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Bristol Motor Speedway has spawned much NASCAR lore since its 1961 debut, but here’s a fact perhaps overshadowed by decades of memorable events, personalities and statistics:
The high-banked half-mile is responsible for introducing Kurt Busch to the world.
NASCAR’s world, that is.
The 2004 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion won his first series race there in March 2002, and he arrives this weekend tied with four-time series champion Jeff Gordon (No. 24 DuPont Chevrolet) as the active leader in Bristol wins (five each).
Busch also arrives at an opportune time.
He’s the series’ most recent winner — two weeks ago at Atlanta Motor Speedway, prior to the justpast open week — and comes to Bristol with momentum in his back pocket.
“We’d love to come in there this weekend and score another dominant win,” Busch said, “but we’d be thrilled to get a victory no matter how it comes.”
The Atlanta win (his first this season) boosted Busch nine spots to 10th in the current series standings. Bristol would seem a prime opportunity to climb higher, but Busch’s last victory there came in March 2006. He’s certain new crew chief Steve Addington — who led brother Kyle Busch to a sweep of both Bristol events last year — will have something to contribute.
“If you looked at perhaps our team’s weakest link over the last several seasons, it’d have to be our overall performance on the short tracks,”
Busch said. “As a whole, I see us gaining strength, gaining momentum.
“But we know we have to get through this upcoming short-track portion of the season with the Bristol, Martinsville and Phoenix races coming up and we couldn’t have a better guy to lead our team in those races than Steve Addington.”
Two days after the Atlanta win, Busch and Addington were back at work, testing their shorttrack program at the half-mile Greshman Motorsports Park in Jefferson, Ga.
“I think the time we spent there was well worth the time and effort,” Addington said. “Kurt really liked the packages we tried there and we think it’ll pay dividends in the upcoming weeks.”
Bristol excellence seems a family affair, so Kurt’s toughest rival in Sunday’s Food City 500 may well be his brother.
Kyle Busch has sparkled just as brightly in Thunder Valley, with three career wins there (the 2009 sweep and the March 2007 event). He also has won the track’s last two NASCAR Camping World Truck Series races, plus the March 2006 NASCAR Nationwide Series event.
Like Kurt, Kyle has carved his own groove in the half-mile arena, even more so after the track was repaved during the summer of 2007.
“Ever since I got through my rookie year I’ve just taken a liking to the place,” Kyle said. “Of course, I’ve been able to get some help from my brother. He’s always been really good there.
“But when they changed the track to this current surface I just really took to it right away. I really liked it and I’ve been fast there, but also I’ve had great cars from Joe Gibbs Racing.“ Auto Racing Daily
CAR DRIVER MAKE SPONSOR 0 David Reutimann Toyota Aaron's Dream Machine 1 Jamie McMurray Chevrolet Bass Pro Shops / Tracker 2 Kurt Busch Dodge Miller Lite 5 Mark Martin Chevrolet GoDaddy.com 6 David Ragan Ford UPS 7 Robby Gordon Toyota Warner Music Nashville / Blake Shelton 9 Kasey Kahne Ford Budweiser 9 Aric Almirola Chevrolet Phoenix Racing 11 Denny Hamlin Toyota FedEx Express 12 Brad Keselowski Dodge Penske Racing 13 Max Papis Toyota GEICO 14 Tony Stewart Chevrolet Office Depot / Old Spice 16 Greg Biffle Ford U.S. Census 17 Matt Kenseth Ford Crown Royal 18 Kyle Busch Toyota M&M's 19 Elliott Sadler Ford Stanley 20 Joey Logano Toyota The Home Depot 24 Jeff Gordon Chevrolet DuPont 26 David Stremme Ford Latitude 43 Motorsports 29 Kevin Harvick Chevrolet Shell / Pennzoil 31 Jeff Burton Chevrolet Caterpillar 33 Clint Bowyer Chevrolet BB&T 34 Travis Kvapil Ford Long John Silver's 36 Mike Bliss Chevrolet Wave Energy Drink 37 Kevin Conway* Ford Extenze 38 David Gilliland Ford Taco Bell 39 Ryan Newman Chevrolet Haas Automation 42 Juan Montoya Chevrolet Target 43 A.J. Allmendinger Ford Insignia / Best Buy 46 Terry Cook* Dodge Whitney Motorsports 47 Marcos Ambrose Toyota Little Debbie 48 Jimmie Johnson Chevrolet Lowe's 55 Michael Waltrip Toyota Prism Motorsports 56 Martin Truex Jr. Toyota NAPA Auto Parts 66 Dave Blaney Toyota Prism Motorsports 71 Bobby Labonte Chevrolet TaxSlayer.com 77 Sam Hornish Jr. Dodge Mobil 1 78 Regan Smith Chevrolet Furniture Row Companies 82 Scott Speed Toyota Red Bull 83 Brian Vickers Toyota Red Bull 87 Joe Nemechek Toyota FrontRowJoe.com 88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. Chevrolet National Guard / Amp Energy 98 Paul Menard Ford Pittsburgh Paints / Menards 99 Carl Edwards Ford Scotts 190 Casey Mears Chevrolet Keyed-Up Motorsports
