Stories- Bristol Motor Speedway
Food City 500 Preliminary Entry List
Sharpie Mini 300 Preliminary Entry List
NASCAR SPRINT CUP SERIES
Salute to a Champion: Dale Jarrett Set for Final Career Start
A celebrated 24-year career will come to an end Sunday when Dale Jarrett starts his 668th – and final – NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race. Jarrett, the 1999 series champion, will be making his 44th career start at Bristol Motor Speedway – his highest total of any track. He has one win and 19 top-10 finishes at Bristol.
Jarrett will be following the footsteps of his famous father Ned into the broadcast booth. Ned – a two-time champion with 50 career victories – is known as much for his work on television as his ability behind the wheel.
Jarrett won 32 races, including three Daytona 500s, in his illustrious career. He will compete in one more exhibition race – the NASCAR Sprint All-Star Race at Lowe’s Motor Speedway – before joining ESPN/ABC’s broadcast team for the second half of the season.
Man on a Mission: Kyle Busch’s Performance First in More Than Standings
Most observers in the NASCAR garage predicted that Kyle Busch’s off-season move to Joe Gibbs Racing would push JGR teammates Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin to a higher competition level. While that is yet to be seen, the move has done wonders for the 22-year old, who currently leads the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series standings by 73 points over Greg Biffle after Sunday’s win.
Busch isn’t limiting his domination to the Sprint Cup Series, however. He is third in the NASCAR Nationwide Series with two runner-up finishes and leads the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series standings following back-to-back wins.
His early-season performance isn’t just overwhelming, it’s also unheard of.
Busch is the first driver to ever win a NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race and NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race on the same weekend. He is also the first to lead both series’ standings simultaneously. A win in the Nationwide Series this season would also make Busch the first driver to win at least one race in all three of NASCAR’s national series in four consecutive seasons.
Leading Man: Dale Earnhardt Jr. Continues to Impress with New Team
After an off-season filled with speculation and high hopes, Dale Earnhardt Jr. has seemingly answered every challenge posed to him in 2008. Earnhardt finished third in Atlanta and moved up to sixth in the standings, his highest position since finishing fifth in the final 2006 standings.
The finish was Earnhardt’s third top-10 in four races. He is currently the highest-ranked driver of the impressive Hendrick Motorsports field, leading two-time defending champion Jimmie Johnson (13th) and four-time series champion Jeff Gordon (15th).
Two Indy 500 Winners on Cusp of Missing Locked-In Positions
Both Sam Hornish Jr. and Dario Franchitti knew their transitions to NASCAR would not be easy. What they probably weren’t expecting was to be on the wrong side of the Owner Point Standings’ Top 35 heading into Bristol. Bristol is the fifth race of the 2008 season, but more importantly the final in which last year’s points are used to determine which 35 teams are locked into the race. Heading into this weekend, Hornish is 36th and Franchitti is 38th.
Despite their current positions, the opportunity to move up is certainly there. Hornish is only 18 points behind J.J. Yeley for the 35th, and final, locked-in spot. The tight grouping – only 67 points separate positions 30-38 – does not bode well for teams struggling to hold on to their locked-in positions, including Casey Mears (30th, 51 points ahead of Hornish) and Jamie McMurray (31st, 38 points ahead of Hornish).
Short Track Shootout
After starting the season at four superspeedways the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series schedule returns to its roots with back-to-back short track races at Bristol Motor Speedway and Martinsville Speedway. Both tracks are a half-mile in length and deliver some of the most exciting NASCAR racing.
In addition, Sunday’s Food City 500 will mark the one-year anniversary of the rollout of the new car, designed as a safer race car to improve competition and control team costs. Current standings leader Kyle Busch won last year’s race, starting a five-race winning streak with the new car for Hendrick Motorsports. Hendrick cars, which dominated 2007, winning 18 of the 36 races, are winless in four races this season.
NASCAR NATIONWIDE SERIES
Built From Scratch: KHI Proves to be Model Organization
It’s been a four-year climb but Kevin Harvick Inc. has finally made it to the top of the NASCAR Nationwide Series ladder. After four races in 2008, the team owned by DeLana and Kevin Harvick finds itself atop the series driver and owner standings. This is the first time in his nine-year series career Harvick is driving exclusively his own equipment and last week at Atlanta posted his KHI-best with a second-place finish, the third top-five in succession he’s registered in the No. 33 Chevrolet.
Harvick’s four wins at Bristol are tied for the most there, but all have come in Richard Childress Racing equipment. KHI is also committed to developing new talent; 23-year-old Cale Gale will run a limited schedule this year in the team’s second car, the No. 77 Chevrolet.
Experience Paying Off…
Series veterans are making their presence felt in the season’s early going. Mike Bliss and Mike Wallace come to Bristol eighth and ninth, respectively, in the standings. Bliss posted a 10th-place finish in this race last year, his first start for Fitz Motorsports. He followed that up with a top-five in August.
Wallace aims for his 300th career start Saturday, the 12th driver to reach the milestone. Jason Keller, the series’ all-time leader in starts is seeking his 29th start at Bristol which would once again break a mark held by Tommy Houston – Keller, Houston and Michael Waltrip all have 28 starts at Bristol, second to Dale Jarrett’s record of 30. Keller broke the all-time series starts mark last year formerly held by Houston.
… But Fresh Faces Also Shine
The young season has also shown young series regulars are holding their own. Kelly Bires, 23, moved into 10th place in the rankings after tying his season-best 12th-place finish at Atlanta; Bires opened the season with a 12th-place result at Daytona. Brad Keselowski, 24, is 11th in the standings, 14 points behind Bires. Keselowski matched his career-best finish with a sixth-place run at Atlanta, also his season best to date.
Former Champs Ready to Tackle Bristol
Eight defending and former series champions representing seven victories dot the Bristol entry list this week. Defending driver champion Carl Edwards and Scott Wimmer, representing the 2007 owner champion No. 29 Holiday Inn Chevrolet of Richard Childress Racing are joined by Kevin Harvick (2001, ’06); Martin Truex Jr. (2004-05); Greg Biffle (2002); Joe Nemechek (1992) and Bobby Labonte (1991) while Harvick and Johnny Sauter gave RCR the first driver – owner championship split in series history in 2003.
NASCAR CRAFTSMAN TRUCK SERIES
Off-Week Provides Tune-Up Opportunity
The final test of the 2008 season will be held this week (Wednesday-Thursday) at Martinsville Speedway. Data acquired will be important in the short term; two of the series next four races will be held on short tracks. The long term implications are that the test affects competition at other “flat” tracks such as Gateway, New Hampshire, Phoenix and The Milwaukee Mile. The champion has won at least one race on a short track or flat mile track in each of the series’ 13 seasons.
Skinner Looking Down the Road to Martinsville
Two streaks are on the line at Martinsville Speedway when the Kroger 250 is run on March 29. Mike Skinner swept both races at the Virginia track in 2007, the first time that was accomplished at Martinsville. Only three other competitors – Jack Sprague at Phoenix (1996-97), Ted Musgrave at Auto Club Speedway (2001-03) and Brendan Gaughan (2002-03) – have won three consecutive races at the same track. Kyle Busch, with wins at Auto Club and Atlanta, bids to become the first active NASCAR Sprint Cup Series competitor to fashion three consecutive wins in NASCAR Craftsman Truck competition.
Youngsters Holding Their Own
Young guns continue to impress against the veteran drivers in the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series with three competitors under the age of 30 occupying positions in the championship top 10. Kyle Busch (22) is first; Chad McCumbee (23) is fourth and Phillip McGilton (29) is 10th. In 2007, the youngest top-10 finishers were Travis Kvapil and Matt Crafton, both ages 31.
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