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BRING IT ON!
It's one of the toughest tickets in motorsports for those on the outside of the retaining wall. For those inside, it's a mixture of excitement and dread. Bristol can bring out the beast in some of the sport's most level-headed drivers, as witnessed in March when Jeff Gordon shoved Matt Kenseth in the pits after a late-race encounter on the track. Nextel Cup points leader Jimmie Johnson summed up the feelings of most drivers about Bristol in a conversation with reporters at Michigan International Speedway. "I'm ready for it. I'm ready to have it behind me," he said. "That race is a great time. I love going there and I love watching races. I even enjoy being in the race, but you never know what is going to happen. "It's a lot like a [restrictor-plate] race. I look forward to being in the helicopter leaving that race, hopefully with a lot of points, and heading back to Charlotte." Like others, he was surprised to see his teammate Gordon react so strongly to Kenseth in the spring. But he said that looking back, it was one of the key moments of the season for Gordon. "I was shocked a lot like everyone else that Jeff came out of the car with the fire in his eyes that he did, but at the same time, he was pretty upset with what had happened," Johnson said. "He went from running inside the top five to losing a lot of points. Today, he could have used those points. It would put him in a safe situation in the Chase." But Johnson said he doesn't expect to see Gordon and Kenseth at odds again, at least not because of the incident in March or another later in the season at Chicagoland Speedway in which Kenseth was nudged aside by Gordon, the eventual race winner. "It's just best to bury it and move on," Johnson said. "If they get in the race and somebody roughs somebody up, I think your short-term frustration shows up and people start doing things then, but I don't think Jeff or Matt would carry anything into that race based on what went on at Bristol and Chicago." Greg Biffle said during a recent teleconference that he looks forward to Bristol. "We've run really well at Bristol," he said. "Knock on wood, we've been able to keep our nose clean for the last few races there, have had good finishes. I really like the racetrack. It's a lot of fun to race on." But he does approach the races with a certain amount of caution.
"You are nervous because you're all bunched up," he said. |
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