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Sprint Cup Preview: Bristol

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: August 22, 2008

RACE NO. 24: BRISTOL

After the Daytona 500 and Allstate 400 at the Brickyard, NASCAR racing doesn't get much more electric than the annual summer race at Bristol. The Sharpie 500 is short-track racing at its best: three hours of banging and crashing and drivers looking to get even under the lights. Despite an enormous seating capacity of 160,000, Bristol has sold out 53 consecutive times for its Sprint Cup races, easily the longest streak in the sport. Tribune motorsports writer Tony Fabrizio looks at what is topical heading into the third-to-last regular-season race:

How serious was the cheating by Joe Gibbs Racing's Nationwide Series teams?

Blatant and intentional, and certainly in the same category as Michael Waltrip Racing getting caught with an illegal fuel additive at Daytona 500 qualifying in 2007. The team used a magnetic spacer under the gas pedal in an attempt to intentionally distort the results of a horsepower test NASCAR planned to do after Saturday's race at Michigan. Owner Joe Gibbs expressed all sorts of outrage and promised additional sanctions against the seven team members punished by NASCAR, including crew chiefs Dave Rogers and Jason Ratcliff, but he stopped short of firing anybody.

With five wins, Carl Edwards, right, has only three fewer than Kyle Busch. Why can't he match Busch in bonus points heading into the Chase?

Edwards has won two of the past three races, and he is the defending champion of Saturday night's race, so he could win again. He could also win the next two weeks at California, where he won earlier this season, and at Richmond, where he was leading last fall until blowing an engine. But even if Edwards reached eight victories by the cutoff, he would go in 10 points behind Busch. That's because he was stripped of the 10 bonus points he earned with his victory at Las Vegas for a major car violation.

Busch has clinched the No. 1 berth in the Chase. Has anyone else clinched?

No, but Edwards, Jimmie Johnson, Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Burton have all but locked up spots. Edwards will clinch a berth if he finishes at least 25th. Johnson, Earnhardt and Burton merely need to keep most of their current margins over Clint Bowyer and David Ragan, who are tied for 13th.

Why has Tony Stewart already changed the number on one of his Stewart-Haas Racing cars?

Steward said on his satellite radio show this week that Ryan Newman's Chevrolet will carry No. 39 rather than the previously announced No. 4. Morgan McClure Motorsports had an association with No. 4 dating to 1984, and although the team is dormant, co-owner Larry McClure didn't want to give up the number. Newman used No. 39 on his first USAC Silver Crown car and for his first USAC midget win at Indianapolis Raceway Park.

KEEPING UP WITH THE LOCAL

Tampa's Aric Almirola, back in the No. 8 Chevy, returns to the site of the best Sprint Cup race in his young career. His eye-opening eighth-place finish at Bristol in March led to Dale Earnhardt Inc. signing him to drive the car full-time next season.

"Bristol is my kind of track," Almirola said. "You bump, you grind and you just battle for 500 grueling laps."

Zephyrhills' David Reutimann competes in tonight's Nationwide Series race and Saturday night's main event. He won a pole at Bristol for the truck series race in 2005 and finished 20th in his only previous Sprint Cup start there in March.

Tony Fabrizio

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