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The Car of Tomorrow made its highly
anticipated first appearance — or dreaded debut, depending on how you look at it — in the March race at the high-banked half-mile bullring at Bristol.

With the playing field supposedly leveled by the CoT, Joe Gibbs’ crew appeared to have the best coaching strategy. Tony Stewart led 257 laps while Denny Hamlin paced the field for 177. But a busted fuel pump earned Tony a 35th-place finish, and late engine failure ended Hamlin’s day in 14th place.

The first CoT race came down to the wire in a showdown between 22-year-old hot shoe Kyle Busch and 40-year-old veteran Jeff Burton. Despite the opportunity to do a little Bristol bumping, Burton ran a clean race with Busch, who took home his only victory of the season.

In the August race at Bristol, it was a two-horse race throughout. Carl Edwards took the trophy after leading 182 laps, while Kasey Kahne was forced to settle for a disappointing second-place finish despite leading 305 laps. After 30 top-5 finishes over Kahne’s first three Cup seasons, the runner-up at Bristol was his only top 5 of 2007.

Dale Earnhardt Jr. had a pair of top 10s last year, finishing seventh in the spring and fifth in the fall. Judging by Hendrick Motorsports’ first (Busch) and third (Jeff Gordon) at Bristol in March, Junior should have a shot at winning his second race (August ’04) at the Tennessee track.

FANTASY STALL
Looking at Checkers
Look for Kenseth to get back to Victory Lane this year.
Pretty Solid Pick
Kurt Busch
Good Sleeper Pick
Greg Biffle
Runs on Seven Cylinders

The open-wheel imports.
Insider Tip
Lots of contenders here, but Bristol is a game of survival.

KEEP AN EYE ON...
Greg Biffle Not the first name that comes to mind when discussing Bristol favorites, Biffle has five top-10 finishes here in his last six starts. That’s solid fantasy gold.

Clint Bowyer The third-year RCR driver is not known for his short track prowess, but he did notch runs of third and eighth last year.

Kurt Busch No Bristol list is complete without Busch, who has five wins at the track and placed sixth in 2007’s night race.

Jeff Gordon Speaking of a five-time Bristol winner, it’s only fitting to give Gordon a shout-out at a track he obviously knows how to get around.

Matt Kenseth Assuming Roush Fenway has its CoT program in order, Kenseth could pull off another dominating streak like he enjoyed in 2005-06, when he won twice and led 706 of a possible 2,000 laps.


RACE RESULTS FOR Food City 500 (Mar 22nd, 2009)
DRIVER MANUFACTURER START FINISH POINTS EARNINGS
Kyle Busch (#18) Toyota 19 1 195 $232,998
Denny Hamlin (#11) Toyota 24 2 175 $138,275
Jimmie Johnson (#48) Chevrolet 3 3 170 $168,876
Jeff Gordon (#24) Chevrolet 10 4 160 $146,051
Kasey Kahne (#9) Dodge 5 5 155 $143,398
Mark Martin (#5) Chevrolet 1 6 155 $109,575
Ryan Newman (#39) Chevrolet 2 7 151 $129,729
Jeff Burton (#31) Chevrolet 40 8 142 $137,906
Juan Pablo Montoya (#42) Chevrolet 12 9 138 $133,473
Marcos Ambrose (#47) Toyota 13 10 134 $113,923
Kurt Busch (#2) Dodge 32 11 130 $109,075
David Reutimann (#00) Toyota 6 12 132 $116,973
Clint Bowyer (#33) Chevrolet 31 13 124 $92,975
Dale Earnhardt Jr. (#88) Chevrolet 34 14 121 $105,650
Carl Edwards (#99) Ford 38 15 118 $138,606
A.J. Allmendinger (#44) Dodge 26 16 115 $91,225
Tony Stewart (#14) Chevrolet 15 17 112 $101,648
Travis Kvapil (#51) Toyota 17 18 109 $91,475
David Stremme (#12) Dodge 29 19 106 $123,540
Elliott Sadler (#19) Dodge 22 20 103 $99,975
Robby Gordon (#7) Toyota 35 21 100 $108,660
Bobby Labonte (#96) Ford 36 22 97 $117,629
Reed Sorenson (#43) Dodge 7 23 94 $127,676
Casey Mears (#07) Chevrolet 37 24 91 $103,900
Paul Menard (#98) Ford 42 25 88 $119,681
Martin Truex Jr. (#1) Chevrolet 20 26 85 $124,190
David Ragan (#6) Ford 41 27 82 $96,450
Scott Speed (#82) Toyota 11 28 79 $101,873
Brian Vickers (#83) Toyota 27 29 76 $116,023
Kevin Harvick (#29) Chevrolet 30 30 73 $122,703
Sam Hornish Jr (#77) Dodge 25 31 70 $103,810
Michael Waltrip (#55) Toyota 21 32 72 $91,975
Matt Kenseth (#17) Ford 33 33 64 $113,115
John Andretti (#34) Chevrolet 39 34 61 $91,875
Aric Almirola (#40) Chevrolet 18 35 58 $91,825
David Gilliland (#71) Chevrolet 14 36 55 $83,775
Jamie McMurray (#26) Ford 9 37 52 $91,725
Joey Logano (#20) Toyota 23 38 49 $131,026
Greg Biffle (#16) Ford 4 39 46 $103,325
Sterling Marlin (#09) Chevrolet 43 40 43 $83,550
Joe Nemechek (#87) Toyota 28 41 40 $83,475
Todd Bodine (#30) Toyota 16 42 37 $83,390
Dave Blaney (#66) Toyota 8 43 34 $82,968



RaceEd
(March 14, 2008 - 9:14am)

In last season's CoT races at Bristol the average speeds were 81.969 mph in the Spring and 89.006 mph in the Fall.

-- Matt

rsprague
(March 14, 2008 - 2:19am)

According to the news section on the pepsi fantasy racing home page the average lap speed is around 85 to 90 mph.

earl rowe
(March 13, 2008 - 1:25pm)

what is the average race speed for this track for sprint cup races

najamesknapp
(March 13, 2008 - 8:25am)

can you tell me what the aveage speed is normally for this track please?

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