NASCAR
Busch brothers
BRISTOL, Tenn. – Bristol Motor Speedway, the high-banked short track that has been a staple of the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series since 1961, lends itself to streaking.
The most successful “streaker” at BMS is former Cup champion and now Fox Sports analyst Darrell Waltrip, who won seven in a row from 1981 to 1984. No one has come close to matching Waltrip’s accomplishment (or is likely to), but several current drivers have produced repeat success at Bristol.
Kurt Busch won three in a row in 2003-04, a streak that could have reached five except that Jeff Gordon got in the way, winning the fall race in 2002 after Busch won in the spring.
Kyle Busch, Kurt’s younger brother, swept the 2009 BMS races and won two more in a row after Jimmie Johnson won the spring race in 2010.
The Busch brothers will be among the favorites in Sunday’s Food City 500 (2 p.m. ET, Fox), the second short-track race of the Cup season.
Kyle Busch won at BMS last August, breaking a tie with Kurt for the most wins at the track by active drivers — six. That weekend was a highlight of Kyle’s season, as he won all three NASCAR races (Cup, Xfinity and Camping World Truck) at BMS.
Kyle said drivers typically enjoy racing at the bowl-like Bristol track, where cars reach ridiculous speeds for a halfmile course.
“You go down the straightaway and you slam it into the corners and you mash the gas and you kind of sling right back out of the corners,” he said. “It’s a lot of fun to do that. It’s kind of an art. Some guys are really good at it, and some find a knack that makes them really good at it and makes it seem easy.”
The track has tried to spice up competition in recent years, including grinding portions of the track surface and spreading “sticky” material across the bottom groove in attempts to encourage drivers to run there.
“It’s a grind,” AJ Allmendinger said of 500 laps at Bristol. “You never really get a breath. What they do with the VHT (material) that’s stuck on the track can help you decide what line you’re going to run, and it can affect a lot of things throughout the race.
“It’s 500 laps of holding on and knowing that it’s a challenge. But it’s a fun racetrack, and it’s one of those racetracks where if you can finish inside the top 10 or especially win the race, you really feel like you’ve accomplished something special.”