For the 2nd consecutive year at Bristol Motor Speedway’s spring race, I have spent most of a whole day at a track, to watch only a few hours of actual racing. This year, along with last year, endured a very long rain delay on the Sunday, prior to the Sprint Cup drivers actually being able to run. However, it was a pretty fun day. Most of the fun comes from seeing some of the characters waiting around for the race to start. Let me put it this way…..You will be entertained, at any place where you can bring your own cooler, with no restrictions on what types of beverages are in the cooler.
Matt Kenseth broke an over a year winless streak by outlasting everyone else at this marathon. The pole sitter for this race was fast, ran well, and took care of the car during Sunday’s race. There were plenty of on track incidents collecting other drivers, though. Roughly 22 laps into the race, Teammates Brad Keselowski and Joey Logano got tangled up. This would knock both of those drivers out of contention for the win. Dale Earnhardt, Jr cut a tire against the machine of Kasey Kahne and had to make an unscheduled pit stop. After going down 2 laps from this pit stop, there was a loose wheel on the 88. He had to make another pit stop, this time putting him 4 laps down. Junior would eventually get 2 of them back, but still finished 2 laps down.
Kurt Busch and Kevin Harvick, the 2 fastest cars all weekend, were both caught up in accidents on the track. Nonetheless, there were a lot of cars that were luckier than the aforementioned ones. First, Jimmie Johnson. He didn’t qualify well, but was 3rd fastest in Saturday’s final cup practice session. It seemed like he hit everything on the track, except for the pace car Sunday evening, and still came away with a 2nd place finish. The biggest surprises of the night, were top 10 finishes from Tony Stewart, Justin Allgaier, and Danica Patrick. They put in a great performance Sunday evening, after some struggles earlier this year. After sitting it out the past 2 years and a couple of pairs of wet socks, I pray it never rains again.
