The NASCAR Sprint Cup schedule heads to Bristol on Sunday for the Food City 500 and driver Danica Patrick will be looking for a better performance than she did last week in Las Vegas when she finished in the bottom half of the standings.
The Nationwide race on Saturday gave Kyle Busch some momentum, as he fought off Kyle Larson on the final lap to take his second race of the season and his fifth at the track in Bristol. Larson and Busch battled towards the finish line with Larson trying to go high, but falling short by uner .03 seconds.
Busch has been hot this year after winning his second race in four weeks and after getting his fifth win at the track he is tied with Kevin Harvick for the most in Bristol on the Nationwide circuit. Brian Vickers finished the race third, while Sam Hornish Jr., who is the points leader, finished ahead of Harvick.
"He's got a lot of talent," Busch said. "Obviously, he's already made a name for himself and he's got a lot going for him. I'm 27 and I feel like I'm getting old. Every time I looked in the rear view mirror he caught me, so I stopped looking. I didn't want to know where he was at."
Denny Hamlin enters the race after a memorable week that saw him fined by $25,000 NASCAR for making disparaging remarks about the new Gen-6 cars. Hamlin immediately said that he was angry about the fine and said he would appeal, but later he and NASCAR met and he changed his mind.
Hamlin spoke with NASCAR chairman Brian France in Las Vegas prior to the race on Sunday and then later said on Twitter he would not appeal the fine. Hamlin enters Sunday's race fourth in the points standings and is ready for an aggressive race.
Brad Keselowski enters the race after winning two of the past three events at Bristol and comes into the day looking for his first win of the season. The Bristol race in August was a controversial one as Tony Stewart and Matt Kenseth got into a wreck, as did Danica Patrick and Regan Smith as she was racing in the top 20.
Kyle Busch won the pole for the event after a record run and is now the leader at Bristol after Ryan Newman set the track record of 128.709. Busch has won five times at Bristol and won the pole over Kasey Kahne and Denny Hamlin. Brian Vickers will run in fourth, while Paul Menard and Jamie McMurray followed. Tony Stewart was in eighth, while Keselowski was in seventh.
Danica Patrick has had a rough couple of weeks after winning the pole at Daytona and crashed in Phoenix after losing a tire. She finished 32nd last week and now will look to improve at Bristol. Jimmie Johnson won the Daytona 500 and the next week Carl Edwards won at Phoenix, while last week Matt Kenseth won at Las Vegas.
