Short tracks cast long shadow

Short track racing, stock car's version of ultimate fighting, is a small part of the NASCAR schedule with six races. But make no mistake, those six races have a dramatic effect on the championship.

Although 30 races come on tracks of a mile or larger, the six short track races, including Sunday's Food City 500 at Bristol Motor Speedway, generally determine the championship contenders in the Chase. A year ago, 12 of the 14 drivers with the best records on the short tracks qualified for the 10-race playoffs.

Racing on half-mile bullrings requires a different mind-set than the traditional cookie-cutter speedways that dominate the schedule. Tempers will flare; sheet metal will bend; the last man standing wins.

Most of the drivers in Sunday's race (2 p.m., Fox-Ch. 54) grew up on short tracks. They're used to the beating and banging that comes with it. They know 500 laps around Bristol is like spending an afternoon in a clothes dryer.

"It's such a hard and physically demanding racetrack," said Jeff Burton, last year's Food City 500 winner. "It's so unique from any other race on the circuit we go to that it makes it special. It's not about money or a cool trophy, it's about being able to say 'Hey, I won at Bristol.' Everybody knows what racing at Bristol is like and to say that you won there is rewarding."

Being able to take punches, as well as throwing them, is important to a driver's championship ambitions. If they can't succeed on the six short track races, they've got no chance on the rest of the circuit.

Ten drivers have three or more career wins at Bristol; nine won a Cup championship. The seven winningest drivers at Bristol were short-track aces: Darrell Waltrip, Dale Earnhardt, Rusty Wallace, Cale Yarborough, Jeff Gordon, Kurt Busch and David Pearson. Together they combined to win 54 races at Bristol and 22 championships.

Since the Chase started for the 2004 season, the champion has won at least one of the six short track races in four of five years. A year ago Jimmie Johnson won at Richmond, Va., and Martinsville, Va., to anchor his championship effort.

All six short track races in 2008 were won by Chase drivers.

Bristol was repaved a year ago and drivers said it's made it a little easier to pass. Despite the changes, Bristol remains one of the biggest challenges on the schedule.

"Some say the racing is exciting and some say the wrecking was exciting," Burton said. "You don't have to just run the bottom groove and knock someone out of the way just to get by them. To me, the racing is a lot better; the wrecking is less.

"But, Bristol is still the same in the sense that it's still an intense race. It's very easy to get into a wreck and it's easy to cause a wreck. That hasn't changed at all."

Reach Don Coble at don.coble@morris.com.