NASCAR News & Notes of the Week

Bristol in the spring. (ASP, Inc.)

One theme is consistent among competitors as NASCAR returns to Bristol Motor Speedway for the first time since track changes intended to create tighter racing.

“I just hope that they didn’t screw it up,” points leader Greg Biffle says.

“I just hope they didn’t screw up the race track,” Ryan Newman says.

“Nobody really knows what is going to happen,” Jimmie Johnson says.

After lackluster attendance in the spring and complaints by fans about the lack of action, track officials narrowed the groove to force cars to run closer together and create that door-banging excitement some fans said was lacking.

“I think it is going to be exciting either way,” Biffle says. “I heard they ground the corner more down the straightaway so that when you come up off the corner you will go across that patch coming on to the straightaway, which may be difficult to go from the bottom groove. They carried it around maybe further than it needed to be, but we will have to wait and see when we get there how the race track drives now. I hope it is good.”

Newman is worried what type of racing drivers will see.

“I hope they didn’t take the racing away,” he says. “The beating, banging and crashing is not the racing that I like. That’s what some of the fans enjoy, but that’s not the racing I like. I like being able to run side-by-side. The problem we had the tire just didn’t allow us to be able to fall off so the first five laps of the run were like the last five, 120 (laps) later. Your car didn’t fall off, your balance didn’t change, and everybody was virtually the same speed.

“To me, the tires are the biggest issue when it comes to a place like that.”

Goodyear did a tire test this summer. Cup teams will use a different left-side tire than in the spring race. The right-side tires will remain the same version run in the spring.

“I’m more interested in the changes done to the tire compound than anything else,” says Brad Keselowski, who has won the past two Bristol Cup races. “I think that’ll be the bigger key to the puzzle and we’ll just have to see how that unfolds. Obviously, I’m going to run all three series Wednesday, Friday and Saturday and if there’s a difference in the track I should be the first to know.”

The Camping World Truck Series races Wednesday night at Bristol with the Nationwide race Friday night and the Cup race Saturday night.

Danica Patrick at Darlington in May. (ASP, Inc.)

LEAVE HER ALONE  This weekend’s race at Bristol will mark a busy stretch for Danica Patrick as she prepares to move to Cup full time next season. She’ll compete in four of the next six Cup races, running at Bristol this week and then Atlanta, Chicagoland and Dover in September.

She’ll face added attention, which team owner Tony Stewart says is unnecessary.

“I’ll be honest, I wish everybody would get off her back and just let her go race and let her learn,’’ Stewart says. “Everybody is putting so much pressure on her and so much focus on her. Going to a place that you’ve been to is obviously going to help, but everybody needs to take a step back and let this girl learn and do what she is trying to do there.

“It’s kind of a double-edge sword. It’s been great from the publicity side, but for her, I don’t know how she handles it. It’s making me nervous having to talk about her all the time, let alone, she is the one that has to actually do it. I just hope everybody respects her enough to give her the room to know that whether she makes three laps or whether she finishes the whole race, the whole goal is to just learn.”

His advice for Patrick?

“Go out and learn. That is exactly what I told her,” Stewart says. “It’s not been rocket science. The biggest thing is every lap you run in a car the better you’re going to get and the more you are going to learn. Even if you are running fifth or 25th you are learning something. The goal of these 10 races — which is exactly what we said back in the media tour, clear back in January — was that these races are designed to give her laps in the car and get her more time and experience. The good thing is she is excited about it and that is the attitude you have to have going into it.”

PLAN AHEAD   The 2013 Cup schedule is slowly being revealed as some tracks have announced their dates. NASCAR isn’t expected to announce the 2013 schedule until next month (this year’s schedule wasn’t announced until late September last year).

Here’s what has been announced for 2013: What was called the Budweiser Shootout at Daytona will be held Saturday, Feb. 16. The Daytona 500 will be Sunday, Feb. 24.

The Cup series will race at Las Vegas on March 10. Texas Motor Speedway will host Cup races April 13 and Nov. 3. Darlington’s Southern 500 remains on Mother’s Day weekend on May 11. Dover’s two Cup races next year will be June 2 and Sept. 29. Indianapolis’ Cup race will be July 28.

PIT STOPS   Brad Keselowski has scored seven consecutive top-10 finishes, tying Kasey Kahne for the longest streak this season. ... Matt Kenseth has had six consecutive top-10 finishes at Bristol, the longest active streak for that track. ... NASCAR announced Tuesday that Aaron Fike has completed his road to recovery program and his indefinite suspension for violating the Substance Abuse Policy has been lifted. He was suspended in July 2007 after being arrested on heroin charges. He later admitted in an ESPN The Magazine article that he took heroin on some race days.

by Dustin Long
Follow Dustin on Twitter: @DustinLong