We say it every time we come here, "It's Bristol Baby!!" 

This is, by far, one of the most exciting tracks on the circuit and rarely disappoints when the cars fire up.  For the drivers, it can be a crap shoot, but for the fans, especially those lucky enough enough to attend in person, it can be awesome.

This weekend in the Cup race, the Sharpie 500, Mark Martin starts his 1000th race, and he could make this his 40th win as well.  It seems a small percentage of wins for the number of starts, but really, it's pretty impressive.  His 404 top ten finishes is even more impressive, and although Mark always claims these things don't really matter to him, I don't buy it for a minute.  Mark would love to win here.  Even more interesting, in final practice, Mark is on top of the speed charts.

Bristol Motor Speedway, the "Bull Ring", "Thunder Valley" and the highest banked short track on the circuit has been around since 1961.  It's a track most of the drivers love, and others hate, not because of the racing, but because of how easy it is to get taken out of a race by someone else's misfortune.  The track is advertised as 36 degrees of banking, but after the resurfacing in 2007, Ryan Newman, who has an engineering degree, disputed that claim.  His then crew measured the banking and announced it was actually 26 degrees, one of those little tidbits of information that seems to be mentioned by fans, but never by the media.

Lee Petty was a huge winner at Bristol, as was Dale Earnhardt Sr.  Dale Jr., when interviewed after winning here, downplayed his win, referring to his daddy's record, and earned himself a fine for using a four letter word on Network TV. 

Qualifying at Bristol counts more than at almost any other track, as a good qualifying lap earns a good pit position. Because of Bristol's size, it is necessary to have pit stalls on both the front stretch and the back stretch.  NASCAR has played with the pit road rules over the years, but the current rule states that the cars must enter in the same location, off turn 2, during yellow flag stops, requiring all cars to travel the entire length of the very long pit road.  Under green flag stops, however, those cars pitting on the front stretch enter at the beginning of the front stretch and exit at the end of the front stretch, while those on the back stretch enter in turn two and exit at turn three.  Forgetting this rule can be very costly - just ask Jeff Gordon, who has made the mistake more than once.

The Sprint Cup cars race on Saturday night, under the lights, and ESPN has the coverage starting at 6:30 pm ET.

In the meantime, tonight the Nationwide cars race in the Food City 250, and if you are lucky enough to live in the States, you'll see the race live on ESPN2 starting at 7:30 pm.  If you live in Canada, don't hold your breath, as the race isn't broadcast until 3am ET on TSN (which feels it necessary to broadcast tennis and CFL).  TSN announces themselves as "The Leader in Sports" in their ads, and I continue to insist they are "The Loser in Sports".  No wonder they are affiliated with ESPN. 

Kyle Busch won the Truck Series race on Wednesday night, and he is likely going to be trying to use that win as a launch pad to a sweep for the weekend - and knowing Kyle, it is possible.  Carl Edwards will be fighting tooth and nail to prevent that, and of course, Brad Keselowski will be watching for another mistake that will allow him to capitalize and shoot to Victory Lane once again.

My picks for the races are Brad Keselowski for the Nationwide race - he's been just too good at watching for other's mistakes and pouncing on the checkered flag. He did it last weekend, robbing both Brian Vickers and Kyle Busch of the win, and creating a heated rivalry to boot.

For the Cup race, it's hard to argue with Mark.  He seems calm and poised for this race and what a feel good story if he is able to pull of the win.  I'm not counting out Tony Stewart, I just think Mark will get the win.  My dark horse is, again, Dale Jr.  Improvements were incredible last weekend and I'm hoping they have found something that works for them, whether in communication or in setups.....or maybe both. 

We'll have a Live Thread for the Cup race, and if I can't find a live stream for the N'wide race, we might just have one for that race as well!!  Don't forget, there are a ton of great polls to take and earn points, some interesting new ones from some of our newer members, too.

Who are YOUR picks?