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| Both Kyles had fast cars last spring at Bristol. |
It's Thunder Valley. It's the Eastern Tennesse mountains and it's a short track with cars all jumbled together in each other's way. There's tempers, altercations, and fights, both on and off the track. Sunday's Food City 500 should have a little bit of everything and this track also expands the field of drivers that have a legitimate shot to win, which I also like.
The track itself isn't all about the driver like the other short track at Martinsville, but the .533-mile concrete oval with variable banking of 24-to-30 degrees certainly gives more drivers a chance to excel than any 1.5-mile oval. Although, that Texas mess last week had quite a few new names popping up near the front through attrition as wrecks took out some elite drivers.
Kyle Busch would hang on to win at Texas for his first win of the season and it was about time. Here's what we've got from him in his last five starts: one win, three runner-ups, and one third-place. I still think Kevin Harvick will continue to be the man to beat on the 1.5s, but Bristol is Kyle Busch country which is why he's the 7/2 favorite this week.
Need some evidence of why Busch is the favorite? How about because he's Bristol's active leader with six wins and 2,115 laps led. He won there the last time the series visited in the fall, and maybe most important is that Busch is a streaky racer and his wins come in bunches. He's also got nine Bristol wins in the Xfinity Series and six more in the Truck Series. The Las Vegan has the track figured out better than anyone, and that's under both layouts; the old layout with a single groove on the bottom and the current one with two equal grooves high and low.
“I certainly look forward to Bristol and I definitely have over the years, whether it was the old surface or when they repaved it," Busch said. "It’s been kind of frustrating a little bit for me on the Cup side since the (track surface) grind, but I think we are starting to get the hang of it now. We’ve had fast racecars there for a stretch, but different things have happened that have kept us from being able to finish those races off. And then we finally got back on track last August. I definitely look forward to this weekend. We’re hoping things will fall in place this weekend with our Skittles Camry and we get to victory lane there again. That’s always the goal each weekend."
That's funny. He said they're "starting to get the hang of it now" regarding the current layout. The dude has 21 Bristol wins between all three series.
Harvick has two career Bristol wins, one on each of the layouts, but lately, he's been having his best run on the track with a 4.2 average finish over his past five starts, which includes his fall 2016 win. He leads all active drivers with 12 top-five finishes during his 34 career starts. He's also got five Xfinity Series wins, but his most famous Xfinity moment came at Bristol in 2002 when Greg Biffle wrecked him and Harvick then jumped on the roof of Biffle's car and came flying down WWE style and starting wringing Biffle's neck. It's the type of heated off track post-race action that Bristol was famous for. We need more of that in today's climate of empty seats at every stop. Real emotion. Anger. Let us see some rivalries building. It seems like these drivers in this new era play patty-cake with each other. Harvick also has a 2011 Truck Series win.
It's quite possible we'll see a Busch-Harvick 1-2 quinella for the fourth time this season, but there are a few drivers that should be given serious consideration beginning with Busch's Joe Gibbs Racing teammate Erik Jones, who was leading late last week at Texas. He won the Bristol spring Xfinity race the past two seasons and then last fall in his second career Cup start he took No. 77 to a runner-up finish. He started from the pole and led a race-high 260 laps. The No. 20 he driver this season is better than the No.77. He really knows this track well. The Joe Gibbs Racing No. 20 Toyota also won twice with Matt Kenseth driving.
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