ON TRACK- A Special Weekly Edition of Bump Drafts- Bristol Edition
(Prepared Specially for NASCAR_Nation)
What’s Next- The Food City 500, Bristol, Tennessee, Sunday, March 16, 2008, 2:20 p.m. EDT, 11:20 Pacific, Broadcast on FOX.
Track History- This is a .533 mile oval track affectionately known as a “bull ring” or short track with 36-degree banking in the turns and 16 degree banking on the straights. The track surface is concrete, though it started out as an asphalt track.
The first NASCAR race ran here on July 30, 1961. Jack Smith took the checkered flag that day. In the last race ran here, Carl Edwards won on August 25, 2007.Kyle Buschwon the first 2007 race, when the “Car of Tomorrow” made its debut. Shrub will be remembered for saying he thought the car sucked.
Flyin’ Ryan Newman owns the qualifying record at the “Volunteer State” track with a time of 14.908 seconds on March 21, 2003. Cale Yarborough has earned the most poles with 9.
The immortal Charlie Glotzbach ran the fastest race at Bristol Motor Speedway with a speed of 101.074 m.p.h. (2 hr. 38 min. 12 sec.) on July 11, 1971.
20 caution flags flew at Bristol in the Spring of 2003, 0 flew on July 11, 1971.
The record for wins at Bristol belongs to “Ol’ D.W.”- Darrell Waltrip He’s won 12 times here. Kurt Busch is the active leader at Bristol with 5 trips to victory lane. Kevin Harvick and Morgan Shepherd have won 4 Nationwide events at the Tennessee track.
Other Tennessee Trivia- Dale Earnhardt is the oldest winner at this track. He won the Goody’s 500 on August 28, 1999 at the age of 48 years, 3 months and 30 days. Kurt Busch- now known as the “other Busch” is the youngest, winning the 2002 Food City 500 at the age of 23 years, 7 months, 20 days.
Junior Johnson is the winningest owner at Bristol with 21 wins, including a victory as a driver in 1965. Jack Roush has 9 victories as an owner at Bristol.
In recent years,- Matt Kenseth, Jeff Gordon, Greg Biffle, Kevin Harvick and Tony Stewart have the highest driver ratings at BMS from 2005-2007.
A Nationwide Series Race will run Saturday March 15 at 2:45 p.m. Eastern
What’s Up: Kyle Busch is coming off his historic win at Las Vegas, the first for Toyota at the Cup level. NASCAR Nation is still buzzing over Tony Stewart’s tirade against Goodyear Tires. Retiring racer Dale Jarrett weighs in saying that Goodyear should listen to his complaints. Bill Davis has announced their #27 car is inactive due to a lack of sponsor. NASCAR is coming off of testing at Darlington, South Carolina.
This week will be a different ballgame on Bristol’s concrete surface. It will be interesting to see how the drivers handle the new car, as we disocver more and more all the time what a tank the vehicle is. The short track plays havoc with rookies, so it will bear watching to see how the likes of Hornish and Franchitti handle the track.
NASCAR TERMINOLOGY- A NASCAR FOR DUMMIES PRIMER
Roof flaps- I’ll never forget the NASCAR promo with the guy and his comb-over flapping in the breeze. These were developed in 1994 to help a car from going airborne when it gets spun around.
Flat-out- A slang term for racing a car as fast as possible under the given weather and track conditions.
Flywheel- A heavy metal rotating wheel that is part of the race car’s clutch system, used to keep elements such as the crank shaft turning steadily.
That’s all for this week. Remember men what that great philosopher Red Green says: “If the women can’t find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.”
Thanks everybody for reading and you’re part in making all of this possible.
