iNSIDE SCOOP: Bristol Could Upset the Status Quo

Bristol Motor Speedway may not be the brutal, Darwinian test of speed and courage that it once was, but it ranks right up there in terms of excitement.

Billed as “The Last Great Coliseum,” it has been the place where sheet metal goes for a makeover. Beating, banging, fisticuffs and other staples of sport are common there, or they were, until SMI started dickering with the configuration.

Even with some of the teeth taken away, it is still a great place to watch a race. Forty-three cars on a half-mile track? Racing around the bottom of the world’s largest colander? You can’t get much better.

We enter the week after a three-race run that has seen Dale Earnhardt Jr. finish first, second and second, Brad Keselowski win two straight Coors Light Pole Positions and Team Penske sweep the front row both times and Stewart-Haas Racing validate that expansion can sometimes have a negative connotation on success.

We’ve seen Kevin Harvick flat wear out the field at Phoenix and start to do the same at Las Vegas before a hub broke.

We’ve seen Roush Fenway Racing swing and miss three times, though they were a bit sportier at Vegas than at Daytona and Phoenix. Hendrick Motorsports, other than Junior and Jimmie Johnson, has yet to make much of a mark. Kasey Kahne is off to a slow start, and while Jeff Gordon has run well at times, he’s missing a bit of speed.

Joe Gibbs Racing has been fast at times, and they’ve not been fast at times. Those times are usually in the closing laps, and that’s a problem. Matt Kenseth is not as strong as he was to open 2013, but it’s lurking somewhere.

Surprise drivers like Paul Menard and Casey Mears are making noise, and that’s a good thing.

Ryan Newman was good at Phoenix and Vegas, and he’ll get better. 

Kurt Busch is struggling with his new ride, and Tony Stewart is searching for another police sirens tape to kick-start his season. Danica Patrick is getting better, leading the way for SHR at Vegas.

The new rules haven’t hurt the racing, and the new qualifying format is working out now that NASCAR will allow cool-down units between sessions. That was a no-brainer, in my opinion, and proof positive in the power of united protest.

What will we see this weekend at Bristol? My guess is we’ll see a lot of drivers using the chrome horn. Winning is more important than it has ever been, at least since the modern era came to be, and that will turn guys used to running for a good finish into beasts who will do what they have to to win and get in the final 10 races with a shot at the Sprint Cup.

In other words, it will be business as usual at Bristol.