3 things to watch out for in the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway
It's a perfect day for racing at Bristol Motor Speedway, site of today's Food City 500 (FOX, 12:30 p.m. ET).
Saturday, Kyle Larson, Kyle Busch and Erik Jones put on a remarkable show over 200 laps in the NASCAR XFINITIY Series race, which Jones won.
And today's 500-lap Sprint Cup event should feature some similar fireworks and then some.
Here are three things to watch at Bristol today:
3. STAR POWER -- Two-time Super Bowl-winning quarterback Peyton Manning is in Bristol and will pay a visit to the FOX broadcast booth during the race. And when he's not in the booth, he'll be atop Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s pitbox.
"I'm excited to have anyone as a guest at the race weekends to see what kind of impact that this sport gives them," said Earnhardt of Manning. "It will be interesting more for me to have an opportunity to talk to him afterwards to see what he thought about all that."
Also, wrestling legend and NASCAR enthusiast Bill Goldberg will emcee driver introductions.
"NASCAR is near and dear to my heart," said Goldberg. "Bristol is like no other track on the planet and the driver introductions are a special treat for the fans. I plan to pump up the party and have some fun with the drivers."
2. RESTARTS -- As we saw in the XFINITY race, restarts can make the difference between winning and losing. And the later in the race it is, the more critical the restart.
And just like in real estate, there are three keys to restarts: Location, location, location. At Bristol, the fast way around is to restart on the outside lane, because it's almost impossible to pass on the inside.
Every time there is a caution flag, the leader will choose the outside lane to restart. And just like at Martinsville a couple of weeks ago, there will be fast cars that finish worse than should because they got stuck in the wrong restart line.
1. CHASING HISTORY -- The red-hot Kyle Busch is shooting for his third consecutive Sprint Cup race victory. But he also has a chance to make some history: If Busch wins today, he will tie Tony Stewart for most victories by a Joe Gibbs Racing driver. Stewart won 33 races at JGR, Busch has won 32 with the team so far.
"To have the opportunity to go out there this year and maybe win a few more races and to beat him as far as the all-time wins leader at JGR, that would be pretty special and I would like that a lot," Busch said of Stewart.
