Know Your Track: Bristol

Bristol Motor Speedway

Track Name: Bristol Motor Speedway

           

Nicknames: "Thunder Valley", "The Bullring", "The World's Fastest Half-Mile"

Location: Bristol, Tennessee

Capacity: 160,000

Date of First Race: July 30, 1961

Layout: Bristol is a .533 mile concrete oval with four turns that have banking from 26 degrees at the bottom to 30 degrees at the top. Bristol is the second shortest track on the Sprint Cup tour, but boast high speeds due to large amount of banking in the turns. Bristol is also the only track to currently have two separate pit roads, one on the front stretch and one on the backstretch.

Current Sprint Cup Races:

• April 19, 2015 - Food City 500 in Support of Steve Byrnes, a 266.5 mile, 500 lap regular season points race. This is a Sunday afternoon event.
• August 22, 2015 - Irwin Tools Night Race, a 266.5 mile, 500 lap regular season points race. This is a Saturday night event.

Most Wins:

• All-Time: Darrell Waltrip, 12 wins
• Active: Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch, 5 wins
• Latest Winner: 
• 2015 Food City 500: Matt Kenseth
• 2014 Irwin Tools Night Race: Joey Logano

Description: Bristol Motor Speedway has to be considered one of the crown jewel tracks of NASCAR. It is one of the few true short tracks left in NASCAR's top series, and it never fails to produce action. Thanks to the high banking, Sprint Cup cars are able to turn a lap at the track in a mere 15 seconds. 15 seconds to travel half a mile! Of course, with Bristol being only half a mile, that brings traditional short track racing elements into play, specifically how to pass under such tight circumstances. Cue the "bump-and-run". The "bump-and-run" is a maneuver that is exactly what it sounds like. You "bump" the bumper of the car in front of you, he washes up the track, and you drive like hell away from him so that he can't do the same thing to you in the next turn. When executed right it is an acceptable move:

But when done wrong, well, that is when tempers become an all too familiar sight at Bristol:

That was the type of racing Bristol had been known for for years and fans absolutely loved it. Then came the repave in 2007. The single-file, bottom line only racing that was the staple of the track forever went away when the 2007 repave added progressive banking to the turns. Since then, the preferred line became all the way up at the top of the track and the "bump-and-run" style of racing disappeared, rendering passing extremely difficult. Fortunately, passing is becoming incrementally easier every season, though the dominant groove remains at the top of the track and may stay there for some time.

  

Notable Races: 

• 2010 Irwin Tools Night Race - Kyle Busch became the first driver ever to win in all three of NASCAR's top series in the same race weekend. Busch was able to win the Truck Series race on Wednesday night, the Nationwide race on Friday night, and completed the Bristol sweep with a Sprint Cup win on Saturday night. Busch led a total of 514 out of 956 laps across all three races that weekend.

Fun Facts: With a seating capacity of 160,000, Bristol is the world's largest true colosseum (meaning seating that totally encloses an amphitheater). It is three times bigger than the world famous Roman Colosseum.