[sportsfan2006]

Sharpie 500.
Saturday August 26 2006. 7:00 e.t.
Bristol Motor Speedway. Bristol, TN.


Kurt Busch is looking to pull into the top 10 as the "Chase for the
Championship" nears, and Bristol Motor Speedway's annual Saturday night
race could be the place he makes up ground. Sportsbook odds will favor Busch, who has five career victories at the high-banked, concrete .533-mile oval, including a controversial win last March. NASCAR bettors also should keep an eye on Matt Kenseth, who won at Bristol last year and was leading in March's Food City 500 before getting bumped out of the way by Busch with four laps left.


Sharpie 500 breakdown (updated thru August 10)

• Venue: Bristol Motor Speedway.
• First race in 1961.
• Distance: 267 miles ( 429 km)
• Number of laps: 500.
• Previous names: 2000-goracing.com 500. 1996-1996-Goody's Headache Powder 500. 1994-1995-Goody's 500.
• This is a Nascar Nextel Cup stock car race.
• Since 1977, the race has been held in mid-August on a Saturday night, and is considered among the most difficult ticket to obtain in sports.
• Past winners: 2005- Matt Kenseth . 2004 -Dale Earnhardt, Jr. 2003- Kurt Busch.

Bristol Motor Speedway breakdown(updated thru August 10)

• Banking/Turns: 36
• Distance: 0.533 miles
• Shape: Oval
• The entire layout for BMS covered 100 acres and provided parking for more than 12,000 cars. The track itself was a perfect half-mile, measuring 60 feet wide on the straightaways, 75 feet wide in the turns and the turns were banked at 22 degrees.
• Atlanta's Jack Smith won the inaugural event, The Volunteer 500, at BMS on July 30, 1961.
• For the August 1998 Goody's 500 the speedway featured more than 131,000 grandstand seats and 100 skyboxes.
• On Aug. 26, 2002 work began on the most ambitious construction project since Speedway Motorsports, Inc., purchased BMS in 1996. The new backstretch increased the venue's seating capacity to more than 160,000.


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