BRISTOL, Tenn. — It’s Bristol, child, however what does that imply for right this moment’s race?
A race the place tire put on is prevalent? Perhaps.
A race that sees Denny Hamlin rating a 3rd consecutive victory? Presumably.
A race the place errors will decide who’s racing for the win and who isn’t? Rely on it.
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Right here’s a have a look at what to observe for in right this moment’s race at Bristol Motor Speedway:
Drivers to observe
Favorites: Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson. The 2 have mixed to win 5 of the final eight races on the concrete at Bristol. Hamlin seeks to win his third consecutive race of the season after victories the previous two weeks at Martinsville and Darlington. Larson seeks to win his second race of the weekend. After ending second in Friday’s Craftsman Truck race, Larson gained Saturday’s Xfinity Sequence race.
Keep watch over: Ryan Blaney and Christopher Bell. Blaney has been quick a lot of this season however has but to achieve Victory Lane. He misplaced the lead on pit highway forward of the extra time restart final weekend at Darlington. Bell has 5 top-three finishes within the first eight races of the season, together with the previous two occasions.
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Don’t overlook: Brad Keselowski and Alex Bowman. Keselowski wants a superb run. His common end is 26.1, the worst of his profession eight races right into a season. He completed third in final spring’s race at Bristol when drivers needed to handle tire put on. Might the identical factor occur right this moment? Bowman begins on the pole and completed within the high 10 in each Bristol races final yr. He’s opened the season with 5 high 10s within the first eight races this yr.
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Bristol is certainly one of Ricky Stenhouse Jr.’s higher tracks, having scored 4 top-five and 7 top-10 finishes there.
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Good and simple would possibly get to the checkered flag first
With drivers anticipating tire put on to be an element, just like final spring’s race, pole-sitter Alex Bowman explains what it may very well be like for drivers to handle tires in right this moment’s race.
“Within the spring final yr, we rode round at what felt like half pace all day, and I believed I used to be going to get out of the automobile and everyone was going to be mad as a result of we did not run laborious all day,” Bowman mentioned. “All people liked it as a result of there was a lot chaos. So within the fall, we simply ran laborious all day. You run laborious each lap, and that is sort of what Cup racing has grow to be lately … how laborious it’s a must to run the automobile.
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Tire put on was the main focus of Cup groups Saturday at Bristol Motor Speedway.
“There are some locations it’s a must to handle, however for probably the most half, you are ten-tenths each lap. I feel (Sunday), it is actually going to rely upon when the cautions come out and what they do. Such as you have a look at the top of that spring race, and we did not get any cautions for lots of issues that would have been cautions, most likely. However initially of the race, we have been getting cautions on a regular basis. So there’s two methods to foretell that, proper? In case you save an excessive amount of and you retain getting all these cautions, you are simply giving freely monitor place. But when you aren’t getting the cautions and also you run too laborious, you are killed on that, too.
“So it’s going to be attention-grabbing to see what the mindset is there and what the truth that we dwell in (Sunday), so far as what the tires do with it being a bit hotter and the place we go. So I feel the largest factor is it should be a ton of studying on the go as a result of as a lot as all of us assume we all know precisely what it should do from observe, we most likely actually do not have a clue, and we will must study as we go.”
Watch pit highway
Bristol is the one monitor with pit stalls on the frontstretch and backstretch.
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Throughout cautions, all automobiles should enter pit highway at Flip 2 even when their pit stall is on the frontstretch.
One of many challenges for drivers is driving across the curve on the apron in Turns 3 and 4. Drive too near the within wall and a driver will brief minimize the radius of the nook and be hit with a dashing penalty. That’s what occurred in Ty Gibbs in final fall’s playoff race.
Others have been caught in that space in previous races. There are three pit highway timing segments on the apron in Turns 3 and 4. So, should you see or hear of a pit highway penalty in sections 6, 7 or 8 of pit highway, it got here in that apron part between Turns 3 and 4.
