Stats show Busch in good shape to get Bristol repeat

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. -- Kyle Busch's 2008 can't get any better. Can it?

He's first in the Sprint Cup Series points, first in Craftsman Truck Series and third in Nationwide Series.

He picked up his first 2008 Sprint Cup win last weekend at Atlanta -- and the coveted 10 potential Chase bonus points that go with it.

Track Data

Race:	5 of 36
Track Size:	.533 mile
Race Length:	500 laps/266.5 miles
Corners:	24 to 30 degrees
Straights:	4 to 9 degrees

And with a Nationwide win this season, he'll win at least one race in all three series for the fourth consecutive season. Only Kevin Harvick (2003) and Terry Labonte (1995) have pulled that "cycle," and they only did it once apiece.

But the news does get better for Busch. He's back at Bristol this Sunday, the scene of the first race in the car currently used in every race this Sprint Cup season.

Busch fended off Jeff Burton to win last season's March Bristol race by a slim .064-second margin.

But eyes will likely be trained on those drivers a little lower down in the standings. After this race, the 2008 owner points standings will be used to determine which 35 teams are locked into each race (the first five races are determined by the final 2007 owner standings).

That could mean trouble for some notables -- namely Casey Mears (30th), Jamie McMurray (31st) and rookies Sam Hornish Jr. (36th) and Dario Franchitti (40th).

Mears has a Bristol Driver Rating of 55.4 and McMurray has a 67.5 -- neither of which are in the top 20.

Neither Hornish nor Franchitti have raced on the tricky Bristol layout -- a place usually treacherous on rookies. For instance, last season the best finish in the March race by a rookie was David Ragan's 26th.

• Groundbreaking for Bristol International Speedway, as Bristol Motor Speedway was originally known, took place in 1960. The track was an exact half-mile.

• Bristol held its first Cup Series race on July 30, 1961.

• In the fall of 1969, the track was reshaped and re-measured to .533-mile.

• The name changed to Bristol International Raceway in 1978.

• The first night race was held in the fall of 1978.

• The first Nationwide race was held on March 13, 1982.

• The first Craftsman Truck Series race at Bristol was held on June 23, 1995.

• The track surface was changed from asphalt to concrete in 1992.

• The name changed to Bristol Motor Speedway in May 1996.

• The track was resurfaced between races in 2007.

• There have been 94 Cup races at Bristol Motor Speedway since the first race there in 1961, two races each season.

• All Bristol races have been scheduled for 500 laps -- except for both races in 1976 and the second in 1977, which were 400-lap events.

• Fred Lorezen won the first pole at Bristol.

• The first Cup race at Bristol was won by Jack Smith (with relief from Johnny Allen).

• There have been 41 different pole winners at Bristol; 19 drivers have more than one.

• Thirty-six different drivers have won races at Bristol, led by Darrell Waltrip (12); 14 drivers have more than one victory there.

• The race winner has started from the pole 21 times, the most productive starting position.

• Seventy-seven of 94 races have been won from a top-10 starting position, including 50 from the first four spots.

• The deepest in the field that a Bristol race winner has started was 38th by Elliott Sadler in 2001.

• Junior Johnson won 21 races at Bristol -- more than any other car owner. His victories came between 1965 and 1986 and were scored by five different drivers, including one himself.

• Jack Roush is the leading active car owner at Bristol, with nine victories.

• There have been five different pole winners in the past six Bristol races. Qualifying was canceled in the spring of 2006. There have been six different race winners in the eight races at Bristol since Kurt Busch won three in a row in 2003 and 2004. Matt Kenseth won the fall race in 2005 and 2006.

• There have been 155 Cup races in Tennessee.

• Ninety-three NASCAR drivers (all-time) have their home state recorded as Tennessee.

• There have been 12 race winners on the top three NASCAR series from Tennessee.