Bristol Motor Speedway is located in Bristol, Tennessee which boasts a population of only 26,702 residents. That number greatly increases when NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series rolls into town. Bristol Motor Speedway was conceived in 1960 and held its first race a year later on July 30th, 1961.
The famed short track seats almost 160,000 fans which ranks it the fourth largest sporting venue in America and the eighth in the world. In fact, Bristol Motor Speedway set a Genius World Record in 2008 when the sold-out venue completed the largest crowd-wave in world history.
Bristol Motor Speedway is considered the “toughest ticket in NASCAR” and is one of the most beloved tracks because of its unique design. The .533 mile oval is one of the shortest venues on the Sprint Cup Series’s circuit but has very steep banking (24-30 degrees) that allows the cars to reach higher speeds than other short-track races.
Unlike Martinsville Speedway, where only the turns are concrete, Bristol’s whole track is made of concrete and is NASCAR’s only track that has two pit roads. The stadium style seating creates an amphitheater that gives racing fans the total experience from any seat in the house.
For numerous years, racing teams were unable to park their trailers inside the raceway, and the track didn’t have any significant garage area to work out of. Teams trailers were placed in a lot outside of the track. At racing time, crews and participants were inter-locked by the track, making it impossible to return to their trailers for spare parts or repairs.
In the early 1990s, the infield was revamped and completely paved. Teams began parking their trailers in an integrated, extremely tight arrangement that takes several hours, and highly skilled drivers, to complete. Teams are now able to work out of their transporters in the same way as they would at other race tracks.
Racing at Bristol can supply a lot of on track drama due to 40 Sprint Cup cars squeezed into the “toilet bowl” for a 500 lap race. Paint swapping is the norm and the venue is synonymous for having the most cautions of any event. Tempers tend to flair between drivers as the constant banging can determine who stays on the lead lap and who might have to battle back from several laps down.
Qualifying well at Bristol Motor speedway is a must because of the short circuits. Cars that qualify near the back of the field are basically starting a half a revolution behind and have to work their way to the front through a congested field. Pit stalls are also picked out by the fastest qualifiers which created a disadvantage to the drivers that had to pit on the back stretch. The rules were changed in 2002 to eliminate the prejudice. Now during cautions, cars that enter pit row have to enter in turn two and drive down the back stretch through turns three and four and down the front stretch exiting in turn one.
Below are a list of some records that are held at the iconic raceway.
NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Records:
| Most Wins | 12 | Darrell Waltrip |
| Most Top 5s | 26 | Richard Petty |
| Most Top 10s | 37 | Richard Petty |
| Starts | 60 | Richard Petty |
| Poles | 9 | Mark Martin, Cale Yarborough |
| Most Laps Completed | 25530 | Terry Labonte |
| Most Laps Led | 4305 | Cale Yarborough |
| Avg. Start* | 3.2 | Fred Lorenzen |
| Avg. Finish | 2.4 | Dick Hutcherson |
A great number of racing enthusiasts either like or hate the race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Typically, the fans that grew up around dirt tracks and fairgrounds racing events tend to enjoy the shorter track experience while others that grew up around the larger tracks tend to enjoy racing at higher speeds. None the less 120,000-160,000 still manage to fill the place twice a year to watch the NASCAR sponsored weekend. The spring race is a day event while they race under the lights in the second competition.
Bristol is also a host of many other levels of racing. The NASCAR Xfinity Series races here in the spring and the Camping World Truck Series races here in the fall. Bristol also boasts a quarter mile drag strip known as “Thunder Valley” that attracts drag racing supporters through out the year. During the off-season, the complex brings fans the Christmas season experience by hosting a miles-long holiday lights display that concludes with a lap on the actual speedway track itself.
Bristol Motor Speedway is set to go off again for the Food City 500 on April 17th at 1:00 PM E.T. Joey Logano will try to defend last years win here in the fall race. Joe Gibbs Racing stand-out Matt Kenseth won here in the spring race. The half mile concrete oval winner will receive somewhere in the neighborhood of 365,000 dollar purse, one of NASCAR’s highest awarded payouts.
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