This weekend, fans will flock to the "World's Fastest Half-Mile," Bristol Motor Speedway. This has become an occasional getaway for some over the years, while to the majority it has become almost a religion. Want proof? This spring's Food City 500 will mark the 50th consecutive sold out Nextel Cup race at the famed track. The streak dates back to 1982 when the first sell-out crowd of 30,000 watched Darrell Waltrip take the checkered flag.
As always, there will be plenty to see and plenty to debate when fans arrive this year. The slightly controversial, much-anticipated debut of the Car of Tomorrow (COT) will be this weekend in Bristol. Love it or hate it - it's here. After years of research and development by NASCAR, and after countless tests by teams, the COT is the talk of the garage. The new car design was met with lots of jeers in the beginning, but after real-world tests on the track, many drivers are warming up to the change.
Bristol has been the site of a majority of testing for the COT. NASCAR chose Bristol to be the debut for this new project because it's a short track and they felt the learning curve for the teams to prepare the cars would be less steep. The most significant difference the fans will notice is the look of the car. The front nose clip has been replaced with an air dam and splitter, and the rear spoiler has been replaced with a rear wing. Even though the cosmetics of the cars at Bristol will look different, the bumper-to-bumper, door-to-door racing action will remain the same.
The Food City 500 has a couple of NASCAR legends to kickoff the historic event. Past driver and team owner Junior Johnson will serve as the grand marshal, while the most celebrated driver in Bristol history, Darrell Waltrip, will serve as the honorary starter. The two gentlemen are the most successful duo at Bristol, with Waltrip collecting 12 trophies as a driver and Johnson collecting 21 trophies as a car owner. Darrell Waltrip, now a commentator for the FOX network, is scheduled to start the race by waving the green flag and shouting his famous "boogity, boogity, boogity" phrase live on the air from the flag stand above the start/finish line.
With 50 consecutive sellout crowds, some would argue Bristol's Cup races have become the toughest ticket to get in racing, if not in all of sports. With the growing popularity comes demand, and with demand comes new ways for ticket scalpers to take advantage of fans. Fans who have not secured a ticket for this weekend's race in Bristol still have cause for hope. Bristol Motor Speedway has teamed up with Ticketmaster to create the TicketExchange, what they hope is a more reputable, secure means for current ticket holders to resell tickets they can't use themselves and for other fans to buy those tickets with a little more peace of mind.
Bristol Qualifying Record: Ryan Newman (128.709 mph) 14.908 seconds - 3/21/03
Bristol Race Record: Charlie Glotzbach (101.074 mph, 2:38:12) Nextel Cup - 7/11/71
2006 Spring Cup Winner: Kurt Busch (0.179-second margin of victory)
2006 Spring Winner's Purse: $5,872,300
