Posts tagged Bristol at FanHouse

NASCAR had to rain on its own parade, but thankfully they didn't induce a downpour.

The sanctioning body placed Sprint Cup point leader Kyle Busch and last Saturday night's winner Carl Edwards on probation Wednesday morning for their post-race antics following the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway:

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (Aug. 27, 2008) – NASCAR announced today that it has placed Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards on probation for the next six races in the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series, as a result of their on-track incident last Saturday at the conclusion of the race at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Busch, driver of the No. 18 car and Edwards, driver of the No. 99 car, both violated Section 12-4-A (actions detrimental to stock car racing; hitting another competitor's car after the race had concluded) of the 2008 NASCAR rule book.

The probation takes effect beginning with this weekend's event at Auto Club Speedway.

Prior to 2008, the typical penalty for such post-race encounters included a monetary fine and seemed much steeper, but this penalty falls more in line with NASCAR's pledge from the beginning of the season to let the rough side drag a little more in the sport.

And can you blame them? The biggest news from Bristol was Busch & Edwards, not anything else.

75 percent? That number works just fine for Carl Edwards.

Banging the Sprint Cup point leader out of the way for a win? Well, that works too.

For the third time in four races, Edwards has chopped into the bonus point lead held by Joe Gibbs Racing driver Kyle Busch via a race win in the Sprint Cup Series. Saturday night that win -- his sixth of 2008 -- came in the Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway.

Halfway through Saturday night's Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, three of four Hendrick Motorsports Chevrolets were nowhere near the lead as Dale Earnhardt Jr., Jimmie Johnson, and Casey Mears all had suffered early trouble.

Jeff Gordon, meanwhile, was managing to hang on to the Top 5.

Jeff Gordon has had two weeks of racing in a row that he would just like to forget.

Combine that with a season of ups and downs, and 2008 has been nothing like 2007 was for the four-time Sprint Cup champion. Thankfully for No. 24, though, the annual late-summer Sprint Cup visit to Bristol Motor Speedway is on tap for Saturday night.

With finishes of 29th and 42nd the past two weeks at tracks Gordon is normally quite good at -- Watkins Glen and Michigan -- the points situation for the Hendrick Motorsports team has tightened up quite a bit. Prior to that two-race stretch, Gordon was nearly in the group of drivers who could have been considered locks to the Chase.

A flat tire and a poor handle on his road course car derailed those thoughts as now Gordon sits less than 100 points from the Chase for the Sprint Cup cutoff spot of 13th position. Gordon currently sits ninth in the standings, but he was as high as sixth two weeks ago.

To go along with his ugly stats of recent, Gordon has failed to win a Sprint Cup race in all of 2008's 23 events.

History, though, is on Gordon's side as the Sprint Cup Series prepares to line 'em up for 500 laps at Bristol Saturday night.

Brad Keselowski made Dale Earnhardt Jr. a lot happier Friday night at Bristol Motor Speedway.

The 24-year-old driver (who's braces make him look a lot more like 16) picked up second career win and his second win of 2008 during the Nationwide Series Food City 250 after his team owner -- Earnhardt Jr. -- qualified third-from-last earlier in the day at the same track for Saturday night's Sprint Cup event.

Carl Edwards talked a few weeks ago about how this part of the Sprint Cup Series was going to be fun.

Fun, he said, because the team no longer was going to be racing for points but rather simply for wins in an attempt to catch Kyle Busch's win total and bonus point lead as the series heads towards the Chase to the Sprint Cup after Richmond in September.

Bristol City supporters celebrated a 2-1 victory in extra time over Crystal Palace in the Coca-Cola Championship playoffs the only way they knew how -- with a big fat pitch invasion. We could consult with Adam Rank about whether it was proper or not, but considering that Bristol City was playing Leyton Orient and Huddersfield in League One last season and now finds itself one win away from the Premier League this season, we should just let them enjoy the moment.

Bristol City beat Crystal Palace 4-2 on aggregate and will face the winner of the Hull City v. Watford series in Wembley Stadium on May 24. Hull has a 2-0 lead over Watford after the first leg.

The concrete surface at Bristol Motor Speedway was re-done over the summer of 2007, with variable banking added in the already steeply-banked corners.

The change ultimately changed the form of racing at the legendary bull ring from single groove knock-em-to-pass-em racing to multi-groove, pass-em-high-or-low racing. Or, that change was in effect until the final restart on Sunday during the waning laps of the Food City 500 when Kevin Harvick body slammed Tony Stewart in to the wall. Watch below:

Harvick took blame for the accident as he should have. Stewart -- who is on probation -- was awkwardly calm though he got flat taken out by Harvick.

And for the past three seasons, Stewart has walked away without so much as a lump in his throat about "what could have been."

The No. 20 has led 51.3% of all Food City 500 laps in the past three years but has only managed an average finish of 20th thanks to horrible luck or on-track incidents.

Sunday, Stewart had the familiar Bristol swagger going throughout much of the race and even showed plenty of patience in letting cars by him at times. Towards the end, it was shaping up to be a great finish with Stewart, Kevin Harvick, and Denny Hamlin.

Burton, though, with a strange set of circumstances ended up needing those directions to Bristol Motor Speedway's victory lane.

With 15 laps to go, Tony Stewart, Kevin Harvick, and Denny Hamlin were shaping up for a three-way battle for the lead when Brian Vickers cut a tire on his No. 83 Toyota and slammed the turn 3 wall, bringing out a caution.

Stewart, Hamlin, and Dale Earnhardt Jr. stayed out as the rest of the lead-lap cars -- including Harvick and Burton -- dove to pit road for fresh tires. On the restart with 5 laps to go, Stewart jumped out to a lead before Hamlin caught him and drove past.