Thunder Valley beckons this week as the drivers try and get a win at the world’s fastest half-mile track. That’s right it’s Bristol baby! One of the craziest races on the schedule every year, outside of the restrictor plate track of course, simply because of the bullring aspect of it and the unpredictability of putting 37 cars in such a small area.
Because it’s a short track, playing the pole sitter in a cash lineup is highly recommended since it’s harder to pass on short tracks and the amount of laps led they can rack up in a hurry really boosts their score. There are only a handful of drivers who have a history of moving up through the field well with only five drivers posting a +6 number or better in the last four races here. The 500 in the race number this week refers to the number of laps run in the race, not the mileage, so there is a lot of opportunity to get laps led and fastest laps with six drivers leading at least 100 laps each in the last two races and four having 100+ fastest laps in the last four. With that being said, stacking the roster with drivers who have shown they can run up front consistently is key.
Long runs are also quite common here, though if you look back at the track breakdown, you’ll see that in the first race of the year here for the last several, there have been double-digit cautions and nearly 20% of the laps have been run under caution. That means however that there are still over 400 laps run under green. Paying close attention to drivers that have long run speed at practice will help determine who should make what lineups and who can be skipped. Also if you have read through the practice notes, you will see that the track has put down a traction compound around the bottom four feet of the turns in order to try and make it a two-groove track with the top and bottom being driveable at speed. However during the race there is a question as to how long it will last with that many cars making that many laps on the surface, plus with quite a bit of rain in the forecast on Sunday, it could be washed off the track in general.
A quick note, the race time has been moved up one hour to 1:00 p.m. ET on Sunday to try and avoid the weather.
Stacks
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