BRISTOL, Tenn. — Bristol Motor Speedway is billed as the "world's fastest half-mile," and the 0.533-mile oval is one of the toughest tracks for NASCAR's finest — even two-time Bristol winner Brad Keselowski.
Keselowski, who is seeking his fifth top-five finish at Bristol Sunday in the Food City 500 in Support of Steve Byrnes and Stand Up to Cancer, knows there is little margin for error at this track if he wants to reach victory lane.
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"It’s gonna demand perfection," Keselowski said. "It’s gonna demand that you drive your car as hard as you can up against the wall and to its limit all 500 laps or all the green-flag laps at least. It’s quite a challenge and one that I embrace and really enjoy about this track and part of why I look forward to coming here."
When the green flag drops, the Team Penske driver will start outside of Row 1 next to pole-sitter Matt Kenseth. The duo will lead the 43-car field around steep turns — between 24 to 28 degrees banking — and 650 feet of straightaways to start one of the tightest races on the circuit.
"There’s no track I’ve ever ran that is comparable to Bristol," Keselowski said. "It’s a unique challenge and I think it’s really a lot of what this sport was made of was the unique challenge of short tracks and Bristol takes that to another degree.
"You hold your breath, you grab the steering wheel way harder than you need to grab it, you tighten up inside the car. The next thing you know you’re extremely fatigued no matter what conditioning level you have."
While rain may delay the start of the race, the 2012 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion says drivers will have to take a different line early in the event.
"It will take about 50-100 laps for the track to condition (into what it would be on a normal day), and what you’ll see is the cars will all run the bottom of the track for probably about 50 laps and start to move their way up to the middle and high lanes after that," Keselowski said.