Champs, Chumps & Sleepers Weekly High Score wins $50!

Does the Bristol night race’s reputation precede the actual quality of the race? It’s still one of the most anticipated races of the season, but in recent years it’s become something resembling a parade more than a race. Last year’s resurfacing project helped introduce a second groove, but things still didn’t change at the front of the pack. Pole sitter Kasey Kahne led 305 laps and winner Carl Edwards led 182. That’s 487 of a possible 500 laps by the cars that finished 1-2. It’s hard to even write about this without nodding off.

While the racing action might be a little bit lacking, the importance of this weekend is still great. 103 points separate 8th from 14th place. That may sound like a lot, but it’s only a difference of 1st place to 26th place. In last year’s race Jamie McMurray finished in 26th place, but was only two laps down. A garden variety flat tire or pit road mistake could boot a driver from a safe Chase spot to nail biting for the final two races.

The other thing about Bristol is the fact that practically anyone in the top 12 could win the race and no one would be surprised. Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Dale Earnhardt Jr, Jeff Burton, Tony Stewart, Jeff Gordon, Matt Kenseth and Kevin Harvick have won races. Kasey Kahne and Denny Hamlin have both come close and led enough laps at the track to make one dizzy. Maybe the longest shot is Jimmie Johnson, but he ran very well in the spring race (more on that later). Further back is Kurt Busch, who has five Bristol wins and 9 top 10’s in 15 starts. With his season in the compost bin, Bristol would be one of the select races that the #2 team tries to put out a good effort (check out Jame’s rundown of the top 12 for more info).

• Get ready for retro night at Bristol. Sterling Marlin (#09), Ken Schrader (#96) and Bill Elliott (#21) are all entered in the race. While none of the three can still be considered threats for the win, they can all still hustle their way around a half mile track. I would say they know it by the back of their hand, but seriously can anyone describe the back of their hand to me?

• Last year David Ragan was a 21 year old rookie and got involved in three cautions last year. This year he is in the hunt for a Chase spot and is tied for 13th in the points. What a difference a year can make.

• Kyle Pety returns to the #45 after his summer hiatus was extended a few weeks. He also sums up the Bristol race.

  “This car can still be considered ‘new’ at some tracks. We just ran it for the first time at Indy a few weeks ago. When we go to Bristol, though, it’s just a racecar. This will be the fourth race for this car here. Everyone has it figured out by now. It does a great job on the short tracks, like Bristol, where you tend to use the ‘bump and run’ to pass. The way the bumpers on these cars line up, you can still nudge someone to make the pass, but they don’t spin out as often.”

  Petty is exactly right. The CoT is not new to the short tracks so teams should have a decent idea of what to expect. Whether they can do anything about it is another story.

Who Will Win?

Jimmie Johnson has never ran well at Bristol. He has 2 top 5’s and has never come close to winning a race. However after they repaved the track last summer, Johnson has fared better. With more lines to run Johnson was much better this past spring. He won the pole, led 14 laps and ran in the top five most of the day before fading late. After struggling last week at Michigan it is time for Johnson to return to the front and pull of a mildly surprising win. Of course when you’ve won 35 races since 2002, no win should be surprising.

This entry was posted on Thursday, August 21st, 2008 at 5:00 am and is filed under Nascar Statistics, Nextel Cup Races. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.