By: Dave Thompson

Kurt Busch was beyond frustrated with not getting his sixth victory at Bristol Motor Speedway. Busch had the car to beat today leading 278 laps but would finish the day third.

With a debris caution with 17 laps remaining in the race, Jimmie Johnson and Kurt Busch both came in and took four tires. Greg Biffle, Matt Kenseth, Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart all took two tires leaving Busch and Johnson restarting 5th and 6th respectively with 10 laps to go. On the restart, Biffle chose the outside lane, leaving Kenseth to start on the inside. This proved to be the demise for Busch as Kenseth’s poor restart bottled up Busch leaving Johnson to make quick work of Biffle and Stewart to take the victory.

Busch was clearly disappointed with not winning the race but “losing to the 48 was the most upsetting”. Busch went on to say what made it a tough one to lose “I not very good at Martinsville and 48 will probably win again next week”.

Steve Addington, Busch’s crew chief, when questioned after the race about his pit decision to take four tires, “it was the right decision”. Addington knew they and the 48 had the best cars all day but they we just caught in the wrong line at the end.

Busch has fell victim to self-induced team mistakes as well as some bad luck but he and Addington seem to be “jelling” and a force to be reckoned with this season.

By: Toby Christie

Jimmie Johnson had done just about everything possible in NASCAR, except win at Bristol… well until Sunday in the Food City 500. Johnson was able to rebound from restarting 6th after taking four tires with 13 laps to go. It only took the four-time champion three laps to get back to the front. This win marks Johnson’s 50th career win, which ties him for tenth on the all-time win list with Ned Jarrett and Junior Johnson.

He was able to hold off Tony Stewart who came home second after utilizing great pit strategy. Kurt Busch, who has five career victories at Bristol, led the most laps on Sunday and looked poised for another win… but it wasn’t to be.

Greg Biffle and Matt Kenseth rounded out the top-five and continued their streaks of finishing inside the top-ten in every race thus far in 2010.

Speaking of Kenseth he now has closed to within one point of Kevin Harvick’s point lead, and despite winning three of the first five races this season Jimmie Johnson is still only third in the points.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. looked good today, even after several fights with his crew on the radio he finished seventh and jumped five spots in points to eighth. This puts him right into contention for the Chase for the Sprint Cup.

Driver’s Point Standings

After Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway     Race 5 of 36

Bristol Motor Speedway     Bristol, TN

By: Toby Christie

They say that all good things have to come to an end, well Sunday at Bristol it’s a bad thing that will be coming to an end. I am of course referencing the dreaded wing. The wing as we all know replaced the spoiler in NASCAR when they unveiled the “Car of Tomorrow”.

Fans never really took to the wing, even though NASCAR’s reasoning behind implementing it was to make the cars look more like cars that the kids on the streets have… but honestly nobody would be caught dead with one of those things.

The wing’s existence only lasted 59 races in the Sprint Cup Series, and I’m sure it won’t be missed by many drivers… but who has benefited most from the wing being in NASCAR?

It’s simple here’s a little stat you wont find anywhere else: Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch and Carl Edwards have combined to win a total of 45 of the 59 “winged” events… that is over 76-percent of the races won by just three drivers. I expect this to change a little bit starting with Martinsville.

In 2007 it was Bristol that hosted the wing’s first race, so there would be no more fitting place than Bristol this week to send the wing flying away. The wing has been attributed to the problem of cars flying into the stands here recently. When the cars spin backwards the wing actually causes the cars to lift off of the ground… not a good thing at all.

However in my opinion it is also the reason for the lack of parity in NASCAR for the past three seasons.

By: Toby Christie

Justin Allgaier captured his first Nationwide Series victory in his 43rd career start. Allgaier was able to work his way past Penske Racing teammate Brad Keselowski on the final restart, and hold him off down the stretch in a great battle for the win. The win is even more impressive because Allgaier had to fight from the 30th starting position.

“It was pretty unbelievable,” Allgaier said. “We had a great car in practice, and I screwed up qualifying and didn’t get the run we really needed and had to start 30th. But (crew chief) Chad (Walter) told me, ‘You’ll be there all day long, and if you push it really hard, you’ll be in victory lane.’

“I wasn’t sure we were going to be able to hold off Brad there for the last couple of laps, but Brad drove a heck of a race and ran us really clean. I’m just excited to get a 1-2 for Penske Racing.”

Kyle Busch came home third, followed by the two guys who have been the center of a new feud… Carl Edwards and Kevin Harvick.

Things got started this week when both drivers exchanged unpleasant words through the media. Edwards was of course also involved at Atlanta in an accident in which he retaliated against Brad Keselowski. Harvick started his own on-track controversy at the finish of this event when he plowed through Joey Logano, knocking Logano back to the 14th finishing position.

This will be something to watch out for during tomorrow’s Food City 500 at Bristol.

Updated Driver’s Point Standings

After Scott’s Turf Bulder 300 at Bristol Motor Speedway    Race 4 of 35

Bristol Motor Speedway     Bristol, TN

By: Dave Thompson

As you probably already know, the site has started a new podcast hosted by me that focuses on the team spotters. Our first guest on the show, Rocky Ryan, was gracious enough to offer me one of his passes which allowed me to spend Friday on the spotter stand perched high above Bristol Motor Speedway.

The weather was absolutely perfect, not a cloud in the sky and nothing but sunshine expected for the entire day. I met up with Rocky around 10:30am and headed for the roof. I was a bit surprised but security wasn’t as tight as I expected, although I was with the one and only, Rocky Ryan. One thing I quickly learned after meeting several of the spotters, Rocky was in fact the “Mayor” of the spotters. Although several of them laughed while calling him the “Mayor”, he is clearly well respected by his peers on the stand.

The stand is interesting to see at first, as the spotters actually have small “pen” areas approximately 7’-8’ wide. The light stand actually provides separation between several of the “pens” and with clear markings that standing there is not allowed. Rocky had mentioned that recently the spotter stand at Bristol Motor Speedway had been extended deeper into turn 1. He noted the stand here is a rather spreadout compared to other tracks and often makes it difficult to leave your position on the stand to communicate to another spotter at the far end.

The view of the track and the entire “Thunder Valley” area is spectacular. I can only imagine how impressive it must be to look down over the stands and see 140,000 people cheering on their drivers.

I realize this is brief but I can tell you the experience was fantastic. I am so thankful to have had the opportunity to spend the afternoon on the stand with these unsung heroes of the teams. Although I was unable to meet each and every spotter, those I did talk with were more than willing to chat and were an extremely professional group.

Look forward to learning more about this great group of guys on our upcoming podcasts.

Joey Logano, who paced the first practice session at Bristol this morning, has taken the Coors Light Pole award for this Sunday’s Sprint Cup Series event. Logano turned a lap of 124.630 mph which was just enough to get him the top spot. This is the first pole in Logano’s young career.

Kurt Busch who has won five times at Bristol in his career will begin the race in second. This will help him go a long way towards another great finish at Bristol.

Dave Blaney shocked everyone with a third place qualifying run Friday. Blaney who is running the no. 66 car for Prism Motorsports is usually a start and parker… so it will be interesting to see if their strategy is different this week with such a fast car.

Jimmie Johnson will start fourth at a track that he is not historically great at, and his teammate Jeff Gordon rounded out the top-five in qualifying.