2017 NASCAR Week 8: Bristol

Food City 500

Bristol Motor Speedway

By Richard Tix

This week the Behind the Wall preview will be short and sweet. On one hand you don't have to hear me babble about something that has been bugging me all week, on the other hand you don't get to hear me babble about something that has been bugging me all week.

You know what, I don't have anything anyways because we were on a bye week! This past weekend was filled with friends and family on a nice Easter weekend. This week will be full of double duty at my actual job so this preview will cover the weekly basics and we will move on.

With that said, lets take a peak at the "Good, Middle, and Bad" portion of this preview.

**This section is just a quick look at some of Cup drivers latest finishes. This is not a tool for fantasy purposes and NBTW only is looking at end results. No deep statistic's are involved, but rather it is just a quick way to get ready for the race and get caught up on who has finished well at each track**

The Good

• Ricky Stenhouse Jr- Yes, that is the same Ricky that is dating Danica Patrick and runs the No. 17 for RFR. Seriously though, he has four top ten's in his last six starts here and has never finished worse then 21st. In fact, seven of his eight career starts ended in 18th or better and last year he competed for the win.
• Joey Logano- Three straight top ten's which includes a win and four of five with two wins isn't too shabby here. The lone poor finish was when the 2 and 22 got together early after a rain delay was "possibly" started too early. 
• Kevin Harvick- The last Bristol winner, Harvick has three straight top ten's. Before that he was on a cold streak, so which one do we get?

The Middle

• Jamie McMurray- Five straight top 15's which includes two top ten's for JMac at Bristol. He probably won't compete for a win, but he has been pretty good at staying clean here.

The Bad

• Kyle Busch- Don't put money down against Kyle, please don't.. He has been on a tough streak here -- four finishes of 29th or worse in his last five -- but he also knows how to win here -- five career wins.
• Kasey Kahne- Kahne does have a win here at Bristol (2013), but his last five starts haven't included a top ten and only includes one top 15. Maybe it's just a bad stretch and he shakes it off this weekend?
• AJ Allmendinger- Ironically his best finish here was just last fall, 9th. However, the rest of his career hasn't gone as well here -- 16 other starts and zero top ten's. 

About the Track: Bristol

Track Stats

• Cup has run 112 total races at Bristol since 1961.
• Richard Petty ran the most career races at Bristol: 60.
• Darrell Waltrip has the most career Bristol wins: 12. Rusty Wallace, Dale Earnhardt, and Cale Yarborough follow with 9 each.
• Richard Petty and Darrell Waltrip are tied for the most career top 5's with 26.
• Richard Petty has the most career top 10's with 37.
• Mark Martin and Cale Yarborough are tied for the most career Poles with 9.
• Of current drivers. The Busch Brothers, Kyle Busch, and Kurt Busch have the most wins with 5 each.

Track Info

• Surface - Concrete
• Length
• 0.533 miles
• Banking
• Turns: 26-30 degrees
• Straights: 6-10 degrees