 |
| Keselowski in Victory Lane at Bristol Photo – John Harrelson/Getty Images |
“It’s Bristol Baby”, the phrase many fans describe the annual races at Bristol didn’t live up to its name today.
Brad Keselowski has now won the last two Sprint Cup Races at Bristol. Keselowski won the night race last August 2011.
Only a few events highlighted the race at Bristol today. The first caution of the day on lap 24 was the big one. When Kasey Kahne came off of turn four he was cleared by his spotter but Regan Smith snuck up next to him and got into him which turned Kahne into the wall. Then Kahne came back across the track just barely missing Brad Keselowski. Carl Edwards came spinning into Kahne and as did Kyle Busch, Marcos Ambrose, and Kevin Harvick. KyBusch, Ambrose, Edwards and Kahne went behind the wall for repairs and all but Edwards eventually came back out on the track to pick up some points.
Kasey Kahne commented after the wreck “Fastest car every week and something always happens.” Kahne has failed to finish without some sort of incident this season, his first with Hendrick Motorsports. Regan Smith commented on the radio “I was out there he just didn’t give me no damn room!” Smith came up aside Kahne as he came out of Turn four and turned him.
After a very long green flag run, the caution came out on lap 115 when Ken Schrader made contact with the wall.
Brad Keselowski took the lead on lap 217 and never looked back.
After a 100 lap green flag run, a caution occurred when the No.30 of David Stremme got into the wall. Keselowski continued to lead the field.
On lap 360 Jeff Gordon spun making significant damage to his car in turn three. Gordon’s teammate at Hendrick Motorsports Dale Earnhardt Jr. had been racing hard with Gordon and eventually got into Gordon’s tire, cut it down and Gordon wrecked into the wall.
The final caution of the day came out when the No.14 of Tony Stewart made contact with another car and spun up into the wall. Stewart continued on with little damage and with 24 laps to go. Also during the caution Dale Earnhardt Jr. was caught for speeding on pit road.
The final restart of the day setup the defending Bristol winner Brad Keselowski and Daytona 500 winner Matt Kenseth on the front row. Keselowski soon took the lead and never looked back. Brad Keselowski is now a household name at Bristol after winning for the second time.
In this writer’s opinion, the “New” Bristol likely caused many empty seats in the grandstands at Bristol. A few years back Bristol was laid down with a new surface and changed the racing there by eliminating only one racing lane and opening up the track. This “New” Bristol features less cautions and bumping which turns some fans off.
Brad Keselowski will try to defend today’s win in the August Bristol night race which is one of the best of the season.
 |
| #2 car driven by Brad Keselowski crosses the Bristol Finish Line first Photo – Justin Edmunds/Getty Images |
Results
NOTE: No publishing or redistribution of any content is allowed
unless there is written, documented permission from Fan4Racing
Nice Job Jason! Always appreciate your post race reports, so please do not take my commentary personally, as you are not alone in your perspective. However, I adamantly disagree with your "opinions" given within your report. Personally, I disagree with your assessment of why the seats were not sold out at Bristol. The seats will not be filled in Fontana next week either. And we will see this again throughout the season. The economy is having an effect on the number of people spending the money to attend races this year. Where I used to attend five races every year, this year I'm going to one. Many families are making the same choices and not attending as many races as they have in previous years. This opinion was echoed by others when the same point was made on twitter earlier today. I'll let others post their own comments on this point…But I know I'm not alone in this perspective or my next point of view. I also agree with Kyle Petty's post race comments on Victory Lane. Paraphrasing his comments he in essence said…. If you didn't enjoy the "Racing" today at Bristol, you just don't enjoy "Racing." We had plenty of "Racing" on the track today, throughout the entire race. It was not "Beating and Banging," it was not "Wrecking." It was good hard "Racing!"