NASCAR - Food City 500 - from Bristol - on FOX, Sunday 3/26 at 2:00pm ET (LIVE THREAD)

NASCAR/Jayski ^

[glock rocks]

Dude!

[glock rocks]

Good morning. I like the night races too, but it's a bit chilly to bbq on the deck in the dark in the snow. I'm patient :o)

[Johnny Gage]

POWER RANKINGS

Biggest Gain this week: Dale Earnhardt Jr., up six spots

Biggest Drop this week: Casey Mears, down seven spots

New this week: Martin Truex Jr. (24), Bobby Labonte (25).

Dropped out: Clint Bowyer (16), Joe Nemechek (25).

Week 5 of 36, Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway

Rank	Prev	Number	Driver	Comments
1	1		Jimmie Johnson	Kenny Wallace got the movie The Benchwarmers as an associate sponsor at Atlanta. With Knaus' suspension, Johnson's car would have been much better marketing.
2	6		Mark Martin	A lot of people wondered why he couldn't catch Kahne in the final laps. It was because Martin was distracted after he realized he was missing his afternoon dose of Matlock.
3	7		Kasey Kahne	Judging by his early success, 43 guys are going to show up at Bristol with dyed black hair.
4	4		Tony Stewart	I truly believe that the Carl Edwards ESPN photo shoot jinxed him. Which pretty much eliminates any future chance of a similar Tony Stewart cover.
5	2		Matt Kenseth	He isn't in the Gillette Young Guns anymore. Neither is Kevin Harvick. Which means they are making a huge push toward drivers that do not wear their hat 24/7.
6	8		Jeff Gordon	That new Chevrolet commercial, where all the Chevy drivers toast each other, drives me crazy. That is water in that champagne glass! Use the real thing! Kyle Busch isn't even in the commercial!
7	10		Greg Biffle	On TV, they said that Biffle holds his steering wheel differently than Dale Earnhardt Jr., because Biffle is a young guy. Come on. Biffle is six years older than Junior.
8	9		Jeff Burton	He won the Busch race on Saturday, and it was his first win in anything in four years. And he clearly forgot how to do a burnout.
9	5		Kyle Busch	I have to apologize to Kyle. We made fun of him two weeks ago for saying that he didn't mean to wreck Michel Jourdain in his home state of Mexico. Kyle actually knew that Mexico has 32 recognized states, and that is what he meant. Maybe Tony Stewart told him.
10	3		Casey Mears	Overall, he had a pretty bad week. He had his birthday on the day of the Las Vegas event, but at 10 a.m. the next day, Jimmie Johnson left him at the airport, and he had to fly commercial back from Las Vegas (gasp!) and he had a middle-row seat (double gasp!). Then he finished 21st at Atlanta.
11	11		Kevin Harvick	He had the radio transmission quote of the weekend about Kurt Busch: "If he takes a swipe at me it will be more than his ears that hurt."
12	18		Dale Earnhardt Jr.	We need to introduce Dale Jr. to the girl in the Mercury commercials. And she's even a North Carolina native. It would be perfect. Clearly, I have given this too much thought.
13	14		Dale Jarrett	I guess you remember the Jarrett-Newman clash at Bristol last year. Funny thing is, Jarrett apologized for it a few weeks ago. I guess he realized he better call Newman since Bristol (and potential payback) is coming up.
14	12		Jamie McMurray	He has a new house, a new dog, new assistants, new job, new uniforms, new everything. All of which are not nearly as stressful as a hairstylist change.
15	17		Robby Gordon	At least the motor didn't blow up. At Atlanta, Robby had to pit under green for a vibration, got caught speeding on pit road, saw his catch-can man get hurt and had a sure top-five turn into a 28th-place finish.
16	21		Denny Hamlin	If Carl Edwards had been driving the No. 11 FedEx Chevrolet on Monday, this would have been the post-race quote: "Gosh, we had a great Chevrolet today. I knew it was fast when I took out Ryan Newman there in Turn 4. It was an honor to be fast enough to get into the back of him."
17	13		Carl Edwards	There is a member of his team that has refused to shave until Edwards wins again. Now, knowing Carl's lack of success at short tracks, you know what this poor guy's wife is thinking as the series hits Bristol and Martinsville. "Aww, no! I gotta look at you with a full beard for at least three more weeks!"
18	15		Ryan Newman	I'll bet he went crazy when he saw Kahne win. "Dang it, Kasey, NASCAR was going to give us nose help! Oh no! That is Petty in eighth! Sorenson in 10th!"
19	24		Scott Riggs	Report: Riggs already worried Mayfield will demand his ride if Mayfield falls out of top 35
20	21		Elliott Sadler	He is a big NCAA hoops fan, but it is starting to affect his driving. I can almost hear his Atlanta radio transmissions: Baldwin: "Pit in 6, Elliott." Sadler: "Pitt is up by six?" Baldwin: "No, I want you to pit in 6." Sadler: "You want me to watch Pitt at 6?"
21	19		Brian Vickers	He keeps getting requests (seriously) from girls to attend their high school proms. He should do it. He didn't get to go to his because he was a Busch regular at the time.
22	22		J.J. Yeley	Report: Michael Waltrip devastated that Yeley is now the last driver listed alphabetically
23	23		Kurt Busch	After that pit-road accident, Edwards' crew chief said, "We're going to get you a new nose, Carl." For a brief second, I thought Carl was going to become the second driver in two months to have major plastic surgery.
24	NR		Martin Truex Jr.	His post-race report said that "Four new tires were bolted on Truex [as he] returned for the final restart." That was pretty cool that he drove from 28th to 19th on the final run despite having four tires bolted on him.
25	NR		Bobby Labonte	Man, he has a fast car at Atlanta. I can almost hear what Newman was saying on the radio. Ryan: "Why is the 43 all over me? Is he trying to get the Lucky Dog?" Spotter: "Ryan, that is for position, bud."

The Power Rankings are written by Ryan Smithson and the opinions listed here are solely those of the writer. To email Ryan about the Rankings, click here.

[Jersey Republican Biker Chick]

I have to agree with you there.

I have been to Pocono, Dover, Richmond, and Darlington. Bristol is the one I would like to go to next.

[WestCoastGal]

It's about 30 degrees here today!

[WestCoastGal]

Bristol Will Deliver Real March Madness
Written by: Tom Jensen
Harrisburg, N.C. – 3/22/2006 It’s smackdown time. After three races of varying interest at the so-called intermediate tracks, the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series will spend the next two Sunday afternoons the way God and Big Bill France intended: knocking the snot out of each other on short tracks.

This Sunday, the action commences at Bristol Motor Speedway with the running of the Food City 500, then it’s off to Martinsville, Va., the following week for 500 more laps of hell.

Bristol, of course, is the fiercest oval on the planet, 0.533 miles of concrete with 36 degrees of banking in the corners and 43 drivers who pretty much stay pissed off for all 500 of the 15-second laps.

This track doesn’t just separate the men from the boys. Occasionally, it separates the teeth from the boys. There are plenty of guys who can talk the talk, but at Bristol, you find out who can walk the walk, too.

When a driver gets out of his car at Bristol, most of the words he utters are of the four-letter variety, none of them thanking his myriad sponsors or the boys back at the shop. Nothing is politically correct at Bristol and we’re better off for it.

At one race a few years back, two drivers exchanged fisticuffs in the hauler, while the wife of one of them stood out back, flipping her middle finger repeatedly at a throng of reporters and photographers waiting to see how the fight would end.

There’s a reason drivers have compared racing at Bristol to trying to fly a fighter jet in your basement or putting 43 cars inside a blender.

It’s hot, loud and noisy at Bristol. It’s also where you’ll see some of the toughest stock car racing in the world. Winning here depends less on what team you drive for or how many times the nose of your car has been shaped to the n-thousandth of an inch in the wind tunnel. No, winning at Bristol is about the size of the fight in the dog and the sheer, unbridled will to win. No nice guys need apply.

In 2000, when the late, great Dale Earnhardt knocked Terry Labonte into the wall on the last lap to win the August Bristol race, 140,000 or so fans nearly rioted in the aftermath. Most screamed their approval at seeing their idol win, but some actually tore their prized black No. 3 T-shirts off and threw them down in disgust. “God, I love this s—t,” Earnhardt grinned as he rode the elevator up to the press box for his winner’s interview.

Four years later, Dale Earnhardt, Jr. swept the Busch and Cup races at Bristol and delivered an eloquent post-race interview that saw him talk at length about coming to Bristol as a kid, and the tradition of the track and how his dad gave him tips on how to drive there. It was one of Junior’s finest moments as a driver, and one of his most articulate as a man.


http://www.speedtv.com/commentary/22684/

[glock rocks]

eek. It's 35 here and headed for t-shirt weather by afternoon.

[glock rocks]

LMAO!!

Bristol, of course, is the fiercest oval on the planet, 0.533 miles of concrete with 36 degrees of banking in the corners and 43 drivers who pretty much stay pissed off for all 500 of the 15-second laps.

[WestCoastGal]

I liked this part. BBL

"winning at Bristol is about the size of the fight in the dog and the sheer, unbridled will to win. No nice guys need apply. "

[glock rocks]

Yep, I'm off as well. BBL.

[don-o]

Brass monkeys are all indoors up this way

[don-o]

Now they are giving conflicting wx: starting after midnight less than an inch OR 2 - 4 inches by Friday with more in mountains.

Saturday looking a little iffy but posed to clear out by Sunday. Who knows? Not the prognostigators.

I'll keep an eye on my weather rope.

[NormsRevenge]

Thanks for the ping and thread.

Lots of bumping and grinding this week-end.. at the track. ;-)

[tubebender]

The race in Bristol reminds of a show I saw in Vegas a few years ago. They put 5 or 6 motorcycles in a huge round steel bird cage and they all run in different directions and on different planes at about 40 mph.

[WestCoastGal]

I've seen that it's amazing!!

Snow, snow go away come again some other day - Hint not on race day!!

[WestCoastGal]

Pre-race caution

[don-o]

The forecasts around are notorious for being off. Has a lot to do with the topography and the fickle nature of air masses.

What is sure is that there is cold air and moisture. My prediction is that we get both races run. But a cloudy 49 degree high on Sunday kinda stinks.

On Monday, there was a story in the local papers about early campers having to acquire bigger generators than they brought to heat their campers.

I keep waiting for this global warming to kick in......

[don-o]

That is one fine pic to head the thread that is.

A little more local info...MM is being awarded the Key to the City of Kingsport in pre race events. I had a notion to drive him...I do believe.

Of course, then one wonders, what do you DO with the Key to the City of Kingsport?

[WestCoastGal]

I also just read that the fire department is warning campers about carbon monixide poisoning from generators and heaters used improperly.

[don-o]

Yup. They jam them in pretty tight there. We have had constant wind, though. So that will hopefully help that concern.