Bristol Motor Speedway

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Bristol Motor Speedway
World’s Fastest Half-Mile
Bristol International Raceway
Bristol Raceway
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Address:
151 Speedway Blvd.,
Bristol,
Tennessee 37620

Bristol Motor Speedway (USA)
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United StatesUnited States Bristol , Tennessee , USA
Bristol Motor Speedway.jpeg
Route type: permanent race track
Owner: Speedway Motorsports, Inc.
Operator: Speedway Motorsports, Inc.
Architect: Carl Moore, Larry Carrier, and RG Pope
Building-costs: 600,000 US dollars
Start of building: 1960
Opening: July 30, 1961
Short track oval
oval
Route data
Important
events:
Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series
Food City 500
Bass Pro Shops NRA Night Race

NASCAR Xfinity Series
Fitzgerald Glider Kits 300
Food City 300

NASCAR Camping World Truck Series
UNOH 200

Route length: 0.858  km (0.53  mi )
Curve superelevation: Curves: 24–30 °,
straight lines: 6–10 °
Audience capacity: 160,000
http://www.bristolmotorspeedway.com

Coordinates: 36 ° 30 ′ 55 ″  N , 82 ° 15 ′ 25 ″  W.

Bristol Motor Speedway , originally known as Bristol International Raceway and Bristol Raceway , is a NASCAR racing circuit in Bristol , Tennessee, USA . It was built in 1960 and the first race took place on July 30, 1961. In addition to the oval as the main racetrack, the facility also includes a quarter mile long drag racing track , which was long known as Thunder Valley .

overview

The all-concrete circuit in Bristol is one of the most popular racetracks in the NASCAR series and is similar to Dover International Speedway , except that it is considerably shorter. Until the renewal of the road surface in 2007, according to the operator, the curve elevations of 36 ° were the steepest within NASCAR. However, to date there have also been contrary statements about the degree of superelevation. Ryan Newman said in an interview that his crew only measured an elevation of 26 ° during a test. Apart from that, the racetrack is so short that the speeds achieved are lower than on Superspeedways , but higher than on other short tracks due to the high elevation .

The shortness of the track means that the 43 vehicles on the grid take up almost half of the race track, so that the vehicles from the last starting positions are already a good half lap behind the leaders. Another special feature due to the short route are the two pit lanes , one each in the area of ​​the start and finish straight and one in the area of ​​the back straight. Until 2002, the drivers who had qualified the worst were assigned the pit lane to the back straight. After a rule change this year, there is a two-part rule: During a yellow phase, both pit lanes form a single pit lane. The entrance to the pit is in turn 2, the exit in turn 1, which means that a vehicle has to complete a complete lap in the pit lane. This eliminated the disadvantage of the rear box. While the race is running under green, the entrance to the rear pit is in curve 2 and the exit in curve 3. The entrance to the front pit lane is in curve 4 and the exit in curve 1. This new regulation lifted the disadvantage of the worse qualified driver, but also caused confusion, so that some drivers drove through both pit lanes under green.

Due to the dense traffic and the performance of the racing cars, statements such as “fighter jets fly in a gym” often result. There are basically only two opinions of the Bristol Motor Speedway among fans and drivers. They either love them or they hate them. Often this has to do with whether they grew up racing on short tracks or on super speedways. Furthermore, races in Bristol tend to generate a high number of laps under yellow, as contact and jostling between the vehicles and resulting accidents are practically inevitable under the heavy traffic on the narrow track.

The shortness of the route also leads to other special features. Until the introduction of the so-called "Lucky Dog" rule in 2004, according to which the driver who was lapped last was allowed to lap back in a caution phase, Bristol was one of the few tracks where it was possible for a driver to still be in the race despite several laps behind to win. On most modern race tracks, especially the superspeedways, this was practically impossible. At the same time, the advantage of the short distance can also turn into the opposite, because a pit stop under green with an average lap time of around 15 seconds inevitably results in a lap deficit.

NASCAR is running two 500-lap races in Bristol in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series . The spring race is traditionally a daylight race, while the late summer race is held as a night race. Tickets to the Cup Series races are considered difficult to come by due to the popularity of the race and the resulting demand. But the races of the Xfinity Series , often with more than 100,000 spectators, are among the most successful of this series, so that FOX decided to broadcast these races nationwide between 2004 and 2006.

Other events include the only race in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series , which takes place on Wednesday evening during the week, and races of the so-called "Sprint Cars". The latter were also attended by more than 100,000 spectators, a number that is almost never reached for these events.

history

When Bristol Motor Speedway opened in 1961, it could well have been given a different name. The construction was initially planned in Piney Flats , but according to Carl Moore there was resistance from the population there. The possible Piney Flats International Speedway was built about 5 miles north on Highway 11-E on the site of a former dairy in Bristol. Previously, Larry Carrier and Carl Moore had traveled to Charlotte Motor Speedway in 1960 to watch a race there. Then they decided to build a speedway in northeast Tennessee, but as a scaled-down version of the Charlotte Motor Speedway with a route length of around half a mile.

Construction on the Bristol International Speedway began in 1960 and lasted about a year. During this time, many ideas for the racetrack came from Carrier, Moore and Pope on envelopes and paper bags.

The purchase of the property as well as the construction cost around 600,000  US dollars . The total area of ​​the speedway including parking spaces for more than 12,000 cars is more than 100 a , i.e. H. more than 4 km². The original speedway was exactly half a mile long with a width of 60 feet (around 18 m) on the straights and 75 feet (around 23 m) in the turns. The cant in the curves was 22 °. At the first NASCAR race at Bristol Motor Speedway on July 30, 1961, 18,000 seats were available. There were other weekly races before this race. The first NASCAR driver to drive the track for training on July 27, 1961 was Tiny Lund . The first pole position went to Fred Lorenzen , who reached a speed of 79.225 mph. The inaugural race, the Volunteer 500, was won by Jack Smith . At the end of the race, however, he was no longer at the wheel of his car, but Johnny Allen , who took over the wheel after 290 laps. Both drivers shared the $ 3,225 prize money. The total prize money paid out in this race was $ 16,625. In this first race, in which 19 of 42 cars started, the then 17-year-old country music star Brenda Lee sang the national anthem.

In the fall of 1969, the Bristol Motor Speedway was renovated and redesigned. The turns were banked to 36 ° and the length of the route changed to 0.533 miles.

After the end of the 1976 season, the Speedway was sold to Lanny Hester and Gary Baker. In the spring of 1978 the name was changed to Bristol International Raceway . A good six months later, in August 1978, the first night race was held on the oval, which has since become one of the most popular events in the NASCAR Cup Series.

On April 1, 1982, Lanny Hester sold his share of the speedway to Warner Hodgdon, who on July 6, 1983 secured sole ownership of the circuit and the Nashville Speedway . He appointed Larry Carrier to run the Bristol route. After Hodgdon went bankrupt on January 11, 1985, Carrier took over the Speedway and paid off any outstanding debt.

In 1992, another renovation of the Bristol Motor Speedway took place. The asphalt surface of the route was removed and replaced with a concrete surface, for which it has been famous ever since.

On January 22, 1996, Larry Carrier sold the Speedway to Bruton Smith and his company Speedway Motorsports for $ 26 million. At that time, the racetrack offered space for 71,000 spectators. On May 28, it was officially renamed Bristol Motor Speedway . Three months later, in August 1996, another 15,000 seats were added, bringing the audience to 86,000. Since then, it has been continuously expanded so that in April 1997 118,000 seats were available. In addition, 22 so-called “skyboxes” were built. For the Goody's 500 in August the numbers were already 131,000 seats and 100 skyboxes. Since the takeover, Smith had invested more than $ 50 million in the expansion of the speedway and renamed all spectator areas after previous winners and NASCAR champions.

Kulwicki grandstand in front of the Sharpie 500 in 2006.

However, the expansion continued. For example, the audience capacity at the Food City 500 in March 2000 was 147,000 after the Kulwicki Terrace and the Kulwicki Tower were completed. Both are named after the NASCAR star Alan Kulwicki , who was reigning champion in 1993 when he was traveling to the spring race in Bristol in a plane crash. As a tribute to the retired star Darrell Waltrip , all of Turns 3 and 4 have been renamed in his honor. An additional section in the area of ​​the start and finish line is also designated as alcohol-free in his honor, as Waltrip refused to start for a team whose sponsor came from the alcohol industry in 1987. Other people who were taken into account when renaming the stands include the Allison family and David Pearson .

The following years were also used for expansion. In 2002 the long-awaited pedestrian tunnel to the infield of the racetrack was completed so that it can be entered and exited during the race. At the same time, a new building for the driver meetings was completed in the infield. Further innovations were a new Victory Lane and new display boards in turns 2 and 3.

The new tower with the video screens and the placements during a race.

The most ambitious project since the purchase of the Bristol Motor Speedway by Speedway Motorsports in 1996 began on August 26, 2002. The entire back straight including the last concrete bench seats was demolished and rebuilt. This increased the audience capacity to over 160,000 seats. An additional 52 luxurious suites were built above the grandstand. Each area of ​​the grandstand is also named after famous NASCAR drivers, including Richard Petty , Cale Yarborough and Dale Earnhardt . An area with 5000 seats in the grandstands in turns 1 and 2 above the Alan Kulwicki grandstand is named after Rusty Wallace .

The Car of Tomorrow celebrated its premiere on the Speedway at the Food City 500 on March 25, 2007 . In the course of the year, further expansions followed at the speedway. Among other things, a tower was placed in the middle of the infield, which has a video screen on all four sides. The road surface was also renewed and the curves reconfigured, which have had a variable elevation since then.

Records

  • NASCAR Cup Series Qualifying: Denny Hamlin , 14.573 s (131,668 mph) (211.899 km / h), August 19, 2016
  • NASCAR Cup Series race (500 laps): Charlie Glotzbach , 2:38:12 (101.074 mph) (162.663 km / h), July 11, 1971
  • NASCAR Xfinity Series Qualifying: Erik Jones , 15,002 s (127,903 mph) (205.840 km / h), August 19, 2016
  • NASCAR Xfinity Series Race (300 laps): Kyle Busch , 2:13:59 (71.606 mph) (115.239 km / h), March 25, 2006
  • NASCAR Xfinity Series race (250 laps): Harry Gant , 1:26:02 (92.929 mph) (149.555 km / h), April 4, 1992
  • NASCAR Camping World Truck Series Qualifying: Ken Schrader , 15.118 s (126.922 mph) (204.261 km / h), 2004
  • NASCAR Camping World Truck Series race (200 laps): Daniel Suarez , 14,884 s (128,850 mph) (207.364 km / h), August 17, 2016

Trivia

  • The Pixar film Cars uses the Bristol Motor Speedway as the base for the circuit in the race at the beginning of the film. The size of the track was increased to create a more stadium-like atmosphere.
  • For many years it was impossible for the teams to park their vans in the infield of the racetrack. There was also no real garage area. The vans had to be parked outside the racetrack, which meant that the teams could not reach them during the race, for example to pick up spare parts. Since the renovation of the infield in the early 1990s, it has been completely paved, so that the transporters can be parked there in a sophisticated system.
  • On March 25, 2007, the premiere of NASCAR's new racing car, the so-called Car of Tomorrow (COT), took place in Bristol . Jeff Gordon secured the first pole position with the new car, Kyle Busch won the first race with it.
  • On September 10, 2016, the Battle at Bristol, a college football game between Virginia Tech and the University of Tennessee, took place at Bristol Motor Speedway . 156,990 fans created a world record for viewers in football.

Web links

Commons : Bristol Motor Speedway  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files