The half mile track is banked 36 degrees in the turns and 16 degrees on the straights. It’s basically like a roulette wheel with the cars acting like the spinning white ball. The speed obtained by these cars due to the banking is amazing. At a short track like Martinsville the top qualifying time doesn’t even reach 100 mph because of how flat it is. At Bristol, qualifying speeds reach up past 125 mph.

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Even though Bristol is faster than any other short track in the world, the short track still keeps its short track feel which basically means the drivers like to play bumper cars with each other. Because the speeds are slower than most tracks the drivers get a little more aggressive. If drivers know that they really can’t hurt each other too much on the track, they’ll definitely race harder and tougher. Look for lots of pushing and shoving after the race and also look for fines to be levied by NASCAR to a few drivers for their uncontrollable action.

Because this race typically produces the best, most exciting racing of the season, tickets are almost impossible to get. Over 160,000 die-hard NASCAR fans will jam the race track that looks like a massive football stadium right in the middle of the Smokey Mountains. It’s not that they all want to see wrecks, its just that they want to some drivers get into other drivers faces and tell him what he thinks about his poor judgment and decision making during the race. They are never disappointed either.

To be successful at Bristol, it definitely takes a special driver. Only the best of the best win at Bristol. Look at the history of Bristol winners and you’ll see one Cup Champion after another all the way down from Petty to Yarbrough to Waltrip. That tells me it takes a smart driver who stays out of trouble and it also tells me that it takes a driver full of confidence who can muscle his way through the field. The one exception through history of winners was Elliott Sadler in 2001 which only happened because of a hard experimental tire that Goodyear was trying out and made it possible to run almost an entire race with a single set of tires.

In recent history at Bristol, the brashest drivers on the circuit have been winners. Kurt Busch always races like he has a chip on his shoulder and its carried him to five Bristol wins. Kevin Harvick has toned his act down lately but Bristol is the type of track that can give us a glimpse of the old Harvick, like the one that jumped over cars after a Bristol race to put Greg Biffle in a choke hold.

Toyota finally got their first win in NASCAR last week thanks to Kyle Busch taking Atlanta and they just might be poised to win again this week. Kyle Busch won this race last season driving a Hendrick Chevy and his teammates, Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin, are two of the best short track drivers in NASCAR. Stewart hasn’t won at Bristol since 2001, but he always seems to be near or close to the front. So far we have seen the Gibbs trio run very strong at a plate race and three intermediate tracks, but we haven’t seen them run the Toyota’s on a short track. Last season Hendrick was by far the best in the COT program with Roush and Childress getting stronger as time went by. It’s likely that Gibbs will be just as strong as they have been everywhere.

In this race last season the top two lap leaders of the day were Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin. In the fall night race, Carl Edwards and Kasey Kahne combined to lead 487 of the 500 laps. In Stewart and Hamlin’s case they finished 35th and 14th respectfully. However, for Edwards and Kahne, things went a little better for them as they came in 1-2.

Kasey Kahne took his lumps early at Bristol beginning with his first race there as a Cup rookie in 2004 where he finished 40th. Over the last couple Bristol starts Kahne has looked much better on the track and he’s kept his car out of trouble. This season, Kahne looks smarter than ever. He’s running great races without having a great race car. He’s got three top 10 finishes in the first four races and it’s been good enough to place him 7th in points. Kahne points to being able to run the high groove effectively on the new resurfaced concrete. Since the track was re-surfaced, Kahne has won a Busch race and finished 2nd leading the most laps in the Cup race. Not Bad at all!

On top of Kahne and the Gibbs drivers, we’ll look for Childress to run strong again this week with all three of his drivers making the top 10. Jeff Burton, Clint Bowyer, and Harvick all finished in the top 8 during this race last season with Bowyer also finishing 3rd in the fall. Bowyer will be a nice payout of over 25 to 1 if he comes in.

A glaring omission from discussion about this race and candidates to win is the Hendrick team. This team absolutely dominated the field with the COT last season. They were light years ahead of everyone. How can we even think about not including Jeff Gordon, Jimmie Johnson, or Dale Earnhardt Jr as a top candidate to win? Johnson certainly wouldn’t call Bristol his top track but he’s run well there before with a couple top 5’s. Jeff Gordon is a 5 time winner at Bristol with the last coming in 2002. He finished 3rd behind Kyle Busch in this race last season and then there’s Junior who has a win at Bristol as well. The reason I can think of not to choose them despite all their greatness is that the team is reeling right now. With the exception of Junior, they collectively look ragged. Casey Mears is in a whole new level of bad that we won’t even get into.

The Roush Ford’s should have a good run at Bristol also. Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, and Carl Edwards will all be tough to beat. There are just so many quality cars to choose from, but I must stay with Childress for this race.

TOP 5 Finish Prediction:

1) #07 Clint Bowyer (25/1)
2) #18 Kyle Busch (8/1)
3) #29 Kevin Harvick (12/1)
4) #9 Kasey Kahne (25/1)
5) #99 Carl Edwards (8/1)

Micah Roberts is a Race and Sports Director for Station Casinos in Las Vegas , Nevada who covers motor sports from both a bettor and bookmaker's perspective.