Everything about Bristol is a challenge. It's a place where you don't have to worry about aero or really worry about horsepower. For example, we watched Marcos Ambrose finish 10th in the spring on seven cylinders for most of the race.
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This place is absolutely about handling and survival. It's also about strategy and not making mistakes on pit road. You make a mistake on pit road there, well you may never overcome it the rest of the race.
But what is going to have all 160,000 people on their feet is going to be that this is the first short track we have been to this year with the double-file restarts. I still believe a big part of your success Saturday night starts back on Friday afternoon with qualifying. Doing well in qualifying allows you to start up front and take care of your car, but it also allows you to get a good pit selection — which is always a premium at short tracks.
Starting in the back makes you abuse your equipment early on because you have to fight hard not to get lapped. Sure the new double-file restart deal makes it a little different, but it's still only a half-mile track and the leader will be on you before you know it. But again, the thing I am excited about is the double-file restarts. I really think it's going to be unbelievable. Every restart is going to be like the start of the race and that is really going to get interesting.
Bristol is so demanding on the drivers. You simply never get a break there. You are only on those short straightaways for about three to four seconds. Obviously the race — even though it is at night — is a hotter race than in the spring. Plus air doesn't circulate in the place because it can't. I assure you that even if the wind was blowing 30 mph, those drivers would never feel it because of that coliseum-style racetrack. The G-forces that are thrown on the body are unbelievable, too.
For a number of years, the only Saturday night race we ever ran was the August race at Bristol. They didn't even have permanent lights for a long time. They would bring in temporary lighting just for that race. But I have to say, even today with as many night races as we have now, there are three times that I still get goosebumps and the hair standing up on the back of my neck.
The first is when I hear the command to start the engines for the Daytona 500. Next is when all 43 cars come off Turn 4 at Indy to come get the green flag for the Brickyard 400. The third one, without a doubt, is when those cars take the green flag at Bristol. It's like 10 million flashbulbs go off at once. It's one of the most intense moments of our 36-race season.
I tell people all the time that we go there on a Sunday in the spring and a Saturday in late summer and everything is basically the same. It's the same amount of laps. It's basically the same drivers. It's the same 160,000 people.
But there is no comparison of the night race to the day race there. It's just a whole different game.
I personally think we have too many Saturday night races now. When you oversaturate something with something that used to be very special, it takes away a little bit of the excitement. All that being said, I don't see a lot of the excitement ever being gone from Bristol under the lights in August.
