Vital stats for the IRWIN Tools Night Race
Track: Bristol Motor Speedway in Bristol, Tenn., 0.53 miles, concrete surface, 24- to 28-degree banking in all turns. Banking in the frontstretch and backstretch is 4 to 8 degrees. The frontstretch and backstretch are both 650 feet.
Time/TV: IRWIN Tools Night Race, 7:30 p.m. ET, Saturday, Aug. 24. TV: ABC (coverage starts at 7 p.m. ET), Radio: PRN; SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, Channel 90.
Trailblazers: The first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race at Bristol was held in 1961, won by Jack Smith (with relief from Johnny Allen) on July 30 of that year. Richard Petty and Darrell Waltrip lead the series with 26 top-five finishes and Petty leads the series in top-10 finishes at Bristol with 37.
0 is the fewest amount of caution periods in a Bristol Motor Speedway event, accomplished in the 1971 Volunteer 500. “Chargin’ ” Charlie Glotzbach was credited with the victory, though relief driver Raymond “Friday” Hassler took over on the hot July day and drove under the checkered flag. The 2-hour, 38-minute race remains the fastest in track history, run at an average speed of 101.074 mph.
0.064 was the margin of victory in Kyle Busch‘s victory over Jeff Burton in the March 25, 2007 race, which has been the closest MOV at Bristol since the advent of electronic scoring.
1 is the fewest amount of laps led by a Bristol Motor Speedway winner in NASCAR’s premier series. Fred Lorenzen inherited the lead on the final lap when Richard Petty, who had led 442 laps to that point, retired with rear-gearing failure while leading the Volunteer 500 in July 1964.
2 Bristol Sprint Cup races have been shortened due to weather conditions.
2 is also the number of women who have competed in NASCAR premier series events at Bristol Motor Speedway. Racing pioneer Janet Guthrie and active driver Danica Patrick have two career starts each at the Tennessee track — Guthrie finished 11th and sixth in her two efforts in 1977. Patrick has placed 29th and 28th in the last two Sprint Cup races at Bristol.
3 times there have been green-white-checkered finishes at Bristol. All three came in the spring race at the track and happened in three straight years, from 2007 to 2009.
5 is the number of wins Kurt Busch, Kyle Busch and Jeff Gordon have at Bristol, the most among active drivers.
6 is the number of times Mark Martin has finished as the runner-up at Bristol. That is the most among active drivers.
6.876 is the average starting position for Jeff Gordon at Bristol, which is the best among active drivers.
7 is the staggering number of consecutive Bristol victories, set by Darrell Waltrip. Each win in the streak came behind the wheel of the No. 11 car owned by fellow NASCAR Hall of Famer Junior Johnson.
8 automakers have won at Bristol Motor Speedway. Chevrolet leads all manufacturers with 43 Bristol wins, followed by Ford’s 33. Toyota ranks fifth with five Bristol triumphs. Pontiac, Plymouth, Dodge, Buick and Oldsmobile are the other carmakers with Bristol wins.
9.824 is the average finish for Kyle Busch at Bristol, which leads all active drivers.
10 is the number of times Rick Hendrick, Roger Penske and Jack Roush have had their drivers win at Bristol, which is the most among active car owners. Junior Johnson has the most car owner wins with 16.
12 is the number of times Darrell Waltrip won at Bristol, which is the most among all drivers. Waltrip won seven consecutive races at Bristol from 1981 to 1984.
14.813 seconds is the track-record qualifying time, set by Kyle Busch in Coors Light Pole Award qualifying last March. The lap, which translates to 129.535 mph, is one of 13 track records broken so far this season by the new sixth-generation (Gen-6) model of stock car used in NASCAR’s top series.
20 is the record amount of caution periods in a Bristol event for NASCAR’s top series. The number has actually occurred three times — April 1989, April 1997 and August 2003.
22 times the race winner has started from the pole position. The last driver to win from the pole was Carl Edwards in the night race of 2008.
23 is the fewest amount of cars to start a race for NASCAR’s premier series at Bristol. Of that number, 14 cars were running at the finish in the 1975 Southeastern 500, where Richard Petty took the checkered flag by six laps over Benny Parsons.
28 was the number of times that Jeff Burton competed at Bristol before winning (the 2008 spring race) at the track, which was the longest span of the 15 active winners.
35 is the number of NASCAR Sprint Cup Series races at Bristol that have been won from the front row. That calculates to an even 33.3 percent winning rate for the first- and second-place starters.
36 is the number of degrees of banking in the turns at Bristol Motor Speedway from 1969-2007, a number which stood as the steepest in NASCAR for nearly four decades.
38 was the starting position for Elliott Sadler in 2001, when he won at Bristol. It is the deepest starting position that a race winner has had at Bristol.
41is the number of different drivers that have won a Sprint Cup race at Bristol.
46 different drivers have had poles at Bristol, with Mark Martin and Cale Yarborough leading the way with nine each. Martin swept both poles at Bristol in 2009.
48 was the age of Dale Earnhardt when he became the oldest Bristol winner at 48 years, 3 months, 30 days on Aug. 28, 1999.
60 is the track-record number of career starts by King Richard Petty, the series’ all-time wins leader. Petty scored three victories and six pole positions from 1961 to 1992 at the .533-mile track. His total includes a season sweep of Bristol’s two races in 1975.
79.225 mph was the speed that won Fred Lorenzen the inaugural Coors Light Pole.
103.0 is the NASCAR Sprint Cup Series-leading driver rating at Bristol Motor Speedway, owned by Kyle Busch. The youngest Busch brother is entered in all three national series races this weekend.
105 Sprint Cup races have been held at Bristol.
166 Sprint Cup races have been held in the state of Tennessee. Bristol has hosted the most with Nashville Speedway next on the list with 42. Smokey Mountain Raceway in Maryville is the only other track with double-digit races (12) for NASCAR’s top series.
422 drivers have competed in at least one Sprint Cup race at Bristol.
500 is most laps led by a Bristol winner in NASCAR’s top series. NASCAR Hall of Famer Cale Yarborough started from the pole position and was never headed in winning the Southeastern 500 in March 1973.
2,713 is the career total of laps led by four-time Sprint Cup champion Jeff Gordon, a five-time winner at the World’s Fastest Half-Mile. Gordon also holds a career average running position of 9.6 at Bristol, tops in the series.
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