From the March, 2006 issue of Stock Car Insider

Last Week's Headlines

Recap of the 2006 Food City 500:

I love Bristol! After watching a race at Bristol Motor Speedway, I'm always left sitting in a pool of my own sweat and my heart racing almost as fast as the cars shot-gunning around the track! I'm not sure if the drivers enjoy Bristol as much as the fans.

No matter how high the talent level of the driver, or the horsepower his team gives him, a team's day can be ruined in a second as 43 cars cram on a 1/2-mile speedway and bang it out for 500 laps. Case in point, Jimmie Johnson. After maintaining first place in the Nextel Cup standings through the first 4 races of 2006, the celebrated return of Chad Knaus was clouded over by a disappointing 30th place finish.

I think the marketing gurus of NASCAR should approach ESPN or HBO to provide a "Friday Night Fights" kind of production to showcase angry drivers pushing and punching each other as they climb out of the cars immediately after a Bristol race. For Gordon to be such a small guy, he shoved Matt Kenseth pretty good. Gordon was rightfully upset at Kenseth when Matt turned Gordon sideways on the backstretch of the final lap. The only thing missing was Michael Buffer's introduction and Judge Mills Lane officiating.

Just so you know that we here at EverythingStockCar.com are not full of it, we'd like to recap last week's predictions for the Food City 500:

Biffle - finished 7th
Kevin Harvick - finished 2nd
Jeff Gordon - finished 21st (would have finished 3 had Kenseth not wrecked him)
Matt Kenseth - finished 3rd
Mark Martin - finished 6th