2008 Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway

2008 Sharpie 500:

On Saturday night NASCAR goes short track racing under the lights at Bristol Motor Speedway. The 2008 Sharpie 500 is one of the toughest tickets to get in all of NASCAR and for good reason. The tight confines of Bristol Motor Speedway create great racing and the night race is often one of the best shows of the year.

Tickets:

Speedway ticket office (423) 764-1161

Buy online from TicketsNow (direct link)

The Track:

Measuring in at .533 miles and featuring variable banking in the corners. Bristol Motor Speedway is very tight and very fast. Racing here was once compared to racing jetfighters in a gymnasium.

In 2007 the track was torn up and reconfigured. They made the track three feet wider, smoothed the transitions into the turns and added variable banking.

Race Distance:

500 laps = 266.5 miles

The Big Picture:

Carl Edwards picked up the Michigan win and earned ten more Chase bonus points. If the Chase started tomorrow Kyle Busch would have a 40 point lead based on bonus points for winning races.

At the back of the top twelve the Race to the Chase has definitely tightened. Denny Hamlin is 26 points ahead of both Clint Bowyer and David Ragan with only three races remaining until the Chase.

1. Kyle Busch
2. Carl Edwards -222
3. Jimmie Johnson -302
4. Dale Earnhardt Jr. -345
5. Jeff Burton -349
6. Tony Stewart -558
7. Greg Biffle -575
8. Kevin Harvick -617
9. Jeff Gordon -638
10. Matt Kenseth -646
11. Kasey Kahne -673
12. Denny Hamlin -694

Storylines:

This weekend's biggest stories come from two big NASCAR news items from this week.

First up this week was NASCAR's announcement of the 2009 NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule. The most significant change was Atlanta's fall race moving out of the Chase to go under the lights on Labor Day weekend.

The other big news this week was the penalties announced for Joe Gibbs Racing's Nationwide Series teams. The #18 and #20 teams attempted to manipulate a NASCAR dyno test to hide how many horsepower their Toyota engines really had. Both drivers were docked 150 points and both crew chiefs were suspended indefinitely.

Media Coverage:

TV: ESPN Saturday August 23rd 7:00PM Eastern.

Radio: PRN and SIRIUS Satellite

Actual Race: 8:05PM Eastern

Recent Events:

2007 Winner: Carl Edwards

2007 Polesitter: Kasey Kahne

Last Year:

2007 was the first race on the newly reconfigured Bristol Motor Speedway. The race saw more side-by-side battles and longer green flag runs on the wider racing surface.

Carl Edwards and Kasey Kahne dominated the night and finished one-two with Carl Edwards pulling off his famous post-race backflip at the short-track racers paradise.

Predictions:

The intensity will be turned up this weekend as the famous night race in Bristol brings out the worst in the drivers. This is the kind of race where the favorites can be knocked out in an instant.

Carl Edwards won this event last year and is coming off his big win last week in Michigan. Edwards wants to close the bonus point gap between himself and Kyle Busch. Bristol is a great opportunity for him to do that.

My backup pick this week is Clint Bowyer. Clint finished third here in the spring as part of a 1-2-3 Richard Childress Racing sweep.

That was no fluke as Bowyer finished third here a year ago as well behind Edwards and Kahne. Clint Bowyer will have a strong run again this weekend and makes a solid backup pick.