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Matt Kenseth has done burnouts the past two years under the Bristol lights.By the Numbers: Bristol
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The 600 finishes under the lights. Richmond has two night events. There's the all-star race, July in Daytona, Phoenix, California and Darlington. Even the champion is crowned below moonlight.
But there's only one night race.
Bristol wasn't the first track to hold a night race; that distinction goes to Nashville Speedway. But it's become the standard. Seven night races have been decided by less than half a second. Only six active drivers have celebrated a night victory at Bristol.
That first one was more like a schooling rather than a brawl. And the winner turned out to be experienced in both.
Interesting Fact
Aug. 26, 1978Date that Bristol Motor Speedway held its first race under the lights, the Volunteer 500 won by Cale Yarborough. Benny Parsons was second (15 seconds behind), the only other driver on the lead lap. Saturday's green flag will mark the 30th night race at Bristol.
Fun Fact
18,000Seating capacity for the first NASCAR race held at Bristol on July 30, 1961. The seating capacity now is advertised at 160,000, making a sold-out race the fourth-largest city in Tennessee behind Memphis (650,100), Nashville (545,524) and Knoxville (173,890).
All the Facts (Top 20 at Bristol, March '07)
1Kyle Busch won NASCAR's first race using the Car of Tomorrow. His last three Bristol races have been top-10s, each time progressing from eighth to second to first.
2Jeff Burton finished second for the third time in his career at Bristol. He's never won there, and his average finish is 18.6. In the 2004 fall race, he was sidelined with an official status as "too slow."
3Jeff Gordon is typically considered the king of road courses, but he's not too bad at Bristol, either. He is tied with Kurt Busch with five victories, the most among active drivers. His 5.1 average start easily outlasts everyone.
4Kevin Harvick has the best average finish among active drivers at 10.1, but he clearly favors the spring race. The past four years, Harvick has four top-fives and one win in the spring but has zero top-10s in the fall race during that span.
5Greg Biffle ranks second in average finish at Bristol at 10.3, although he has never won there in nine starts. He has completed 4,502 of a possible 4,504 laps in his career at the half-mile.
6Jeff Green recorded his first top-10 finish at Bristol in the spring. Prior to that, his best finish was 15th, although at one time he finished 29th in three consecutive races.
7Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s worst finish in the last eight Bristol races is 11th, where he finished in the 2004 spring race and again in 2006. He won the 2004 fall race.
8Clint Bowyer's top-10 in the spring was a vast contrast to his 2006 visits to the short track. Last year, he finished 29th and 38th.
9Jamie McMurray has led eight laps at Bristol, and in his first four trips there finished 11th or better each time. Since then, his average finish has been 24.6.
10Casey Mears' run in the spring was the only time he has finished better than 17th at Bristol and just the second time he has finished on the lead lap there.
11Matt Kenseth has won the past two fall races at Bristol. He has nine top-10 finishes in his last 11 starts at the short track and an overall average finish of 10.7.
12Carl Edwards has led 16 laps at Bristol, all of which came in last fall's race. After three finishes of 24th or worse, Edwards has rolled off finishes of fourth, seventh and 12th at Bristol.
13David Stremme's rookie year saw him finish 36th and 35th at Bristol. His spring run was the first time he completed every lap at the track.
14Denny Hamlin led 177 laps in the spring, but was nowhere near the race's lap leader. That goes to Hamlin's teammate, Tony Stewart, with 257. But Hamlin's 11.3 average finish destroys Stewart's 17.7.
15Brian Vickers was the top-finishing Toyota in the spring at Bristol, and his 15th-place finish was only the second time in seven starts that he finished inside the top 20.
16Jimmie Johnson has finished on the lead lap just once in the last four Bristol races and has an average finish of 23.0 in that span.
17Mike Bliss' average finish in his three Bristol starts is 20.3, but he is not on the entry list for Saturday's race. His replacement, John Andretti, has an average finish of 23.6 in 17 starts at the track.
18Ward Burton gave owner Larry McClure his 46th career start at Bristol in the spring, where Morgan-McClure Motorsports considers as its home track. There are only two other tracks at which the team has made more starts -- Talladega (49) and Charlotte (47).
19Kasey Kahne has twice finished on the lead lap at Bristol, and has just one top-10 finish although his average starting spot is 11.7.
20Kyle Petty will miss his first Bristol race since the 2001 fall event, when he made just 24 of 36 races.
All the Facts (Notables at Bristol , March '07)
21Kenny Wallace, who will replace Kyle Petty in the No. 45 this week, has two top-10s in 19 starts at Bristol.
29Kurt Busch has five victories at Bristol, but in the last five races there he has finished worse than 29th on three occasions.
30Sterling Marlin is the only Tennessean on the entry list. The Columbia, Tenn., native will drive the No. 78 Chevrolet.
38Ricky Rudd will make his 58th career start at Bristol, second all-time behind Richard Petty's 60. Rudd has never won at Bristol, but he has finished second four times and was third in six races at the short track.
41David Gilliland's average finish at Bristol is 40.5 in his two races at the short track. He crashed in the spring race.
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Bristol Motor Speedway
Former Winners
| Year | Winner | Start | Winner | Start |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1961 | J. Smith | 12 | J. Weatherly | 2 |
| 1962 | B. Johns | 6 | J. Paschal | 12 |
| 1963 | F. Roberts | 3 | F. Lorenzen | 1 |
| 1964 | F. Lorenzen | 2 | F. Lorenzen | 8 |
| 1965 | Ju. Johnson | 3 | N. Jarrett | 6 |
| 1966 | D. Hutcherson | 6 | P. Goldsmith | 4 |
| 1967 | D. Pearson | 14 | R. Petty | 1 |
| 1968 | D. Pearson | 2 | D. Pearson | 6 |
| 1969 | B. Allison | 4 | D. Pearson | 3 |
| 1970 | D. Allison | 2 | B. Allison | 10 |
| 1971 | D. Pearson | 1 | C. Glotzbach | 2 |
| 1972 | B. Allison | 1 | B. Allison | 1 |
| 1973 | C. Yarborough | 1 | B. Parsons | 2 |
| 1974 | C. Yarborough | 3 | C. Yarborough | 3 |
| 1975 | R. Petty | 2 | R. Petty | 4 |
| 1976 | C. Yarborough | 3 | C. Yarborough | 2 |
| 1977 | C. Yarborough | 1 | C. Yarborough | 1 |
| 1978 | D. Waltrip | 7 | C. Yarborough | 4 |
| 1979 | D. Earnhardt | 9 | D. Waltrip | 5 |
| 1980 | D. Earnhardt | 4 | C. Yarborough | 1 |
| 1981 | D. Waltrip | 1 | D. Waltrip | 1 |
| 1982 | D. Waltrip | 1 | D. Waltrip | 8 |
| 1983 | D. Waltrip | 13 | D. Waltrip | 2 |
| 1984 | D. Waltrip | 3 | T. Labonte | 6 |
| 1985 | D. Earnhardt | 12 | D. Earnhardt | 1 |
| 1986 | R. Wallace | 14 | D. Waltrip | 10 |
| 1987 | D. Earnhardt | 3 | D. Earnhardt | 6 |
| 1988 | B. Elliott | 13 | D. Earnhardt | 5 |
| 1989 | R. Wallace | 8 | D. Waltrip | 9 |
| 1990 | D. Allison | 19 | E. Irvan | 6 |
| 1991 | R. Wallace | 1 | A. Kulwicki | 5 |
| 1992 | A. Kulwicki | 1 | D. Waltrip | 9 |
| 1993 | R. Wallace | 1 | M. Martin | 1 |
| 1994 | D. Earnhardt | 24 | R. Wallace | 4 |
| 1995 | J. Gordon | 2 | T. Labonte | 2 |
| 1996 | J. Gordon | 8 | R. Wallace | 5 |
| 1997 | J. Gordon | 5 | D. Jarrett | 3 |
| 1998 | J. Gordon | 2 | M. Martin | 4 |
| 1999 | R. Wallace | 1 | D. Earnhardt | 26 |
| 2000 | R. Wallace | 6 | R. Wallace | 1 |
| 2001 | E. Sadler | 38 | T. Stewart | 18 |
| 2002 | Ku. Busch | 27 | J. Gordon | 1 |
| 2003 | Ku. Busch | 9 | Ku. Busch | 5 |
| 2004 | Ku. Busch | 13 | D. Earnhardt Jr. | 30 |
| 2005 | K. Harvick | 13 | M. Kenseth | 1 |
| 2006 | Ku. Busch | 9 | M. Kenseth | 4 |
| 2007 | Ky. Busch | 20 |
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