Saturday, March 15, 2014

K&N East Statistical Advance: Bristol
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Analyzing The PittLite 125

In two starts at Bristol, Ryan Gifford has scored a pair of third-place finishes.
In two starts at Bristol, Ryan Gifford has scored a pair of third-place finishes.
(Getty Images for NASCAR)

DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. – After a couple of weeks away from the track, the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East heads to Bristol (Tenn.) Motor Speedway on Saturday, March 15 for the PittLite 125, the season’s third event. Below is a look at the performance of the series and selected drivers at Bristol, as well as, some other statistical trends:

Bristol Race Setup

  • Daniel Suárez is looking for his third straight NASCAR K&N Pro Series East victory after winning the first two races of the season in February. He became just the second driver in series history to win the first two races of the season joining Sean Caisse, who accomplished the feat in 2006. Suárez also has a streak of four straight NASCAR touring series wins by taking the checkered flag in his last two NASCAR Mexico Toyota Series starts.
  • Ryan Gifford has a pair of third-place finishes in two starts at Bristol and is the only driver in the series with two top-five finishes.
  • Twenty of the 40 drivers on the entry list will make their Bristol debut if they make the 36-car field for the PittLite 125.

Bristol Motor Speedway

History

  • Bristol Motor Speedway opened in 1961 and hosted its first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series race on July 30 of that year. Jack Smith picked up the win and led 243 of the 500 laps.
  • To date, the track has hosted 106 Sprint Cup Series races, 63 NASCAR Nationwide Series races and 16 NASCAR Camping World Truck Series events. Kyle Busch leads all drivers with 16 Bristol victories and Darrell Waltrip tops the charts with 12 Sprint Cup Series triumphs.
  • The .533-mile concrete oval hosted its first NASCAR K&N Pro Series event in March 2012 with Nelson Piquet Jr. collecting the win.

Notebook

  • This is the series’ third visit to the legendary Tennessee track.
  • The PittLite 125 will be telecast on a delayed basis by FOX Sports 1 on Sat., March 22 at 11:30 a.m.
  • For each of the two previous Bristol winners – Nelson Piquet Jr. (2012) and Dylan Kwasniewski (2013) – it was their first K&N East victory.
  • The most cautions for a K&N East race at Bristol is eight (2013) while the fewest is six (2012). Consequently, the most caution laps were 37 in 2013 and fewest were 33 in 2012.
  • In two races the lead has changed hands an average of 3.5 times with a high of five changes in 2012.
  • The average starting position for the winner is 3.0 while the pole sitter has an average finish of 2.5.
  • Bristol is one of four half-mile tracks on the series schedule joining 5 Flags Speedway in Pensacola, Fla., Greenville (S.C.) Pickens Speedway and New Smyrna (Fla.) Speedway.

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