RacingNation.com

Bristol Fast Facts – Things You May Not Know

Charlotte, NC (March 16, 2009) – After a rare – and soggy – weekend off, the NASCAR train steams into the Tennessee mountains this week for some good old fashioned short-track racing at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Now we’re talkin.’ While there’s no doubt the high speeds and tension of places like Daytona and Atlanta have been thrilling, there’s nothing like the fender to fender, smash mouth action you get at a short track like Bristol. If ‘rubbin’ is racin’ is your mantra, then Bristol is your temple.

That said, here are some interesting facts about this week’s race at the famed half-mile ‘Mountain Empire’ that you may or may not know.

Bristol Motor Speedway is located in a valley where local residents would hide their livestock from both the North and the South armies during the Civil War.

The original track was built by Larry Carrier and Carl Moore on a budget of $600,000. Current owner O. Bruton Smith (Speedway Motorsports, Inc.) paid $25,280,000 for the track in 1996.

Fred Lorenzen won the first pole position at Bristol in 1961 driving a Holman Moody Ford. There was no pole winner for last spring’s Cup race as qualifying was rained out.

Jack Smith won the first NASCAR race at Bristol, but he wasn’t in the car at the finish as Johnny Allen wheeled the final 209 laps of the event in Smith’s Chevy after Smith vacated the car with a burned right foot.

Layman Utsman is credited with last place in the first NASCAR race at Bristol. Utsman’s 1960 Dodge fell out at 30 laps with handling problems. He earned $100.

Pontiacs won the first three races at Bristol. The brand didn’t win again at the track until the spring race of 1989 when Rusty Wallace copped the big trophy. They are the only four wins for the brand in the history of the track.
Lorenzen was the first driver to sweep both the spring and fall races at Bristol in a single season turning the double in 1964.

Charlie Glotzbach won the 1971 Volunteer 500 at Bristol in record time – 2 hours, 38 minutes and 12 seconds. There were no cautions in the 500-lap event and the average speed of 101.074 miles per hour is still a record for an event at Bristol.
Cale Yarborough (right) won eight of the 12 Bristol Cup races from the spring of 1973 through the fall of 1978.

Yarborough owns the record for the fastest spring race at Bristol – 100.989 miles per hour average- set in 1977.

Sunday’s race marks the 30th-anniversary of Dale Earnhardt’s first NASCAR Cup win. The 1979 spring event at Bristol – the Southeastern 500 – saw Earnhardt beat Bobby Allison, Darrell Waltrip, Richard Petty and Benny Parsons to the finish line.

Rusty Wallace (right) won his first NASCAR race at Bristol – the 1986 Valleydale 500.

Bill Elliott’s first-ever short-track win came at Bristol in the spring of 1988.

A total of 34 different drivers have won Cup races at Bristol. Darrell Waltrip is the all-time leader with 12 victories – including an amazing seven in a row from the spring of 1981 through the spring of 1984.

The track surface was changed from asphalt to concrete in 1992. A fresh ribbon of concrete was put down during the 2007 season.

Defending NASCAR Cup champion Alan Kulwicki perished in an airplane crash en route to the Bristol spring race on April 1, 1993.

Jeff Burton is the defending winner of the spring Cup race. It was Burton’s first Bristol win in 30 Cup starts at the track.

Burton led a 1-2-3 Richard Childress Racing sweep last year as Kevin Harvick was second and Clint Bowyer third. Greg Biffle and Dale Earnhardt, Jr. completed the top-five finishers.

Burton’s margin of victory was .588 seconds last spring at Bristol. Smith/Allen won the first NASCAR event at Bristol by two laps.

Jamie McMurray was the first car out of last spring’s Bristol Cup race. The 43rd-place finish earned McMurray $89,000. The total purse for the first NASCAR race at Bristol in 1961 was $14,885.

Last spring’s race at Bristol featured 10 cautions for 68 laps of the 500 laps. The race took 3 hours, 15 seconds to complete.

Kurt Busch (right) and Jeff Gordon are the winningest active drivers at Bristol with five Cup victories each.
A Jack Roush entry has won at least one of the two NASCAR Cup races at Bristol every year from 2002 through the 2008 season (9 total wins during the streak).

If Jeff Gordon (32 Bristol Cup starts) can finish on the lead lap Sunday, he will have scored 22 lead-lap finishes tying him for second all time with Dale Earnhardt and Rusty Wallace. Ol’ DW tops the chart with 24.

Sunday’s race at Bristol will be the 97th Cup event held at the track.

Want more? You’ll just have to wait until Sunday to find out who is going to add to the history of Bristol Motor Speedway.

In the meantime, if you want a glimpse of the past at Bristol, check out the 1986 Valleydale 500 photo gallery on Close Finishes. It was Rusty Wallace’s first Cup win and the first-ever Cup race for Close Finishes.

Here’s a link to the gallery – http://www.closefinishes.com/photog/thumbnails.php?album=17

Enjoy.

Share Button