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Bristol Motor Speedway
Cheez-it 250
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Location: Bristol,
TN
Shape: Oval
Distance: .533
mile
Banking, Turns: 36
degrees
Front Straight: 650
feet
Back Straight: 650
feet
Banking, Straightaways: 16
degrees
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BRISTOL MOTOR SPEEDWAY
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| "I liked Bristol. We tested there but only got half a day in because it rained out. We struggled a little in qualifying and had to use a provisional for the first time this year. In the race, we just wanted to survive. We moved up to the top 20 by missing some accidents and playing it cool. But Kelly Denton hit me in the rear and I spun and hit the inside wall head-on. It was towards the end of the race so there wasn't enough time to make repairs. I ended up 33rd." |
Bristol Motor Speedway is a fast, tough, half-mile race track
located in the mountains of eastern Tennessee. It is notorious for
bump-and-grind racing, which is great for the fans' enjoyment.
On the other hand, racing teams know that getting out of
Bristol without a damaged race car is nearly impossible.
With this in mind, the Harrahs's Racing Team went to
Bristol with the motto "survive."
We had to start the race from the 37th position.
This was a concern for us, because the race track is so small that
the leaders begin lapping cars very early in the race. When the race
started, the survival contest began. By lap 30, there had already
been three yellow flags, and we were dodging wrecks left and right.
It wasn't long before we were running in the top 20, and
looking forward to a good finish. With only 60 laps to go, our good
finish was taken away when we were hit from behind causing us to
spin and hit the inside wall. The
car was damaged too severely to finish the race, and we were
credited with 33rd position.
A tough break for the Harrah's team, but everyone is
keeping their heads up, and we are ready to go to Texas. It is my
home track, and I have always enjoyed racing in front of friends and
family. Harrah's will have a larger presence than normal because
they are sponsoring the Winston Cup race, the Harrah's
500. They have a lot of special events planned around the
race weekend so it should be great fun.
Talk to you soon,
Larry
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Notes & Quotes:
On
Bristol: "We tested there a couple weeks ago,
but we only got a couple hours in because it rained. We're just going to try to
avoid the trouble and finish the race. If we do that, we'll probably finish in
the top 20... It's the first track I've been to where my ASA short track
experience may help me. Bristol is similar to tracks like Salem and Winchester,
both in Indiana, because they're also high-banked half-mile tracks. The
difference is that you run them on the top and Bristol you run on the
bottom."
 Foyt
qualified well at both of those tracks in the No.14 Harrah's Pontiac last year.
He started fifth at Salem and won the pole at Winchester, despite never having
run at either track before then.
At
Darlington, S.C. last week, Foyt was hit in the rear hard enough to send him
spinning into the inside retaining wall. The impact knocked the rear end out of
alignment and damaged the front fender. The crew made repairs and Foyt returned
to the race to finish 30th.
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