Five to Watch: Fireworks set for Bristol Night Race

Saturday night will bring out the camera flashes and fireworks for Bristol Motor Speedway's annual night race (7:30 p.m. ET, NBCSN, PRN, SiriusXM). With the regular season ticking down and a chance at colosseum glory up for grabs, here are five story lines to watch.

ALL IN THE FAMILY: The common thread of the last four Bristol events has been the last name of the winners -- Busch. Older brother Kurt is the defending race winner, and Kyle, the youngest, has won three of the last four. Altogether, it's a 14-win Bristol tally between them. "It’s funny the two of us just kind of think the same way at certain tracks and as the years have gone by, our stats can kind of start to parallel each other at certain places where we do good and there are places where we both struggle," Kurt Busch said. Said Kyle: "It's kind of interesting or unique that us two have done a really good job of doing well here over the years. A lot of people talk about how you have to attack this track and be aggressive and that sort of stuff and obviously that's kind of our driving style a little bit, but that's a lot of other drivers' driving styles as well, too."

AGGRESSION SESSIONS: The nature of Bristol lends itself to a certain level of assertiveness behind the wheel, but drivers on the brink of losing grip on their postseason fate have to play a delicate balancing act. Push too much and the grip can get even looser. "That's what happens when you're overaggressive," said Daniel Suarez, recounting a subpar result last weekend at Michigan by his Stewart-Haas Racing teammate Clint Bowyer. "You try to to be overaggressive to gain one or two points, and then you lose 30, and we don't want that."

GETTING A GRIP: Monster Energy Series teams and drivers are waiting to see how different grooves may develop, especially after 300 laps of Xfinity Series competition and over the course of a 500-lapper on tap Saturday night. The addition of PJ1 traction compound has helped the grip in the lower lane, but as its effectiveness wears under the pounding, drivers are expected to search for running room in the upper reaches of the steep banking. "I think it may take a little longer to rubber in up top, but the bottom's giving up a lot during the day," said Daniel Hemric, after qualifying 17th in Richard Childress' No. 8. "Curious to see what the race track does overnight with the PJ1, how much they reapply, how thick it is. That's really the variable. If they reapply it, it'll take 100, 150, 200 laps before the top comes in, but once it comes in, it'll be a fairly good race."

POINTS TO PROVE: Matt DiBenedetto announced Thursday that he would leave Leavine Family Racing at the end of the season. A day later, he responded by topping final practice in LFR's No. 95 Toyota and qualified a respectable seventh at Bristol, the track that produced the first top-10 finish of his career three years ago. DiBenedetto said Friday that he's convinced another door will open for him, a quest that would be helped by prime performance in the remainder of 2019 -- starting Saturday night. "I'm just going to have to really pursue everything, but the main goal is to keep proving myself behind the wheel, which I've shown I'm here to win and run up front," DiBenedetto said.

MEGA-MAGNITUDE: Bristol has a tradition of celebrating its history of epic moments, focusing this year on the 20th anniversary of Dale Earnhardt's "cage-rattling" moment with Terry Labonte. Many other traditions persist: The high-volume driver introductions, the winner's sword in Victory Lane, and close-contact racing. The .533-mile track has maintained a love affair with fans; asked about its importance, Clint Bowyer practically gushed. "Anybody that hates this place shouldn't be in racing because this is the mecca of all race tracks. This is the granddaddy of them all," Bowyer said. "There's no question. Look at this place. Look at the grandstands. Look at that picture right there and then look at one of what it looks like today's day and age. I mean, there's nothing like this place and tracks like this we need all across the country. A fan, if they want to be a fan of this sport, they need to learn short-track racing and they need to learn of Bristol Motor Speedway."