 |
 |
 |
|
After a tumultuous two weeks, what better place for NASCAR to race this weekend than Bristol Motor Speedway?
A 500-lap afternoon on one of the circuit's most demanding short tracks should be the perfect complement to the wild and wooly start to March for the Sprint Cup Series.
|
|
| Kyle Busch won at Bristol last spring, but admits that 'you can get pretty aggravated in a hurry' at the track. (AP) |
If past history means anything, this week's visit to Bristol should keep the emotion-meter running high.
"You can get pretty aggravated in a hurry at Bristol," said series point leader Kyle Busch, who shoots for his second consecutive series win and back-to-back Food City 500 victories at BMS. "But it's also a lot of fun."
Tony Stewart agrees with his Joe Gibbs Racing teammate on that part of the Bristol experience, especially since the track was resurfaced last summer and now provides multiple grooves for side-by-side racing.
"I don't know what it was like to watch, but it was fun from where I was sitting," Stewart said of last August's first race on the new layout. "You could run all over the race track. You could race. Guys weren't running over each other to pass. It was the most fun I've had at Bristol in my career, and that includes the night I won."
Some fans missed the slam bang reputation of the "old" Bristol, when ramming the car in front was the only way to pass on the one-lane track.
But most drivers agree with Stewart, including Ryan Newman, who believes the racing will continue to be much better.
"I think the people at Bristol and the speedway did a good job re-doing it," Newman said. "The track is better racing-wise than it ever has been. I think that a lot of the fans are disappointed in the lack of bumping and the lack of pushing that happens now compared to the way it was, but the racing from where I sit is by far better and I look forward to going there."
Bristol's layout and personality have changed, but not its reputation as one of the toughest stops on the schedule.
"We go there with high expectations, but you never know what's going to happen," said former Bristol winner Kevin Harvick. "You can get caught up in a wreck in a hurry and have your day ended. You have to go to Bristol and enjoy it but know that the outcome could be the opposite of what you want it to be."
Unlike the season's first four races, which were debuts for the new Sprint Cup car at those tracks, teams ran the COT twice at Bristol a year ago.
