Under the best of circumstances, the night race at Bristol Motor Speedway is a chaotic affair. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Crunch time.
The NASCAR Sprint Cup circuit heads to Bristol Motor Speedway this weekend for Saturday night’s Sharpie 500, with the season on the line for many top competitors.
With three races left until the field is set for the Chase for the Sprint Cup, a whopping 10 drivers are within 120 points of being in or out of the Chase. They include Juan Pablo Montoya (seventh in points, 108 points ahead of 13th); Kasey Kahne (+105); Ryan Newman (+66); Greg Biffle (+42); Matt Kenseth (+32); Mark Martin (+12); Brian Vickers (-12); Clint Bowyer (-58); Kyle Busch (-70); and David Reutimann (-118).
Under the best of circumstances, the Bristol night race is a chaotic affair, 43 cars wedged into a high-banked 0.533-mile oval. There’s a reason Tony Stewart likened it to putting 43 cars in a blender. This time, the pressure will make it even tougher. Here’s how the Chase bubble drivers match up at Bristol.
JUAN PABLO MONTOYA — In five previous Bristol starts, JPM has a best finish of ninth, and an average finish of 18.400, not exactly awe-inspiring numbers. Montoya’s 19th-place run at Michigan on Sunday was his worst result since Dover in late May. Still, he’s in the best shape of anyone in this group and is looking for a good run in his No. 42 Earnhardt Ganassi Racing with Felix Sabates Chevrolet Impala SS.
“The first time I went there was before they redid the track. It was a handful,” said Montoya. “It was really, really hard because you really had to be on the bottom. I think experience on the track paid a big thing. If you missed the bottom or they moved you up you would lose a lot of ground. Now I think it’s nicer. I think you see a lot more racing. You see a lot more side-by-side racing and there’s a lot of different race lines. The racing is better.”
KASEY KAHNE — In the last five races, Kahne has jumped up from 12th in points to eighth in his No. 9 Richard Petty Motorsports Dodge Charger. He’s managed two top-five and four top-10 finishes at Bristol, with a best of second to Carl Edwards in this race in 2007. His average finish here is 19.273.
“The biggest surprise (about Bristol) for me was just how hard you can drive the car here,” said Kahne. “Every lap, how fast you’re going on such a small track. Where you lift getting into a corner, you can drive in really far and you can get back into the throttle really quick.”
