page_title: Bristol Motor Speedway
section_title: Overview
hierarchical_section_title: Bristol Motor Speedway / Overview
caption_attribution_description: NASCAR track (circuit) en:Bristol Motor Speedway in August 2007
context_page_description: Bristol Motor Speedway, formerly known as Bristol International Raceway and Bristol Raceway, is a NASCAR short track venue located in Bristol, Tennessee. Constructed in 1960, it held its first NASCAR race on July 30, 1961. Bristol is among the most popular tracks on the NASCAR schedule because of its distinct features, which include extraordinarily steep banking, an all-concrete surface, two pit roads, and stadium-like seating. It has also been named one of the loudest NASCAR tracks.
context_section_description: Bristol Motor Speedway is the third-largest sports venue in America and the seventh largest in the world, housing up to 162,000 people. The track is so short that speeds are far lower than is typical on most NASCAR oval tracks, but they are very fast compared to other short tracks due to the high banking. Those features make for a considerable amount of "paint swapping" at the NASCAR races as the initial starting grid of 40 vehicles each in the Cup and Xfinity Series, and 32 in the Truck Series, extends almost halfway around the track, meaning slower qualifiers begin the race almost half a lap down. The congestion inherent in the facility and the power of the cars and trucks has been likened to "flying fighter jets in a gymnasium." The track tends to be loved or hated by fans and the drivers. Purists who grew up driving or attending races at older short tracks located at fairgrounds and similar places tend to love Bristol, while those raised on superspeedway racing tend to chafe at the lower speeds.
  Bristol races are often the scene of the highest number of yellow-flag caution laps in the NASCAR season; with so many cars in such a small space, contact is almost inevitable. Until the Beneficiary Rule was instituted in 2004 (after the races at Bristol in 2003), the short lap length and the unpredictable nature of the racing meant it was one of the few remaining NASCAR tracks at which it was feasible for a driver to win a race from several laps down; at most modern tracks, especially superspeedways, that was almost impossible. The short lap length also cuts the other way; any unscheduled pit stop for reasons such as a cut tire will result in the driver going two or more laps down as it is almost impossible to get anything done to a car during the time taken to complete one circuit, especially under green-flag conditions (approximately 15 seconds). Thus, the disadvantage of losing laps means the chances of earning a free pass under the Beneficiary Rule is harder, since a driver losing two laps under a green-flag pit stop would have to race his or her way past the leader before the caution waved to regain one of their laps back, unless there are no cars one lap behind.
  The drag strip at this facility has long been nicknamed Thunder Valley. Both NASCAR Cup Series races held at Bristol are for 500 laps; the spring race (historically a day race; however, the 2006 race ended under nighttime conditions because of Standard Time and the late afternoon start) is sponsored by area grocery chain Food City and considered one of NASCAR's top 10 annual races. The late summer race (the popular night-time race, considered "the toughest ticket in NASCAR" to obtain) has rotated among several sponsors. From 2001 to 2015, Newell Rubbermaid sponsored the race, first under its Sharpie brand (2001–2009) and then its Irwin Tools brand (2010–2015). Starting in 2016, Bass Pro Shops became primary sponsor of the summer race, with the National Rifle Association as a secondary sponsor.
  Bristol is a fertile ground for other levels and types of racing; NASCAR Xfinity Series races often drew more than 100,000 spectators, making it one of the best-drawing Xfinity venues, and resulted in Fox televising the race nationally from 2004 to 2006 and ABC doing the same in 2007 and 2008.
  In 2004, it was the first Busch Series race of the season televised on broadcast network television, and the race, which had been 150 laps in 1982, 200 laps in 1984, and 250 laps since 1990, was a 300-lap race in 2006.
  The Craftsman Truck Series ran a stand-alone race in June from 1995 to 1999 with the NASCAR Autozone Elite Division, Southeast Series. Since 2003, the race has been a midweek (Wednesday) night race as part of the August night race weekend. In 2009, the NASCAR Whelen Modified Tour and the NASCAR Whelen Southern Modified Tour ran a combined race prior to the truck race. In 2017, the race was for the Whelen Modified Tour after NASCAR absorbed the Southern Modified Tour into the Modified Tour prior to the 2017 season.
  Many of the fans come from the East Tennessee area, bu
caption: Grandstand in 2007
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