BRISTOL          

Bristol Motor Speedway

Track Type - Short - An oval racetrack that is less than 1 mile in length.

Track Details

Completed : 1961
Distance : .533 miles
Shape : Oval
Banking : 36° turns16° straightsFrontstretch : 650 feet
Backstretch : 650 feet
Seating : 160,000

NRL TRACK RECORDS

HOW TO WIN AT BRISTOL

·  The shock specialist stays busy all weekend, trying to find the right package for the track and maintaining a balance so the tires don't feel like basketballs through the bumps. The spotter will be a busy guy. He has to look at the entire track and everything that's going on all over it. If there's a wreck in Turn 4 when your driver is in Turn 2, in no time, your driver will come up on the mess in Turn 4.

·  In 1992, officials paved the track with concrete. Unlike asphalt, concrete doesn't change much with the weather. Early on, some drivers complained they could not pass because there was only one groove around the bottom. But now we see some side-by-side racing, and there is more than one groove. When I worked with Davey Allison in 1992, we tested after the concrete was put down. After he went out for a run, there was an inch thick of concrete dust on the floor of his car. It took several years for the drivers to get comfortable with the surface, but now the racing on this track is really awesome.

Plotting strategy

·  The biggest key at Bristol, whether it's winning or getting a top five finish, is being patient. You'll have to look really hard after the race to find one car among the 43 that doesn't have a fender or bumper knocked off -- even the car that wins the race. The key to winning is staying out of trouble, and the best way to stay out of trouble is to stay at the front of the field all race long. Stay up there where you don't have to contend with the middle of the pack. No matter where you are, you still must contend with lapped cars, but the front of the field is the best place to be.

·  You can run about 150 laps on a tank of fuel, but because of all the cautions, fuel strategy is not usually an issue. Near the end of the race, I would rather keep my track position, even if I have a good number of laps on the tires. If there's a late-race caution and you have a good position, it's better to stay out.

Where the action is

·  There are few one-car wrecks here; they turn into five-, six- or seven-car wrecks. If you wreck in the corner at the top of the track, you slide down the banking, and it's hard for anyone to avoid a wreck right in front of him. A guy wrecks, and the guy behind him checks up. But if the guy behind the guy who checks up doesn't check up, then it ends up like a big freeway wreck where cars stack on top of each other.

·  You'll see passing all the way around the track, but most of it happens when a guy gets under another guy on the exit of the corner. He'll run side by side to the inside of him down the straightaway. Then he'll take the lane away and outdrive and outbrake him getting in the next corner.

TRACK HISTORY

The land upon which Bristol Motor Speedway is built used to be a dairy farm.

Larry Carrier and Carl Moore traveled to Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1960 to watch a race and it was then that they decided to build a speedway in Northeast Tennessee. However, they wanted a smaller model of the Charlotte track, something with a more intimate setting and opted to erect a half-mile facility instead of mirroring the 1.5-mile track.

Work began on what was then called Bristol International Speedway in 1960 and it took approximately one year to finish. Officials scratched many ideas for the track on envelopes and brown paper bags.

The land on which BMS now sits, as well as construction of the track, cost approximately $600,000. The entire layout for BMS covered 100 acres and provided parking for more than 12,000 cars. The track itself was a perfect half-mile, measuring 60 feet wide on the straightaways, 75 feet wide in the turns and the turns were banked at 22 degrees.

Seating capacity for the very first NASCAR race at BMS, held on July 30, 1961, was 18,000. Prior to this race, the speedway had hosted weekly races. The first driver on the track for practice on July 27, 1961, was Tiny Lund in his Pontiac. The second driver out was David Pearson. Fred Lorenzen won the pole for the first race at BMS with a speed of 79.225 mph.

Atlanta's Jack Smith won the inaugural event, The Volunteer 500, at BMS on July 30, 1961.

In the fall of 1969 BMS was reshaped and remeasured. The turns were banked at 36 degrees and it became a .533-mile oval.

The speedway was sold after the 1976 season to Lanny Hester and Gary Baker. In the spring of 1978, the track name was changed to Bristol International Raceway. In August of that year, the first night race was held on the oval.

On July 6, 1983, Warner Hodgdon completed 100 percent purchase of Bristol Motor Speedway. Hodgdon named Larry Carrier as the track's general manager. On Jan. 11, 1985, Warner Hodgdon filed for bankruptcy.

Larry Carrier formally took possession of the speedway and covered all outstanding debts.

In August 1992, BMS became the first fully concrete speedway to host a Cup event.

On Jan. 22, 1996, Larry Carrier sold the speedway to Bruton Smith at a purchase price of $26 million. At the time of the sale, the facility seated 71,000.

On May 28, 1996, the track's name was officially changed to Bristol Motor Speedway. By August of that year, 15,000 seats had been added bringing the seating capacity to 86,000.

For the August 1998 Goody's 500 the speedway featured more than 131,000 grandstand seats and 100 skyboxes. On Aug. 26, 2002, work began on the most ambitious construction project since Speedway Motorsports Inc., purchased BMS in 1996. The new backstretch increased the venue's seating capacity to more than 160,000.

Nuff Sed