Traditions have a way of bringing people together. Especially when there is good food involved. Tuesday was St. Patrick’s day, and I busted out the crock pots and cooked my 4th annual corned beef and cabbage dinner. Sprinkle in some good friends, a bit of Guiness, and the train wrecks on American Idol and good times were had by all. I accidentally had a 5 Guys bacon cheese burger for lunch, so I was meat and potatoed out by the end of the day, but it was a good hurt. The amout that I write about food, there is no way you would belive that I am running a 4 mile road race on Saturday.

Bristol is one of those tracks that has a bit of je no se quoi, and people love to come back to it year in and year out. Like walking down the crowded streets of a small England town, there is a sense of place that cannot be matched by the newness and enormity of the recently built circuits like Texas and California. For sure a weekend to get excited about.

The Bristol cars may not be one-offs in terms of the chassis itself, but the setup and spring combinations will be. The g loading in the corners is so great that teams will deal with this with beefier bumpstops and about an 800 lb RF spring, or they will run a 2000 lb RF spring and stay off the bumpstop all together. No other track on the circuit will bring out as great a diversity in spring choice as Bristol. The decision on which of these two paths to take will be hashed out on the 7 post or simulation. The crew chiefs will also have an eye to what a particular driver has liked in the past.

Qualifying will be of particular importance this week. So many times we have seen the top 4 or 5 cars go and put half the field a lap down in the first 50 laps. You need to qualify up front to avoid going a lap down early and to avoid all of the rough racing in the middle of the field. The lap is so quick that .3s will probably cover most of the field. Normally fuel mileage is not an issue in this race, but there have been green flag stops since they repaved the track, so I would not be too surprised to see a 150 lap caution-free run.

It looks like the weather has broken for the most part in the southeast, so I don’t expect to see any snow angels. Speaking of snow angels, I will go for 2 in a row for the #2. It has been a couple of years since he has driven with as much confidence and pace as he has this year, and he will love coming back to happy hunting grounds. The Gibbs stuff runs well at Bristol too so I will tip Hamlin for a top 5. Sadly, RG usually has no luck at Bristol. I remember the spring race of 2007 when we finished 10 laps down in 37th. If I were placing bets, 30-35th is as high of a finish as I can see from here.