Bristol Racing, Bad Crowds: Can Bruton Smith Ever Win?

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The folks at Bristol Motor Speedway had the proverbial goose that laid the golden egg. They threw open the gates and sold out the joint for a generation: 27 years, in fact, from the summer of 1982 straight through 2009. Then, nearly a half-dozen years ago the powers that be made a fatal mistake; they repaved the goose. While the simple act of repaving is not a bad thing, especially with a concrete track, the process of adding progressive banking and trying to make more than one lane of racing — especially on a place that made its reputation by people wrecking each other to pass was the kiss of death.

The Big 6: Questions Answered After the 2013 Food City 500 at Bristol

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The thing about Brad Keselowski that makes him a threat every place on the circuit is that he doesn’t let any racetrack beat him. You can’t look at past finishes and think, “Hey, a rival could really have a great day, because Keselowski isn’t that good here.” No sooner will the thought be formed than Keselowski will go out and prove it to be wrong by posting a stronger finish than he’s ever had before. That, really, is what makes him scary good, and a threat to win every time out. Sure, he’ll have his bad luck, but that rarely indicates a trend. Prior to his back-to-back Bristol wins (fall ’11 and spring ’12), Keselowski hadn’t even cracked the top 10 in three Cup races there, posting a best finish of 13th. Now, he’s a top pick. And he can do that anywhere.

Small Track, Big Storylines: Bristol Made Its Comeback

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Let’s be honest. Most of us don’t tune into the race or trek into the tracks with high expectations. High _hopes_, maybe, but certainly not high expectations. After all, why should we? These may be the best drivers in the world, but that also means they know how to conserve, preserve, and basically ride around for the time being. Only with 20 laps to go these days do we see some hard-charging, balls-to-the-wall racing that makes us hold our breath longer than we knew was humanly possible. Either that, or we leave claw marks on the edges of our seats.

But, with Bristol, we allow those expectations to drift ever so higher. The highlight reels, of a generation of hard-fought finishes tell the tale. Bristol is a world where sheet metal has wrinkles, tires leave trails, and helmets grow wings. Drivers may get ticked, but the on track racing is spectacular. It’s fun to watch throughout.

Pace Laps: A Returning Rookie, Action-Packed Bristol And Tragedy Out West

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_Did you miss an event during this busy week in racing? How about a late-night press release, an important sponsorship rumor, or a juicy piece of news? If you did, you’ve come to the right place! Each week, The Frontstretch will break down the racing, series by series, to bring you the biggest stories that you need to watch going forward for the week ahead. Let our experts help you get up to speed for the coming week, no matter what series you might have missed, all in this edition of Pace Laps!_

*Sprint Cup: Action-Packed Sunday* Kasey Kahne ended the day in Victory Lane at Bristol Motor Speedway for the first time in his Sprint Cup career.

Formula 1 Friday: 2013 Season Preview

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Roll up, roll up, the circus is back in town this weekend and with an array of talent and delight that may even trump last season's twists and turns. 2013 could be the most unpredictable and exciting season ever…..so, it falls to me to try and untangle a few of the finer details in this, your Frontstretch F1 Season Preview. Feel free to point and laugh as precisely none of these predictions come to pass…. *Rules and Regs* Technically for 2013 it’s pretty much ‘more of the same’, so expect the main titles (driver and constructor) to be fought out between the big players – McLaren, Red Bull, Ferrari and, to a lesser extent, Mercedes and Lotus. What’s interesting though is how much development effort will be afforded to this year's cars through the season. Whereas in years past, teams challenging for the title would change, add, remove and tweak for as long as they could afford to do so, before concentrating on the car for the following year (usually when they realized that the championships were gone), this time round the BIG challenge for all the competitors is developing the new turbo V6 formula for 2014. As a result, the cars are evolutions of the 2012 cars rather than revolutions. But how long will teams risk tweaking before the attention shifts to 2014? That factor could shape the destiny of both this and next year's titles….. *Tires* One thing that will have changed a little this season is the Pirelli tires. The French company have been asked to firstly increase the performance gap between the compounds of its new range of tires (remember, a team needs to use both types of dry compound brought to a race). Hence the softer tire is expected to be worth around half a second over the harder tire. But, of course, the amount of sets a team can use over a weekend is limited. There’s also talk of 4 to 5 pit stops per race as the new tires degrade at a greater rate this season. So, in essence, we have a situation where ‘lesser’ teams might rattle through a few new tires in order to achieve a good grid slot on the Saturday, leaving some of the faster cars, on fresher race tires, mid-grid. What does that equal for Sunday? That’s right, good racing. <div style=\"float:right; width:250px; margin: 20px; border: black solid 1px; padding: 3px;\"><img src=\"http://www.frontstretch.com/images/12502.jpg\" width=\"250\" height=\"283\"/><p style=\"margin: 3px; text-align: left; font-weight:bold;\">Lewis Hamilton moves to the Mercedes this season and already has the car looking surprisingly fast.</p></div> *Form Guide* The vagaries of pre-season testing have always been a pitfall for those of us who like to speculate. Or indeed those of us tasked with writing season previews. What though have we learnt from the two main tests at Jerez and Barcelona? Well, other than that it’s not always sunny in Spain, as has been mentioned, we can expect a more competitive Ferrari from day one, a quick (as ever) Red Bull and a McLaren with masses of potential (the McLaren is without doubt the most experimental car this year), but that hasn’t been unlocked from the car as yet. Interestingly though, the Mercedes, particularly in the hands of Lewis Hamilton is looking stunningly quick in qualifying trim (here’s betting tip number one – a couple of your American dollars on Lewis for pole in Australia) and the Lotus once again looks a strong contender. *Runners And Riders* *The Big Four -* *Red Bull – Sebastian Vettel/Mark Webber* The one time ‘fun team’ of the paddock has started to take itself seriously and as a result has won three championships in a row. They start again as favourites for that very reason and with the design genius that is Adrian Newey behind them, you’d be slightly deranged to put a big bet against them. Vettel may not be the most complete, or the fastest driver on the grid, but he’s probably number 2 in both those categories, and given the quickest car, that should be enough to take him to a fourth consecutive world title…..this year though, I don’t think it will. Mark Webber has recently come in from some fairly stern in-team criticism by Helmut Marko, RBR’s motorsport chief. However he retains the support of boss Deiter Mateschitz and if there’s anyone that can turn criticism into determination, it’s the feisty Aussie. Frontstetch Prediction – Another constructors title, but Vettel beaten into second by a generously-eyebrowed Spaniard. *Ferrari – Fernando Alonso/Felipe Massa* Ferrari started the 2012 season with an absolute dog of a car which, in all honesty, although they improved, it never really got that close in pure pace to the Red Bull, or even the McLaren/Lotus. However, the metronomically brilliant Fernando Alonso still got within an ace and a seemingly indestructible exhaust away from winning the title. Testing and the noises from the team this year would suggest that this year’s contender is starting from a far, far better place. Basic math would then suggest that Alonso should walk away with the silverware, and I’d tend to agree with that theory…. Alonso is much the most complete driver on the grid and has a Schumacher (Mk 1) like way of grinding out the very best performance possible race after race. He deserves more than his two titles, and very few would begrudge him a third in 2013. Felipe Massa upped his game last year just in time to secure his position in the team for 2013. He may sneak a race win, but don’t expect him to trouble Alonso too much, and don’t expect him in the team in 2014. Frontstretch Prediction – Alonso is driver champion. Ferrari second in constructors. *McLaren – Jenson Button/Sergio Perez* Make no mistake, the loss of Lewis Hamilton has seriously hurt McLaren’s driver line-up, but it will mean they have had the opportunity to sculpt the new car more to Jenson Button’s style, which in his previous years in the team they haven’t. The car itself is the bravest and riskiest development of the main runners. Blisteringly fast on the first day of testing, McLaren have lost their way a little bit in terms of understanding what in the car made it that quick. Once they get that back, expect race wins…..but how long will that take? Jenson Button, on his day and in the right machine, can give anyone a run for their money. However, unlike Hamilton he’s not about outright speed and you wonder how much he’ll get pushed by Perez in the sister car. He’ll realise, however, that as team leader this will be a big chance for him. Speaking of big chances, here’s the biggest one of Sergio Perez’s career. There’s been a strange sea-change in terms of the perception of Perez recently – people seem to think he ‘lucked-in’ with his podiums in the Sauber last year. Certainly his potential is yet to be fully understood, and rumours of an overweight driver in pre-season doesn’t sound a lot like a McLaren man….. Frontstretch Prediction – Button wins races, but comes up short in an unpredictable car. Perez flatters to deceive and is replaced by Bottas for 2014. …

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Frontstretch Foto Funnies: Who, Me?!

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_Welcome to the Frontstretch Foto Funnies! Ever see a photo that's just begging for a caption? We see them all the time! Each week, we'll pick a few, then let our staff give it their best shot. We'll post the best ones for you!_ _Want to get in on the fun? Each week, we'll also designate one of the photos for fan captions. Leave your best ideas in the comments below or on our \"Facebook page.\":https://www.facebook.com/Frontstretch We'll choose our favorite one and reprint the photo next week with its new caption! Then, at the end of each month, we'll randomly choose one winner from the four winning captions, and that person will receive a free weekend rental from our friends at FanVision during any Sprint Cup race weekend in 2013! What could be better than that? In order to be eligible, comments must include a valid email (nobody can see it but us, and we promise we'll only use it for notification purposes!) Note while you can post as many captions as you like, you aren't eligible for the monthly prize if you've w on a contest from us in the last 90 days._ _This week's Fan Foto is Photo No. 1 (the one with Jeff Gordon is laughing at an apparently grossed-out Clint Bowyer.) Ready, set… caption that!_ <div style=\"float:left; width:540px; margin: 20px; border: black solid 1px; padding: 3px;\"><img src=\"http://www.frontstretch.com/images/15547.jpg\" width=\"540\" height=\"360\"/><p style=\"margin: 3px; text-align: left; font-weight:bold;\">\"Wow, that giant pigeon really seems to like your car, Clint!\"</p></div> <div style=\"float:left; width:400px; margin: 20px; border: black solid 1px; padding: 3px;\"><img src=\"http://www.frontstretch.com/images/15546.jpg\" width=\"400\" height=\"521\"/><p style=\"margin: 3px; text-align: left; font-weight:bold;\">\"So I'm driving back to the garage after the wreck, and there's Johnson, thumbing a ride, like this! So I pick him up and then he's all like 'slow down!' Next time he does that, I'm doing donuts…\"</p></div> <div style=\"float:left; width:540px; margin: 20px; border: black solid 1px; padding: 3px;\"><img src=\"http://www.frontstretch.com/images/15545.jpg\" width=\"540\" height=\"360\"/><p style=\"margin: 3px; text-align: left; font-weight:bold;\">\"What? Someone stole Junior's last Diet Dew? Now, _who_ would do a terrible thing like that? Junior LOVES the taste of Diet Dew! What a (burp) dastardly deed!\"</p></div> <div style=\"float:left; width:540px; margin: 20px; border: black solid 1px; padding: 3px;\"><img src=\"http://www.frontstretch.com/images/15544.jpg\" width=\"540\" height=\"360\"/><p style=\"margin: 3px; text-align: left; font-weight:bold;\">\" Dude, those Indy cars are teeny! How on earth do you get in and out of one of those?\"</p></div> <div style=\"float:left; width:540px; margin: 20px; border: black solid 1px; padding: 3px;\"><img src=\"http://www.frontstretch.com/images/15543.jpg\" width=\"540\" height=\"360\"/><p style=\"margin: 3px; text-align: left; font-weight:bold;\">\"You should have seen their faces when I requested garage passes for my cousin Inigo!\"</p></div> <div style=\"float:left; width:540px; margin: 20px; border: black solid 1px; padding: 3px;\"><img src=\"http://www.frontstretch.com/images/15542.jpg\" width=\"540\" height=\"360\"/><p style=\"margin: 3px; text-align: left; font-weight:bold;\">\"I don't believe it. I drew him a map. I pasted it to his dashboard. And he STILL got lost.\"</p></div> <div style=\"float:left; width:540px; margin: 20px; border: black solid 1px; padding: 3px;\"><img src=\"http://www.frontstretch.com/images/15511.jpg\" width=\"540\" height=\"429\"/><p style=\"margin: 3px; text-align: left; font-weight:bold;\">This week's Fan Foto winner, from Rowdy KitKat: Would you trust this man with your car insurance?! Coz I'm not sure I would…</p></div>

Voices From the Cheap Seats: Dropping Appeal And Getting Paid What You’re Worth

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Much the same as fans who have dropping appeal for NASCAR, Denny Hamlin announced Thursday that he plans to drop the appeal of the fine that NASCAR levied against him for saying the new car was a piece of crap. As wishy washy as his decision may sound, make no mistake about it, he still doesn’t plan to pay the fine. \"After a lot of thought I have decided not to appeal the fine NASCAR has issued. Dragging myself, my team and NASCAR through the mud for the next 2 weeks would not be good for anyone,” Hamlin tweeted Thursday afternoon. “I firmly believe I am in the right on this issue and will stand behind my decision not to pay. I understand NASCAR will do what they feel is necessary based on my decision. Thanks to all of my fans and peers who have supported me in this decision. I look forward to putting it to rest.\" <div style=\"float:right; width:250px; margin: 20px; border: black solid 1px; padding: 3px;\"><img src=\"http://www.frontstretch.com/images/14928.jpg\" width=\"250\" height=\"367\"/><p style=\"margin: 3px; text-align: left; font-weight:bold;\">Denny Hamlin won't appeal his senseless fine from NASCAR, but he won't pay it either. NASCAR will just have to come and get it.</p></div> I know, the original announcement that he was ‘dropping his appeal’ scared me too! After all, I have yet to hear anyone or read one response to an article that did not support Denny and felt NASCAR execs were, in essence, so dumb that it takes them 2 hours to watch “60 Minutes”. After reading the full text however, I had to smile and applaud Denny for coming up with an even more creative and subtle way to show his utter disdain at the whole situation. Knowing that he has is boss and basically all of the NASCAR fan base, whether an actual fan of Denny or not, in his corner, Denny has basically said that not only is he not going to pay the fine, he’s not even going through with the process to ‘officially’ say he’s not going to! NASCAR’s response was typical in it’s transparency as well as this official release indicates: NASCAR announced today that the $25,000 fine assessed to driver Denny Hamlin on March 7 will be settled per Section 12-3 of the 2013 NASCAR rule book after being informed by Hamlin that he will not appeal the penalty. Hamlin was fined after the sanctioning body determined he had violated Section 12-1 (actions detrimental to stock car racing). NASCAR considers this matter closed. Section 12-3 of the NASCAR rule book allows NASCAR to collect fines from the driver points fund and/or race purse winnings.(3-14-2013) So there you have it. Denny isn’t even interested in jumping through the hoops to officially not pay and NASCAR just basically will deduct it from the #11’s paycheck. I wonder if they can get the deductions strung out over the course of the year so it doesn’t hurt so much? (That is ‘sarcasm’ for those of you who do not recognize it or are named Sheldon.) Once, just once I wish that NASCAR would simply do the right thing and admit that they over re-acted in this case. Are they so obtuse that they do not see how such an admission would do more than money can buy to win back fans? It boggles the mind, I tell you! As for getting paid what you are worth, it is amazing what an (arguably) pretty face and a set of ta-tas can get you in NASCAR. I speak of non other than Danica Patrick. Forbes has just announced, in its annual rating of driver’s salaries, that Patrick ranks a whopping 7th, with earnings of 12.9 million dollars in 2012. Earnhardt Jr. was of course first, with 25.9 million. Those figures include off track earnings, but still, 7th? Give me a break! What has the woman done in her career? I’m not trying to sound sexist here but seriously, as a race car driver she is middle of the pack at best, whether it be in open wheel or stock cars. Maybe if I invest in some silicone and a good plastic surgeon….nah, too hard to find nice women’s shoes in my size! Stay off the wall (unlike Danica last week) Jeff Meyer \"Contact Jeff Meyer\":http://www.frontstretch.com/contact/14350/

Brendan Gaughan Driver Diary: A Racing Deal, Shark Diving, and the Nerd Machine

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It really kind of stinks for the team the way the schedule is set us, because you don't get in a rhythm. You go one race, and you know, for the guy that wins at Daytona, it's great. He gets a month and half of being the only winner and the points leader. But for the rest of us, we want to get racing. With the RCR bunch, I was supposed to go to Las Vegas Motor Speedway. It was really smart on Richard's part; we took my whole truck team. Because the Truck Series was off, we took my truck team, and they were working on the car, and Danny Stockman and the No. 3 team in the Nationwide shop set the car up and then we took it and let our boys do the nuts and bolts. We took our truck, our trailer, and we sat in Las Vegas and watched it rain. That was a big bummer for all the boys. But that's part of the deal; no biggie. Now, we're having a busy stretch of testing. I'm sitting right now at Motor Mile in Radford, Virginia, testing all day. We leave Sunday for Texas Motor Speedway, so we're busy right now. It's not like we're just sitting on our butts saying, 'hmm, what do we do?' We're keeping busy and learning a bunch, but it does stink, because as a racer, you want to race. You want to get in a rhythm, you want to keep going, and you just kind of sit here going, 'Okay, well, I've got time off. My car chief took a vacation. One of our guys just had a baby, so it's nice for him…' but all of us are sitting here thinking that we want to get to the track and race. The Truck Series needs to have a couple more races. The real reason for that being the sponsors; we've got to give them value for their dollar, and 22 races is not enough to give the sponsor value. It didn't save us money; it didn't save the teams a whole bunch of money having three fewer races. NASCAR knows this, and they tried to add a couple races to the schedule. They're still trying. They didn't get it worked out. They added a road course, they added the dirt track, so they've taken some bold steps. We've heard they're going to add a new short track to the schedule next year. They'll probably gain a track somewhere, so we'll probably get back to the right number of races. That's all you can really do, just add races. We need about three or four more races for the trucks. There's a big gap here where you could add one or two. There's another gap where you could maybe add one. I don't think it's anything that's vital; it just isn't good from the sponsor end because we needs those races for sponsor value. <div style=\"float:right; width:275px; margin: 20px; border: black solid 1px; padding: 3px;\"><img src=\"http://www.frontstretch.com/images/14494.jpg\" width=\"275\" height=\"181\"/><p style=\"margin: 3px; text-align: left; font-weight:bold;\">Find out how Brendan Gaughan has spent the long early season truck series break. It's probably not what you expect!</p></div> Our Chevy was fast at Daytona. It was way fast. It was a bummer. Everybody looks at it and some people say, \"what the hell, you're an idiot,\" and some people say they saw what happened. It depends on your point of view. I made a mistake on pit road that put us back further than we should have been. Then you only have one more stop to make the difference, and the guy that is pitting in the stall right in front of me happens to be two spots ahead of me on the race track. So, you want to get in front of him because that's the guy who gives you a good opening on pit road. I wanted to get by him, I set the deal up for about five laps. I kept watching Newberry, and the kid's never been to Daytona, so he's just trying to bide his time and be patient, but I kept making him look outside, and I made him open a hole. I was intentionally doing something to get him to open a hole. He opened the hole and I went through the hole. Once you're in the hole, I'm now basically at the mercy of somebody else to sit there and do the right thing. As soon as he felt me, he should have just moved back up, but he did not. And look, he'll never do that again. There's a difference as a driver. If I'm at your rear bumper, just barely in there, yeah, I need to get out of there. If I'm pushing at your bumper, I'm not there. But if I'm at your rear tire, there's no more 'pretty much;' I'm there. So it's a deal where, he's a good kid, he made a mistake. You can say I got impatient, I got this or that. I had a reason to get there, and it wasn't impatience. I spent laps setting it up. It was just a racing thing. I got put in a bad spot—I put myself in a bad spot. He got in a spot where he could have got himself out of it, because once I committed, there's no getting out of there. There's no hitting brakes or anything like that. It's not a big deal. It was just a racing gig, that's all. It stinks for points, but we're going to go to Martinsville, my favorite place in the world, and we're going to go there and win a race. We spent a lot of time during the offseason at our family's house in Colorado. We went up to Colorado and I had my 25-month-old skiing with me, and we went from the top of the mountain to the bottom. He's 25 months old and we went from the top of Vail Mountain to our house at the bottom. As a father, I don't know if there's any cooler of a feeling than watching your son accomplish something like that and being a part of that. It was so neat. I've been skiing since I was two and a half. It was just so invigorating to have my son and do that. It was neat. And then the new baby, there's a lot of sleepless nights, a lot of bottles and poopy diapers, but it's all worth it. It's all great. Now it's race time, and they travel to a lot of races with me. I got a new sponsor, Alliance Coach. For the last couple of years, they gave me a coach for Daytona, because we're there for two weeks. Well, I finally talked them into giving me a deal for the year. The main reason for that is I can't expect Tatum and the babies to come and stay in a hotel if they're going to come watch a race. I've got to have a motor coach, a place for them to be. Alliance stepped up and gave me a sponsorship, and I go pick up my motor coach in a couple of days, and I'm excited about that. Now I get to have the babies at a bunch of races with me, and that makes me happy! I'm a Dive Master for Lake Norman SCUBA. I do a whole lot of diving. As a matter of fact, I have a trip planned during one of our breaks, where I'm going out to this middle-of-nowhere island. I'm really excited about it. I'm taking the owners of Lake Norman SCUBA and a bunch of friends from Colorado and my wife, and the grandparents are going to watch the babies, and we're going to go do a big dive trip. I'll dive anything. This place we're going to, there's no shipwrecks; it's all big animals. We're going in a season that has schooling hammerheads, whale sharks, giant Pacific rays—it's a big animal place. I tech dive; I'm a dive master, and I'm working on getting my instructor rating. I do a lot of diving and enjoy the hell out of it. My favorite place to dive is this island called Soccoro Island. It's a protected area off of the Baja Peninsula in Mexico. It's like the Galapagos of Mexico. It's phenomenal. The giant Pacific manta rays are the most gorgeous animals you'll ever see. Shark diving is fun. Stephen Spielburg created a phenomenon that lives to this day. I love diving with sharks. There are a ton of sharks out there. We're hoping this year to see schooling hammerheads and whale sharks. I could go to heaven then, it would be amazing. It's unbelievable how the rays are. They're like dolphins almost; they're very social animals. They come and play with you forever, it's just really impressive. That's my favorite place to go right now. I'm a tech diver, and what tech diving means is that I can go past what's called the decompression limit of recreational diving. I can go deeper than that; 225 feet is my max depth right now. To do that, you carry four tanks, two on your back and two on your chest. I've been to the USS Oriskany that's off the coast of Florida. The cool thing about the Oriskany is that that's the boat that John McCain took off from when he got shot down in the Vietman War and became a POW. I've been inside it, we penetrated the wreck, and I've gone to the bottom of it at 220 feet down. I love tech diving. It's a phenomenal time. I love my diving. If I can be underwater or on a mountain skiing, that's where you'll find me. There's a new Star Wars movie coming out in 2015. Lucas is a genius. He took some heat over the first three movies, so he got mad and sold the rights to Disney. They're probably the only company that has the money to do that correctly. I love the director; I do know the storylines and what they're supposed to be like. I can't wait to see what it's going to look like on film. I'm pumped. I can't wait until they come out. To watch them filmed would be another one of those heaven-type moments. It's cool. I'm waiting for them I think it's going to be done well, and they have the right people doing it. In this world, it doesn't matter if you're a race car driver or a movie producer, you need the right people. Those deals are so cool. I'm just a geek like that. Have you seen my race helmet? It's called the Nerd Machine helmet. If you watched the TV show _Chuck_, it was a TV show about a computer geek that became a spy and a computer got put in his head. He worked for the Nerd Herd, which was like the Geek Squad, but he was just this everyday computer geek that became a CIA agent. I've had a chance to meet him, the guy that owns this, and they have a Website called the Nerd Machine. I'm a big dork. I'm a _Chuck_ nerd, I'm a Comic-Con kind of guy, and I've got the Nerd Machine logo on my helmet. *Connect with Brendan Gaughan!* <a href=\"http://www.twitter.com/Brendan62\"><img src=\"http://www.frontstretch.com/images/6502.jpg\"></a><a href=\"http://www.brendangaughan.com\"><img src=\"http://www.frontstretch.com/images/11799.jpg\"><br> \"Contact Amy Henderson\":http://www.frontstretch.com/contact/14352/