Bristol Facts

by Mike Forde - NASCAR Media Services

At Bristol Motor Speedway:

History
• Groundbreaking for Bristol International Speedway, as Bristol Motor Speedway was originally known, took place in 1960. The track was an exact half-mile.
• Bristol held its first NASCAR Sprint Cup race on July 30, 1961.
• In the fall of 1969, the track was reshaped and re-measured to .533-miles.
• The name changed to Bristol International Raceway in 1978.
• The first night race was held in the fall of 1978.
• The first NASCAR Nationwide Series race was held on March 13, 1982.
• The first NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race at Bristol was held on June 23, 1995.
• The track surface was changed from asphalt to concrete in 1992.
• The name changed to Bristol Motor Speedway in May 1996.
• The track was resurfaced between races in 2007.

Notebook
• There have been 97 NASCAR Sprint Cup races since the first race there in 1961, two races each season.
• All races have been scheduled for 500 laps, except for both races in 1976 and the second in 1977, which were 400-lap events.
• Fred Lorenzen won the first pole.
• The first NASCAR Sprint Cup race was won by Jack Smith (with relief from Johnny Allen).
• There have been 42 different pole winners, led by Cale Yarborough (nine); 19 drivers have more than one. Mark Martin needs one more pole to tie Yarborough’s mark. He won his eighth pole in this season’s March race.
• 37 different drivers have won races at Bristol, led by Darrell Waltrip (12); 16 drivers have more than one victory there.
• The race winner has started from the pole 22 times, the most productive starting position.
• 79 of 97 races have been won from a top-10 starting position, including 51 from the first four spots.
• The deepest in the field that a race winner has started was 38th, by Elliott Sadler in 2001.
• There have been seven different pole winners in the past nine races. Qualifying was canceled in the spring of 2006 and 2008.
• Junior Johnson won 21 races, more than any other car owner. His victories came between 1965 and 1986 and were scored by five different drivers, including one himself.
• Only one active driver averages a top-10 finish: Marcos Ambrose. Ambrose finished 10th earlier this season, his only Bristol start thus far.

NASCAR in Tennessee
• There have been 158 NASCAR Sprint Cup races in Tennessee.
• 97 drivers all-time in NASCAR’s three national series have their home state recorded as Tennessee.
• There have been 11 race winners from Tennessee in NASCAR’s three national series.