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2006 Schedule

Track Facts:
Banking/Turns: 36
Distance: one lap 0.533 miles
500 laps (266.5 miles)
Shape: Oval

Sharpie 500
Saturday, August 23
Bristol Motor Speedway
Bristol, Tennessee
Saturday, 8:00 p.m. EST

Schedule
Practice
9:00 a.m. EST, Friday, August 22
12:00 p.m. EST, Friday, August 22
6:15 p.m. EST, Final Practice Friday, August 22

Qualifying
3:40 p.m. EST, Friday, August 22, Two laps all positions (SpeedTV)

Race Day Saturday, August 23
7:30 p.m. EST, Driver introduction
8:00 p.m. EST, 500 laps, 266.5 miles
TV: ESPN 8:00 p.m. EST start
Radio: Motor Racing Network (PRN), XM Radio

Check the SPEED Channel schedule (speedtv.com) for various programs on the race this weekend.

Race Preview

Quotes from Kyle Petty:
 “I have to thank Chad McCumbee and Terry Labonte for their efforts in the No. 45 Dodge over the last several races.  They have moved the team up to the 39th position in the owner point’s standings and we’re in position to move up a few more if we can keep improving.  I know it hasn’t been easy on the crew.  All three of us have different driving styles so they haven’t been able to get into much of a rhythm.  It’s just a testament to how hard this team works.”
 
“This car can still be considered ‘new’ at some tracks.  We just ran it for the first time at Indy a few weeks ago.  When we go to Bristol, though, it’s just a racecar.  This will be the fourth race for this car here.  Everyone has it figured out by now.  It does a great job on the short tracks, like Bristol, where you tend to use the ‘bump and run’ to pass.  The way the bumpers on these cars line up, you can still nudge someone to make the pass, but they don’t spin out as often.”
 
“NASCAR did their homework and came up with some great adjustments to the schedule for 2009.  Atlanta will pack their stands for Labor Day because Labor Day weekend is an event in the South.  Having a restrictor-plate race in ‘The Chase’ was already a wild card in determining our champion.  But putting Talladega at the first of November could, potentially, cause a big shakeup in the points with only a few races to go.  That will be very interesting.  And Iowa gets a Nationwide race.  I’ve said all along that the Nationwide Series needs to be able to stand alone.  Going to Iowa will help them do that.”

1. Carl Edwards, Ford
2. David Reutimann, Toyota
3. Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet
4. Regan Smith, Chevrolet
5. Bill Elliot, Ford
29. Kyle Petty, No. 45 Wells Fargo Dodge
35. Bobby Labonte, No. 43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge

Carl Edwards, fresh off of his win last weekend at Michigan, grabbed the pole for Saturday night’s Sharpie 500 at the Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway (BMS). David Reutimann will start alongside on the front row.

While night racing has become commonplace around the Sprint Cup Series, BMS helped start the fascination with racing under the lights. This weekend marks the 30th anniversary of the first night race at the “World’s Fastest Half-Mile.”

Kyle Petty and the No. 45 Dodge team will start tomorrow’s race from the 29th position. This will be Petty’s 50th start at BMS. It will mark his first Sprint Cup Series start since the Coca-Cola 600 in May. Petty needed to qualify for the race on time, but he had to deal with a ‘tight’ racecar during the practice session. However, he was able to rely on his experience to garner a good qualifying effort.

“It was good to get back into the car this weekend,” said Petty. “May seems like a long time ago. We weren’t very good in practice, but Stewart (Cooper, crew chief) did a nice job with the adjustments. This team is fun to be around, man. They’re just racers. I didn’t realize how much I missed them. We have one more practice session tonight so we need to continue to work hard and get this No. 45 Wells Fargo Dodge dialed in.”

Bobby Labonte and the No. 43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge team will start the event from the 37th position. Labonte finished 8th in the 2007 version of this race. The team is looking to get back to their mid-season form of a couple of weeks ago. Even though he will have to come from the back to do it, Labonte is confident in his team.

“The track didn’t feel like it had any grip in it at all,” stated Labonte. “Setup-wise it felt okay, but it was really sliding around. We’ll race at night and that alone will help the track pick up some grip. The final practice session tonight will be crucial because it will be close to race conditions.”

Race Results
1. Carl Edwards, Ford
2. Kyle Busch, Toyota
3. Denny Hamlin, Toyota
4. Kevin Harvick, Chevrolet
5. Jeff Gordon, Chevrolet
23. Bobby Labonte, No. 43 Cheerios/Betty Crocker Dodge
31. Kyle Petty, No. 45 Wells Fargo Dodge

Kyle Busch led the most laps in the Sharpie 500 at the Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway on Saturday night, but he didn’t lead the most important laps. Carl Edwards used a textbook ‘bump and run’ maneuver to pass Busch late in the race to pick up his sixth victory of the 2008 season. The victory is the second consecutive for Edwards and his second consecutive Sharpie 500 win.

After the race, Edwards and Busch swapped paint in a clear disagreement on how the closing laps of the race played out. The two have dominated the season thus far, combining for 14 wins in the first 24 races. This has led to much ballyhooed speculation that the Sprint Cup Series may be on the verge of its first true ‘rivalry’ in recent memory, harkening to the days of Petty-Pearson and Earnhardt-Gordon.

Bobby Labonte and the No. 43 Cheerios/Box Tops for Education Dodge team came home 23rd in the Sharpie 500. Labonte started the race from the 37th position as the chassis was too ‘tight’ in qualifying. When the green flag fell, the condition of the chassis was the same. However Labonte, making his 32nd Bristol start, was able to rely on his veteran experience to race his way into the top-30 by the halfway point of the event. Crew chief Jeff Meendering’s adjustments, combined with fast pit stops from the pit crew, helped Labonte move into the 17th position late in the race. Labonte raced hard to stay inside the top-20, but the chassis was too ‘tight’ in the middle of the corners at the end of the race. For the second consecutive week, Labonte finished ninth of the 43 drivers in the field in the number of green flag passes.

“We were ‘tight’ in the middle of the corners and that was what killed our lap times,” stated Labonte. “That tightness had been there since we unloaded on Friday and we tried everything to get it out. We ran some good lap times during the race and the car was pretty good getting into and off the corners. If it would have turned better in the middle I know we could have finished in the top-10.”

Kyle Petty and the No. 45 Dodge team finished 31st on Saturday night. Petty was making his first Sprint Cup Series start since the Coca-Cola 600 in May. He had a solid qualifying effort, slotting in 29th fastest, and the team knew they had a fast car for the race. However, Petty radioed in to crew chief Stewart Cooper on lap 70 that his throttle was sticking. Not wanting to take a chance, considering the speeds that are turned at the ‘World’s Fastest Half-Mile,’ Petty made his way down pit road to have the crew asses the problem. Petty lost several laps during the diagnosis, but when he returned to the track he was running some of the fastest lap times of anyone.

“That was pretty disappointing to have the throttle problem,” sounded Petty. “But we are trying to build this team and there was no sense in taking a chance on killing one of our cars. It’s unfortunate, but the guys should be proud of the way the car drove tonight. We were fast. I had a lot of fun tonight.”

Kyle Petty name and/or likeness used under license by Petty Marketing Company, L.L.C.
Richard Petty name and/or likeness used under license by Petty Marketing Company, L.L.C.