Bristol Motor Speedway
Address: 151 Speedway Blvd. Bristol, Tennessee 37620
NASCAR Nationwide Series Scotts Turf Builder 300 Food City 250
NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series O'Reilly 200
36.515277777778 - 82.256944444444Koordinaten: 36 ° 30 ' 55 "N, 82 ° 15' 25 " W
Bristol Motor Speedway, originally known as Bristol International Raceway and Bristol Raceway is a NASCAR race track in Bristol, Tennessee. It was built in 1960 and the first race was held on 30 July 1961. In addition to the oval track as the main part of the system even a quarter mile race track for Dragster, which was long known as Thunder Valley.
Overview
The existing concrete structure of a pure race track in Bristol is one of the most popular race tracks in the NASCAR series and is similar to the Dover International Speedway, with the exception that it is much less wide. Until the renewal of the road surface in 2007, the curve peaks were according to the operator by 36 °, the steepest within NASCAR. However, there have so far also contrary statements about the degree of elevation. So Ryan Newman said in an interview that his crew had only an elevation of 26 ° measured in a test. Apart from the track is so short that the achieved speeds are lower than on super speedways, due to the strong elevation but higher than on other short tracks.
The shortness of the route means that the 43 cars on the grid for almost half the race track use, so that the vehicles already have a good half lap behind the tip of the last starting position. Another special feature due to the short distance are the two pit lanes, each one of them in the start and finish line and one in the area of the back straight. By the year 2002 the drivers who had the worst qualifies the pit lane of the backstretch, was assigned. After a rule change this year there is a two-part scheme: During a caution period both Pit form a composite single pit lane. The entrance to the box is in curve 2, the output in curve 1, which means that a vehicle is required to complete a full round in the pit lane. This is the disadvantage of the rear box was eliminated. During the race under green is running, is the entrance to the back box in curve 2 and the exit turn 3 The entrance to the front pit lane is in turn 4 and that the exit into turn 1 This new rule abolished the discrimination against the poor qualified drivers, but also caused confusion, so some drivers drove through both pit lane under green.
Due to the heavy traffic and the performance of race cars often leads " flying fighter jets in a gymnasium " to statements like. Among the fans and the drivers there are basically only two opinions on Bristol Motor Speedway. They either love them or hate them. Often this is also related to whether they have grown up with racing on short tracks, or on super speedways. Furthermore tend races in Bristol a high number of rounds to produce under yellow because under the heavy traffic on the narrow track touches and jostling between the vehicles and the resulting accidents are virtually inevitable.
The shortness of the route also leads to other special features. Until the introduction of the so-called " Lucky Dog " rule in 2004, after which the last lapped driver must back round with a yellow phase again, Bristol, the race was one of the few stretches where there for a driver was possible, despite several rounds residue still to win. On most modern racetracks, especially the super speedways, this was practically impossible. At the same time the advantage of the short distance can also have the opposite effect, because a pit stop under green resulted in an average lap time of about 15 seconds necessarily in a circular residue.
NASCAR Sprint Cup held in two rounds on each of 500 laps at Bristol. The race in the spring is traditionally a race in daylight, while the race in late summer is organized as a night race. Tickets to the race of the Sprint Cup are due to the popularity of the race and the resulting demand and hard to get. But the race the Nationwide Series, often with more than 100,000 viewers among the most successful in the series, so that FOX, decided to nationally broadcast these races between 2004 and 2006.
Other events include the only race of the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series, which will be held on Wednesday evening during the week, and race of the so-called " Sprint Cars ". The latter have also been visited by more than 100,000 people, a number that is otherwise almost never achieved for these events.
History
When the Bristol Motor Speedway was opened in 1961, he would have certainly can get a different name. So the establishment was initially provided in Piney Flats, but according to Carl Moore there was resistance in the population. Thus, the possible Piney Flats International Speedway was built about 5 miles north on Highway 11-E on the site of a former dairy farm in Bristol. Previously, Larry Carrier and Carl Moore traveled in 1960 to the Charlotte Motor Speedway to get there to watch a race. Following this, they decided to build a speedway in northeast Tennessee, however. Than scaled-down version of the Charlotte Motor Speedway with a length of about half a mile
The construction work for Bristol International Speedway began in 1960 and lasted about a year. During this time many ideas for the Circuit of Carrier, Moore and Pope on envelopes and paper bags emerged.
The purchase of the land and the building cost about $ 600,000. The total area of the speedways including parking for more than 12,000 cars is more than 100 a, ie more than 4 km ². The original Speedway was exactly half a mile long with a width of 60 feet ( 18 m ) on the straights and 75 feet ( about 23 m) in the curves. The boost in the curves was 22 °. The first NASCAR race at the Bristol Motor Speedway on July 30, 1961 were 18,000 seats available. Before this race otherwise weekly races have been held. The first NASCAR driver who drove on the track on July 27, 1961 training was Tiny Lund. The first pole position went to Fred Lorenzen, who reached a speed of 79.225 mph. The opening race, the Volunteer 500, Jack Smith won. At the end of the race, but it no longer sat himself at the wheel of his car, but Johnny Allen, who took over the control after 290 rounds. Both drivers shared the prize of 3225 U.S. dollars. The total prize money that was paid to this race, was 16,625 U.S. dollars. In this first race in which 19 started from 42 cars came to the finish, the then 17 - year-old star of Country Music Brenda Lee sang the national anthem.
In the autumn of 1969, the Bristol Motor Speedway has been renovated and re-measured. The curves were banked at 36 ° and the length of the route changed to 0.533 miles.
After the end of the season of the year 1976, the Speedway to Lanny Hester and Gary Baker was sold. In the spring of 1978, the renamed Bristol International Raceway was. Half a year later, in August of the year 1978, the first night race was held on the oval, which has since become one of the most popular events of the NASCAR Sprint Cup.
On April 1, 1982 Lanny Hester sold his share of the speedway to Warner Hodgdon, who was eliminated in sole possession at the race track as well as the Nashville Speedway on July 6, 1983. He appointed Larry Carrier Manager to the track at Bristol. After Hodgdon on January 11, was forced to declare bankruptcy in 1985, took over the carrier Speedway and beglich any outstanding debt.
In 1992, a further modification of the Bristol Motor Speedway took place. The asphalt surface of the track was removed and replaced with a concrete surface, for which it is famous since then.
On January 22, 1996 Larry Carrier sold the speedway to Bruton Smith and his company Speedway Motorsports for 26 million U.S. dollars. At this point, the track could accommodate 71,000 spectators. On May 28, was officially renamed to Bristol Motor Speedway. Three months later, in August 1996, a further 15,000 seats were added, so that the spectator capacity was 86,000. Since then he has been continuously expanded, so that in April 1997 were already 118,000 seats available. In addition, 22 so-called " skyboxes " was built. For the Goody's 500 in August, the figures already stood at 131,000 seats and 100 skyboxes. Since the acquisition, Smith had invested to that date, more than $ 50 million in the expansion of Speedway and renamed all spectator areas by previous winners and NASCAR champions.
However, the expansion continued to hold on. Thus, the audience capacity was during the Food City 500 in March of 2000 at 147,000 places after the Kulwicki Terrace and Kulwicki Tower were the completed. Both are named after the NASCAR star Alan Kulwicki, who upon arrival to the spring race at Bristol was the reigning champion in 1993 in a plane crash. As a tribute to the retiring star Darrell Waltrip, the complete curves 3 and 4 have been renamed in his honor. An additional section in the region of the start and finish line is also shown in his honor as alcohol- free since Waltrip in 1987 refused to start for a team whose sponsor was from the alcohol industry. Among the other people who have been taken into account in the renaming of the bleachers, for example, the Allison family and David Pearson.
The following years were used for the expansion. Thus, the long-awaited pedestrian tunnel was completed at the infield of the race track, so that it can be entered and exited during the race in 2002. Simultaneously, a new building for the drivers' briefings was completed in the infield. Other new features were a new Victory Lane and new scoreboards in the curves 2 and 3
On 26 August 2002, the most ambitious project started since the Bristol Motor Speedway Speedway Motorsports purchase by the year 1996. Complete back straight, including the last benches of concrete was broken and rebuilt. Thus, the spectator capacity increased to over 160,000 seats. Above the grandstand 52 luxury suites were also built. The relevant sections of the stands are also named after famous NASCAR drivers, including Richard Petty, Cale Yarborough and Dale Earnhardt. An area with 5000 seats in the stands in Turn 1 and 2 above the Alan Kulwicki Grandstand is named after Rusty Wallace.
In the Food City 500 on March 25, 2007, the Car of Tomorrow celebrated on the Speedway 's premiere. During the year, followed by repeated extensions at the Speedway. Among other things, a tower in the middle of the infield was placed, who on all four sides of a video screen. The pavement was renewed and the curves reconfigured, since the have a variable camber.
Records
- NASCAR Sprint Cup Qualifying: Kyle Busch, 14.813 seconds ( 129.535 mph ) ( 208.422 km / h ), March 16, 2013
- NASCAR Sprint Cup race (500 laps): Charlie Glotzbach, 2:38:12 ( 101.074 mph ) ( 162.663 km / h ), July 11, 1971
- NASCAR Nationwide Series Qualifying: Greg Biffle, 15.093 seconds ( 127.132 mph ) ( 204.599 km / h ), 2004
- NASCAR Nationwide Series race (300 laps): Kyle Busch, 2:13:59 ( 71.606 mph ) ( 115.239 km / h ) 25 March, 2006
- NASCAR Nationwide Series race (250 laps): Harry Gant, 1:26:02 ( 92.929 mph ) ( 149.555 km / h ), April 4, 1992
- NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series Qualifying: Ken Schrader, 15.118 seconds ( 126.922 mph ) ( 204.261 km / h ), 2004
- NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series race (200 laps): Travis Kvapil, 1:12:01 ( 88.813 mph ) ( 142.931 km / h ), August 20, 2003
Trivia
- The Pixar film Cars relies on the Bristol Motor Speedway as the basis for the track in the race at the beginning of the film. The size of the distance was increased to produce a stadium more similar atmosphere.
- For many years it was impossible for the teams to park their vans in the infield of the race track. In addition, there was no proper garage area. The vans had to be parked outside the track, which meant that the teams they could not achieve during the race, for example, to get spare parts. Since the renovation of the infield in the early 1990s, it is completely paved, so the vans can be parked in a sophisticated system there.
- On 25 March 2007, the premiere of the new racing car of NASCAR, the so-called Car of Tomorrow ( COT) was held in Bristol. Jeff Gordon secured the first pole position with the new car, Kyle Busch won the first race with it.