 |  | | Kurt Busch will try to rekindle the magic he -- and the No. 2 car -- had at Bristol. Credit: Autostock |
By Josh Pate, NASCAR.COM
March 23, 2006
04:23 PM EST (21:23 GMT)
Heading to Thunder Valley, no matter who leads the points or who is on a hot streak, there's one number that everybody in the packed half-mile stadium will have their eyes on -- the Blue Deuce. Rusty Wallace made the No. 2 car the top-shelf machine at Bristol with his nine career victories at the .533-mile short track, tied for second on the all-time list. But he didn't hit his groove until changing from No. 27 to No. 2. With the number change came seven victories between 1991 and 2000, the first of which came in his first visit there driving the 2. Now retired, there's a new deuce in town in Kurt Busch, and he's anything but unfamiliar with Bristol's elevated Victory Lane. Busch has four victories at Bristol, all in the No. 97 Roush Ford. When the green flag drops on Sunday's Food City 500 (1:30 p.m. ET, FOX), he'll try to give the No. 2 its first victory at Bristol since Wallace won the goracing.com 500 on Aug. 26, 2000, and its first victory anywhere in 67 races. It should also be noted that in Busch's last victory at Bristol in 2004, to get the trophy he had to hold off, appropriately, the No. 2 car. What you didn't know
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2 -- Drivers who have won at Bristol while driving the No. 2 car: Rusty Wallace and Dale Earnhardt. |
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Driver Rating: Food City 500
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123.8 -- Matt Kenseth, No. 17 Roush Racing Ford. Kenseth was the winner of last fall's Bristol race, and in the spring finished three laps down in 16th despite leading 50 laps. |
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NASCAR's driver rating combines the following categories: wins, finishes, top-15s, average lead-lap running position, average speed under green, fastest lap, led most laps and lead-lap finish. Statistics based on current and past year at track. Maximum rating: 150 points. Numerology Sunday will be the 91st race at Bristol Motor Speedway, the second-shortest track on the schedule. With its 36-degree banking in the turns, it's the steepest oval on which NASCAR races.
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1 -- Time a driver has led every lap of a race at Bristol. On March 25, 1973, Cale Yarbrough led all 500 laps of the Southeastern 500. |
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2 -- Drivers who won in their first start at Bristol: Jack Smith (1961) and Dale Earnhardt (1979). |
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2 -- Drivers who have led at least one lap in each race this season: Greg Biffle and Tony Stewart. Biffle's average running position at Bristol last year was 6.497, while Stewart's was 12.467. |
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3 -- Drivers who have an average starting position inside the top 10 at Bristol: Jeff Gordon (4.7), Ryan Newman (5.9) and Kasey Kahne (6.5). |
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3 -- Consecutive top-10 finishes for Dale Earnhardt Jr. at Bristol, initiated with a victory at the 2004 night race. |
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6.24 -- Average starting position for race winners, with the worst starting spot by any Bristol winner being 38th when Elliott Sadler won the 2001 spring race. |
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7 -- Years since the spring race at Bristol had less than 10 cautions. The 1999 Food City 500 won by Rusty Wallace had seven cautions for 57 laps. |
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10 -- Consecutive races at Bristol that Mark Martin has not scored a top-10 finish. |
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21 -- Bristol races that have been won from the pole position. More drivers have won from the pole than any other starting position. |
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27 -- Points in the owner standings that separate 35th-place David Stremme and 39th-place Sterling Marlin. After Bristol, only the top 35 teams in the owners' point standings will be guaranteed a spot in the field. |
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39.48 -- Percentage of passes made in Turn 3 and Turn 4 at Bristol last season. |
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54 -- Career starts at Bristol by Terry Labonte, third on the all-time list behind Richard Petty (60) and Ricky Rudd (56). Labonte has two victories there. |
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79 -- Total passes made by Tony Stewart under green-flag conditions last year at Bristol, 53 of which were made while running in the top 15. |
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92.2 -- Percent of Bristol races that have been won from a starting position of 15th or better. |
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123.339 -- Miles per hour at which Jeff Burton ran Lap 342 in last year's Food City 500, the fastest lap of the race. Burton finished 36th. |
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125 -- Days since Jimmie Johnson's crew chief, Chad Knaus, has been on the pit box for a Nextel Cup race once the Food City 500 gets under way. |
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129 -- Combined starts at Bristol by Kyle Petty, Ken Schrader and Sterling Marlin without a victory. |
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544.62 -- Miles that Greg Biffle has led this season, more than any other driver. He is 21st in the standings and has never won at Bristol. |
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2,385 -- Laps led at Bristol by Jeff Gordon, more than twice the amount of second-place Mark Martin (957) on the list of active drivers. Gordon's average finish at the track is 11.7. |
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Two of Dale Earnhardt's nine victories at Bristol came while he was driving the No. 2 car. On the flip side, all but two of Rusty Wallace's victories there came in the No. 2 machine. With nine victories by the car number itself, it ranks in a tie for second on the all-time victories list at BMS, just three behind Darrell Waltrip's track-high 12.
| Deuce Domination |
| Victories by the No. 2 car at Bristol |
| Year |
Race |
Driver |
Start |
Laps Led |
Second Place |
| 1979 |
Spring |
Dale Earnhardt |
9 |
163 |
Bobby Allison |
| 1980 |
Spring |
Dale Earnhardt |
4 |
208 |
Darrell Waltrip |
| 1991 |
Spring |
Rusty Wallace |
1 |
104 |
Ernie Irvan |
| 1993 |
Spring |
Rusty Wallace |
1 |
376 |
Dale Earnhardt |
| 1994 |
Fall |
Rusty Wallace |
4 |
105 |
Mark Martin |
| 1996 |
Fall |
Rusty Wallace |
5 |
353 |
Jeff Gordon |
| 1999 |
Spring |
Rusty Wallace |
1 |
425 |
Mark Martin |
| 2000 |
Spring |
Rusty Wallace |
6 |
86 |
Johnny Benson |
| 2000 |
Fall |
Rusty Wallace |
1 |
279 |
Tony Stewart |
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