NASCAR 2012

Mayhem in Bristol

Submitted by Rick A. Talford
NASCAR Enthusiast

Bristol, Tenn. - Sunday March 18, 2012 was the Food City 500 at the Bristol Race Track. This is a half-mile race track that looks like a bowl. Jack Roush driver for the number 16 racecar, Greg Biffle took the pole for the race. It did not take long for a accident to pile a number of the race cars in the race. On lap 23, Regan Smith in the # 78 car and # 5 Kasey Kahne touched, starting a six care pile up. # 99 Carl Edwards was the first to make contact to the sliding car of Kahne. Then # 9 Marcus Ambrose, # 18 Kyle Busch, and # 29 Kevin Harvick all piled into the accident. Smith was able to continue racing without any damages from the incident. Harvick on the other hand, needed to make nine pit stops to continue racing. He stayed on the lead lap, while making the stops needed to repair his Chevy. Edward, Busch, and Kahne went to the garage area for much needed repairs to their cars. All drivers involved did finish the race on track. During the next two-hundred and fifty laps, there were only two cautions for single car incidents. The # 30 David Stremme, and # 32 Ken Schrader were the reasons for the cautions, after they blew tires and hit the wall. Near lap four-hundred, # 24 Jeff Gordon and teammate #88 Dale Earnhardt Jr. got together slightly, with the exhaust pipes of Earnhardt race car slicing the rear tire of Gordon’s care. Gordon spun up and into the wall, causing another single car caution. With about twenty laps to go, # 33 Brandan Gaughan ran into # 14 Tony Stewart, causing Stewart to back into the wall, while bring out the final caution of the race. The final restart had # 2 Brad Keselowski and # 17 Matt Kenseth on the front row. Keselowski took off and never looked back, and took the victory. Both Wisconsin natives Matt Kenseth (2nd) and Paul Menard (10th) finished in the top ten. After all the multiple stops, Harvick finished the day in 11th place. Dale Earnhardt Jr. finished 15th after a last lap flat tire dropped him to the last car on the lead lap. Nest week, Nascar will be racing out in California.