by Lorri on March 22, 2009
Well hello Nascar fans. What an incredible weekend of racing at Bristol. It was certainly an interesting race yesterday and I wish I could say a driver I like won that race,but that is just not possible this weekend. However the celebrity-legends race went really well and my good friend Riki Ratchman finished 3rd unofficially so it may be 2nd, the results as I said are unofficial. Well today’s race ended as so many did last season as well, with that familiar M&M’s Toyota in Victory Lane once again. That’s right, Kyle Busch uncharacteristically won another race-cough cough. Of course he did, that kid is on a roll. A few weeks ago he won in Vegas, then his brother Kurt won in Atlanta, and now Kyle is again in the winner’s circle here at Bristol. Let’s look at how he got there.
Starting off the afternoon was easy for Mark Martin he brought the cars to green for the race start while Dale Jr. dropped to last due to a transmission change. Ryan Newman took the lead from Mark on lap 3 and continued to lead until the first caution on lap 27 for John Andretti spinning out of turn 2. Johnson takes the lead when the lap leaders head to pit road for adjustments and fuel. When the race restarts Johnson continues to lead and but only a few short laps later another caution comes out for Dave Blaney spinning out after making contact with John Andretti. Johnson continues to lead the cars around until caution 3 on lap sixty when Todd Bodine crashes into the wall and causes a chain reaction that involves several others including Michael Waltrip and Kevin Harvick. Kurt Busch also suffers some slight nose damage during the exchange.
A few laps later and its back to green with Johnson continuing to lead the field but it is short lived as Kyle Busch takes the lead two laps later on lap 70 and continues to lead through the caution on lap 123 when McMurray spins in turn 1 after coming down on Juan Pablo Montoya who retaliates sending Jamie around in turn 1. After some pit stop related lead changes, Kyle Busch once again takes the lead. He leads the pack again until caution 5 comes out on lap 189 for Jamie again as he spins coming out of turn 4. After more pit related lead changes it gets back to Kyle Busch once again and he brings the cars to green for the restart once again on lap 196. This continues until lap 318 when Denny Hamlin finally catches up to Kyle Busch and passes him for the lead. It is short lived though as Brian Vickers cuts a tire one lap later on lap 319 and brings out the sixth caution of the day. Johnson retakes the lead when he wins the race off pit road and leads the field to green on lap 329.
But it too is a short lived lead for Johnson as Kyle retakes the lead again on lap 369. Then on lap 440, Harvick is wham!, into the wall and in trouble, his car is badly damaged from earlier in the race as well as this wreck. Busch leads the field to green again on lap 449 and once again Kyle’s run is cut short by another caution. There were 9 cautions in all during the race. This one for David Stremme and Jr. having contact was the eighth caution of the day. They were back under way on lap 460 with Kyle still leading the way and running his butt off when here comes caution number nine, with only a few laps to go and on lap 494 Joey Logano blows an engine and his night is over a few laps early. After the track was cleaned up they set the field for a green, white, checkered finish and Kyle Busch once again cruised to victory lane. This is starting to be somewhat reminiscent of last season when Kyle won all those races. Here is how the top ten looked like for the Bristol race.
Kyle Busch 18 Toyota Snickers/M&M’s
Denny Hamlin 11 Toyota FedEx
Jimmy Johnson 48 Chevrolet Lowe’s
Jeff Gordon 24 Chevrolet Dupont
Kasey Kahne 9 Dodge Budweiser
Mark Martin 5 Chevrolet Kellogg’s/Carquest
Ryan Newman 39 Chevrolet US Army
Jeff Burton 31 Chevrolet Caterpillar
Juan P Montoya 42 Chevrolet Target
Marcos Ambrose 47 Toyota Little Debbie
Well that’s the rundown on today’s big race. Hope you enjoyed the race, I know I really did. Have a good weekend and I’ll see you midweek with a Martinsville report. Until then Nascar fans.
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by Lorri on March 12, 2009
Hello Nascar fans, hope you are all having a great week. I once heard Kyle Petty comment that if you filled Bristol with water and added some fish, that you would really have as much luck fishing as you do racing at Bristol. Well I dont know if thats true but I am sure that Kyle would probably have a pretty good idea what he is talking about. Let’s look at the Holy Grail of Motorsports, Bristol Motor Speedway.
Bristol opened in 1961 and was constructed on what was once a dairy farm. The co-founders of the track, Carl Moore and Larry Carrier, first attended a race in Charlotte in 1960 and it was then that they decided they wanted to build a track like Charlotte Motor Speedway, but they wanted a smaller version. They opted to build the facility in Tennessee and instead of a 1.5 mile track they decided on the modest 0.5 mile track instead for a more intimate setting of sorts. Thus Bristol Motor Speedway was born.
On July 30, 1961 the first Nascar race was held and the seating capacity for that event was about 18,000 seats. The race was the Volunteer 500 and was won by Atlanta native Jack Smith. However, Jack Smith did not win the event solely on his own. He drove the first 290 laps after which another Atlanta native, Johnny Allen, took over driving duties and they together co-won the race sharing the prize money of $3225.00. Brenda Lee the famous country singer was on hand to sing the national anthem and she was only 17 at the time. In 1969 the track was resurfaced and configured and became a 0.533 mile track.
The original name of the track was Bristol International Speedway but in 1978 the name was changed to Bristol International Raceway after being purchased by new owners two years earlier in 1976. In August of 1978 the first night race was held at the oval. In 1982 half ownership was sold to Warner Hodgdon who then turned around and acquired total 100 percent ownership in the track in 1983. He named Larry Carrier as the general manager of the track and then in 1985 after Hodgdon filed for bankruptcy, Carrier took over and covered all debts that were outstanding.
In 1992 the speedway hosted the first Nascar event to be run on a “concrete” surface. In 1996 when the speedway was again sold this time to Bruton Smith, the seating capacity had expanded from 18,000 originally to 71,000 seats at the time of the sale. In May 1996 the name was again changed this time to Bristol Motor Speedway. By August of that year there had been an additional 15,000 seats added bringing the total seating to 86,000 seats. Continued growth has seen the seating capacity grow to some 118,000 seats making Bristol the largest venue in Tennessee and one of the largest in the country by seating capacity. Improvements to the speedway since Smith took over top some $50 million dollars and include over 100 skyboxes and more grandstand seating. The seating capacity in 2000 reached 147,000. In 2002 there were still more improvements and additions including a new infield building for driver meetings. In August of that same year again more seating saw the destruction of the backstretch seating area to make new and increased grandstand seating bringing the total capacity now to about 160,000 seats.
Bristol is again a 0.533 mile oval track. The degree of banking now that it has been redone again in 2007, has a variable banking degree in both the corners and straight aways. The length of the straightaways is 650 feet. The length of the turns is 910 feet. The track is 40 feet wide everywhere including the apron. There are 2 pit roads at Bristol. One on the frontstretch that is for 22 stalls at 594 feet long and the backstretch one that is for 21 pit stalls and is 567 feet long. Pit road is 52 feet wide. The infield is only 10 acres and the surface is concrete.
Some record holders at Bristol include Sprint Cup Series track qualifying record by Ryan Newman at 128.709 in 2003, driver with the most Bristol wins at 12, Darrell Waltrip, and most Bristol poles with 9, Cale Yarborough. Chevrolet holds the record for most manufacturer wins at Bristol with 37.
Ok well that is about all for Bristol fun facts tonight. Hope everyone has a great weekend and a wonderful spring break if your in school like me. I’ll see you back here on Sunday, have a great rest of the week.
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