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Food City 500 preview
March 24, 2007
By Micah Roberts
VegasInsider.com
This week?s race at Bristol marks the debut of NASCAR?s ?Car of Tomorrow?. NASCAR will run 16 races this season in the new car, including next week at Martinsville as well. The changes to the car were all made in efforts to make the drivers safer.
There is a larger cockpit, more steel plating by the doors, and the fuel cell is a much thick container. So far the car has been met with a tremendous amount of approval from the drivers.
2007: The 16 speedways prepared to feature the new cars are Bristol (2), Martinsville (2), Phoenix (2), Richmond (2), Dover (2), New Hampshire (2), Darlington, Infineon Raceway, Watkins Glen and Talladega (fall).
"The first thing about it is the car is safer,? Kevin Harvick said. Whatever it is after that is a bonus. The drivers have more room inside. There is a lot of things built into the car to absorb energy when they hit the wall. That's just the starting point. ... The bottom line is, NASCAR has to make the best decision for them. They felt it was time to evolve the car and make it safer, and the teams will figure out the rest."
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Obviously with the changes, there is bound to be some kind of change with what we have come to expect, whether it?s an increase or decrease in performance. All the past performance data that we have may be able to be tossed out the door. Or they could run very similar. We?ll have to wait and see for ourselves and trust the drivers who tested the cars in Bristol at the end of February.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. thinks the cars may even run a little better.
"The Impala SS actually drives better than our other cars do here. The car is an inch wider, it has a little more grip. I am really pleasantly surprised really. It has exceeded my expectations at this point and how the car is driving. I anticipated it to be a little more of a struggle get the car to turn, to work, to get it up off the corner. Our lap times are comparable with the other chassis we have been running here the past couple of years. I think we are ahead of the game a little bit, as far as I thought we would be, we are ahead of that."
So how do we handicap this week?s race with all the changes? To start with, I think you still have to look at the drivers and use past trends to guide you. Drivers who do well at Bristol always do well at Bristol. It?s not a coincidence that the same drivers seem to finish in the top five twice a year and that the same few drivers win in every Bristol race. They are just better. I wouldn?t imagine the changes to the car affecting the select few drivers who dominate at Bristol.
The first candidate to win this week is Las Vegas native, Kurt Busch ). He has five career wins at Bristol in his last 10 starts there. He has won with Jack Roush and did it last season with Roger Penske showing that Busch can do it at Bristol in nearly any situation.
The next driver to keep an eye on is Kevin Harvick . Since his rookie year in 2001, no one has a better Bristol average finish position than Harvick. He won this race in 2005 and finished second last season.
Matt Kenseth has won the last two Bristol night races in a row. In this race last year, Kenseth finished third. Since 2002, his worst finish has been 16th with nine top 10 finishes.
After you throw out all the wins of Kenseth, Harvick, and Busch you?re left with three other drivers that have won in the last 11 races; Tony Stewart in 2001, Jeff Gordon in 2002, and Dale Jr. in 2004.
Sometime soon, some driver is going to step up and show the Bristol heavyweights that they?re ready to become chief. Kurt Busch was that guy to do it when he gave Jimmy Spencer the business in crunch time a few years ago. Greg Biffle has come close, but I believe the next in line is Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin so we?ll throw them in our top 5 this week.
Kyle Busch would seem like the logical choice not only because of his team, but because he just doesn?t care about offending anyone. Much like his brother, he just wants to win and will take whatever baggage comes with it. The short track racing is where both Kurt and Kyle got their racing experience at the Bullring inside Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The irritated plenty of people racing there as well, but the Busch brothers are the ones racing in NASCAR?s top series now. These boys definitely got something that many others don?t have.
TOP 5 Bristol Finish Prediction:
1) #29 Kevin Harvick
2) #5 Kyle Busch
3) #2 Kurt Busch
4) #17 Matt Kenseth
5) #11 Denny Hamlin
Bristol Info
? There have been 92 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup races at Bristol Motor Speedway.
? A total of 401 drivers have competed at Bristol Motor Speedway.
? Kurt Busch is the defending Food City 500 champion; there was no Budweiser Pole winner for last year?s race due to weather.
? Forty drivers have posted poles at Bristol; 19 have more than one.
? Mark Martin leads all active drivers with seven poles at Bristol; he scored four in a row from 1996-96.
? Cale Yarborough leads all drivers with nine poles.
? A Bristol race has been won from the pole 21 times, most recently in 2005 (Matt Kenseth).
? The last three races at Bristol have been won from a starting position of inside the top 10, and two of the last three have been inside the top five.
? Only 16 Bristol races have been won from a starting position of outside the top 10.
? Elliott Sadler?s starting position of 38th in 2001 was the lowest starting position by a race winner ever at Bristol.
? There have been five different pole winners in the last five Bristol races that have had qualifying (there was no qualifying for last year?s spring race due to weather).
More Bristol Info
? Thirty-four different drivers have won a NASCAR NEXTEL Cup race at Bristol since 1961; 14 have won more than once.
? Darrell Waltrip won 12 races at Bristol, more than any other driver. :scared
? Jeff Gordon and Kurt Busch have each won five races at Bristol, more than any other active driver.
? Cale Yarborough led 4,306 laps at Bristol, the most of any driver.
? Richard Petty had 60 career starts at Bristol, more than any driver.
? Petty and Darrell Waltrip have 26 top-five finishes, most of any driver.
? Petty has 37 top-10 finishes, most of any driver.
? Ricky Rudd has 16 top-10 finishes and 31 top-10 finishes at Bristol, most of any driver.
? A race at Bristol has been shortened by rain on only two occasions (fall 1983 and spring 1996).
? Elliott Sadler (3-25-01) and Kurt Busch (3-24-02) each had their first win at Bristol.
? Ricky Rudd leads all other active drivers with 23,951 laps completed at Bristol; Terry Labonte, who retired last year, has completed 24,792 laps at Bristol, more than any other driver.
Bristol Motor Speedway Data
Race #: 5 of 36 (3-25-07)
Number of laps: 500
Track Size: .533 miles
Length of Event: 266.5 miles
? Banking is 36 degrees in the corners
? Banking is 16 degrees on the straights
? Frontstretch is 650 feet long
? Backstretch is 650 feet long
Cash
Purse: $5,551,106.00
NASCAR NEXTEL Leader Bonus: $50,000
Tire/Fuel Data
Goodyear Tire Codes: Left-side -- D-4096; Right-side -- D-4098
Other NASAR NEXTEL Cup Tracks At Which This Tire Combination Will Be Run: None
Estimated Pit Window: Every 120-130 laps, based on fuel mileage
History
Races won from the pole: 14 of 95 events (15%)
Races won from inside the top 10: 74 of 95 (78%)
Races won from outside the top 10: 21 of 95 (22%)
? Fred Lorenzen won the inaugural Budweiser Pole at the Bristol Motor Speedway in 1961.
? Jack Smith won the inaugural NASCAR NEXTEL Cup race at Bristol (July 30, 1961).
? The track was re-configured to 36-degree banking ? the most acute on the current NASCAR NEXTEL Cup schedule ? and re-measured at .533 miles for the 1969 fall race.
? The first NASCAR NEXTEL Cup night race at Bristol was the 1978 fall race.
? The track surface was switched from asphalt to concrete for the 1992 Bud 500 (fall race).
? The track name was changed from Bristol International Speedway to Bristol International Raceway in 1978 and then to Bristol Motor Speedway in the fall of 1996.
Last Five Winners at Bristol
2006 ? Matt Kenseth
2006 ? Kurt Busch
2005 ? Matt Kenseth
2005 ? Kevin Harvick
2004 ? Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Margin of Victory ? Last Five Races
2006 ? .591 seconds
2006 ? .179
2005 ? .511
2005 ? 4.652
2004 ? 4.390
Active Drivers ? Most Poles at Bristol
Mark Martin ? 7
Ryan Newman ? 2
Jeff Gordon ? 4
Active Drivers ? Most Laps Led at This Track
Jeff Gordon ? 2,429 Ricky Rudd ? 605
Mark Martin ? 957 Kurt Busch ? 550
Tony Stewart ? 828 Dale Jarrett ? 544
Dale Earnhardt Jr. ? 742 Bill Elliott ? 464
Matt Kenseth ? 742 Jeremy Mayfield ? 370
Prior Race Statistics Most Fewest
Leaders 16 (4/9/89) 1 (3/25/73)
Lead Changes 40 (4/14/91) 0 (3/25/73)
Cautions 20 (3 times, most recently 8/23/03) 0 (7/11/71)
Caution Laps 167 (7/25/65) 0 (7/11/71)
Cars on Lead Lap 25 (3/25/01) 1 (22 times, most recently 8/22/81)
All-time Highlights at Bristol
:scared
Most Wins, Active: 5, Jeff Gordon and Kurt Busch
Most top 5s: 26, Richard Petty, Darrell Waltrip
Most top 5s, Active: 16, Ricky Rudd
Most top 10s: 37, Richard Petty
Most top 10s, Active: 31, Ricky Rudd
Best Average Starting Position, Active: 5.250, Jeff Gordon
Best Average Finish, Active: 10.0, Denny Hamlin
Oldest Winner: Dale Earnhardt ? 48 years, 3 months, 30 days (8/28/99)
Youngest Winner: Kurt Busch ? 23 years, 7 months, 20 days (3/24/02)
Most Laps Led by a Race Winner: 500 (Cale Yarborough, 3/25/73)
Fewest Laps Led by a Race Winner: 1 (Fred Lorenzen, 7/26/64)
What those in NASCAR are saying about ?The Car of Tomorrow? (Following pre-season test session there)
Jeff Burton "I think all in all, from a driver's perspective, once you get in the car, it's just a car. It's a matter of getting the car to do the things you want it to do. Obviously there's people that are faster than others. That's what we do. In my world, it's no longer about the Car of Tomorrow, it's just about a car, trying to do it better than everybody else. ... The Car of Tomorrow is here today. We've been working hard on it."
Jimmie Johnson "Here we're really trying to find out where the sweet spot is with the car. ... It's just a whole trial-and-error routine right now, procedure, trying to find that sweet spot where the car wants to be. ... I'm excited for this opportunity with the Car of Tomorrow. Chad and I do a great job of working through new rules packages. We have a whole new race car to play with. I'm excited. Hopefully we can use that to our advantage."
Kurt Busch "Overall, I think the car is a resounding success for all the teams and for the way it?s going to put on a good race when we come back here next month."
"It?s a clean slate, so who ever works the hardest and is the most determined and still continues to keep an open frame of mind will succeed in the end. I?m intrigued by it. It?s a new challenge. It has 50 percent of The Chase races this year, so the car of tomorrow is very important.?
"It creates an environment where an underfunded team can come in and compete and I believe compete successfully with so many unknowns around this car right now. That?s what we want, more independent owners and new drivers coming in and having a shot at victory. The car of tomorrow is doing that right now. It?s so wide open."
"We?re definitely excited about this car and what it can do for our team. All of the short track races are a different mentality that you have to bring when you want to set up this car. It?s a new challenge. It?s fun. The first race is at Bristol, and it?s just like jumping into a full tank of sharks and swimming around with them. We?ll see who comes out on top."
Denny Hamlin "It really doesn't drive that much different to tell you the truth. I am just as comfortable in the Impala as I am in the Monte Carlo."
"It means our team has done a whole lot of homework on this program the last couple of years. This is the first really official test where guys are bringing their race stuff. I am pretty happy about where we are standing because not only are we fast, but we are really good on the long runs and that really matters here. I am definitely excited to come back."
Carl Edwards "It?s kind of fun to drive. It?s fun everywhere for me, except for the center of the corner where it won?t turn, but it?s gonna be a great race."
David Gilliland ?I?ve only raced here one other time, but I really can?t notice a difference. I think the race will be better. I think everybody is a little more even now as far as time-wise and I think it will be a better race.?
David Reutimann "I?ve never run a Cup car here at Bristol so to me this really feels like a NASCAR truck with a lot of horsepower.?
Andy Graves, Senior Manager for TRD (Toyota Racing Development) U.S.A.
"It?s just a learning process. All the teams and the manufacturers have been working with NASCAR real close and trying to learn the process and trying to get the body built as tight as they want to see them and the chassis. It?s a learning process and it?s something that we?ve never been through before with such tight tolerances on the chassis side. It?s going to take a little bit of getting used to, but just like anything else, once you learn the process and understand what NASCAR wants then we?ll get it sorted out.?
Rick Viers, Crew Chief, No. 84 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Team Red Bull "We have progressed well all day long. We?ve learned a lot and AJ (Allmendinger) has learned a lot about the Car of Tomorrow. It?s probably been a pleasant surprise that things have gone as well as they have.?
More from Kurt Busch: "In the end this Car of Tomorrow is going to be a good thing."
?I thought it was great?We had to make sure of fender clearances, so we just went two laps at a time. It really shook out to be positive. We played with (rear-) wing angles and different engine-plate combinations. I thought the car could handle any speed it wanted to go."
?It gets back to a little of what they have with the Truck series - big drag that slows the car down aerodynamically, but an 'open' motor (without the restrictor plate) that has the horsepower we're used to at all our other tracks."
"It was real interesting to drive. It was right on that edge of sliding all four tires, similar to what we get with the regular car in the draft."
?It gives you an opportunity to look at a new car and what can it do to help us get to victory lane. The car is not going to do it on its own. We have to develop it. We have to test it, and other teams have to do it as well. If we?ve got two cars here, we?ve got to put that much more emphasis on it because we?re competing against teams that have four cars or five cars. We won?t take the COT to Vegas. When the season starts at Daytona during Speedweeks we?ll probably drop down to Lakeland, Fla., and do a test with our COT. We?ve got a stiff agenda, and we are sticking with it. Each time we go to a new track we?re faster.?
Ryan Newman: ?We put a lot of time in testing this off season, just trying to work out some kinks we had last year. The car of tomorrow has been good from a testing standpoint. The COT has been a good experience from a testing spointpoint. I think we?ve got seven or eight tests in it. We?ve had some good tests in it. I think for the first time ever the 2 and 12 took the same car to Phoenix one week to Daytona the next week. It?s probably been about 20 years since this has happened. It?s been good ? the reaction of the car, it?s a little bit different from the aerodynamic perspective than the car of yesterday. Everything is good. We had good intermediate testing in the off season. I look forward to the entire situation. We?ve made some improvements.?
NASCAR team owner Roger Penske: ?I?ve said it to a number of people. I think what it?s going to do is it?s going to take some cost out. Obviously there?s a cost of developing. We were able to test that car for three or four days at a short track, take the car to Daytona and run 191 mph. When NASCAR gets the rules just right, we?re going to see a safer car and one that we can take to multiple types of circuits. You walk around and see the cars we have, hopefully we can reduce that by 50 percent. The good news is we?re supporting it (COT) and I like the conversation about the car. We?re in the game, and we think it will run a lot of people closer together.?
NASCAR team owner Jack Roush: ? . . . But this new car looks like it?s going to work out pretty good for everyone in the long run. Let?s hope so.? ?The car will be ultimately safer and it should have no long-term ill-effect on the racing as we?ve known it with the car of today. I believe the car will be easier for NASCAR to police. They're anxious to have all of our programs, all of our drivers to be in the biggest ball possible to compete from turn four to the start-finish line at every event. I think the cars will be closer than they?ve been. ?The impact of the manufacturers and their contrivance and the team?s contrivance to exact and advantage for themselves ? those prospects will be limited based on what they?ve done. I believe that NASCAR and has got the best interest of all the racers and all the manufacturers as they?ve brought this Car of Tomorrow program on us.
NASCAR team owner Ray Evernham: "I think it?s going to be just fine at Martinsville and Bristol. We?ll figure out the rest as we go. I think it?s a safer car and it?s the car of the future."
Dan Davis, Director of Ford Racing Technology: ?From a marketing standpoint, any manufacturer is going to put money where you get your best return. We get tremendous return on racing in NASCAR. You?ve got a fan base out there that?s huge and growing and helps us sell product, so as long as we can do that, we?re here and we?re here with vigor.?
March 24, 2007
By Micah Roberts
VegasInsider.com
This week?s race at Bristol marks the debut of NASCAR?s ?Car of Tomorrow?. NASCAR will run 16 races this season in the new car, including next week at Martinsville as well. The changes to the car were all made in efforts to make the drivers safer.
There is a larger cockpit, more steel plating by the doors, and the fuel cell is a much thick container. So far the car has been met with a tremendous amount of approval from the drivers.
2007: The 16 speedways prepared to feature the new cars are Bristol (2), Martinsville (2), Phoenix (2), Richmond (2), Dover (2), New Hampshire (2), Darlington, Infineon Raceway, Watkins Glen and Talladega (fall).
"The first thing about it is the car is safer,? Kevin Harvick said. Whatever it is after that is a bonus. The drivers have more room inside. There is a lot of things built into the car to absorb energy when they hit the wall. That's just the starting point. ... The bottom line is, NASCAR has to make the best decision for them. They felt it was time to evolve the car and make it safer, and the teams will figure out the rest."
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Obviously with the changes, there is bound to be some kind of change with what we have come to expect, whether it?s an increase or decrease in performance. All the past performance data that we have may be able to be tossed out the door. Or they could run very similar. We?ll have to wait and see for ourselves and trust the drivers who tested the cars in Bristol at the end of February.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. thinks the cars may even run a little better.
"The Impala SS actually drives better than our other cars do here. The car is an inch wider, it has a little more grip. I am really pleasantly surprised really. It has exceeded my expectations at this point and how the car is driving. I anticipated it to be a little more of a struggle get the car to turn, to work, to get it up off the corner. Our lap times are comparable with the other chassis we have been running here the past couple of years. I think we are ahead of the game a little bit, as far as I thought we would be, we are ahead of that."
So how do we handicap this week?s race with all the changes? To start with, I think you still have to look at the drivers and use past trends to guide you. Drivers who do well at Bristol always do well at Bristol. It?s not a coincidence that the same drivers seem to finish in the top five twice a year and that the same few drivers win in every Bristol race. They are just better. I wouldn?t imagine the changes to the car affecting the select few drivers who dominate at Bristol.
The first candidate to win this week is Las Vegas native, Kurt Busch ). He has five career wins at Bristol in his last 10 starts there. He has won with Jack Roush and did it last season with Roger Penske showing that Busch can do it at Bristol in nearly any situation.
The next driver to keep an eye on is Kevin Harvick . Since his rookie year in 2001, no one has a better Bristol average finish position than Harvick. He won this race in 2005 and finished second last season.
Matt Kenseth has won the last two Bristol night races in a row. In this race last year, Kenseth finished third. Since 2002, his worst finish has been 16th with nine top 10 finishes.
After you throw out all the wins of Kenseth, Harvick, and Busch you?re left with three other drivers that have won in the last 11 races; Tony Stewart in 2001, Jeff Gordon in 2002, and Dale Jr. in 2004.
Sometime soon, some driver is going to step up and show the Bristol heavyweights that they?re ready to become chief. Kurt Busch was that guy to do it when he gave Jimmy Spencer the business in crunch time a few years ago. Greg Biffle has come close, but I believe the next in line is Kyle Busch and Denny Hamlin so we?ll throw them in our top 5 this week.
Kyle Busch would seem like the logical choice not only because of his team, but because he just doesn?t care about offending anyone. Much like his brother, he just wants to win and will take whatever baggage comes with it. The short track racing is where both Kurt and Kyle got their racing experience at the Bullring inside Las Vegas Motor Speedway. The irritated plenty of people racing there as well, but the Busch brothers are the ones racing in NASCAR?s top series now. These boys definitely got something that many others don?t have.
TOP 5 Bristol Finish Prediction:
1) #29 Kevin Harvick
2) #5 Kyle Busch
3) #2 Kurt Busch
4) #17 Matt Kenseth
5) #11 Denny Hamlin
Bristol Info
? There have been 92 NASCAR NEXTEL Cup races at Bristol Motor Speedway.
? A total of 401 drivers have competed at Bristol Motor Speedway.
? Kurt Busch is the defending Food City 500 champion; there was no Budweiser Pole winner for last year?s race due to weather.
? Forty drivers have posted poles at Bristol; 19 have more than one.
? Mark Martin leads all active drivers with seven poles at Bristol; he scored four in a row from 1996-96.
? Cale Yarborough leads all drivers with nine poles.
? A Bristol race has been won from the pole 21 times, most recently in 2005 (Matt Kenseth).
? The last three races at Bristol have been won from a starting position of inside the top 10, and two of the last three have been inside the top five.
? Only 16 Bristol races have been won from a starting position of outside the top 10.
? Elliott Sadler?s starting position of 38th in 2001 was the lowest starting position by a race winner ever at Bristol.
? There have been five different pole winners in the last five Bristol races that have had qualifying (there was no qualifying for last year?s spring race due to weather).
More Bristol Info
? Thirty-four different drivers have won a NASCAR NEXTEL Cup race at Bristol since 1961; 14 have won more than once.
? Darrell Waltrip won 12 races at Bristol, more than any other driver. :scared
? Jeff Gordon and Kurt Busch have each won five races at Bristol, more than any other active driver.
? Cale Yarborough led 4,306 laps at Bristol, the most of any driver.
? Richard Petty had 60 career starts at Bristol, more than any driver.
? Petty and Darrell Waltrip have 26 top-five finishes, most of any driver.
? Petty has 37 top-10 finishes, most of any driver.
? Ricky Rudd has 16 top-10 finishes and 31 top-10 finishes at Bristol, most of any driver.
? A race at Bristol has been shortened by rain on only two occasions (fall 1983 and spring 1996).
? Elliott Sadler (3-25-01) and Kurt Busch (3-24-02) each had their first win at Bristol.
? Ricky Rudd leads all other active drivers with 23,951 laps completed at Bristol; Terry Labonte, who retired last year, has completed 24,792 laps at Bristol, more than any other driver.
Bristol Motor Speedway Data
Race #: 5 of 36 (3-25-07)
Number of laps: 500
Track Size: .533 miles
Length of Event: 266.5 miles
? Banking is 36 degrees in the corners
? Banking is 16 degrees on the straights
? Frontstretch is 650 feet long
? Backstretch is 650 feet long
Cash
Purse: $5,551,106.00
NASCAR NEXTEL Leader Bonus: $50,000
Tire/Fuel Data
Goodyear Tire Codes: Left-side -- D-4096; Right-side -- D-4098
Other NASAR NEXTEL Cup Tracks At Which This Tire Combination Will Be Run: None
Estimated Pit Window: Every 120-130 laps, based on fuel mileage
History
Races won from the pole: 14 of 95 events (15%)
Races won from inside the top 10: 74 of 95 (78%)
Races won from outside the top 10: 21 of 95 (22%)
? Fred Lorenzen won the inaugural Budweiser Pole at the Bristol Motor Speedway in 1961.
? Jack Smith won the inaugural NASCAR NEXTEL Cup race at Bristol (July 30, 1961).
? The track was re-configured to 36-degree banking ? the most acute on the current NASCAR NEXTEL Cup schedule ? and re-measured at .533 miles for the 1969 fall race.
? The first NASCAR NEXTEL Cup night race at Bristol was the 1978 fall race.
? The track surface was switched from asphalt to concrete for the 1992 Bud 500 (fall race).
? The track name was changed from Bristol International Speedway to Bristol International Raceway in 1978 and then to Bristol Motor Speedway in the fall of 1996.
Last Five Winners at Bristol
2006 ? Matt Kenseth
2006 ? Kurt Busch
2005 ? Matt Kenseth
2005 ? Kevin Harvick
2004 ? Dale Earnhardt Jr.
Margin of Victory ? Last Five Races
2006 ? .591 seconds
2006 ? .179
2005 ? .511
2005 ? 4.652
2004 ? 4.390
Active Drivers ? Most Poles at Bristol
Mark Martin ? 7
Ryan Newman ? 2
Jeff Gordon ? 4
Active Drivers ? Most Laps Led at This Track
Jeff Gordon ? 2,429 Ricky Rudd ? 605
Mark Martin ? 957 Kurt Busch ? 550
Tony Stewart ? 828 Dale Jarrett ? 544
Dale Earnhardt Jr. ? 742 Bill Elliott ? 464
Matt Kenseth ? 742 Jeremy Mayfield ? 370
Prior Race Statistics Most Fewest
Leaders 16 (4/9/89) 1 (3/25/73)
Lead Changes 40 (4/14/91) 0 (3/25/73)
Cautions 20 (3 times, most recently 8/23/03) 0 (7/11/71)
Caution Laps 167 (7/25/65) 0 (7/11/71)
Cars on Lead Lap 25 (3/25/01) 1 (22 times, most recently 8/22/81)
All-time Highlights at Bristol
:scared
Most Wins, Active: 5, Jeff Gordon and Kurt Busch
Most top 5s: 26, Richard Petty, Darrell Waltrip
Most top 5s, Active: 16, Ricky Rudd
Most top 10s: 37, Richard Petty
Most top 10s, Active: 31, Ricky Rudd
Best Average Starting Position, Active: 5.250, Jeff Gordon
Best Average Finish, Active: 10.0, Denny Hamlin
Oldest Winner: Dale Earnhardt ? 48 years, 3 months, 30 days (8/28/99)
Youngest Winner: Kurt Busch ? 23 years, 7 months, 20 days (3/24/02)
Most Laps Led by a Race Winner: 500 (Cale Yarborough, 3/25/73)
Fewest Laps Led by a Race Winner: 1 (Fred Lorenzen, 7/26/64)
What those in NASCAR are saying about ?The Car of Tomorrow? (Following pre-season test session there)
Jeff Burton "I think all in all, from a driver's perspective, once you get in the car, it's just a car. It's a matter of getting the car to do the things you want it to do. Obviously there's people that are faster than others. That's what we do. In my world, it's no longer about the Car of Tomorrow, it's just about a car, trying to do it better than everybody else. ... The Car of Tomorrow is here today. We've been working hard on it."
Jimmie Johnson "Here we're really trying to find out where the sweet spot is with the car. ... It's just a whole trial-and-error routine right now, procedure, trying to find that sweet spot where the car wants to be. ... I'm excited for this opportunity with the Car of Tomorrow. Chad and I do a great job of working through new rules packages. We have a whole new race car to play with. I'm excited. Hopefully we can use that to our advantage."
Kurt Busch "Overall, I think the car is a resounding success for all the teams and for the way it?s going to put on a good race when we come back here next month."
"It?s a clean slate, so who ever works the hardest and is the most determined and still continues to keep an open frame of mind will succeed in the end. I?m intrigued by it. It?s a new challenge. It has 50 percent of The Chase races this year, so the car of tomorrow is very important.?
"It creates an environment where an underfunded team can come in and compete and I believe compete successfully with so many unknowns around this car right now. That?s what we want, more independent owners and new drivers coming in and having a shot at victory. The car of tomorrow is doing that right now. It?s so wide open."
"We?re definitely excited about this car and what it can do for our team. All of the short track races are a different mentality that you have to bring when you want to set up this car. It?s a new challenge. It?s fun. The first race is at Bristol, and it?s just like jumping into a full tank of sharks and swimming around with them. We?ll see who comes out on top."
Denny Hamlin "It really doesn't drive that much different to tell you the truth. I am just as comfortable in the Impala as I am in the Monte Carlo."
"It means our team has done a whole lot of homework on this program the last couple of years. This is the first really official test where guys are bringing their race stuff. I am pretty happy about where we are standing because not only are we fast, but we are really good on the long runs and that really matters here. I am definitely excited to come back."
Carl Edwards "It?s kind of fun to drive. It?s fun everywhere for me, except for the center of the corner where it won?t turn, but it?s gonna be a great race."
David Gilliland ?I?ve only raced here one other time, but I really can?t notice a difference. I think the race will be better. I think everybody is a little more even now as far as time-wise and I think it will be a better race.?
David Reutimann "I?ve never run a Cup car here at Bristol so to me this really feels like a NASCAR truck with a lot of horsepower.?
Andy Graves, Senior Manager for TRD (Toyota Racing Development) U.S.A.
"It?s just a learning process. All the teams and the manufacturers have been working with NASCAR real close and trying to learn the process and trying to get the body built as tight as they want to see them and the chassis. It?s a learning process and it?s something that we?ve never been through before with such tight tolerances on the chassis side. It?s going to take a little bit of getting used to, but just like anything else, once you learn the process and understand what NASCAR wants then we?ll get it sorted out.?
Rick Viers, Crew Chief, No. 84 Red Bull Toyota Camry, Team Red Bull "We have progressed well all day long. We?ve learned a lot and AJ (Allmendinger) has learned a lot about the Car of Tomorrow. It?s probably been a pleasant surprise that things have gone as well as they have.?
More from Kurt Busch: "In the end this Car of Tomorrow is going to be a good thing."
?I thought it was great?We had to make sure of fender clearances, so we just went two laps at a time. It really shook out to be positive. We played with (rear-) wing angles and different engine-plate combinations. I thought the car could handle any speed it wanted to go."
?It gets back to a little of what they have with the Truck series - big drag that slows the car down aerodynamically, but an 'open' motor (without the restrictor plate) that has the horsepower we're used to at all our other tracks."
"It was real interesting to drive. It was right on that edge of sliding all four tires, similar to what we get with the regular car in the draft."
?It gives you an opportunity to look at a new car and what can it do to help us get to victory lane. The car is not going to do it on its own. We have to develop it. We have to test it, and other teams have to do it as well. If we?ve got two cars here, we?ve got to put that much more emphasis on it because we?re competing against teams that have four cars or five cars. We won?t take the COT to Vegas. When the season starts at Daytona during Speedweeks we?ll probably drop down to Lakeland, Fla., and do a test with our COT. We?ve got a stiff agenda, and we are sticking with it. Each time we go to a new track we?re faster.?
Ryan Newman: ?We put a lot of time in testing this off season, just trying to work out some kinks we had last year. The car of tomorrow has been good from a testing standpoint. The COT has been a good experience from a testing spointpoint. I think we?ve got seven or eight tests in it. We?ve had some good tests in it. I think for the first time ever the 2 and 12 took the same car to Phoenix one week to Daytona the next week. It?s probably been about 20 years since this has happened. It?s been good ? the reaction of the car, it?s a little bit different from the aerodynamic perspective than the car of yesterday. Everything is good. We had good intermediate testing in the off season. I look forward to the entire situation. We?ve made some improvements.?
NASCAR team owner Roger Penske: ?I?ve said it to a number of people. I think what it?s going to do is it?s going to take some cost out. Obviously there?s a cost of developing. We were able to test that car for three or four days at a short track, take the car to Daytona and run 191 mph. When NASCAR gets the rules just right, we?re going to see a safer car and one that we can take to multiple types of circuits. You walk around and see the cars we have, hopefully we can reduce that by 50 percent. The good news is we?re supporting it (COT) and I like the conversation about the car. We?re in the game, and we think it will run a lot of people closer together.?
NASCAR team owner Jack Roush: ? . . . But this new car looks like it?s going to work out pretty good for everyone in the long run. Let?s hope so.? ?The car will be ultimately safer and it should have no long-term ill-effect on the racing as we?ve known it with the car of today. I believe the car will be easier for NASCAR to police. They're anxious to have all of our programs, all of our drivers to be in the biggest ball possible to compete from turn four to the start-finish line at every event. I think the cars will be closer than they?ve been. ?The impact of the manufacturers and their contrivance and the team?s contrivance to exact and advantage for themselves ? those prospects will be limited based on what they?ve done. I believe that NASCAR and has got the best interest of all the racers and all the manufacturers as they?ve brought this Car of Tomorrow program on us.
NASCAR team owner Ray Evernham: "I think it?s going to be just fine at Martinsville and Bristol. We?ll figure out the rest as we go. I think it?s a safer car and it?s the car of the future."
Dan Davis, Director of Ford Racing Technology: ?From a marketing standpoint, any manufacturer is going to put money where you get your best return. We get tremendous return on racing in NASCAR. You?ve got a fan base out there that?s huge and growing and helps us sell product, so as long as we can do that, we?re here and we?re here with vigor.?
