Posts tagged BristolMotorSpeedway at FanHouse

Bristol Offers Ideal Last-Minute NASCAR Gift

Looking for that ultimate gift for the NASCAR fan on your list with just hours left until Santa gets things rolling?

Well, Bristol Motor Speedway -- thanks to the oh-so-glorious state of the economy -- actually has tickets available for its Sprint Cup events in 2009.

Sure, any other track on the NASCAR schedule having empty seats is nothing to raise an eyebrow at, but Bristol has been sold out for years upon years upon years despite its capacity of over 160,000 folks. News of this comes courtesy of the track, of course, who's trying to find a way to sell the tickets they surely aren't used to having.

The track says that the season tickets -- the ones that give fans automatic rights for their same seats in the news season -- are still available, and earlier today, I was able to find a pair of tickets for $93 plus applicable fees in the track's third turn for the Spring Food City 500 at the track on Ticketmaster.

A word to the wise, however, would say that these tickets probably won't be available until, say, race time because as the season kicks back in high gear (it's only like 50-some days away!) fans will be falling in line to secure some seats to one of NASCAR's most exciting tracks.

So what are you waiting for? We're not talking about California, we're talking about Bristol tickets!

Busch, Edwards Feud Earns Probation

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.

Edwards Bumps Busch, Wins Sixth at Bristol



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.

Gordon Ready to Recapture Bristol Magic

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.

Keselowski Takes Second Nationwide Victory



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 is Defining His Version of Fun



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.

Changes Mostly Good on '09 Schedules

Got reservations for 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup races in Bristol, Atlanta, California, or Talladega? Better get on the phone with your travel agent.

NASCAR unveiled the 2009 schedules for all three series' -- Sprint Cup, Nationwide, and Craftsman Truck Series -- Tuesday afternoon with a few a changes here and there that mostly seem to be very good.

There weren't any new tracks added to the schedule Sprint Cup for 2009 and Auto Club Speedway isn't scheduled for demolition (there's always next year!) but date changes and schedule location swaps were the name of the game. Chronologically the changes were:

  • - Bristol: The spring race at Bristol Motor Speedway has long tried to dodge rain and even snow in its March location on the schedule, and it got a little bit of relief by being pushed back one week from 2008 to March 22 in 2009.

  • - Atlanta: The next change on the schedule will see Atlanta Motor Speedway move to Labor Day weekend for a Sunday night race at the 1.5-mile track. If nothing else, it means NASCAR will race on Labor Day some 2,100 miles closer to where it should be that weekend. Ahem, Darlington.

NASCAR Crash Video of the Week: Bristol

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.

Darrell Waltrip Told Not to Talk

It's a good thing that FOX Sports analyst Darrell Waltrip has the weekend off from NASCAR.

After a visit to a Nashville-area doctor who's treated many entertainers with vocal problems, Waltrip was told to minimize any talking for a while. From the Charlotte Observer:
Fox TV analyst Darrell Waltrip, who lost his voice during last week's race at Bristol, has been diagnosed with severely inflamed vocal cords and is under doctor's orders to severely limit his speaking for the time being.
Waltrip definitely had no business being in the booth on Sunday. He didn't add a whole lot the broadcast, and I know I cringed several times just listening to his voice. Fellow analyst Jeff Hammond could have easily filled in.

The whole situation does make me wonder if FOX was being mindful of how NBC treated the situation with Benny Parson's when he was battling cancer during his final season. NBC wasn't always completely up-front about Benny's situation and not having him in the booth caused some worry.

Dick Vitale, another quite-vocal commentator, had similar vocal problems for much of the NCAA basketball season before returning after a month or two off. I do hope Waltrip can be back for Martinsville in two weeks.
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