Bristol Motor Speedway - Food City 500 (News & Notes)

[HacheMan]

The Food City 500
The NASCAR Sprint Cup makes its next stop at Bristol Motor Speedway's half-mile coliseum for the Food City 500. We looked at past performances, season trends, and spoke to team contacts to give our best estimate how the field should finish on Sunday.


When: Sunday, March 21; 1:13 p.m./et.


Weather: Isolated thunderstorms with a high around 57; wind out of the NE at 7 mph. Chance of precipitation 20%.


The Track: Bristol Motor Speedway

Bristol Motor Speedway is a half-mile oval with high-banking the entire way around. The corners are banked 36 degrees with 16 degree banking on the straight-aways. This is a track where very few drivers have been able to dominate. Kyle Busch, Kurt Busch, and Jeff Gordon have all had decent success at the track, but that status can change with one nudge to the left-rear bumper.


Key to Race: DON'T BRING YOUR BEST CAR

The Bullring in Bristol has been described a flying an airplane in a gymnasium. There will be no cars that escape Sunday's race without at least a little sheet metal damage. The Food City 500 is one of the most entertaining on the circuit for fans and frustrating for drivers. Expect tempers to flare as the cars bump and bang. The driver that wins the race will be the one with the best set of pit stops and the most luck.


Qualifying Procedures:

45 cars will attempt to qualify for 43 spots. Starting positions 1-43 will be determined by qualifying on Friday, March 19 at 3:40 pm/et. Cars who finished in the top 35 in owner's points at the end of the 2009 season guaranteed a spot in the race.


Fantasy Cheat Sheet:

Top 5

No. 18 Kyle Busch: Rowdy has had one of the top cars the past three races at Bristol. There is a good chance he can take the checkers again on Sunday.
No. 48 Jimmie Johnson: Johnson had one of the fastest cars in both Bristol races last year. He will be in the front again.

No. 99 Carl Edwards: Edwards won two of the last three night races at Bristol and has placed in the top 16 the past eight races at the track. He is a great pick.
No. 14 Tony Stewart: Stewart has led 769 laps in the past eight races at Bristol. He should be strong again this weekend.
No. 11 Denny Hamlin: Hamlin has led 282 laps in the past six races at Bristol. He should have the No. 11 inside the top five when the dust settles.


6 to 10

No. 24 Jeff Gordon: Gordon has five wins and has led nearly 2,400 laps at Bristol during his career. He should be in the top 10 once again.
No. 17 Matt Kenseth: Kenseth has 12 top 10 finishes in 20 career starts and has led 539 laps during the last nine races at the track. He is a great option on Sunday.
No. 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr.: Junior has been very successful at Bristol in his career. In his last 17 starts at the track he has finished 16th or better in 15 of them. Look for him to earn another a top 10 finish.
No. 16 Greg Biffle: Biffle has eight top 10 finishes in 14 career starts at Bristol. He is a very good fantasy option.
No. 31 Jeff Burton: Burton won the 2008 spring race at Bristol and was fast at the track last spring. He will be fighting for another top 10 finish this weekend.


11 to 20

No. 5 Mark Martin: Martin has averaged a 13th place finish during his 41 career starts at Bristol. He will finish better than his average this weekend.
No. 2 Kurt Busch: Busch has won five races at Bristol during his career, but in his last five races at the track he averaged just a 16th place finish. He is still a strong option but we wouldn't anchor our team with him.
No. 29 Kevin Harvick: Harvick has 11 top 10 finishes in 18 career races at Bristol. RCR has seemed to figure out what made them so slow last year and Harvick is again a driver to consider.
No. 9 Kasey Kahne: Kahne was hit-or-miss at Bristol last year. He should just miss the top 10 this weekend.
No. 33 Clint Bowyer: Bowyer has cracked the top 10 in four of his last six starts at the Bristol. He should finish near the top 10 once again.
No. 42 Juan Pablo Montoya: Montoya has cracked the top 20 in four of his past five Bristol starts. We like his chances to do it again on Sunday.
No. 39 Ryan Newman: Newman has six finishes in the top 10 and four finishes in the 30s during his last 10 races at Bristol. His inconsistency makes him a bit of a risky play.
No. 47 Marcos Ambrose: Ambrose wasn't intimidated by Bristol last season. The Terrific Tasmanian is a great sleeper pick this weekend.
No. 00 David Reutimann: Reutimann was impressive at Bristol last year. He is a solid choice as a third or fourth driver in any league.
No. 20 Joey Logano: Logano had very tough visits to Bristol last year. He will be better this trip to the "Bullring".


21 to 30

No. 83 Brian Vickers: Bristol is a track that Vickers wishes NASCAR would skip. We recommend saving him for another weekend.
No. 12 Brad Keselowski: The rookie will have to resist putting his bumper into the rear of the No. 99 car. If he can resist the temptation for revenge he should have a top 25 car.
No. 1 Jamie McMurray: McMurray has finished outside the top 20 in seven of the last 10 races at Bristol. We don't recommend using him as much more than a fourth or fifth fantasy driver this weekend.
No. 82 Scott Speed: Speed continues to be the biggest surprise of the 2010 season. Add him in all leagues if he is still available.
No. 19 Elliott Sadler: Sadler has struggled at Bristol lately. This isn't the weekend to use him.
No. 43 A.J. Allmendinger: Allmendinger has just one top 30 finish at Bristol in his career. His lack of consistent success at the track makes him a risky selection.
No. 56 Martin Truex Jr.: Truex Jr has averaged a 25th place finish at Bristol during his career. The success he had at the track while in the Nationwide Series has yet to carry over. We like other drivers much better this weekend.
No. 6 David Ragan: Ragan continues to struggle at Bristol. He isn't a fantasy option this weekend.
No. 98 Paul Menard: Menard has cracked the top 25 in four of the last five Bristol races, but we just don't feel he has quite enough to do it again this weekend.
No. 55 Michael Waltrip: Waltrip is making his 47th career start at Bristol and should finish just
outside the top 25.


31 to 35

No. 26 David Stremme: Stremme has four consecutive top 20 finishes at Bristol. He might surprise on Sunday.
No. 71 Bobby Labonte: Labonte's average finish at Bristol during his career is 19th. He won't match that finish this weekend.
No. 7 Robby Gordon: Gordon has finished in the top 35 in five of the last seven Bristol races. We expect he will be fast enough to accomplish that again this weekend.
No. 77 Sam Hornish Jr.: Hornish Jr. will continue to struggle to crack the top 30 at Bristol.
No. 09 Aric Almirola: Almirola was excellent at Bristol in 2008. Was it a fluke or does the No. 09 driver have the tough track tamed? We will find out on Sunday.


Field Fillers

No. 90 Casey Mears
No. 38 David Gilliland
No. 34 Travis Kvapil
No. 13 Max Papis
No. 66 Dave Blaney
No. 87 Joe Nemechek
No. 78 Regan Smith
No. 46 Terry Cook
No. 36 Mike Bliss
No. 37 Kevin Conway


Brownie's Picks

Top Four:

1. Kyle Busch
2. Jimmie Johnson
3. Carl Edwards
4. Tony Stewart

Sleepers:

1. Marcos Ambrose
2. David Stremme

Bust of the Week:

Brian Vickers

 

[HacheMan]

Food City 500 at Bristol
Track history: Bristol Motor Speedway (BMS) was built after Larry Carrier and Carl Moore saw a race at Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1960. They wanted to build a smaller version of CMS in Tennessee and decided on a half-mile oval. Work began on a former dairy farm in 1960 and a year later the speedway was born with 22 degree banking in the turns. 18,000 fans attended the first NASCAR race at BMS in 1961. The track was reshaped in 1969 with the turns banked at 36 degrees. After the reshaping it became a 0.533-mile oval.

In August of 1992 the track was resurfaced from the original asphalt to become the first speedway to host a NASCAR Cup event on a concrete surface. In March 2007, right after the Food City 500, a multimillion-dollar project of removing and replacing the concrete racing surface, asphalt apron, pit road and all the retaining walls around the track was started. Conditions do not change during a race because concrete isn't as sensitive to weather changes like an asphalt paved track. Since the straightaways are only 650 feet long on the 0.533-mile oval, the drivers are constantly braking, turning and accelerating which makes for a demanding race. The key to passing at Bristol is to be at the bottom in the turns and getting a good run off the corners. That's why shocks, springs and brakes are critical in the race setup.

The track was made four feet wider when it was resurfaced in 2007; allowing for two-wide racing. This season, Bristol track officials have extended the SAFER barriers at the exits of Turns 2 and 4 which narrowed up the track. This will be the first race where the drivers will have trouble running two-wide and will most likely return to the old style of beatin' and bangin' to get to the front.

First Bristol Cup race: On July 30, 1961, Fred Lorenzen started the No. 28 Holman-Moody 1961 Ford on the pole for the Volunteer 500. He made it through 175 laps of the 500 lap event before losing the rear end and finished 33rd. Jack Smith, who started 12th in his own No. 46 Pontiac, led the most laps (243) and earned $3,025 for the inaugural BMS victory.

2009 Food City 500: Mark Martin put the No. 5 Kellogg's Chevy on the pole (his 2nd of 4 in 2009) for the March 22nd Food City 500. He led 2 laps and finished 6th. Kyle Busch lined-up 19th at the green in the No. 18 Snickers Toyota, led a race-high 378 laps and picked up his 2nd (of 3) 2009 victory. Joey Logano, Busch's teammate, blew the motor in the No. 20 Toyota with about 6 laps to go. This set up a green-white-checker finish with Busch beating his other Joe Gibbs Racing teammate, Denny Hamlin in the No. 11, to the stripe.

Last Bristol Cup race: Mark Martin, for the second consecutive time, qualified the No. 5 Pop-Tarts Chevrolet on the pole at Bristol for the August 22, 2009 Sharpie 500. He led the most laps (240 of 500) and looked to be the driver to stop Kyle Busch from sweeping the two Bristol Cup races of the season. Martin and Kyle Busch took the white flag on lap 499, side-by-side, but Busch and his No. 18 M&M's Toyota Camry crossed the finish line in front.

Your fantasy game won't allow you to pick all track favorites so Mid-Pack Attack is here to help. A mid-packer may not win the race but has as good a shot at a top 15 finish as track favorites Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, Carl Edwards, Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart. There were 45 cars on the preliminary entry list for this weekend's Cup race. The 43 drivers who qualify will be competing in front of 160,000 fans in the grandstands. Here are our picks for Sunday's Food City 500 in Bristol, Tennessee.

Mid-Pack picks

This week we start picking drivers who are not track favorites and are outside of the top 15 in points. Denny Hamlin, 22nd in the points (for now!), is our top pick to finish near the front at Bristol. In eight Cup starts at BMS, he has an average finish of 11.6 including top tens in his last four races. Last August, Hamlin started 41st, went down a lap after a cut tire on lap 64, got the free pass 100 laps later and marched to the front to finish 5th. Now, that's determination on a track where it's tough to pass.

Marcos Ambrose has only two starts at Thunder Valley, but both have been impressive. In his first race on this difficult track (the 2009 Food City 500), he qualified 13th, ran as high as 2nd, drove the last 50 laps on 7 cylinders and still managed a 10th place finish. In the August race, he was going door-to-door with (and passing) drivers Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch and Kurt Busch. Outside of his two top fives on road courses, this turned out to be his only Cup career top five (3rd) on an oval track. This is a good week to put Ambrose in as a starter on your fantasy roster.

Ryan Newman got his nickname "Rocketman" during qualifying at BMS in 2003. He set the standing track qualifying record of 128.709 mph, 14.908 seconds. Overall, he has an 8.6 average start in 16 trips to Bristol, including another pole in 2004. His average finish of 18.4 for those races is not as spectacular but it's a 6.3 for his last three races. We think Rocketman has finally figured out how to complete the deal at Bristol.

We're going deep with David Reutimann at Bristol. Two weeks ago at Atlanta, Reutimann ended his 44-race streak of running at the finish (no DNF's) when his car went to the garage after overheating. His other three starts this season ended in top 15's. Reutimann had finishes of 12th and 17th in the Cup Series at Bristol in 2009. He's finished in the top 10 in four of his six Nationwide Series starts and scored an 11th in the August 2009 Bristol event. He drove a truck in three Bristol races; earned one pole award and two top 15's. Reutimann is a decent pick for a possible top 15 on Sunday.