Picks ‘n’ Previews: Sharpie 500 Edition (Bristol)

Bristol is, in a word, “intense.” You watch the drivers come off the track, and everyone of them looks like they’ve run a marathon. It’ll be 500 laps of smash mouth racing under the Saturday night lights.

What does it tell you about this race, about this venue, that Bristol Motor Speedway has sold out it’s 55th straight event? If the racin’s good, the folks will find a way to get there.

There’s a lot riding on this race. It’s not coincidental that the drivers with the most of lose or gain are sitting towards the front of the starting grid.

It ought to be a heck of a show.

TRACK FACTS

This is NASCAR’s second stop in Thunder Valley this season. Kyle Busch took the checkered flag in a somewhat uneventful Sunday afternoon affair. To review,

NASCAR first raced on this Tennessee track on July 30, 1960. Jack Smith won the Volunteer 500 in a Pontiac.

Filling this place isn’t necessarily easy, you can cram 160,000 souls in what looks something like a big mixing bowl. The track is .533 miles, just barely longer than Martinsville. The front and back stretches measure 650 feet. The Sharpie is a “500″ for the laps, not the mileage.

TOP PERFORMANCES

All-Time winner in Cup competition is Darrell Waltrip with 12 overall wins. Ol’ D.W. won 7 in a row between 1981 and 1984. Dale Earnhardt, Rusty Wallace and Cale Yarborough each won 9 victories at BMS. Jeff Gordon and Kurt Busch are tied among active drivers with 5 Bristol victories.

Ryan Newman turned the fasting lap in a time of 14.908 seconds or 128.709 miles per hour in a Dodge on March 21, 2003. The pole sitter for this race- Mark Martin- is tied with Cale Yarborough for the most “P-1’s” with 9.

Charlie Glotzbach won the fastest race in the July 11, 1971 Volunteer 500. His speed? 101.074 miles per hour in a time on 2 hours, 38 minutes and 12 seconds.

On that same day, no yellow flags came out. The record for cautions is 20- that happened on three occasions, the most recent being the 2003 Sharpie 500.

A NASCAR Cup track record 40 lead changes occurred on  April 14, 1991 in the Valleydale Meats 500 won by Rusty Wallace. The fewest lead changes happened when Cale Yarborough led the 1973 Southeastern 500 from flag-to-flag on March 25, 1973.

A record 42 racers finished the March 15, 2008 race at Bristol. On 7 managed to survive the March 20, 1966 event.

WHEN & WHERE TO TUNE IN

Green flag for the Sharpie 500 is 7:43 PM Eastern time, 4:43 PM Pacific on Saturday, August 22, 2009. Pre-race-  the NASCAR Countdown  on ESPN- gets underway at 6:30 PM Eastern, 3:30 PM Pacific.

SPEED’s NASCAR Raceday Pre-Race Show airs at 4:30 PM Eastern time, 1:30 PM Pacific.

Dr. Jerry Punch, Andy Petree and Dale Jarrett handle the call from the booth. Shannon Spake, Dave Burns, Jamie Little  and Vince Welch serve as pit reporters. Allen Bestwick, Rusty Wallace, Brad Daugherty and Tim Brewer work from the studio.

Performance Racing Network (PRN) and Sirius XM Satellite provide radio coverage.

RACE PICKS

“Boom,boom, boom,boom….” If you ask me, John Lee Hooker’s blues classic ought to be the theme song for Bristol. There’s no getting around the fact the racing has changed since they made changes on the track. There’s less contact, but still, this race as persistent in its pressure as that doggone gorilla in the Amp Energy commercials.

Given the fact that racing 500 laps on this track will wear out like it does, it would certainly seem to favor the guys who have demonstrated the ability to master it.

Looking to history, you have to respect Kurt Busch and Jeff Gordon- who have each racked up 5 Bristol wins. Though both had good runs in practice, neither qualified well on a slick track surface.

Qualifying position is critical here. There are dark horses aplenty with the likes of youngsters Scott Speed, Joey Logano and Reed Sorenson in the top ten. It’ll be a feather in their caps if they can keep up there as this just doesn’t look like a race that favors the young guns. Some young guys who are starting up front, and who certainly look to be factors are Kyle Busch- who has two March wins under his belt, and Clint Bowyer, who is fighting alongside Busch to make the chase.

There are veterans up front. Veterans who need a good run to remain in chase contention: Matt Kenseth, Greg Biffle, Mark Martin, and to a lesser extent, Ryan Newman. Given the difficulty of passing, with the parity of the cars and the distance, they gain an inside track by starting in favorable spots. An intriguing dark horse pick- if he’s allowed to do more than “start and park”, is “World of Outlaws” ace Dave Blaney- who once again put in a sterling qualifying run.

You can win from deep in the field- Elliott Sadler won from 38th in 2001, Dale Earnhardt from 26th in 1999, Dale Earnhardt Jr. from 30th in 2004 and Kyle Busch won his race this year from 19th. It’s just darn hard to do. 81% percent of Bristol’s races have been won from the top 10, a little more than 50% from the top four.

What will be a little different about this race is the youth movement in the front. It wouldn’t for experience and equipment reasons, be unreasonable to think a lot of those young drivers towards the front won’t fall back. To that end, I think there are veterans in the middle of the pack who won’t be there long. I look for the Busch brothers, Brian Vickers, David Reutimann and any other driver with a measure of patience to pick off the competition ahead of them.

I started the day solidly in the camp of Kyle Busch to win this race. He’s still a solid choice. Those veteran drivers up front, Kenseth, Biffle and Martin stand in a good position to take advantage of the sweet spots. Carl Edwards would be a nice selection if it weren’t for his concerns about speed. Regardless of where they qualify, you have to account for Jimmie Johnson, who had good practice sessions, and the ever consistent Tony Stewart. Clint Bowyer could very well be to this race what Brian Vickers was to Michigan.

Generally speaking, Mark Martin is not one to squander a good piece. For the first time in years, he has equipment to match his skill- skill that is huge on this track. Conditioning is huge at Bristol, and Carl Edwards may be Martin’s only equal in that department.

On this historic occasion, where Mark Martin makes his 1,000th NASCAR series start, I predict a fitting end for such a night.

CONTEST

Win a $25 online gift certificate from NASCAR.com to buy whatever strikes your fancy at their store. Just correctly answer the following trivia question, and put your answer in the “comments” section of this post. All correct entries will be drawn Sunday afternoon and will be posted on my Sunday night post that goes “live” at 9 PM Eastern that night.

Here’s the question: Who won the Busch 500 at Bristol in  1985?

Need help? NASCAR.com has the answer.

Have fun and good luck.   

PHOTO CREDITS- Bristol Motor Speedway by Walter G. Arce. To see more, visit flickr.com or click on the link.