Just a couple of days ago, we were racing at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in the rain marred Alsco 500. A few days before that, we were at the same track but in the longest race of the season — 600 miles. Now, for the third race in seven days, the NASCAR Cup Series drivers take to the high banked Bristol (Tenn) Motor Speedway.

That’s a demanding schedule. That doesn’t even count two races at arguably NASCAR’s hardest track the Darlington Raceway before.

On Sunday, 40 drivers will show up to the Tennessee race track just to race. No practice. No qualifying. Just race 500 laps around a bull ring. The lap times are quick — like sub 16 seconds quick. The g loads are even higher. The sensation of speed is great. That all gives you really no time to react. Oh yeah, you have to do this without any on track time before.

“Bristol, there’s just no margin for error,” said Matt DiBenedetto. “It’s really, really fast. It’s an insanely fast short track. You’re on edge already even when you have your car dialed in. … It’ll work out fine, for sure, but you just really are out and out praying that your car is dialed in right because it’s very sensitive.

“If you’re off just a little bit at Bristol, it can affect you worse than these tracks where it’s a big race track – a mile-and-a-half – and you don’t have to worry about going a lap down if you miss it or things like that, so this one will be a little bit more treacherous.”

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Kevin’s Harvick agrees saying that one of the hardest things to do on the .526 mile oval is to see what’s going on.

“I have crashed at Bristol and gone back to watch it on TV and you’re like, ‘What in the hell were you doing? You just ran into four or five cars that have been sitting there for two seconds.’ But, Bristol is a very demanding racetrack. It’s very hard because things happen so fast, communication is hard. It’s easy to make a mistake or pile into a wreck. It’s easy to wreck somebody or to get into a fight. It’s easy to do a lot of things because there is just so much happening. It’s a tough place to race, to put it all together, and it’s mentally and physically exhausting.”

The fitness levels need to be high for these guys because of that. After having 70 days off for the COVID-19 pandemic, NASCAR returned on May 17. Sunday’s race will mark the fifth race in 14 days at a physically demanding race track at that.

“Bristol is the ultimate test of physical stamina mixed with finesse of how you position your racecar,” Aric Almirola said. “You’re on the edge of your seat every lap and the slightest mistake can set you back. It helps to be in great shape for races like Bristol when you get toward the end of the long, green-flag run. During the break, I stayed busy with my workout regimen to prepare for races like this with heat training and cycling.”

Rookie Tyler Reddick brought up another wrinkle to the demanding race, saying that the traction compound put down on the racing surface is going to make all of this even more treacherous on Sunday too.

“I think the first challenge is going to be just completing that first lap,” Reddick said of Bristol. “That’s one of the toughest race tracks to go around when it doesn’t have rubber and heat on it. I’ve run Truck races there through my career and when we’re one of the first ones on the race track, that first hour of practice you can’t really learn much. The traction compound is slick – you go down in there to try to use it and you almost spin out. You run the middle and that’s about it. Man, the first hour or so of practice you can’t get up in that either because it’s slick and you almost wreck.

“I remember the first time they put traction compound down at Bristol. I went out for practice and I was in the middle, we were OK. But I wanted to try the bottom, so I went down there, got loose and couldn’t go anywhere. So, I was like ‘that’s not going to work’. I went up to try to use the top and I drove it straight into the fence. 

“I’m worried that the start of the race is going to be very chaotic. I don’t know how that’s going to go. There’s only one groove and we’re going to be starting double-file, so that’s going to be very interesting.”

So, Sunday ought to be fun. Even though it’s stressful, the drivers love it.

“Anybody who hates Bristol shouldn’t be in racing because this is the mecca of all racetracks,” Bowyer said. “This is the granddaddy of them all. There’s no question.”

As to what makes it’s so special, Bowyer says “it’s just the unknown, being able to go for it, being able to not worry about an aero push or horsepower deficit or whatever the case may be – get ahold of the steering wheel, get ahold of the gas pedal and make something happen and this is a track where you can do that.”