Carl Edwards is 4th in the Sprint Cup points standings. (Photo: LAT Photographic)
Nowhere to run, nowhere to hide.
That about sums up 500 pressure-packed laps around the suffocating and claustrophobic 0.533-mile Bristol Motor Speedway.
It’s hot, it’s noisy and it’s as congested as the 405 freeway on a rush hour Friday afternoon in Los Angeles.
And it’s where 43 NASCAR Sprint Cup drivers will be doing battle under the lights on Saturday. The stakes will be especially high for the nine drivers separated by a mere 166 points in the battle for the final six spots in the Chase for the Sprint Cup.
With just three races left until the 12-driver Chase field is set and NASCAR’s playoffs begin, the tension is excruciating this weekend at Bristol. The drivers know it, the crew chiefs know it, the teams know it and the NASCAR officials, fans and workers in attendance know it.
“There really is a lot of pressure,” said Carl Edwards, two-time defending winner of the Sharpie 500. “We’re over 200 points inside of 13th, and that’s still not far enough. There’s a lot of pressure. This week, I feel like this race is a bottleneck. It’s a lot like a Talladega or a Daytona where anything can happen. So, there are a lot of people right now with a lot of stress, and I’ve got just enough to keep me honest. I’m going to be careful here and go out and try to get through this one and gain ground and not lose too much.”
And Edwards is one of the lucky ones. His position in the Chase is pretty solid, unlike Mark Martin, who has just a 12-point lead over Brian Vickers in the race for the 12th and final Chase spot.
“It just would be devastating for my team to not be included in that elite group,” Martin said Friday at Bristol, where he was second to his Hendrick Motorsports teammate Jimmie Johnson in the second and final “Happy Hour” round of practice.
Martin has won a series-high four races this season and conceivably could still miss the Chase, because he also has had seven finishes of 31st or worse. Of course, being in the last Chase spot right now is still better than Kyle Busch, who has won three races, but currently is ranked 15th, some 70 points behind Martin. It’s not an easy place to be for either man.
“For them it's a very stressful race,” said three-time defending Sprint Cup champion Johnson of the bubble race. “A lot can happen at this track. It's kind of like Talladega in a way. Things out of your control can take place. … Thankfully we've been able to show up here in a good spot points-wise. But for those guys, it's stressful and they're just hoping for the best and hanging on. These next few weeks are really going to be tough on them.”
