Fantasy: Bristol Preview

Once upon a time, short tracks roamed the earth like invincible dinosaurs. They're not extinct yet, but like the California Spotted Owl, they've been healthier in terms of their representation at NASCAR's top level. That just means that the diehard fan has to cherish them all the more.

Sprint car alumni Tony Stewart, Ryan Newman, Jeff Gordon, paved Late Model drivers like Denny Hamlin and dirt Late Model drivers like Carl Edwards all have one thing in common: Regardless of their path to NASCAR, most of the drivers in the field cut their teeth on short tracks, so this week is a return to their roots.

Fast Facts

What	Food City 500
When	1:30 p.m. ET Sunday
TV	FOX
Radio	PRN / Sirius Ch. 128

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Of course, this is short track racing like they never experienced in the feeder systems. Forty-three cars on a half-mile track are more akin to a high-speed traffic jam than a feature race. Imagine sitting in bumper-to-bumper traffic, only at 125 mph, and you will have a sense of the challenges faced this week.

The new body style is much more durable than its predecessor, which may encourage more bumping and banging. However, the car is also more stable, which is unfortunate if your driver is the assailant in that shoving match. Last year at Martinsville Speedway, Gordon repeatedly slammed into Jimmie Johnson in the closing laps and couldn't dislodge the No. 48 from the lead.

This week, drivers will search to find the ragged edge of aggression instead of handling, and don't be surprised if some of them step over the line. Tempers will flare and this will be one of the most exciting races of the season.

Patient aggression has long been a catch phrase on the short tracks, but one is reminded of an old Far Side cartoon in which one vulture says to another, "Patience heck. I'm going to go out and kill something."

For years, Gordon was criticized for a lack of aggression, but he stopped those tongues from wagging in the August 2002 Bristol race when he bumped Rusty Wallace out of the lead and stole the victory. Actually, "stole" might not be the best definition since he was reclaiming his prize after leading nearly half of the race that night. In that edition of the Sharpie 500, Gordon was very hungry and in desperate need of snapping the longest losing streak of his career. At that time, it had been 31 races since he last visited Victory Lane. He's not quite as ravenous this week, but Chevrolet and Hendrick Motorsports have not yet tasted the champagne this year, so he is at least extremely thirsty.

One of Gordon's biggest competitors this week, however, will be his teammate Dale Earnhardt Jr. He counts his 2004 victory on this track among the most special of his career since his father ran so strong at Bristol throughout his lifetime. While father and son have very different personalities, Junior has practically never stumbled on this course either. Since fall 2001, Earnhardt has finished 16th or better in 13 consecutive Bristol races and accumulated six top-fives, nine top-10s and an average finish of 7.5 during that span. More recently, his three-year average finish of 6.5 is the best in the Cup Series, so fantasy owners want to make room for him on the roster this week.

Kevin Harvick also has the right degree of aggression. Like most drivers, he stumbled in his first attempt at Bristol and finished 24th, but he came back in fall 2001 to finish runner-up to Tony Stewart. That triggered a six-race streak of top-10s that ended with another 24th-place finish in fall 2004. Since then, his Bristol career has resembled a Hillbilly's teeth -- only every other one is good -- but notably, all of his success in the last four years has come in the spring. For some reason, he runs better in the daytime at Bristol than at night, with a third in 2004, a victory in 2005, a second in 2006 and a fourth last year.

Brian Vickers has one more bullet to dodge this week and if he does, he just might be a dark horse contender to qualify for the Chase for the Sprint Cup. He has earned his ninth place in the standings with consistently strong top-15 runs at Daytona International Speedway, Auto Club Speedway and Atlanta Motor Speedway. There is still a reason to be concerned though; he missed the fall Bristol race last year, and the No. 83 team won't breathe easy until qualification is complete. With the smallest entry list this season, Vickers has to outrun only three cars in time trials to make the Food City 500 and once in the race, the concrete high banks have been a favorite of his. In the other three races at Bristol and Dover International Speedway last year, Vickers swept the top 20 with a narrow band of results from 15th through 19th. Since he started the season outside the top 35 in points, not much was expected of this driver, and his salary cap remains affordable.

With his formative years spent on short tracks in USAC sprint cars, Newman is a much better racer on this type of track than he is often credited. In 36 career attempts on Cup tracks measuring less than a mile in length, he has finished in the top 10 more than half the time, compared to only nine results outside the top 20. Three of his last four attempts at Bristol have ended in top-10 finishes, but an accident in this race last year -- and its subsequent 39th-place showing for the No. 12 driver -- might cause your competition to overlook him.

Last year, the concrete high-banked tracks were about the only place that Johnson stumbled. In four starts at Bristol and Dover, the No. 48 team failed to crack the top 10 once and averaged a result of 16.5. Worse still, for the most part, Johnson kept his car clean during these events -- he just wasn't very fast. In 2006, his Fate was a little better, but even then, Johnson failed to crack the top five and one has to go all the way back to a victory at Dover in fall 2005 to find his last true success on this type of track. Chad Knaus and the team continue to be baffled at the lack of success for the No. 48, and there is no reason to risk your money on them until they start running well.

Even rookies who cut their teeth on short tracks have a difficult time in their first Bristol race, and not much in the backgrounds of Sam Hornish Jr., Dario Franchitti and Patrick Carpentier will prepare them for what they are about to face. Bristol is as similar to the high speed, unrestricted, intermediate speedways that the Champ Cars race as night is to day. If one of these first-year drivers manages to stay on the lead lap, they will be the exception and not the rule. In the first four races of the season, the freshman class has averaged a meager finish of 31.5 and all of them are currently outside the top 35 in the standings. By next week, they will each probably have to qualify on time and the playing field for rookie of the year honors will be leveled -- just not in a way that they hoped or anticipated.