This Week in Auto Racing March 19 - 21

This Week in Auto Racing March 19 - 21

Bristol, TN (Sports Network) - While "March Madness" begins in college basketball this week, NASCAR's two weeks of short-track "madness" starts with the Sprint Cup and Nationwide Series running on the high banks of Bristol Motor Speedway.

Sprint Cup Series

Food City 500 - Bristol Motor Speedway - Bristol, TN

After taking the first off-weekend of the season, the Sprint Cup Series will return to Bristol, and all eyes will be focused on Carl Edwards and Brad Keselowski.

Edwards begins his three-race probation period at Bristol. The Roush Fenway Racing driver avoided suspension after he deliberately hit Keselowski from behind and sent him flying upside down into the frontstretch wall last week at Atlanta.

Both drivers had an earlier encounter in the Atlanta race when Keselowski clipped Edwards and shot him up the track before he hit the wall. Edwards spent most of the event behind the wall, but retaliated against Keselowski shortly after he returned to the track. NASCAR immediately parked him for the altercation.

Atlanta was the latest in an on-going feud between Edwards and Keselowski. The issues between the two began last April when Keselowski hit Edwards from behind and sent him airborne into the wall during the final lap at Talladega. NASCAR plans to meet with both drivers and their team owners on Friday before Bristol track activities begin.

Will the Edwards-Keselowski rivalry continue at Bristol? It will make for an interesting weekend, as the two also compete in Saturday's Nationwide Series race.

Bristol recently underwent a track modification, with the addition of more than 160 feet of Steel and Foam Energy Reduction (SAFER) barriers. Track personnel extended the "soft wall" by three feet at the exits of turns two and four. The modification at the high-banked, half-mile track comes nearly three years after a fresh layer of concrete and four feet of additional width led to multiple racing grooves there.

With less room to move, drivers will have to adjust to the traditional style of racing at Bristol -- a lot of beating and banging.

"I like all the room that you can get at some of these race tracks, so that's going to make it tough," said Kyle Busch, who won both Cup races at Bristol last year. "They did it for the excitement of the racetrack and try to put some bumping and grinding back into that place. The exits were already tight with these cars. It's going to slow down the pace probably a little bit, because we don't have as much room on the exits to use. Maybe it will make for better racing. I'm hoping so."

Jeff Gordon, a five-time race winner at Bristol, thinks the barriers will make a considerable difference in racing at Bristol, but drivers should adjust to it quickly.

"We use every inch of that race track," Gordon said. "It is definitely going to be unique. I am anxious to get there and see how many right sides we take off the first hour of practice. It is like anything else, eventually you get used to it."

Heading into Bristol, Kevin Harvick holds a 26-point lead over Matt Kenseth and a 59-point advantage over Greg Biffle. All three drivers have recorded top-10 finishes in the first four races this season.

Four-time defending series champion Jimmie Johnson, who won at California and Las Vegas last month, has moved up to fourth in points (-74) following his 12th-place run at Atlanta.

Bristol is one of six tracks where Johnson has yet to win.

"We're getting close," Johnson said. "It's taken a lot from me as a driver to change my habits in the way I drive that race track and really drive any race track. I've had to completely switch over to a different driving style. It was easy for us to look at what had worked for [Gordon's team] for so many years, but I just couldn't make that work. Our styles are so different that I couldn't make it work."

The spring race at Bristol is the first of six short-track events on the season schedule. Next week, the series will run at Martinsville.

Forty-five teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Food City 500.

Nationwide Series

Scotts Turf Builder 300 - Bristol Motor Speedway - Bristol, TN

Following a two-week break, the Nationwide Series returns to action with their first short-track race of the season at Bristol.

Carl Edwards heads to Bristol with a 41-point lead over Brad Keselowski. Saturday's Nationwide race will be the first time Edwards and Keselowski compete against each other since their confrontation in last week's Sprint Cup race at Atlanta.

Last month at Las Vegas, Kevin Harvick collected his 35th career Nationwide victory. Harvick currently is second to Mark Martin on the series' all-time race winners list. Martin has 48 wins so far.

Harvick has won at Bristol five times, including a victory there one year ago.

"I grew up on a high-banked, half-mile race track, and it's the same style of racing that I'm used to, although Bristol is much faster," Harvick said. "Overall, Bristol just fits my driving style."

In last year's spring race at Bristol, Harvick overcame alternator problems before grabbing the lead when Kyle Busch received a penalty for a tire violation. Harvick led the final 45 laps for his first Nationwide win in his own KHI car.

Scott Wimmer is scheduled to drive the No.7 Chevrolet for JR Motorsports at Bristol and then again April 3 at Nashville. JRM is hoping to find enough sponsorship to run its No.7 car full time in 2009. Right now, JRM's second entry with driver Danica Patrick is scheduled for 13 Nationwide races this season.

Kelly Bires is running a full schedule in JRM's No.88 car, even though the team continues to find more sponsorship for this season.

After Patrick drove the No.7 car to 31st, 35th and 36th-place finishes in the first three Nationwide races this year, the team sits 35th in owner points. JRM is trying to keep that car inside the top-30 in points to assure Patrick a guaranteed starting position.

Patrick finished 15th in the IZOD IndyCar Series season-opener last Sunday in Brazil. She is scheduled to compete in her next Nationwide race the last weekend in June at New Hampshire.

Wimmer is expected to make his 200th Nationwide start this weekend. He has recorded six wins and 71 top-10 finishes so far in the series.

"I raced with JR Motorsports in a select number of races last year, but this will be my first time working with [crew chief] Tony [Eury] Jr," Wimmer said. "I'm looking forward to the next two races with these guys."

JRM is co-owned by Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Rick Hendrick, as well as Earnhardt Jr.'s sister, Kelly, and cousin, Eury Jr.

Fifty teams are on the preliminary entry list for the Scotts Turf Builder 300.