Birstol - Sharpie 500

by Bruce Simmons

The Sharpie 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway

The green flag was delayed by the 49 car of John Andretti stalling in turn 2 but once he was out of the way, the green flag flew and Kasey Kahne took off like a rocket but he relinquished the win to Carl Edwards at the end of the night.

Carl Edwards was followed by Kasey Kahne, Cline Bowyer, Tony Stewart, Dale Earnhardt Jr., Kurt Busch, Ryan Newman, Bobby Labonte, Kyle Busch & Greg Biffle rounding out the top 10.

We saw 20 cars still on the lead lap, 8 different leaders with 12 lead changes and 9 cautions for 61 laps. With this win, Carl was able to snag Ford's first COT win.


For me, the variable banking made a great race that was not slowed down to a 5 hour show with many laps of caution. The high line was the groove to use, but when the leaders encountered lapped traffic, the low line worked for passing. On the flip side, the variable banking helped the lapped cars fight for their beleaguered position, as Michael Waltrip demonstrated late in the race as he fought off the leaders for a few laps while being 3 laps down, until Edwards "helped" Waltrip move up out of the way.

Watching continual side by side racing and 3 wide, with an occassional 4 wide for mere moments was most unique for Bristol. It wasn't what I was used to, but now that everyone has had a taste of driving on the track, the next time they come back, I think we'll see more aggressive racing once again, because then, the boys will know their limits!

See more lap details at : brucesimmons.org

Here's the unofficial results: scenedaily.com