NASCAR 2010 - Round 4 - Bristol (short track time, aw yeah!)

JRS

JRS

JRS

Soldato
Joined
6 Jun 2004
Posts
19,725
Location
Burton-on-Trent
Bristol Motor Speedway, Bristol, TN



Track Details

Completed : 1961
Distance : .533 miles
Shape : Oval
Banking : 36° turns, 16° straights
Frontstretch : 650 feet
Backstretch : 650 feet
Seating : 160,000

The land upon which Bristol Motor Speedway is built used to be a dairy farm.

Larry Carrier and Carl Moore traveled to Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1960 to watch a race and it was then that they decided to build a speedway in Northeast Tennessee. However, they wanted a smaller model of the Charlotte track, something with a more intimate setting and opted to erect a half-mile facility instead of mirroring the 1.5-mile track.

Work began on what was then called Bristol International Speedway in 1960 and it took approximately one year to finish. Officials scratched many ideas for the track on envelopes and brown paper bags.

The land on which BMS now sits, as well as construction of the track, cost approximately $600,000. The entire layout for BMS covered 100 acres and provided parking for more than 12,000 cars. The track itself was a perfect half-mile, measuring 60 feet wide on the straightaways, 75 feet wide in the turns and the turns were banked at 22 degrees.

Seating capacity for the very first NASCAR race at BMS, held on July 30, 1961, was 18,000. Prior to this race, the speedway had hosted weekly races. The first driver on the track for practice on July 27, 1961, was Tiny Lund in his Pontiac. The second driver out was David Pearson. Fred Lorenzen won the pole for the first race at BMS with a speed of 79.225 mph.

Atlanta's Jack Smith won the inaugural event, The Volunteer 500, at BMS on July 30, 1961.

In the fall of 1969 BMS was reshaped and remeasured. The turns were banked at 36 degrees and it became a .533-mile oval.

The speedway was sold after the 1976 season to Lanny Hester and Gary Baker. In the spring of 1978, the track name was changed to Bristol International Raceway. In August of that year, the first night race was held on the oval.

On July 6, 1983, Warner Hodgdon completed 100 percent purchase of Bristol Motor Speedway. Hodgdon named Larry Carrier as the track's general manager. On Jan. 11, 1985, Warner Hodgdon filed for bankruptcy.
Larry Carrier formally took possession of the speedway and covered all outstanding debts.

In August 1992, BMS became the first fully concrete speedway to host a Cup event.

On Jan. 22, 1996, Larry Carrier sold the speedway to Bruton Smith at a purchase price of $26 million. At the time of the sale, the facility seated 71,000.

On May 28, 1996, the track's name was officially changed to Bristol Motor Speedway. By August of that year, 15,000 seats had been added bringing the seating capacity to 86,000.

For the August 1998 Goody's 500 the speedway featured more than 131,000 grandstand seats and 100 skyboxes. On Aug. 26, 2002, work began on the most ambitious construction project since Speedway Motorsports Inc., purchased BMS in 1996. The new backstretch increased the venue's seating capacity to more than 160,000.
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So, who thinks Brad Keselowski should put Carl "Braindead Moron" Edwards into the wall here? I do. And hard. After all, no chance of the car flipping. And it's not as if he's on probation, unless NASCAR is about to push the Random Rule Change We Just Thought Of On The Spot™ button....The only wrinkle is that he's 33rd in points thanks to the Braindead Moron, and you need to stay in the top 35 to be locked into the show. He would have been 24th had he finished where he was. He'll have to be subtle about it if he does retaliate, the last thing he needs is a DNF.

Over the last few years, this place has been a Busch brothers stomping ground. Kurt and Kyle have a combined 8 wins around here. Harvick should be strong as well, with 5 Nationwide wins. Be nice to see the Hendrick cars do well, and I wouldn't mind seeing a strong run for Juan Montoya. In fact, I couldn't really care less who won as long as it isn't a Roush car. Wouldn't even mind if a Toyota won.

This is also the last race for the CoT's wing, as it's on course to be replaced by a classic-style spoiler at Martinsville. Can't say that I'll be shedding a tear for its loss.
 
SKILL said:
The spoiler does look terrible though,
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You reckon? I grew up watching these cars with a spoiler rather than a wing so I guess I'm biased, but they look so much better to me. And if it sorts out the flipping and the side-draft problems, so much the better.

SKILL said:
Looking forward to this, Bristol is a mad little track, one day I will go there to see a race properly :p
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You should, because BMS is fan-fapping-tastic. It's the closest thing we have these days to the Roman amphitheatre - Christians (drivers) versus Lions (cars), Round II.

SKILL said:
I think Brad should bide his time, wait till the last 10 races and if Carl Edwards is in the chase then that is the time to wreck him, in as many races as possible \o/ :p
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Maybe. Think that will only lead to sanctions from TPTB though. If he's going to sort this out, it has to be soon. Just as long as he doesn't take himself outside the top-35. Mind, that said he could probably race his way into the events anyway. It's just an added complication that he doesn't really need.
 
Bennie-Mac said:
Sorry i meant Atlanta!
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You're right that Atlanta was the last race....but it's still two weeks ago :) Atlanta was March 7th. There was no NASCAR Cup race last weekend.

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Oh yeah, Cup qually results: linky dink. Gotta love the NASCAR qually system - Kevin Conway gets in thanks to owners points, despite turning a slower lap that Max Papis and Mike Bliss. *sigh*
 
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Nationwide results. Good race for Penske, 1-2 with Keselowsi 2nd.

Race should be fun later. With the changes to the SAFER barriers, the racing groove has narrowed slightly. Every chance that the usual Bristol fireworks will be in attendance.
 
Oh dear....Biffle ran Martin right up the hill and into the wall. Martin's car then nearly took out team-mate Gordon, and the pack stacked up.

Bit of an 'oops' moment for a few cars.
 
Not looking good for me here. Roush cars up front.

Ugh.

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All hail Johnson and Knaus! Beautiful work. Hope he can hold on.
 
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Well, he sounds happy.....

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JJ takes it. His 50th win, ties him with Junior Johnson and Ned Jarrett in 10th on the all-time winners list for the NASCAR top-flight series. Pretty decent company to be keeping.
 
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