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.