Bristol Race Recap

“We had a good car.  This is the third race we’ve had a really good car, but we don’t have the finishes to show for it,” said Ken Schrader following his 24th place finish in the Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway Sunday.

 

Rain washed out practice and qualifying on Friday so the race had to be started by 2005 owner points.  Saturday’s two practice sessions showed just how good a car the Wood Brothers Racing team had built for the Tennessee half-mile.  Schrader posted the fifth fastest time during the first session and seventh in Happy Hour.

 

The veteran driver started Sunday’s event 21st, and patiently moved up through the field to 15th before coming into the pits for the first time on lap 74.

 

Four laps after the race was restarted, another competitor cut down on the Little Debbie Fusion, clipping the right rear tire.  Schrader was forced into the pits under green to replace right side tires.  He went back onto the track two laps down in 40th place.

 

Ken had his work cut out for him on the high-banked single groove oval.  He drove back to 34th, but as the only car two laps down stayed there lap after lap.  But, as the race progressed he lined up next to then leader Tony Stewart on a couple of restarts that followed Bristol’s often and inevitable cautions.  Following more than one yellow, the two raced each other for position.  Schrader pulled ahead of Stewart on lap 316 putting him only one lap down, but still 31st on the track.  

 

Getting that second lap back proved to be impossible. “We got the one (lap) back on the track,” Schrader said.  Then the one time we were in the lucky dog spot on the restart we got together with someone in the outside lane and bent the front end.  We were crippled then.”

 

The race was red-flagged on lap 193 for almost 15 minutes to clean up a four-car pile-up in turn four after the yellow flag was displayed for the seventh time.  In all, accidents and resulting debris resulted in 18 cautions for a total of 104 laps.

 

Kurt Busch won after bumping Matt Kenseth out of the way with four laps to go.  Kevin Harvick was second followed by Kenseth. 

 

Jimmie Johnson dropped two spots in the point standings after finishing 30th Sunday.  Kenseth jumped two spots into the lead, and Kasey Kahne stayed second.  Ken lost three spots and goes to Martinsville 29th.  However, five races into the season Schrader is just 106 points out of 15th place.

 

The second short track race of the season is scheduled for next week at Martinsville, Virginia.  The green flag for the DirectTV 500 is scheduled to drop at 1:30 p.m. next Sunday, April 2.  The race will be televised live on FOX and broadcast on the Motor Racing Network (MRN) of radio affiliates.

 

 

Bristol top-ten

  1. Kurt Busch
  2. Kevin Harvick
  3. Matt Kenseth
  4. Carl Edwards
  5. Bobby Labonte
  6. Mark Martin
  7. Greg Biffle
  8. Kyle Busch
  9. Ryan Newman
  10. Kasey Kahne

24.      Ken Schrader

 

Points after Bristol

  1. Matt Kenseth
  2. Kasey Kahne
  3. Jimmie Johnson
  4. Mark Martin
  5. Kyle Busch
  6. Dale Earnhardt. Jr.
  7. Jeff Gordon
  8. Casey Mears
  9. Tony Stewart
  10. Dale Jarrett

29.      Ken Schrader