seemed to feel that there was no detrimental effects on their runs in regards to the changes.

    Brad Keselowski’s terrific qualifying runs continued as he scored a second place startning spot. Keselwoski’s Penske Racing teammate, Joey Logano, ended up fourth at the end of the session.

    Other notables: Matt Kenseth will start third, Jeff Gordon sixth, defending champion Jimmie Johnson will take the green in eleventh, and points leader Dale Earnhardt Jr will start 14th.

    The green flag will fall on the Food City 500 Sunday at 1:00 pm local time.

  • Kurt Busch leads first practice at Bristol

    Kurt Busch leads first practice at Bristol

    Bristol, TN (March 14, 2014) – The first practice on Friday for the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Food City 500 was interesting to say the least. Several drivers had trouble and found the wall during the first session – the only practice session before qualifying.

    Danica Patrick was the first to find the wall when her No. 10 Go Daddy Chevrolet got loose coming off the corner and bounced off the outside wall, then made contact with Swan Racing rookie driver, Parker Kligerman, who was on his first lap of practice. Patrick’s Stewart-Hass Race team immediately brought out the back-up car. Patrick was 34th fastest at the end of practice.

    Kligerman spent much of practice behind the wall, but did manage to complete eight laps before it was over. It is crucial that Kligerman have a qualifying effort this weekend, as this is the weekend that NASCAR reverts to this season’s owner’s points standings to determine provisional starting spots. Kligerman ended up 43rd fastest in the early session.

    Another rookie of the year contender, Justin Allgaier, also made contact with the outside wall in his No. 51 SEM Products Chevrolet. Allgaier was on his first lap of practice, and did not return to the track for the rest of the session.

    Drivers who had trouble in practice was not limited to drivers of lesser experience. Kyle Busch and Greg Biffle, arguably two if the most talented drivers in the garage area, also spun and made significant contact with the wall. Busch and Biffle both pulled out back-up cars. Busch ended up 19th, with Biffle only managing a 28th place lap in the early session.

    Stewart-Hass Racing driver, Kurt Busch did not have any major issues in practice session number one. Busch ran 36 laps, and posted a fast lap of 129.789 mph to place him atop the charts. Busch has an impressive record at Bristol, with 5 wins and 14 top-5’s in 26 starts.

    Rounding out the top-5 in practice session number one were – Jeff Gordon, Denny Hamlin, Carl Edwards, and Marcos Ambrose.