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Sprint Cup
CUP: Big Weekend Ahead At Bristol
Bristol Motor Speedway is one of the toughest tracks in NASCAR...
Bristol Motor Speedway will serve as host for the "World’s Fastest Half-Mile Speed Trials”. (Photo: Getty Images).
If you listen to Joey Logano, he’ll tell you that Bristol Motor Speedway is a place that will take your breath away. Literally.
“The straightaways are so short, you don’t have time to do anything,” said Logano, driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry. “You come off of one corner and you’re already looking toward your entry into the next corner. It gives you no chance to relax or rest. The first time I went to Bristol, I came in after a five-lap run and I was out-of-breath. I forgot to breathe!”
And that pretty much describes BMS, a 0.533-mile, high-banked oval where drivers are on the edge of their seats all race long. This weekend, the track will host the Food City 500, race No. 5 of 36 on the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule.
Under the best of circumstances, Bristol is a place where tension and emotions run high, due to the sheer physical proximity of cars to each other on the track. And this time around, the track will be narrower than before at the exits of Turns 2 and 4, thanks to the addition of 160 feet more of SAFER barriers.
Not surprisingly, the drivers are wondering how the changes will affect the racing.
“I am anxious to get there and see how many right sides we take off the first hour of practice,” said four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion and five-time BMS winner Jeff Gordon. “It is like anything else, eventually you get used to it. Then it is going to come down to the side-by-side racing and how that is going to affect that aspect of it. I think the most important thing is that you are really going to have to get your car working well. Because, you narrow the track up that means it might be a little harder to pass.”
Tony Stewart concurred. “I am sure it is going to make a difference, there is no doubt about it,” said Stewart, co-owner/driver of the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet. “I mean we all use every bit of room we can get there anyway. It will make the exits of the corners a little tighter but I think the racing will still be good there because of it.”
Of course, the big question is, will the narrow racing surface bring back more of the intensely physical racing that took place before the track was repaved in 2007? Time will tell.
“It seems like the fans, they like the emotion, they like the beating and banging on each other and having to knock somebody out of the way to pass them,” said Clint Bowyer of Richard Childress Racing. “I’m a big fan of the way the surface is right now, I like being able to run side-by-side, being able to race your way around somebody. Bristol has always been one of my favorite race tracks, no matter before they repaved it or after they repaved it. I think our fans will always get their money’s worth, no matter how wide or how narrow it is.”
“I love the fact we are able to get three wide there now,” said Gordon. “We are certainly racing side-by-side. It is just that there is a little bit more room to race on. You see more side-by-racing, I don’t think that is a bad thing. But (fans) want to see sparks fly and this might be the thing that does that.”
Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEEDtv.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.
“The straightaways are so short, you don’t have time to do anything,” said Logano, driver of the No. 20 Joe Gibbs Racing Toyota Camry. “You come off of one corner and you’re already looking toward your entry into the next corner. It gives you no chance to relax or rest. The first time I went to Bristol, I came in after a five-lap run and I was out-of-breath. I forgot to breathe!”
And that pretty much describes BMS, a 0.533-mile, high-banked oval where drivers are on the edge of their seats all race long. This weekend, the track will host the Food City 500, race No. 5 of 36 on the 2010 NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule.
Under the best of circumstances, Bristol is a place where tension and emotions run high, due to the sheer physical proximity of cars to each other on the track. And this time around, the track will be narrower than before at the exits of Turns 2 and 4, thanks to the addition of 160 feet more of SAFER barriers.
Not surprisingly, the drivers are wondering how the changes will affect the racing.
“I am anxious to get there and see how many right sides we take off the first hour of practice,” said four-time NASCAR Sprint Cup champion and five-time BMS winner Jeff Gordon. “It is like anything else, eventually you get used to it. Then it is going to come down to the side-by-side racing and how that is going to affect that aspect of it. I think the most important thing is that you are really going to have to get your car working well. Because, you narrow the track up that means it might be a little harder to pass.”
Tony Stewart concurred. “I am sure it is going to make a difference, there is no doubt about it,” said Stewart, co-owner/driver of the No. 14 Stewart-Haas Racing Chevrolet. “I mean we all use every bit of room we can get there anyway. It will make the exits of the corners a little tighter but I think the racing will still be good there because of it.”
Of course, the big question is, will the narrow racing surface bring back more of the intensely physical racing that took place before the track was repaved in 2007? Time will tell.
“It seems like the fans, they like the emotion, they like the beating and banging on each other and having to knock somebody out of the way to pass them,” said Clint Bowyer of Richard Childress Racing. “I’m a big fan of the way the surface is right now, I like being able to run side-by-side, being able to race your way around somebody. Bristol has always been one of my favorite race tracks, no matter before they repaved it or after they repaved it. I think our fans will always get their money’s worth, no matter how wide or how narrow it is.”
“I love the fact we are able to get three wide there now,” said Gordon. “We are certainly racing side-by-side. It is just that there is a little bit more room to race on. You see more side-by-racing, I don’t think that is a bad thing. But (fans) want to see sparks fly and this might be the thing that does that.”
Tom Jensen is the Editor in Chief of SPEEDtv.com, Senior NASCAR Editor at RACER and a contributing Editor for TruckSeries.com. You can follow him online at twitter.com/tomjensen100 and e-mail him at Jensen is the author of “Cheating: The Bad Things Good NASCAR Nextel Cup Racers Do In Pursuit of Speed,” and has appeared on numerous television and radio shows. Jensen is the past President of the National Motorsports Press Association and an NMPA Writer of the Year.
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