Clean Sweep at Bristol for the RCR Boys

By Jen Dunnaway

Editor

Someone once said of Bristol Motor Speedway that it looks like someone dug a hole in the ground and poured a racetrack into it. Drivers have likened racing on the short, nasty little track to "flying jet fighters in a gymnasium." And the corporate types call it "the fastest half-mile in NASCAR." Whatever you want to say about it, there’s no track on the whole Sprint Cup circuit quite like it: its specific combo of brevity and steeply-banked turns makes for 16-second laps and close, violent, high-contact and high-speed racing. Bumpin’ and bangin’ is SOP here, and it’s not uncommon to see cars cross the finish line with half their sheet metal missing. Anyway, a lot can happen pretty fast when you take a bunch of stock cars and throw ‘em in a blender, and during Sunday’s race, a lot did. In just the last five laps we saw Joe Gibbs racers Tony Stewart and Denny Hamlin cruising for a 1-2 finish when the Richard Childress Racing Chevrolets started charging. In just a few short minutes, Stewart got spun into the wall after making contact with Kevin Harvick while Jeff Burton slipped past, Hamlin’s fuel pickup stumbled on the restart, knocking him out of the lead, Harvick kept in it to finish second behind Burton and Clint Bowyer brought up the rear of the team charge to finish third. This last-minute switcheroo scored RCR its first 1-2-3 finish. As a dazed Jeff Burton said of his win, "I dunno what happened"—I guess that’s Bristol for you! Congrats to Burton, and to my two faves Harvick and Bowyer, for such a super finish. CarDomain will be covering the next Bristol race in August, so stay tuned!