Viewer's Guide: Bristol

It's been proven that momentum is everything as the Chase for the Nextel Cup looms closer.

That's good news for Matt Kenseth.

Kenseth, last week's winner at Michigan, has solid history at the three remaining tracks before the Chase. In fact, he's the defending winner of Saturday night's Sharpie 500 at Bristol (7 p.m. ET, TNT).

	Inside the Numbers Matt Kenseth at Bristol Starts 13 Wins 1* Top-fives 6 Top-10s 8 Poles 1* Laps Led 625 Avg. Start 19.1 Avg. Finish 11.5 * -- in the 2005 Sharpie 500

"Michigan was obviously a great win for this team and now we're going back to another one of our stronger tracks," Kenseth said. "It's a one-race-at-a-time approach that we have right now."

Kenseth promises the No. 17 team is not looking at the standings, either.

"We're not focusing on where we're at in the standings we're focusing on going out and trying to win races," he said. "Every time I look, they pay more points to the winner than anyone else.

"Bristol is a great track, a lot of fun, and I'm looking forward to getting back there and hopefully having a chance of picking up one I let slip away earlier this year."

And stay on the roll he and his team are on these days.

"My main goal was to win the championship, but the other one is to carry momentum into the Chase," Kenseth said. "To take the next two or three races just as seriously as the rest of the year, and try to go in there with some momentum and keep the spring in the guys' steps and the fire in their eyes."

Kenseth may have gotten some tips last week when he visited the training camps for both the Detroit Lions and his favorite NFL team, the Green Bay Packers. The TNT folks will give us a look at Kenseth's visit to Lions camp during Saturday's pre-race show.

"One of their games is like us running at Martinsville and Bristol every weekend," Kenseth said. "It is definitely a lot more physical sport than what ours is though, so that's why it's fun to watch how they prepare."

Also on tap Sunday:

• A talk with five-time Bristol winner Kurt Busch
• Wally Dallenbach welcomes Omari Hardwick of TNT's Saved in "Wally's World"

Bill Davis, Jeremy Mayfield and Dave Blaney are the scheduled guests for Friday's Trackside from Bristol (6 p.m. ET, SPEED). If you're going to Bristol, the show will be taped at 1:30 p.m. at the SPEED Stage outside of Turn 4.

	MESSAGE BOARD •   Send your question to Benny and Wally

In this week's edition of "Ask Wally and Benny", Shawn from Everett, Wash. wants to know what the guys in the booth look at when they're covering a race, the monitors or the racetrack?

Wally Dallenbach took this one:

"We're supposed to be following what's going on the screen so we try to talk about that, but we also keep one eye on the racetrack," Dallenbach said.

"Sometimes something may be happening that our producers haven't picked up on so we'll call down to our producer Mike Wells in the production truck and say, 'hey, such-and-such is going on back there at Turn 3 so watch those two guys ... or something like that.'

"So while you're trying to tell the story about what's going on the screen that people are watching, you have to also try to see what's developing in front of you on different parts of the track. If Bill or Benny starts talking, that's my chance to look around."

Now on to this weekend's schedule.

Nextel Cup Series: Sharpie 500

Track: Bristol Motor Speedway

• .533-mile oval
• 36-degree banking in turns
• 16-degree banking on straights
• Length of frontstretch: 650 feet
• Length of backstretch: 650 feet

Race length: 500 laps/263 miles

TV schedule (All times ET)

2005 FlashbackSee Kenseth win from the pole at the Tennessee bullring Sign up for TrackPass now BUY THE NEXTEL i836

• NASCAR Live: 2:30 p.m., 4:30 p.m. Fri., SPEED
• Bud Pole Qualifying: 3:30 p.m. Fri., SPEED
• Trackside: 6 p.m. Fri, SPEED
• NASCAR Raceday: 5 p.m. Sat., SPEED
• Pre-race: 7 p.m. Sat., TNT
• Race: 7:40 p.m. Sun., TNT

One year ago, Kenseth started from the pole and led a whopping 415 of the 500 laps to win for the first time since March 7, 2004.

The most recent checkered flag went to Kenseth, who held off Jeff Gordon to win at Michigan and cut into Jimmie Johnson's point lead.

Keep an eye on Mark Martin, who leads all active drivers with 15 top-five and 21 top-10 finishes in 39 career starts at Bristol..

Busch Series: Food City 250

Track: Bristol Motor Speedway

• .533-mile oval
• 36-degree banking in turns
• 16-degree banking on straights
• Length of frontstretch: 650 feet
• Length of backstretch: 650 feet

Race length: 250 laps/131.5 miles

2005 FlashbackWatch Newman's incredible run continue at Bristol Sign up for TrackPass now BUY THE NEXTEL i836

TV schedule (All times ET)

• Qualifying: 5 p.m. Fri., SPEED
• Race: 7:30 p.m. Sat., TNT

One year ago, Ryan Newman outlasted two long rain delays, 12 cautions and overtime to stretch his winning streak to three consecutive races in the Busch Series.

The most recent checkered flag went to Dale Earnhardt Jr., who bumped Carl Edwards from the lead with two laps left to win the Carfax 250 amid boos at Michigan.

Keep an eye on Shane Huffman, who makes his debut this week as the new full-time driver for the No. 88 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports at Bristol.

Huffman, a 32-year-old native of Hickory, N.C., has been competing in the USAR Hooters Pro Cup Series for the team this season, collecting four wins in the Southern Division's first 10 events.

Huffman made one Busch Series start for the JR Motorsports organization in the No. 83 Chevy at Gateway International Raceway last month, where he finished 27th.