Once a dairy, in 1960, developers interested in creating a national caliber NASCAR track in northeastern Tennessee, began building what would be a perfect half-mile track, complete with steep 22 degrees. Finished in 1961, a driver named Jack Smith won the venue’s premiere race — the Volunteer 500 — on July 30, 1961. In 1969, Bristol International Speedway (as it was then named) was completely reconfigured, a brigade of bulldozers, dump trucks and road graders lengthening the circuit to .533 miles and reshaping its banks to an astonishing 36 degrees (the 2.66-mile Talladega superspeedway’s high banks are only graded at 33-degrees!). In 1992, Bristol became the NASCAR to be completely surfaced in concrete. In 1996 Bruton Smith bought the facility that has 71,000 seats surrounding it. Within two years. Smith had increased seating to 131,000, and by the year 2000, to 160,000 seats. It is now 48 years after the birth of Bristol Motor Speedway and the fabled track now holds the most popular, and as far as race cars and racers go, most violent and intense races on the entire 36-race NASCAR Sprint Cup calendar. Which brings us to Sunday, March 16, 2008 and the Food City 500. Held under dark, threatening skies, Joe Gibbs Racing drivers Tony Stewart, Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch thoroughly dominated the race, leading a combined total of 372 laps of the 500-lap race. However, when the checkered flag flew on lap number 500, it was Jeff Burton and Richard Childress Racing teammates Kevin Harvick and Clint Bowyer flashing across the finish line with a historical 1-2-3 sweep (the first in RCR team history).

As the race wound down to its conclusion, all appeared that Stewart had it won. But then, with only eleven laps left to race, Brian Vickers crashed hard and a yellow caution flag was thrown. While most everyne dove into pit lane for new tires, Stewart and crew chief Greg Zipadelli, decided to keep the orange Home Depot Chevrolet out on curse to hold track position. When the race went back to green with only five laps remaining, Stewart shot into the lead, but was then gobbled up by Hamlin. Kevin Harvick then went to pass Stewart and the two cars collided and Stewart was sent into the wall, his race all but run. The shunt resulted in a two lap mad dash to the finish, Hamlin leading only to be zapped by Burton and his teammates.

Kyle Busch, the NASCAR Sprint Cup series points leader, race hard all afternoon, but encountered power steering problems while leading and ended up spinning, only placing 17th overall. Although a disappointing finish, Busch still holds the series’ points leads by 30 ticks over Greg Biffle of the Roush-Fenway organization.